Cardinal being replaced as celebrant of Latin Mass in D.C.

A controversial cardinal who was scheduled to deliver an elaborate Latin Mass this weekend in Washington at one of the nation's most prominent Catholic churches is being replaced after clergy sex-abuse victims and activists expressed outrage at his invitation to the event.

In a statement posted Wednesday on a Web site for the event, organizers said they and Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos have agreed that another official should lead the Mass on Saturday because of recent reports that Castrillón, of Colombia, once praised a French bishop for not telling police about a priest who had sexually assaulted children.

Leaders of the Paulus Institute did not return calls for comment. But in their statement, they said the Mass will go on as planned at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. They explained their decision to replace Castrillón this way: "This action will help maintain the solemnity, reverence and beauty of the Mass. . . . The Traditional Latin Mass planned for April 24th honoring Pope Benedict on his five-year inauguration anniversary is a liturgical event much bigger than the individual celebrant."

Castrillón, the former head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy, has been hammered in the public arena since a 2001 letter he wrote to French Bishop Pierre Pican surfaced last week in French news reports. In it, he praised Pican for not reporting the pedophile priest to police, despite being mandated to do so under French law.

"I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration," Castrillón wrote, after Pican was convicted of failing to report child sex crimes. "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."

At the time the letter was written, the priest, the Rev. René Bissey, had been sentenced to 18 years in prison for repeatedly raping a boy and for sexually assaulting 10 other children. Castrillón later ignited another firestorm when he claimed that Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, not only approved of his letter but also instructed him to send copies to bishops worldwide.

The Paulus Institute, which was formed in 2007 to preserve older forms of worship, had spent three years planning for the unique Mass, which is conducted in Latin and involves eight other priests and several elaborate components. The institute's leaders said they invited Castrillón in 2008 because he has experience conducting such complicated masses. Organizers said they are now trying to find a high-ranking bishop to take Castrillón's place in time for Saturday's event.

A advocacy group for victims of clergy abuse praised the institute's decision to remove Castrillón from the Mass but criticized top church officials for not intervening. The group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, had sent letters Tuesday to Pope Benedict XVI and Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl, calling on them to condemn Castrill?n's remarks and replace him in the Mass.

"The Pope and D.C.'s archbishop had a chance to show true leadership," Barbara Dorris, SNAP's outreach director, said in a statement Tuesday. "Both, however, showed their true colors by once again refusing to take action about a corrupt colleague. We're disappointed that no church official on the planet . . . is brave enough to clearly denounce Castrillon-Hoyos' inexcusable recklessness."

Wuerl's office said that the archbishop supports the organizer's decision to replace Castrillón but that Wuerl did not get involved because the Paulus Institute does not report to the Washington Archdiocese.

"We were not the sponsors," said Susan Gibbs, Wuerl's spokeswoman. "And besides, cardinals have universal faculties; they can celebrate a Mass anywhere in the world they want. They don't seek approval from local bishops."

Wuerl cannot step in to take Castrillón's place because he will be at a fundraiser in Atlanta, Gibbs said.