The two frontrunner’s to replace Pope Francis have been accused of mishandling child sexual abuse claims.
Italian cardinal Pietro Parolin and Filipino cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle cannot be trusted to protect children from abuse, according to a campaign group.
The American watchdog Bishop Accountability claims the pair withheld incriminating church records, making them unfit to tackle the issue, which is one of the top challenges facing the Catholic Church today.
Cardinals will travel from across the globe to vote for the next pontiff in the conclave starting on Wednesday.
Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of Bishop Accountability spoke to a press conference just outside the Vatican walls on Friday.
She said: ‘If Cardinal Parolin becomes pope, we will have a consummate secret-keeper running the Catholic Church, and I think any hope of transparency around sex abuse will be dashed completely.’
‘No church official in the world has withheld as many documents about abuse to civil authorities as Cardinal Parolin,’ added Doyle, whose group tracks information on such cases.
The two frontrunner’s to replace Pope Francis have been accused of mishandling child sexual abuse claims. Italian cardinal Pietro Parolin and Filipino cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, cannot be trusted to protect children from abuse, according to a campaign group. Pictured: Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, left, shows Pope Francis how to give the popular hand sign for ‘I love you’ at the Mall of Asia arena in Manila
The American watchdog Bishop Accountability claim the pair withheld incriminating church records, making them unfit to tackle the problem, which is one of the top challenges facing the Catholic Church today. Pictured: Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of Bishop Accountability spoke to a press conference just outside the Vatican walls on Friday. She said: ‘If Cardinal Parolin becomes pope we will have a consummate secret-keeper running the Catholic Church and I think any hope of transparency around sex abuse will be dashed completely’. Pictured: Cardinal Pietro Parolin leaves at the end of a mass for late Pope Francis
Doyle then went on to discuss the group’s findings on Tagle, the former Archbishop of Manila. She accused him of doing nothing to pull the church in the Philippines out of the ‘dark ages’ of abuse and noted that guidelines dealing with sexual abuse cases have not been published on the webpages of the Manila archdiocese nor the bishops’. Pictured: Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle attends the Fifth Novemdiale Mass
She argued that all requests for information about priests from other countries who were accused of abuse have gone through Parolin’s office since 2013, while he has been the Vatican’s secretary of state, and were often blocked.
Doyle cited numerous examples of ‘obstruction of justice’ around the world, including Chile, Britain and Poland, for which she called Parolin ultimately responsible.
In one example, a four-year investigation begun in 2013 by a royal commission in Australia counted 4,400 abused children and 1,100 clerics.
She said that when asked for documents, the Vatican produced files on just two priests.
When a British abuse commission asked in 2018 and 2019 for information about cases in the English Benedictine Congregation, ‘Cardinal Parolin refused, saying that the Holy See [the central governing body of the Church] did not exercise jurisdiction over individuals and institutions outside the Vatican’, Doyle said.
Doyle then discussed the group’s findings on Tagle, the former Archbishop of Manila.
She accused him of doing nothing to pull the church in the Philippines out of the ‘dark ages’ of abuse and noted that guidelines dealing with sexual abuse cases have not been published on the webpages of the Manila archdiocese nor the bishops’.
On Saturday evening the Philippines’ governing body of Catholic bishops issued a rare statement on clerical sexual abuse, defending Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle on the issue days before the process to elect a new pope gets underway
Doyle said Parolin and Tagle were only two cardinals among many who had not done enough to stop abuse. When asked if any contenders met her approval, she said only bishops in the United States were ‘accustomed’ to name abusers and banish them from the church
Pictured: Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, walks after kissing the cross during the Good Friday Passion of the Lord service in Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, April 18, 2025
‘If Cardinal Tagle cannot even get his brother bishops from his home country to publish guidelines, what on earth can we expect for him to achieve as pope of a global church?’ asked Doyle.
On Saturday evening the Philippines’ governing body of Catholic bishops issued a rare statement on clerical sexual abuse, defending Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle on the issue days before the process to elect a new pope gets underway.
The statement reads: ‘Addressing allegations of misconduct by clergy rests with the respective diocesan bishops or religious superiors’ and not with Tagle.
‘Since his appointment to a full-time position in the Roman Curia, Cardinal Tagle no longer holds direct authority over any diocese in the Philippines.’
It also noted the key role Tagle – who served as archbishop of Manila between 2011 and 2019 – had played in crafting pastoral guidelines on sexual abuse that were disseminated in 2003.
Doyle said Parolin and Tagle were only two cardinals among many who had not done enough to stop abuse.
When asked if any contenders met her approval, she said only bishops in the United States were ‘accustomed’ to name abusers and banish them from the church.
