The relationship between papal power in the church and the political power of the state has been defined for centuries by diplomacy, foreign policy, revolutions, and parliaments. Now, because of the sexual-abuse crisis, it is being redefined by the criminal-justice system of the secular state.
The convictions of Cardinal George Pell by an Australian tribunal for crimes of sexual abuse against minors, and of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin by a French tribunal for failing to report an abusive priest, together mark a new chapter in the relations between church and state. Imagine there were to be a conclave in the near future. It could be the first conclave in modern history where at least one of the voting members of the College of Cardinals was unable to vote because he was behind bars (Barbarin remains free during the appeal process). The nearest precedent is the case of Cardinal József Mindszenty of Hungary, which was quite different: Mindszenty was unable to attend the conclaves of 1958 and 1963 because he had taken refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest. Mindszenty had been arrested by the Hungarian Communist regime for political reasons, not common crimes. Other examples come to mind: Napoleon taking Pope Pius VII prisoner between 1809 and 1814; the archbishop of Cologne, Clemens August von Droste-Vischering, arrested by the Prussian government in 1837; the many bishops who spent years or decades in the prisons of Communist regimes, for example in Ukraine, China, and Vietnam. All these cases were obviously very different from those of Cardinals Pell and Barbarin, whatever one thinks of the verdicts against them.
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