[NYer]

With additional reporting by Alejandro Bermudez in Rome.

[NYer]

In his view, the most important thing Catholics can do now is to pray so that the Holy Spirit guides the cardinals in the upcoming papal election.

Ping!

[Alex Murphy]

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley listed clerical sex abuse, reforming the Church’s administration and Christian persecution as some of the issues he thinks the next Pope will have to tackle.

Nothing about the "Gay Mafia" inside the Vatican, though.

[Verginius Rufus]

I don't think a Capuchin has ever been elected pope (there have been Franciscan popes--the pope who suppressed the Jesuits in the 1700s was a Conventual Franciscan). Sean O'Malley was brought in to clean up the mess in Boston after Law resigned and apparently has been very aggressive in dealing with the scandal. He has also spoken out against Democratic politicians' support for abortion (but did attend Teddy's funeral).

I was talking yesterday to a permanent deacon who had met O'Malley when he was attending a seminary in western Massachusetts--he thought very highly of him.

[marshmallow]

“The new Pope will also need to face the sexual abuse crisis that is really worrying our people,” he stated in a March 4 interview with CNA.

What does that statement mean and entail? That no previous Pope has faced it? That previous Popes have avoided it?

It's the bishops who need to face the "sexual abuse crisis" because they're the ones who created it. The episcopacy needs to be cleaning up its own mess.

Church teaching on who may be admitted to the priesthood is clear; no homos. Americans in particular just thumbed their noses and laughed at this discipline and we've reaped the consequences. Now it's the Pope's responsibility to "face the sexual abuse crisis"??

The new Pope needs to read the riot act to the bishops because many still don't get it.

[Arthur McGowan]

A top priority of the new Pope should be getting a spine transplant for bishops like O’Malley, Dolan, and Wuerl, who love to slobber on powerful politicians—especially Obama—and who have not yet had the courage to declare that pro-abortion nominal Catholic politicians must not be given Communion.

[Heart-Rest]

I just heard on the Al Kresta radio show news a while ago that Cardinal Keith O'Brien from Scotland has just publicly reversed his denials he made just last week. (If that has been posted here already, I haven't seen it yet.)

I believe Pope Benedict XVI already began to put a great emphasis on cleaning up this serious problem, and many of the large number of Bishop replacements he made in the USA and around the world during his tenure reflected that.

It seems he put an exclamation point on those efforts by making Cardinal O'Brien step down right before the conclave.

(By the way, your tagline "Beware the man of a single book - St. Thomas Aquinas" is interesting, and was coined by someone who is certainly not a "Two-Book Tommy" either.)   :-)

[Salvation]

Cardinal O'Malley lists sex abuse, Curia reform as priorities
Old establishment cardinals hope for quick conclave
Cardinals Begin Pre-Conclave Meetings Amid Scandal
Lombardi: 12 Cardinal electors yet to arrive as 1st Congregation concludes
A ticket to vote for the first Latin-American Pope
Three candidates for Pope who are on few people's lists
Omens and portents and signs! OH MY! (minor earthquake near Castel Gandolfo)
‘Church changing big time,’ says Cardinal Dolan
Letter #30: The Next and the Last (media, papabili, Ganswein in tears)

Editorial: "Religious correspondents", "Vaticanists": don't know more about Conclave than us
During “Sede Vacante” what must priests say in the Eucharistic Prayer now that there is no Pope?
What is a [Catholic] Cardinal? A Basic Review of the College of Cardinals in History and Today
Benedict XVI's first night as Pope emeritus
Toward the Conclave. The Pressure on the Cardinals [Catholic Caucus]
Papal Apartments, Basilica Sealed for Sede Vacante
Update on Conclave Start Date
Cardinal Dolan: Pope Benedict 'fragile' on last day of papacy (good handling of msm)
Prayer for the Election of a New Pope
Interregnum Terms and Expressions, Q and A Format (Nuts & Bolts-current situation) [Catholic Caucus]