ITALY - “No one from Curia should be made pope,” victims say

• “No one from Curia should be made pope,” victims say
• Group also wants some older cardinals out of Monday meeting
• SNAP worries Vatican insiders are tied to corruption & last 2 popes
• “That makes ‘cleaning house’ & exposing cover ups tougher,” it says
• Victims urge top church staff to try to persuade some peers to “go home”
• SNAP: Sodano & 5 other “complicit” cardinals should be sent away or stay away

WHAT
At a news conference, holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims will urge the College of Cardinals to
--elect a non-Curia member as the next pope, and
--try to persuade several elderly “complicit colleagues” – who can’t vote in the conclave but may attend Monday’s General Congregation meeting - to stay home this week because of their involvement in hiding clergy sex crimes.

WHEN
Monday, March 4 at 3:15 pm

WHO
Two leaders of an international support group for clergy sex abuse victims called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including the organization’s long-time executive director

WHERE
The Orange Hotel at 86 Via Crescenzio in Rome (+39 06 686 8969)

WHY
Roughly 90 prelates - too old to vote in the conclave - will take part in the General Congregation of Cardinals meetings, which start Monday at 9:30 a.m.  SNAP believes that a number of them (Sodano, Connell, Egan, Castrillón Hoyos, Law, McCarrick, and others) are guilty of - or credibly accused of - protecting child molesting clerics. Their peers should push them to stay home, or they should do so voluntarily, the group feels, for the sake of the church and to avoid heaping more pain on wounded victims and betrayed Catholics. (SNAP will hand out copies of a list of them with explanations and links.)

(For a list of non-voting prelates: http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/scardb3.html)

If Vatican officials can allegedly prod Cardinal Roger Mahony to come to Rome (as Mahony claims) or prod Cardinal Keith O’Brien to stay away (as some Vatican insiders and observers claim), they can also prod non-voting cardinals who have ignored or enabled child sex crimes to leave the General Congregation meetings, SNAP asserts.

SNAP will also urge the papal electors to pick a new pope from outside the Roman Curia, largely because of the long and cozy relationships between most of “insiders” and two popes who have done little to prevent abuse. SNAP also believes many of these prelates have playing or have hidden (or are hiding) many clergy sex crimes and cover ups.
(For a list of members of the Curia: http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/romancuria.htm)

SNAP admits that the last two popes, both non-Italians, have not reformed the Roman bureaucracy. But the group maintains that a veteran “Vatican insider” – if promoted – would likely lack the willingness, courage and uncompromised moral standing and to really “clean house.” And “cleaning house” in the church headquarters, SNAP feels, will help deter wrongdoing in the church across the world and improve chances for discipline against bishops who protect predators.

The elevation of a prelate considered more of an “outsider” would also give some hope and consolation to many suffering victims and Catholics, SNAP believes.

Among other things, the General Congregation meeting, which will reportedly continue Monday afternoon, will determine the start of the Conclave.

CONTACT
David Clohessy, [email protected], 339 215 7504 (Italian cell), Barbara Dorris [email protected], 334 791 2239 (Italian cell), Barbara Blaine (in the US), [email protected]  312 399 4747 cell, 312 455 1499 office