UNITED STATES
St. Louis Public Radio
By STEPHANIE LECCI
Cases against two former St. Louis Catholic archbishops are being submitted to Pope Francis’ new Vatican tribunal that investigates bishops accused of covering up abuse.
The Catholic Whistleblowers, a group of retired priests, nuns and other advocates for victims of clergy abuse, called for investigations of Cardinals Justin Rigali and Raymond Burke earlier this week during a press conference in Philadelphia. Their announcement comes less than a week before the pope’s visit to the U.S.
The group said the tribunal, which was established by Francis in June, should look into whether Rigali and Burke committed “culpable negligence,” or knew better and didn’t act, in cases of suspected clergy abuse.
“We said, you know, it would be a mistake for the pope to have started something like this and people not to respond. When Rome announced in June that this had been established, it was very clear that they were inviting – in fact, the word ‘duty’ got used in one of the communications – people to make their concerns known,” said retired priest and canonical lawyer Father James Connell of Milwaukee.
The Whistleblower group’s Sister Maureen Paul Turlish of Delaware agreed.
“If no one sends anything in, then whoever is on this board is going to say, ‘Well, nobody said anything, so there’s no reason for us to exist,'” she said at the press conference.
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