News

By Mary Ann Glendon,  First Things, (Complicit Clergy) - When Pope Francis took office in 2013, he was immediately confronted with a new scandal in the Institute of Religious Works (popularly known as the Vatican Bank) where there had already been scandals enough to delight novelists and filmmakers for years. It was encouraging that the new pope acted right away to appoint a commission (on which I served) to investigate the troubled institution. Though we had full powers to examine all records and question anyone, we were stonewalled at every turn by bank officials. To get a sense of what was going on, I and another commissioner interviewed nearly every one of the bank’s 115 employees, but we found that assurances of confidentiality from the pope himself could not overcome their terror of speaking frankly. ...

By Christopher Lamb, CNN, (Complicit Clergy) - A US cardinal accused of mismanaging clerical sexual abuse has been listed as playing an official role in the ceremonies to close Pope Francis’ coffin and for his burial... Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired Archbishop of Los Angeles, is among a group of nine cardinals and a small number of priests and bishops set to take part in the rites which will include the pope’s burial at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore... Mahony, 89, retired as archbishop in 2011. He was relieved of all his official duties in the archdiocese in 2013 – although these duties were not specified.