UNITED STATES/ROME
KTVA
By Joshua Norman / CBS News
Story Created: Mar 6, 2013
To call the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church the elephant in the room ahead of the conclave to choose the next pope is to not do justice to the enormity of the problem the institution still faces, and will likely face for years to come.
Addressing the problem directly, abuse victims and their advocates in four countries so far have begun naming various cardinals they believe should either be removed from papal consideration, or even from the very process to name the next pontiff, due to their actions around the scandal. Some of the names they have singled out are considered front-runners by Vatican observers.
“It is difficult. Who would be a good pope? I don’t know,” said Becky Ianni, Washington, D.C. and Virginia director for the advocacy group SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abuse by Priests. “It’s really hard to say.”
SNAP has singled out a “Dirty Dozen” cardinals who are contenders for pope that they consider “to be the worst choices in terms of protecting kids, healing victims, and exposing corruption.”
The members of the “Dirty Dozen” cardinals, according to SNAP, are: Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga (Honduras), Norberto Rivera (Mexico), Marc Ouellet (Canada), Peter Turkson (Ghana), George Pell (Australia), Tarcisio Bertone (Italy), Angelo Scola (Italy), Leonardo Sandri (Argentina), Dominik Duka (Czech Republic), Sean O’Malley (United States), Timothy Dolan (United States), and Donald Wuerl (United States).
Of those, Vatican magazine senior editor and CBS News contributor Delia Gallagher identified Dolan, Maradiga, O’Malley, Ouellet, Sandri, Scola, Turkson, and Carrera as legitimate contenders to be the next pope.
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