VATICAN CITY
USA Today
In Rome, where 115 cardinals are gathering to elect a new pope, the conclave will include these luminaries:
•Cardinal Roger Mahony, former archbishop of Los Angeles, who in the 1980s plotted with an adviser to conceal child molesting priests from law enforcement.
•Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of Ireland’s church, who failed in the 1970s to follow up on incriminating evidence against a priest, who went on to become a notorious serial molester.
•Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the former head of the Belgian church, who once advised an adult victim of 13 years of childhood abuse against making “a lot of noise” about it because his molester, a bishop, was about to retire.
•Cardinal Justin Rigali, former head of the Philadelphia archdiocese, where it took two grand juries issuing scathing reports of abuse before the cardinal saw fit in 2011 to suspend 21 priests accused of molesting children.
The full list of cardinals who abetted the child abuse scandal that has dogged the church for more than a decade is longer. But for coverups and allowing abuse to flourish, these four are among the worst offenders.
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