As the conclave begins next week, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) urges the College of Cardinals to use caution and prudence in selecting the next Pope. The next Pope must be receptive to helping victims of clergy sexual abuse receive the healing and justice they deserve and insuring that such abuse does not happen to any other child or vulnerable adult in the future.

SNAP is also very concerned about several Cardinals who have been subjects of wide speculation as being on the "short list" of contenders for the papacy. These Cardinals include:

1) Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, of Honduras

Rodriguez, like a number of bishops, blamed the media for the molestation scandal. In a 2002 interview, he accused American journalists of covering the church's pedophilia scandals "with a fury that reminds me at times of Diocletian and Nero [two Roman emperors] and more recently of Stalin and Hitler. The church should be free of this kind of treatment."

Cardinal Rodriguez went even further, harboring an admitted pedophile priest: "For me it would be a tragedy to reduce the role of a pastor to that of a cop. . . I'd be prepared to go to jail rather than harm one of my priests."

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1157311/posts

http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,730596,00.html

http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/dallas/allen1.htm

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/163/story_16371.html

In 2003, Rodriguez said most American bishops have done a good job with the abuse crisis and that bishops cannot monitor every priest in their dioceses. Earlier, he compared press coverage of the abuse crisis to a "witch hunt."

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/10/11/loc_rodriguez11.html

2) Cardinal Norberta Rivera Carrera, of Mexico

Rivera has publicly stated the clergy sexual abuse scandal was merely "a campaign of media persecution against the entire Catholic church." Cardinal Rivera Carrera also mounted a vigorous defense of disgraced Cardinal Barnard Law saying that Cardinal Law, a "good friend," is also a victim of persecution. "It is not just a campaign of media persecution against him, but, I repeat, against the entire Church."

Rivera has also been openly scornful of the brave men from Mexico and Spain who have filed charges at the Vatican to remove Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ. Rivera fired an esteemed canon lawyer in Mexico City, Father Antonio Roqueni, from his archdiocesan position after Roqueni worked on the complaint against Maciel filed in Rome.

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-religion/715731/posts

See VOWS OF SILENCE, by Jason Berry and Gerald Renner (Free Press, 2004)

A June 22, 2004 Dallas Morning News article details how Fr. Nicolás Aguilar fled to Rivera's archdiocese, "leaving behind one of the largest child sexual abuse cases in Los Angeles Archdiocese history."

According to LA police, Aguilar molested at least 26 boys and was charged in a 1997 Mexican abuse case. "Church leaders (including Rivera) kept him in ministry while the matter was pending and even after his conviction in 2003," according to the News.

Rivera never respond to The News' written requests for information about the priest.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/
longterm/stories/062204propriestpt3.1db08.html

3) Cardinal Angelo Sodano, of Italy and the current Vatican Secretary of State (the number two position in the Vatican)

Sodano met recently with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and urged Secretary Rice to block a class action lawsuit brought by Kentucky clergy sex abuse victims that includes the Vatican as a defendant.

http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn030305.htm

As reported in the book "Vows of Silence" by Jason Berry and Gerald Renner, Sodano also intervened to halt the canonical proceedings against Maciel.

(The Vatican has since reopened the case against Maciel and we hope that the new pope will remove the disgraced Legionary founder from the priesthood.)

4) Cardinal Dario Castrillon-Hoyos, of Colombia, now head of the Vatican department in charge of the world's clergy (called "Congregation for the Clergy")

Castrillon-Hoyos has a misguided view of the roots of the abuse scandal.

"Concerning the problem of sexual abuse and cases of pedophilia, I have only one answer," Cardinal Dario Castrillon-Hoyos, told reporters. "In today's culture of pansexualism and libertinism created in this world, several priests, being of this culture, have committed the most serious crime of sexual abuse."

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/ArticleDisplay.php?id=195&print=yes

He also "intervened" in the case of a notorious predator priest, Fr. Robert Trupia of the Phoenix diocese (originally from Los Angeles).

According to the Boston Globe (3/8/2003), Trupia won an appeal to be reinstated as a priest, despite numerous abuse allegations, thanks to Castrillon Hoyos. The Cardinal sided with Trupia "even through (a bishop) reported that Trupia had attempted to intimidate him into revoking his suspension and an order that he undergo a psychiatric evaluation by threatening to reveal what he knew about a high-ranking Phoenix bishop's sex life.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/news/otherstates/AZ_Bishop_resigns.htm

Castrillon Hoyos was also a key Vatican official prodding the Vatican to withhold approval of the US bishops' sex abuse policy because it allegedly contradicted church law.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/23/national/main526597.shtml

He was also a key figure in Vatican revisions to that eventually watered down this already vague and weak new policy.

See VOWS OF SILENCE, by Jason Berry and Gerald Renner (Free Press, 2004)

5) Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, of Santiago, Chile.

Errazuriz has publicly expressed "grave doubts" about a "zero tolerance" approach to sexual abuse by clerics, questioning whether a blanket policy is compatible with Christian charity.

His exact quote: "I see something flawed in the 'zero tolerance' principle. It seems tome more of a 'buzz word, aimed at satisfying the press, rather than a truly effective policy inspired by Christian charity."

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=19263

(Errazuriz has been listed as a possible papal contender by Reuters and by US author/journalist David Gibson.)

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/163/story_16371_1.html

Conclusion

It is disturbing that these Cardinals are considered top candidates on a very short list to succeed Pope John Paul II. We hope that the College of Cardinals do not allow these three men to be become pope. They have indicated, in essence, that they will protect pedophile priests and do not understand or will not take the sexual abuse crisis seriously. We in SNAP urge the Cardinals to reject these Cardinals from consideration.

CONTACT SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Prests, a support group (SNAPnetwork.org, , 312 409 2720, 1-877 SNAP Heals)

In the US:

David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP national director (314) 566 9790 cell
Mark Serrano of Washington DC, SNAP national board member (571) 223 0042 work
Peter Isely of Milwaukee, SNAP national board member (414) 429 7259 cell
Mary Grant of Long Beach CA, SNAP western regional director (626) 419 2930

In Rome:

Barbara Blaine of Chicago, SNAP founder and president (in Rome) 39 334 180 7425
Bill Gately of Boston, SNAP New England co-coordinator (in Rome) 508 524 5179
Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP outreach director (in Rome) 39 334 180 7425

(All are staying at the Grand Hotel Tiberio at Via Lattanzio 51)