Cardinal Disinvited to Latin Mass at DC Basilica

(April 22) -- The nation's largest Catholic church has disinvited a former Vatican official from the first traditional Latin Mass in nearly 45 years because the cardinal once praised a bishop for failing to report a pedophile priest.

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos was to deliver the elaborate mass on Saturday at the Basilica in Washington, D.C. in honor of the fifth anniversary of the pope's inauguration, but advocacy groups for victims of the church's sex abuse scandal protested the appearance. And Wednesday, the Paulus Institute, the conservative Catholic group hosting the event, revoked the cardinal's invitation.

"It becomes the center of attention, when the center of attention should be at the main altar," Paul King, president of the Paulus Institute, told The New York Times.

Castrillon formerly headed the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy. The French press reported last week that he wrote a letter to French Bishop Pierre Pican in 2001, praising him for not reporting to police a priest who had sexually assaulted children, even though French law required him to do so.

"I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration," Castrillon wrote, after Pican was convicted of failing to report sex crimes against children. "You have acted well, and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest."

The priest, the Rev. Rene Bissey, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for repeatedly raping a boy and for sexually assaulting 10 other children. On Saturday, Castrillon said that Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, approved of his letter and instructed him to send copies to bishops worldwide.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) argued that Cardinal Hoyos should be replaced for the Mass, and his remarks should be condemned. The group's leaders wrote a letter this week to Pope Benedict XVI and Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl explaining their position.

"Ideally, the pope should tell him to stay home and ultimately discipline him for his recklessness. Or the archbishop should forbid the cardinal from coming. Or the cardinal himself should, as a sign of remorse, voluntarily withdraw," SNAP director David Clohessy told AOL News in a telephone interview today.

"Essentially, his presence sends a terribly chilling message to victims," Clohessy said.

The Washington Post reported on the controversy today, noting that leaders of the Paulus Institute watched in dread as the reports came out. They had invited Castrillon to lead the event more than a year ago.

"All we wanted to do is promote sacred liturgy," Paul King, president of the Paulus Institute, told the newspaper. "The reason we invited him is it's a complicated Mass. There aren't a whole lot of bishops who can say it and are available."

King told the Post that it initially seemed like the event was blessed -- they picked April 24, 2010, because scheduling conflicts made it impossible to hold the event at the basilica in 2008 or 2009, and it was only weeks later that they realized it coincided with the fifth anniversary of Benedict's inauguration.

"It seemed like even the date was selected by God. It was like God himself was blessing our Mass," King said. But now, he said: "We've perceived things that are obviously the work of the devil. ... The disruption of this Mass by protesters, for example, is not something we invited."

The service, officially called a "Pontifical Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form," will involve about three dozen priests, three choirs, torchbearers, Gregorian chants and 16th century music. In the January news release announcing the event, the Paulus Institute noted: "All Catholics are invited, many of whom may never have another opportunity to attend such a Mass."

Earlier this week, Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington, told AOL News that the archdiocese could not intervene because the Mass was planned by an independent organization and, as a cardinal, Castrillon is authorized to celebrate Mass anywhere without the permission of the bishop. The Paulus Institute, an organization formed to preserve older forms of Catholic worship, is not connected with the archdiocese, she noted.

"This is a Mass that's been in the works by the Paulus Institute for well over a year," Gibbs told AOL News.

"We're sort of in an awkward position," she added, noting that Castrillon has "universal faculties" to celebrate Mass. She said the archbishop will not attend the Mass because he will be returning from a trip to Atlanta.

But SNAP director Clohessy told AOL News that Wuerl could intervene if he felt it was the right thing to do.

"If a liberal Jesuit announced he was coming into the Washington archdiocese to lobby against the death penalty or for abortion, the archbishop wouldn't pretend to be powerless and uninvolved," Clohessy said. "At the very least, he would issue a statement saying the archdiocese disagreed."