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In Rome and in Catholic circles around the world, a question is quietly circulating which only Pope Benedict XVI can answer: What to do about Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Pope John Paul II’s former Secretary of State, who still holds the post of Dean of the College of Cardinals?
Were Benedict to die today, it would be Sodano, 83, who presides over the daily General Congregation meetings of the cardinals, which shape the discussions leading into the election of the next pope. It would also be Cardinal Sodano who would preside over the funeral Mass for the deceased pope, and who would celebrate the Mass Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice, the “Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff,” which is the final public act before the conclave.
Cardinal Sodano, in other words, would be the face of the Catholic Church during the papal interregnum — a time when the eyes of the entire world are squarely upon Rome.
What’s the problem with that? In a nutshell, Sodano has a troubling record of both words and deeds on the sexual abuse crisis. Granted, he’s not generated the public backlash that, say, Cardinal Bernard Law faced in Boston. Yet if Cardinal Sodano is front and center during the interregnum, his history could easily be spun into a cause celebre.
In some ways, of course, it’s unfair to reduce Sodano’s legacy entirely to his profile on the crisis. He had a long, albeit controversial, diplomatic career (his role vis-a-vis the Pinochet regime in Chile as nuncio from 1978 to 1988 is still debated), and he served John Paul II for 15 years in one of the Vatican’s most complex posts.
In the eyes of the people most scandalized by the sexual abuse crisis, however, Cardinal Sodano has become a symbol of the ambivalence.
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