Hi °C | Lo °C CLERICAL abuse survivor Andrew Madden said it was difficult to see how any but another conservative church leader would be elected following Pope Benedict's resignation.
Mr Madden recalled that when Pope Benedict was archbishop in Munich in 1980, a clerical abuser had been allowed to return to a parish before he was subsequently arrested and convicted for abusing children.
He wondered whether the College of Cardinals, whose job it was to elect a new Pope, would be able to identify a leader who did not have a "track record" of concealing sexual abuse of children.
It would be "hard to imagine" how a liberal pontiff would emerge, and Mr Madden said it would appear that Pope Benedict had appointed enough conservatives to the collegeover the years to ensure his successor would follow the same direction.
Irish Independent
