A group promoting the Traditional Latin Mass (the former Mass ritual used generally before 1962) has inivted a man considered by some to be one of the bishops most tolerant of abuse priests to lead in the celebration according to the former Mass form.
Cardinal Dario Castrillion Hoyos is scheduled to celebrate the first TLM at the National Shirne of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC on April 24th.
Until he retired a few years ago, Castrillion was the Vatican's official liaison to supporters of the Tridentine Mass both in schism and in communion with Rome.
He also has been connect to the scandal. When heading the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos congratulated a French bishop in a 2001 letter for not denouncing a sexually abusive priest to the police. In the letter dated 8 September 2001, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos backed French Bishop Pierre Pican's decision not to denounce a priest who was later sentenced to 18 years in jail for repeated rape of a boy and sexual assaults on 10 others.
Pican, who received a suspended three-month jail sentence for not denouncing sexual abuse of minors, admitted in court he had kept Rev. René Bissey in parish work despite the fact the priest had privately admitted committing pedophile acts. "I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration," Castrillon Hoyos wrote. "You have acted well and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest." The letter cited Vatican documents and an epistle of Saint Paul to bolster its argument about special bishop-priest links.
Washington DC Archbishop Donald Wuerl has already pulled out of the Mass as has at least once priest. Cardinal William Baum is also rumored to be cancelling his attendence with the tained prelate.
Protests are expected outside the Shrine unless the Tridentine Mass grouop disinvites the Cardibal.
Cardinal Dario Castrillion Hoyos is scheduled to celebrate the first TLM at the National Shirne of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC on April 24th.
Until he retired a few years ago, Castrillion was the Vatican's official liaison to supporters of the Tridentine Mass both in schism and in communion with Rome.
He also has been connect to the scandal. When heading the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos congratulated a French bishop in a 2001 letter for not denouncing a sexually abusive priest to the police. In the letter dated 8 September 2001, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos backed French Bishop Pierre Pican's decision not to denounce a priest who was later sentenced to 18 years in jail for repeated rape of a boy and sexual assaults on 10 others.
Pican, who received a suspended three-month jail sentence for not denouncing sexual abuse of minors, admitted in court he had kept Rev. René Bissey in parish work despite the fact the priest had privately admitted committing pedophile acts. "I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration," Castrillon Hoyos wrote. "You have acted well and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest." The letter cited Vatican documents and an epistle of Saint Paul to bolster its argument about special bishop-priest links.
Washington DC Archbishop Donald Wuerl has already pulled out of the Mass as has at least once priest. Cardinal William Baum is also rumored to be cancelling his attendence with the tained prelate.
Protests are expected outside the Shrine unless the Tridentine Mass grouop disinvites the Cardibal.