Archbishop Dolan: Pope Francis is in Touch with Church’s Needs

By Maria Keena
KMOX
April 21, 2014

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/04/21/archbishop-dolan-pope-francis-is-in-touch-with-churchs-needs/

US cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan attends a mass at the St Peter’s basilica before the conclave on March 12, 2013 at the Vatican. Cardinals moved into the Vatican today as the suspense mounted ahead of a secret papal election with no clear frontrunner to steer the Catholic world through troubled waters after Benedict XVI’s historic resignation.The 115 cardinal electors who pick the next leader of 1.2 billion Catholics in a conclave in the Sistine Chapel will live inside the Vatican walls completely cut off from the outside world until they have made their choice.

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – The Catholic Church has reason to celebrate findings of a CBS poll that shows more people than ever feel the Church is in touch with their needs.

Timothy Dolan, a St. Louis native and the Archbishop of New York, says that’s good news. He credits the Pope for being so genuine and sincere.

But there are still lingering questions about real reform in the Church regarding predator priests and sex abuse.

“Those 10 days before we actually sealed ourselves in the Sistine Chapel, the College of Cardinals met in confidence every day,” he says. “We spoke our mind, and Jorge Bergoglio [Pope Francis], who was there, listened intently. And now we know it for sure, because he’s doing a lot of the stuff.”

Pope Francis still has not met with victims, but Dolan believes that he will.

“I think he should and I think that he will, Pope Benedict did,” says Dolan. “We’ve got to give him some time, he knows that it’s a towering problem.”

Dolan says that last year, during the pope selection process, now-Pope Francis said in the conclave that the church can’t run from the abuse scandal nor deny it—it must be met head on.