Convicted cardinal wants to join conclave
VATICAN CITY—Cardinals in meetings ahead of the start of a secret conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis are scratching the hair under their red skull caps as they try to decide whether a cardinal convicted of embezzlement and fraud can join in the vote.
Meanwhile, advocates for sexual abuse victims of the Catholic clergy are criticizing the appointment of a retired US cardinal who has been accused of mishandling abuse cases to a ceremonial role in helping seal Pope Francis’ casket and entomb his remains.
The quandary among participants in the conclave scheduled on May 6 concerns Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who in December 2023 was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail. He was the most senior Catholic Church official ever to stand trial before a Vatican criminal court.
Free pending appeal
Becciu has denied all wrongdoing and is appealing the court’s ruling. The Italian cardinal, who is free pending his appeal, confirmed in a conversation with Reuters on Thursday night that he felt he should be allowed into the conclave.
His complex legal standing in Church law goes back to the night of Sept. 24, 2020, when Francis summoned Becciu to his residence and summarily fired him from the job as head of the Vatican department that decides who will be saints, as the cardinal recounted.
Francis bluntly accused a shocked Becciu of nepotism and embezzlement, saying: “I no longer have trust in you.”
Status has changed
The pope still allowed Becciu to keep his ecclesiastical title and his Vatican apartment but stripped him of what the Vatican said were “the rights associated with the Cardinalate.”
At the time, Becciu said this included losing the right to take part in a future conclave.
Under Church law, cardinals under the age of 80 can enter the Sistine Chapel for a secret conclave where they cast their votes under the gaze of a severe God depicted in Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” fresco behind the main altar.
About 135 cardinals are currently eligible to take part. On its website, the Vatican lists the 76-year-old Becciu as a “nonelector,” lumping him with those who have reached the age of 80.
Meanwhile, retired US Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011, has drawn the attention of critics of sexual abuse in the Catholic church after he was tasked to be one of nine cardinals and dozens of other officials overseeing two special rites on Friday and Saturday.
The rites include the pope’s interment at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major on Saturday, following his funeral in St. Peter’s Square.
“Shame on him for participating in the public rites for Pope Francis, and shame on the College of Cardinals for allowing him to do so,” said Anne Barrett Doyle of the group Bishop Accountability, which has tracked Catholic clergy abuse for decades.
Sending a signal
David Clohessy, a former director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the role “sends the signal to complicit bishops that … they will still be protected and honored by their peers.”
The current archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, initially removed Mahony from all “administrative or public duties” over the mishandling allegations in January 2013, in a rare public rebuke by one Church official of another.
But Gomez backtracked weeks later and said Mahony was a priest “in good standing” with the archdiocese.
