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	George: Pope Focused on Scandal By Cathleen Falsan Chicago Sun-Times [Vatican City] April 21, 2005 VATICAN CITY -- When Cardinal Francis George stepped forward to greet Pope Benedict XVI for the first time, the newly elected pontiff's first words to Chicago's Roman Catholic archbishop were about the clergy sex abuse scandal that has rocked the American church. "I went up to him after he was elected, we kiss his hand, and I started speaking in my kind of halting German about promising obedience and love and asking for his prayers in return," George said Wednesday. "And he immediately responded in English -- much better English than I speak German -- that he remembered our conversation and that he would attend to that. So immediately he zeroed in on our last conversation, which was about the sexual abuse scandal." Not long before the 115 cardinals entered the conclave to elect a new pope on Monday, George said he had had a conversation with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger about the sexual abuse scandal, the new laws that were instated several years ago governing the handling of such cases by the church in the United States, and, as he put it, "the need to maintain the canonical structures that we have used to address the scandal." The new church laws, which require, among other things, that any Catholic clergyman with even one legitimate accusation of sexual abuse against him be removed from ministry, have to be renewed on a yearly basis. "I wanted to be sure that I could respond to any questions he might have," George said. "We had a good conversation about that and he understood the need to do that, and he understood where we were coming from. He had followed the discussions by reading the minutes, not by being present, and had a good grasp of the situation. It was a very reassuring conversation." Chicago's cardinal said he hoped news of the new pope's apparent keen awareness of the significance of the clergy sex abuse scandal to the life of the American church would be reassuring to victims of abuse and their supporters. "We hope Cardinal George is right and that Pope Benedict is and remains focused on the bishops' sex abuse scandal," said David Clohessy, national director of the advocacy and support group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Clohessy's group and other advocates for survivors of clergy abuse have criticized Ratzinger for allegedly blocking a Vatican investigation into abuse allegations against the Rev. Marciel Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ religious order. "Papal attention will certainly help but it's crucial to remember that bishops are the church's front line managers. . . . Attention doesn't necessarily mean genuine understanding or helpful action," Clohessy said. "We know there is tremendous competition for the pope's ears and heart. War, poverty and other pressing social concerns deserve a hearing too. Still, we hope that Pope Benedict will agree soon to meet with an international delegation of survivors chosen by survivors. Only time will tell if the cardinal is right." 'You touch Peter' Pope Benedict XVI was elected on the fourth ballot cast by cardinal-electors and clearly was the leading candidate by the time they entered the conclave, George said. "The choice was clear, almost from the beginning, and is clear now, and I think will be made clearer in the days to come," George said. George, 68, described his experiences over the last two weeks in Rome -- from the funeral of Pope John Paul II to the conclave -- as "prayerful" and "emotionally trying." "I was going through a lot, reflectively and emotionally," he said. "That really is a moment of confirmation in the faith when, like one of the cardinals said this morning, a man who is one of the cardinals accepts the election and explains who he'll be called and why. At that moment the keys are, once again, in the hands of one person, some person. You touch him, you touch Peter. You touch Peter, you touch Christ. "And that sense of being part of that is sobering," he said. "It leads me into a lot of reflection." George bristled at what he called caricatures of the new pope in the media, particularly his unfortunate, oft-repeated nickname "God's Rottweiler." "That's not very respectful, is it?" George said. "Sometimes I think in covering events and people, in order to create something clear, a certain aspect of someone's personality or a single dimension is chosen. And while true, if it's isolated, it can become a caricature." "There's a certain clarity of teaching that has been associated with him. Fine. I think clarity helps us all. If that's a problem, well then the problem isn't with this particular pope or man or his predecessor, the problem is with the Catholic faith itself and then people should ask, well, where am I? If I don't hold the Catholic faith, where does that leave me? It's a personal question." Benedict XVI, who explained to the cardinals that he chose his name to honor both St. Benedict, whom George called "the father of monasticism," and Pope Benedict XV, the pontiff who reigned during World War I, also indicated that he expected his pontificate to be a short one. "And I think Benedict XVI is saying, 'I, too,' and he mentioned a 'short reign;' Pope Benedict XV had a short reign; 'I too hope in this short reign to be a man of peace and to see to it that the world will be spared any future wars.' This is a man who has a sense of history," George said. Brother worries about health There are reports that the new pope is in failing health. His brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, who is a priest, told the Associated Press Wednesday he worried about the toll the weight of the papacy would take on his brother's health. George said he is "not privy" to Benedict XVI's health status. In 1991, Ratzinger had a hemorrhagic stroke, and the next year, while vacationing, took a bad fall. "A few years ago he had a bout of difficult health and he's come back from that and seems strong now. But he's a 78-year-old man," the cardinal said. Still, Chicago's archbishop is convinced the first German pontiff in almost 1,000 years is the right man at the right time to shepherd the world's more than 1 billion Roman Catholics.
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