Clerical Sexual-abuse Scandals Strengthen the Pope’s Conservative Critics

The Economist
November 9, 2018

https://www.economist.com/international/2018/11/08/clerical-sexual-abuse-scandals-strengthen-the-popes-conservative-critics


As an fbi agent for 29 years, Philip Scala led the operation that jailed John Gotti of Cosa Nostra and raided an al-Qaeda bomb factory. Mr Scala, now a private investigator, took on Hells Angels, rioting prisoners and Russian mobsters. Next on his list? The cardinals of the Roman Catholic church.

A new lay group, Better Church Governance (bcg), has hired Mr Scala to probe the lives of the 224 men who advise Pope Francis (including their sex lives, if any). His particular focus will be the 124 who, were the pontiff to die tomorrow, would elect his successor. Mr Scala’s team of up to ten investigators will publish their findings on a website, alongside carefully screened information from the public. Philip Nielsen, bcg’s executive director, hopes the website, dubbed the Red Hat Report after the scarlet zucchetti (skullcaps) worn by cardinals, will be online within a month.

Though apparently well funded, the bcg is a tiny fragment of Christianity’s biggest church. Catholicism claims 1.3bn followers and wields vast, global influence