Last week, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos was in the news when a letter surfaced, showing how he had earlier praised a French archbishop who had refused to co-operate with the police in the prosecution of a priest over claims of sexual molestation of young boys. We now know that letter was written with the approval, even support, of Pope John Paul II.
Now, Cardinal Hoyos is in the news again, with claims that he actively intervened, in opposition to the wishes of the local bishop, in disciplinary procedures brought against an Arizona priest, Fr Robert Trupia.
From NCR Online:
Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, the former Vatican official who sent a letter in 2001 praising a French bishop for sheltering an abusive priest, had earlier intervened, against the wishes of a U.S. bishop, on behalf of an American abuser priest, according to documents that were part of a lawsuit.
Castrillon pressured Bishop Manuel Moreno, who was bishop of Tucson, Ariz., from 1982-2003, to allow a priest sex abuser to take a pension and work outside the diocese, despite allegations that would later jolt the diocese and cost millions to resolve. Fr Robert Trupia "sexually abused dozens of minor boys" before he was defrocked in 2004, according to documents in the civil case.
The litigation surrounding the case opens a rare window on the operation of the Vatican legal system.
Castrillon, who was named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1998, sparked a new episode in the Vatican crisis last week when his 2001 letter to a French bishop surfaced, praising him for sheltering a predator. Moreover, Castrillon implicated the late John Paul II in that decision. "After consulting the pope ... I wrote a letter to the bishop congratulating him as a model of a father who does not hand over his sons," Castrillon was quoted in the daily La Verdad as telling a religious conference in Spain on April 16.
(Read the full report)
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