Pope to ‘carpet’ U.S. cardinals on sex abuse, Law knowingly transferred offenders, 450 more say they are victims

 

POPE John Paul II has summoned all eight United States cardinals to the Vatican next week for an unprecedented closed-door meeting on the growing sexual-abuse scandal in the U.S.
  Experts were stunned by the announcement because the Pope has never before called cardinals on such short notice to confer on a single controversy. Only days ago, the Vatican strongly indicated that the Pope intended to leave the crisis in the hands of the U.S. bishops
  Some Vatican watchers said they hoped the news indicated the Pope finally realised the gravity of the scandal. Four weeks ago, the Pope declared that guilty priests had succumbed to the most grievous forms of evil, but offered no suggestions on practical ways to address the problem.

  Church insiders said the Pope's intentions could range from repeating his support of the U.S. Catholic Church in a time of crisis to asking hard questions about how its 195 Catholic dioceses plan to solve the problem.
  Cardinal Roger Mahony, of Los Angeles, archbishop of the nation's biggest Catholic archdiocese, said he expected the Vatican discussions to be open, frank, and without limitations. They are likely to be held on April 23 and 24.
  On Saturday [April 13 2002], Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, emerged from meetings in Rome to say the Pope was relying on U.S. bishops, who had total authority over individual dioceses, to handle the crisis.
  Bishop Gregory said the Pope expressed fraternal solidarity with U.S. bishops and had been deeply touched by the suffering and scandal. But there was no hint of a summit.
  "Obviously, someone over there has decided that maybe they check into this a little bit further," said Father Richard McBrien, a Catholic commentator and theology professor at the University of Notre Dame. He has been critical of how the scandal has been handled by the Vatican and U.S. bishops.
  Sister Jeannine Gramick, a reform-minded nun who was silenced by the Vatican for soft-pedalling Church teachings on homosexuality, said it was extraordinary that the Vatican would respond to an issue that had been kept alive by the grassroots Church.
  "I have great hope that this will be reform for the Church," she said.
  But Father McBrien and others cautioned against expecting any concrete policy changes.
  The scandal has precipitated a crisis of confidence among rank-and-file Catholics, calls for the resignations of the cardinal-archbishops of Boston and New York, the firing of scores of priests and the resignation of a Florida bishop.
  The scandal mushroomed from media revelations in January that Cardinal Bernard Law, of Boston, had knowingly transferred priests with histories of sexually abusing youths from parish to parish.
  On Monday [15 Apr 02], lawyers said 450 more people had come forward claiming they were sexually abused by Boston-area priests. These were in addition to 86 victims of former Boston priest, John Geoghan who reached an out-of-court settlement with the Boston diocese last month.
-- LOS ANGELES TIMES