In my last post I highlighted a call by the writer Jody
Bottum in 2010 at the website of the conservative journal First Things for the dismissal of Cardinal Sodano, a powerful
figure at the Vatican and the man who is destined to lead the College of
Cardinals in its election of a new pope. In that post I said that resistance to
Cardinal Sodano reflects a moral instinct shared by Catholics from a variety of
theological and cultural perspectives. To illustrate this shared moral conscience I am quoting at
length from a recent article in the New York Times by the liberal Jason Berry echoing the similar point made by
Jody Bottum in his First Things
piece:
Benedict has one last chance to right some of the
wrongs of the recent past by forcing out Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of
Cardinals and the man who, more than any other, embodies the misuse of power
that has corrupted the church hierarchy…Cardinal Sodano ranks with the Los
Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony as an egregious practitioner of the cover up. As
John Paul II’s secretary of state, he pressured Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the
future Pope Benedict, in two notorious cases.
In 1995, Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër resigned as
archbishop of Vienna, trailed by accusations, soon proven, that he had abused
young men. Cardinal Ratzinger wanted the pope to speak out; Cardinal Sodano
overruled him.
Cardinal Sodano also pressured Cardinal Ratzinger
to abort a case filed in 1998 by several men accusing the Rev. Marcial Maciel
Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, of abusing them as
seminarians. Cardinal Sodano was a longtime beneficiary of money and favors
from Father Maciel. Priests who left the order told me he received at least
$15,000 in cash.
Cardinal Ratzinger tabled the case until 2004
but, with John Paul dying, finally ordered an investigation. In 2005, Cardinal
Ratzinger became Pope Benedict. Cardinal Sodano’s office then announced the
Maciel proceeding was over, while people kept testifying. Benedict dismissed
Father Maciel from ministry in 2006; he died in 2008. Still, Cardinal Sodano
lavished praise on the Legion, despite the news that Father Maciel had several
children.
In 2005, Cardinal Sodano was elected dean of the
College of Cardinals, which will select the next pope. At 85 years old, he is
too old to vote, though he will oversee the conclave, and will surely have his
candidate…As Benedict leaves the crisis he inherited
from John Paul to the cardinal who will become the next pope, he should do one
sure thing before his Feb. 28 resignation: force out Cardinal Sodano. He owes
that to
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