While strenuous efforts are made to make something grand out of Benedict’s last days as the pope, they are just like pretty much his entire eight years in office, having to deal with one tawdry scandal and controversy after another.
We have the reports of a 300-page dossier supposedly detailing a web of sex, corruption, prostitution, and blackmail occurring right within the Vatican walls that was delivered to him the day he announced his resignation and that raised suggestions that he decided to quit because he did not have the energy to deal with yet another bombshell revelation. Benny has said that he will not share the dossier with the cardinals who arrive at the conclave to elect his successor, which means that it will come as a nice present for the new pope to deal with.
Then there was the resignation as archbishop of Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the highest-ranking Catholic cleric in the UK, on charges that he acted ‘inappropriately’ towards some priests. While he remains a cardinal, he has said he will not attend the conclave.
There are also calls for the withdrawal from the conclave of the infamous Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles but it looks like he is planning to go anyway.
And still within the US, we recently had the high-profile New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan being deposed about his role in the sex abuse and cover-up by priests in Milwaukee while he was the archbishop of that diocese.
So basically it is business as usual in the life of the Catholic Church. Is it any wonder that the pope want to get the hell out of Dodge as soon as he can?
Jesus and Mo describe the biggest problem currently facing the Catholic church.
Is it being kept as a present, or being withheld so it doesn’t affect the vote? I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of front-runner candidates are listed as complicit in that dossier…
The fact that anyone is hiding the dossier from anyone proves the Church is not at all serious about dealing honestly with the problem. And the fact that the Pope is hiding the dossier from the most powerful people in the Church, who will be electing the next Pope, proves that the Church is corrupt beyond words. (Have any Cardinals demanded to see the dossier, or objected to the Pope’s decision?)
Hey, it was only 496 years ago that that Luther guy pointed out how the church was totally corrupt. You have to give these good people a bit more time to work things out.
But surely that would be a reason to share the document? After all, the information in the dossier is going to come out at some point so wouldn’t it be better for the cardinals to know the worst before they vote?
Isn’t there a risk that the cardinals will elect someone as pope who was implicated in the dossier? A few of them are familiar with its contents, and perhaps they’ll find a way to discreetly blackball any inappropriate candidate.