You can ALWAYS depend on The Roman Catholic Church -- baby rapers then, now, and (it appears) always

Philadelphia's Catholic cardinal retires amid scandal


PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Tuesday it had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Justin Rigali, whose leadership of Philadelphia's Roman Catholic archdiocese has been tainted by a scandal over sexual misconduct by priests.

The archdiocese, the sixth largest in the United States with 1.5 million Catholics, has been under fire over accusations it concealed the sexual abuse of children by priests to try to avoid a costly scandal.

The Vatican said in a statement it had accepted the resignation of Rigali, 76, but made no direct comment on the affair. The Vatican said the Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput, had been named as his successor.

The Catholic Church has been rocked by a series of sexual abuse cover-up scandals in both Europe and the United States in recent years.

Rigali, archbishop in Philadelphia since 2003, has been struggling to contain the pedophilia scandal in the wake of a Philadelphia grand jury report issued at the beginning of this year. Three priests, a monsignor and a church teacher were indicted as a result of the report.

"We would have assumed," said the grand jury in a report, "by the year 2011, after all the revelations both here and around the world, that the church would not risk its youth by leaving them in the presence of priests subject to substantial evidence of abuse. That is not the case."

The grand jury said that it found 37 such priests who had been kept in assignments that exposed them to children.

Of that number, 21 were suspended after the report, and three more were placed on administrative leave.

Chaput had served as Denver's archbishop since 1997. Chaput is an American Indian who follows two Italian-Americans who have led the Philadelphia archdiocese for decades.