"Sein Kampf" Cardinal Schönborn's "brave" struggle: Guardian Op-Ed

The supposed chastisement of the Cardinal leaves Christa Pongratz-Lippitt feeling upbeat. Indeed, the Cardinal's mouthpiece managed to make statements which pointed out that he did not retract any of the statements he made, particularly the one where he said: "an enduring same-sex union is preferable to a series of encounters," telling the journalists that “a stable relationship is certainly better than if someone simply indulges in promiscuity.”

Would any other cardinal but Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, have joined protesters against clerical sexual abuse in a reconciliation service in his own cathedral and spoken as he did – a service with the motto: "I am furious, God"?

Schönborn began by reading out a long and dramatic admission of the Church's guilt. He thanked the abuse victims for breaking their silence and said that abuse in the Church was particularly serious, because it defiled God's holy name. The Church must "get off its high horse", which was without doubt a painful process, he said, "but what is that pain compared to the victims' pain which we overlooked and did not hear?"

A month later, at a press briefing, Schönborn said that in meeting accusations from the general public that abuse cases had been hushed up, the Vatican had reacted "rather clumsily". He was remarkably outspoken about one of the most senior cardinals in the Catholic Church, Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State under Pope John Paul II and now dean of the College of Cardinals, who on Easter Sunday in the Pope's presence had called the reports of clerical sexual abuse "petty gossip".

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