An American project known as the Red Hat Report wishes to classify the cardinals based on their way of handling cases of abuse of minors. The goal: “to avoid a repeat of the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis.”
Better Church Governance (BCG) is the name of the group that has just hired former FBI agents.
Their mission will be quite unusual: they will have to establish a descriptive list of the electors of the future pope, indicating the way each porporato has dealt with abuse and corruption cases throughout his entire career.
“Cardinals must be publicly held accountable for certain offenses, so there has to be some sort of culture of shame,” explains Jacob Imam, BCG’s operations director.
The group presents itself as an association of lay Catholics wishing to prevent abuse in the Church by “improving the governance, after the examples of Sts. Thomas More and Catherine of Sienna.” However, the group’s method and declared independence are puzzling: it is only one small step from a think tank to a lobby.
Kurt Martens, for example, professor of Canon Law at the Catholic University of America, has his doubts as to the soundness of this initiative that goes against “the strict Church laws on papal elections that forbid any exterior interference in a conclave, be it oral or written, direct or indirect,” explains the professor.
