The Vatican: Rocked by new scandals

The Catholic Church was still in shock over Pope Benedict XVI’s sudden resignation, said Ben Wedeman in CNN.com, when a fresh wave of scandal last week threatened “to eclipse the poignancy and pageantry” of the pope’s final days in office. First came reports from an Italian newspaper that a clique of gay priests within the Vatican was being blackmailed by a group of male prostitutes—a claim the Vatican denied. Then Cardinal Keith O’Brien of the United Kingdom, known for harsh anti-gay rhetoric, was accused by three priests and one former priest of “inappropriate acts.” O’Brien was allowed to resign the very next day. With the church reeling, other cardinals are now heading to the Vatican for “what may well be the most important conclave in centuries,” said John Kass in the Chicago Tribune. “Their duty: choosing the right pope at a dangerous time.”

The Vatican’s troubles go very deep, said Charles Pierce in Esquire.com. The report of a “secret gay cabal” within the higher ranks of the church emerged from the Vatican’s own investigation of the so-called “VatiLeaks” affair—the leaking of internal documents to the press last year by the pope’s personal butler. The investigators’ 300-page report paints a picture of a deeply factionalized Vatican rife with “bribery, nepotism, and influence peddling.” At the heart of all these scandals is the Catholic clergy’s breathtaking hypocrisy, said Andrew Sullivan in Dish.Andrew

Sullivan.com. The church hierarchy remains in stubborn denial about the destructive impact of priestly celibacy and of its arbitrary and backward ban on women priests. That misguided clinging to medieval dogma—and the participation of the outgoing pope and some of his cardinals in the cover-up of the church’s child-rape scandals—has robbed Rome of its moral authority. To regain it, the church “needs to face the truth about itself,” and find a brave, dynamic pope who can make a fresh start.

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Perhaps the change is already underway, said Paul Vallely in Independent.co.uk.Instead of being silenced or ignored, the priests who spoke up about Cardinal O’Brien were heard by Rome, and O’Brien was immediately “sacked by the pope.” Benedict’s successor needs to encourage this new atmosphere of openness and accountability, said Walter Russell Mead in RealClearPolitics.com. With a “firm hand” and fresh ideas, he can “drag the church, kicking and screaming, into a new and better day.”