VATICAN CITY
International Business Times
By Esther Tanquintic-Misa | February 27
In the midst of the sexual abuse crisis now hounding the Roman Catholic church which ironically is in its most critical period in selecting the new pope, believers of the faith say it is not enough that the highly anticipated new leader is just plain spiritual or has charisma to convert bigots into the secular religion.
“From the new pope, we’d simply expect courage,” David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told reporters at a news conference in Rome on Tuesday.
“We long for the day when church officials announce that this cardinal or this bishop is being demoted because church officials have found proof of wrongdoing and church officials want to clean things up.”
The shock resignation of Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Britain’s most senior Catholic clergyman, on Monday, who observers said was pressured to step down by no less than the outgoing Pope Benedict XVI himself, could be a most improved signal of better things to come for the secular Roman Catholic faith.
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