Cardinal celebrates Mass despite protests

Protesters divide Catholics
The Survivors Network, which claims hundreds of members, has spent more than a decade pressing U.S. bishops to acknowledge the scope of molestation in the church. They have picketed parishes, alerted the public to accused priests living in their communities and pressed authorities to prosecute bishops who failed to report abuse.

Asked if the protest was wrong at a time when the church is grieving, Blaine said bluntly: “The Vatican’s decision to have Law celebrate the Mass was inappropriate.”

Some Catholics say the group is too strident and has close ties with lawyers making millions of dollars from suing the church.

But the Survivors Network says the overwhelming majority of its members have never sued and are too traumatized to do so. They say they adopted their tactics after bishops promised for years to take action against guilty clergy, then never did.

Some Boston Catholics said Law’s role in mourning the pope was another a sign that church officials did not understand the betrayal parishioners felt over his wrongdoing.

Thousands of claims of abuse
The abuse crisis erupted in 2002 with the case of one accused priest in Boston, then spread nationwide, compelling American bishops to enact sweeping reforms of their discipline policy for guilty priests.

According to studies the bishops commissioned to restore trust in their leadership, more than 11,000 abuse claims have been made against U.S. clergy since 1950. The total payout to victims has climbed to at least $840 million.

The Vatican, meanwhile, released video Monday to give outsiders a peek at the conclave where a new pope will be selected by the 115 cardinals who are under age 80 and thus eligible to vote.

The Vatican compiled the videotape to help explain the centuries-old election as cardinals, silenced by a pledge not to talk to the media, met again Monday to plan the conclave.

The video offers a tour of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the hotel-residence for the cardinals during the conclave. It includes shots of the frescoed Sistine Chapel, where the voting occurs, and the path cardinals will take to get there — a first since they previously had been sequestered in the Apostolic Palace for the duration of the conclave.

It also shows the bronze-rimmed urns where the cardinals will place their votes. Previously, cardinals placed their ballots in a chalice. The video ends with a view of the stove, dusty and full of ashes, where the ballots will be burned.

Black smoke wafting from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney signals no pope has been elected, and white smoke signals a new pope.

The videotape was aired as cardinals arrived in the rain at the Vatican for their seventh meeting to map out details of the conclave. Silenced by an unprecedented pledge not to talk before a pope is chosen, they waved to reporters as they headed into their meeting.

Grotto to reopen to public
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls announced that the grotto beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, where John Paul was laid to rest Friday, would reopen to the public Wednesday at 7 a.m.

Vatican security was preparing the Sistine Chapel, taking undisclosed measures to thwart would-be hackers or electronic eavesdroppers from listening in on the cardinals’ private deliberations and getting early word of who the next pope might be.

The names of those emerging as possible papal successors include contenders from Latin America, such as Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Brazil and Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, and a Vatican official from Africa: Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria.

Europeans mentioned include Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria and German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Italian “papabili” include Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi and Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.

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