Ahead of a gathering to elect a new pope, survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have urged cardinals to choose someone with a zero-tolerance policy.
The group End Clergy Abuse (ECA) issued an open letter to the cardinals as they meet informally in Rome this week before the election gets underway.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the main US-based group, also identified cardinals who themselves have problematic records.
Speaking in Rome, abuse survivor and SNAP member, Peter Isely, said he was sexually abused by a priest when he was in the 8th grade in southeastern Wisconsin.
“We believe the world and Catholics do not want another pope elected who has been involved in covering up child sex crimes,” he said.
Isely said this “seems like an extraordinarily reasonable and relevant criteria” that should be a priority for those who are going to elect the new leader of the Catholic Church.
The church has been shaken for decades by scandals involving paedophile priests and the cover-up of their crimes that have damaged its credibility and discredited the Catholic hierarchy.
ECA and SNAP said a priest should be permanently removed from church ministry after even a single act of sexual abuse that is either admitted to or established according to church law.
That is the policy in Catholic churches in the United States, adopted in 2002 at the height of the sex scandal in that country, but it is by no means embraced elsewhere.
Cardinals are gathering in Rome ahead of a secret meeting to elect a new pope, known as the conclave, which is due to start on 7 May.
An abuse survivor and spokesperson for SNAP, Sarah Pearson, said people need to know despite the choice of a new pope being “a notoriously secret process”.
She said that what they have heard so far from the College of Cardinals suggests that abuse will be a priority in the conclave.
“It goes to show that when survivors speak out, it is gumming up the works, it is forcing them to think about the decision that they are going to make,” she said.
The issue is playing out in real time in Rome as the cardinals gather.
Peruvian Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, 81, has been seen in full cardinal garb entering and exiting Vatican City, despite being under church sanction for allegedly abusing a minor.
Cipriani is not allowed in the conclave itself because he is over 80, but he has been participating in the pre-conclave meetings this week.
The Vatican in January confirmed that disciplinary sanctions were in effect against Cipriani following accusations of sexual abuse.
These include requiring him to leave Peru and restrictions on his public activity and use of insignia.
However, the Vatican said he was allowed to deviate from them on some occasions.
SNAP earlier this year launched an online initiative, Conclave Watch, to provide information about individual cardinals and their records.
The group says that since the launch, survivors from Fiji, Tonga, Belgium, France, South Africa, Malawi, France, Italy, Canada, and the US have reached out with additional information.
The initiative vets cardinals who are considered contenders for the papacy on their record of handling sexual abuse cases.
This includes whether they were involved in covering up cases, as well as their acceptance of the zero-tolerance law that SNAP and ECA have proposed.
“Abuse survivors do not want to see another conclave that elects a pope who has shielded and covered up for clergy offenders,” said Pearson.
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