UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

In other cardinals-in-the-news news: as Francis X. Rocca reports in National Catholic Reporter, Cardinal Roger Mahony told Catholic News Service last week that he has been amazed at calls for him not to attend the papal conclave because of what the public now knows about his track record in dealing with priests abusing minors in the Los Angeles archdiocese. Mahony states that the Vatican, through its ambassador to the U.S., instructed him to attend the conclave–despite the pressure from lay Catholics for him to stay at home.

As Rocca notes, Mahony was also “amazed” at the public furor over what was contained in the church files opened to the public regarding abuse cases in his archdiocese. Mahony arrived in Rome a day after Cardinal O’Brien said he wouldn’t attend the papal conclave after allegations of his “inappropriate conduct” with several priests and a…