BishopAccountability.org
 
  Group Replaces Controversial Cardinal for Dc Mass

Washington Post
April 21, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/21/AR2010042103797.html

WASHINGTON -- A Roman Catholic group said Wednesday it is seeking another bishop to celebrate a special Mass at the nation's largest Catholic church after advocates for abuse victims objected to a retired Vatican cardinal.

Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos had been scheduled to celebrate the Latin Mass on Saturday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in honor of the fifth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI's inauguration.

The Paulus Institute, which is organizing the event and promotes the traditional Latin Mass, said it consulted with Castrillon Hoyos and agreed to find another celebrant. The group said it is looking for another bishop.

The now-retired cardinal wrote a letter in 2001 congratulating a French bishop for shielding a priest who was convicted of raping minors. At the time, Castrillon Hoyos headed the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy, which is in charge of priests throughout the world.

Castrillon Hoyos, 80, told an audience at a Catholic university in Murcia, Spain, last week that Pope John Paul II saw the letter and authorized him to send it to bishops worldwide.

On Tuesday, The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests appealed to Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl and to the pope to stop Castrillon Hoyos from celebrating the Mass. They said the event would send the wrong message. The archdiocese said SNAP should take the issue up with the Paulus Institute.

The institute said it was changing celebrants to "help maintain the solemnity, reverence and beauty of the Mass." The group said it stands with sexual abuse victims but it is not taking a position on the cardinal's conduct.

Mark Serrano, spokesman for SNAP, said the group was disappointed that the pope and the archbishop didn't use the opportunity "to hold their fellow bishop accountable for reckless statements."

"While it's welcome news and the right decision from the Paulus Institute, the silence from Archbishop Wuerl and the pope is deafening," he said.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.