ANAHEIM-Filipino-American Bishop Oscar Solis believes Cardinal Roger Mahony should be able to vote for the new pope in the upcoming papal conclave despite the criticisms surrounding the embattled senior ecclesiastical official.
“He’s still a cardinal and a bishop in good standing,” said Solis after presiding over the Filipino mass held during the Religious Education Conference at the Anaheim Hilton recently.
Earlier this month, the 76-year-old Mahony was stripped of his public and administrative duties, due to the fallout from the releasing of the sexual abuse documents that have embroiled the Catholic Church.
Critics have directed their anger toward Mahony, believing he played a role in protecting sexually abusive priests under his watch as archbishop of the largest diocese in the United States.
On February 23, members of non-profit, non-partisan religious organization, Catholics United, delivered a petition signed by 10,000 people to the North Hollywood church (where the besieged retired Los Angeles cardinal resides) asking Mahony to recuse himself from participating in the papal conclave.
“Please do not bring further scandal to our Church that has already been rocked by the sex abuse crisis by attending the Papal Conclave. You have been disciplined and you have lost your ability to have a voice within our Church,” the petition says.
“There are bishops and cardinals around the world who have skirted justice. They have enjoyed privilege and deference, while victims are silenced and maligned,” said Chris Pumpelly, Catholics United communications director.
“Let today be a clear message: No more. Catholics and people of faith are demanding accountability from our leaders, and the people of the Church will prevail for the good.”
Despite efforts to prevent the cardinal from participating in selecting the next pope, Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose H. Gomez (the man who stripped Mahony of his administrative duties) said Mahony is still in good standing with the Archdiocese of LA and “has full rights to celebrate the Holy Sacraments of the Church and to minister to the faithful without restriction.”
“Having been promoted to the dignity of Cardinal, Cardinal Mahony has all of the prerogatives and privileges of his standing as a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church,” Gomez wrote in a statement on the Archdiocese’s website.
Mahony is already in Rome (along with most of the 117 cardinals), for Pope Benedict XVI’s official stepping down as pontiff.
The College of Cardinals will then meet sometime in mid-March to elect a new pope.
Mahony took to social media site Twitter and his personal blog, writing about his experience since being relieved of his public duties.
In a blog post on Monday, he quoted Matthew 5:43–48 — Jesus’ message to love your neighbors and your enemies.
“I can’t recall a time such as now when people tend to be so judgmental and even self-righteous, so quick to accuse, judge and condemn. And often with scant real facts and information,” he wrote.
“We have ended up with a climate in which it’s the norm to instantly pass judgment on one another, taking in and repeating gossip, sharing someone else’s judgment as the truth, no regard for other people who may be harmed,” he later added.
“Whatever happened to the norm of giving others the benefit of a doubt, until hard evidence proves otherwise?”
Solis also said for people to withhold their criticism of Mahony and wait for more facts, before passing judgment.
“People will always have criticisms and they have to realize the real facts and the circumstances of what conspired in order to better understand the decision of our leaders [and] how they were able to face these various challenges in our church,” said Solis.
New Pope
More than 2,000 people attended the Filipino mass at the Religious Catholic Conference on Feb. 23 — the first time its been held in five years. Many hoped to see Archbishop of Manila Cardinal Luis Tagle preside over them.
Tagle had been scheduled to conduct workshops and lead mass during the annual Catholic conference. However, the 55-year-old Filipino cardinal was summoned to Rome a day before his departure to Los Angeles, perhaps to prepare for the resignation of Pope Benedict and to vote in the papal conclave soon afterwards.
Tagle’s cancellation was like a big elephant in the room. Because of the speculations and rumors surrounding the cardinal as a possible candidate, many attendees were giddy, thinking about the possibilities of having one of their own as pope.
“It’s long overdue that we get somebody other than a westerner to represent more than two billion Catholics,” said Bella Arnaldo, a Milpitas resident, who attended the conference with her friends.
“So it will be a great honor for the Filipinos to get a Filipino pope.”
Bishop Solis said any of the cardinals participating are more than capable of leading the church.
“We pray for all the cardinal electors. We pray that the cardinals are guided by the holy-spirit and choose the right shepard for our time and for our church,” he said.
“Any of those [117] cardinals have the potential to be elected. It’s anyone’s wild guess.”
Father Albert Avenido, the moderator for the Filipino-American ministry in Los Angeles, was more frank.
“I want to see a new pope who is young like Cardinal Tagle,” said Father Albert.
No matter who gets chosen, the next pope will have a lot on his plate. Many of the Filipinos expressed concern about the church’s handling of the sexual abuse claims, the loss of family values, homosexuality and how to get the youth more involved.
“We need a good pope to resolve all these problems,” said Nilda Balano, of Milpitas.
