Pope calls crisis talks with US cardinals over abuse scandals

BY SIMON CALDWELL
THE POPE has summoned America's 13 cardinals to Rome to discuss the huge clerical child abuse scandal in the United States.
John Paul II is acting in response to a wave of accusations which since January have led to the suspensions or resignations of more than 60 priests and a bishop from 17 dioceses. In Boston, more than 450 retrospective allegations have been received against priests.
The meeting is likely to go ahead on Tuesday and will include Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston and Cardinal Edward Egan of New York, both of whom have resisted intense pressure to resign for their alleged mishandling of clerical abuse cases.
It will also be attended by Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who was last month himself falsely accused of sexual assault.
"I welcome the invitation by the Holy See to travel to Rome next week for discussion on the continuing crisis in the Church with respect to clergy sexual misconduct and the abuse of minors," he said.
"A healthy dialogue with officials in the Vatican is essential to repairing the past damage and to create a more open and honest way of dealing with any type of misconduct within the Catholic Church in the future."
The cardinals will be accompanied by Bishop Wilton Gregory of Southern Illinois, the president of the US bishops' conference, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Washington, the conference vice-president, and Mgr William Fay, the conference general secretary.
The crisis meeting would be the second of John Paul II's 24-year papacy — the other was in May 1982 when he invited the British and Argentine bishops to discuss the Falklands War.
The Vatican is not only believed to be concerned about the evil of clerical child abuse, but also fears the collapse of the Church's moral authority in the largest and arguably most important Catholic community in the world. With five million Catholics, the Los Angeles diocese alone is a larger Church than that of England and Wales.
Cardinal Mahony has publicly condemned abuse as a "cancer" but has been criticised for moving a paedophile from a parish to a hospital chaplaincy, and then was accused of sexually assaulting Flora Mae Hickman, 51, while she was studying at San Joaquin Memorial High School, Fresno, California, in 1969.
Last week police concluded there was -no evidence to support her accusations. It also emerged that Miss Hickman had accused fellow students, family members and work colleagues of sexually assaulting her too. She told reporters she was seeking compensation to cover her psychiatric bills.
Meanwhile, Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee has become the third American archbishop to be accused of suppressing information about alleged clerical child abusers.
A Vatican spokesman refused to Comment as The Catholic Herald went to press.
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