Hur ska påven göra med kardinal Angelo Sodano frågar sig John L Allen Jr ? Han utvecklar sedan problemet med att Sodano, som har agerat och uttalat sig på ett tvivelaktigt sätt när det gäller de sexuella övergrepp som förekommit i Katolska kyrkan, är den som skulle ta över ledningen av kyrkan i händelse att påven avlider.
”Were Benedict to die today, it would be Sodano, 83, who presides over the daily General Congregation meetings of the cardinals, which shape the discussions leading into the election of the next pope. It would also be Sodano who would preside over the funeral Mass for the deceased pope, and who would celebrate the Mass Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice, the ”Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff,” which is the final public act before the conclave.
Sodano, in other words, would be the face of the Catholic church during the papal interregnum — a time when the eyes of the entire world are squarely upon Rome.
What’s the problem with that? In a nutshell, Sodano has a troubling record of both words and deeds on the sexual abuse crisis. Granted, he’s not generated the public backlash that, say, Cardinal Bernard Law faced in Boston. Yet if Sodano is front and center during the interregnum, his history could easily be spun into a cause célèbre.”
Allen tar i slutet av artikeln upp tre möjligheter för påven att lösa situationen.
”First, Benedict could revoke Sodano’s status as a cardinal. That’s an extreme step, but there is precedent for it. (As Cardinal Francis George of Chicago recently said in an NCR interview, ”Everything has happened in the church at least once.”)”
”Second, Benedict XVI could quietly ask Sodano to resign as Dean of the College of Cardinals. Cardinal Bernard Gantin did that back in November 2002, returning to his native Benin, where he died in 2008.”
”Third, Benedict could do what his predecessors Paul VI and John Paul II each did, which is to issue his own document updating the procedures for the next conclave. Benedict issued a motu proprio in June 2007 restoring the absolute requirement for a two-thirds vote to be elected pope, but otherwise left John Paul’s 1996 document Universi Dominici gregis untouched.”
Enligt Allen hoppas många av de ledande i kyrkan att påven agerar på något sätt.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/what-do-about-sodano
/Anneli Magnusson
Precis som när det gäller valet av ledare för Caritas är det här en fråga om Katolska kyrkans trovärdighet både i omvärldens ögon och inom kyrkan.
Det är problematiskt att Katolska kyrkan kan hamna i en situation där den leds av en person som försvarat Marcial Maciel, grundare av Kristi legionärer och som kallar kritiken mot hur Katolska ledare hanterat frågan om de sexuella övergreppen för skvaller.
”it was Sodano who sparked international outrage last year by using a platform during Pope Benedict’s Easter Mass to compare criticism of the church on the sexual abuse crisis to ”petty gossip.”
/Anneli