A Chicago paper reported over the weekend that VOTF has written a letter to all U.S. bishops asking them to prevent Cardinal Francis George from becoming USCCB president.

Cardinal George is now vice-president of USCCB, and thus poised to assume the presidency.

The Daily Southtown reported that the letter to the bishops said, "We respectfully request that you ask Cardinal George to step aside so that a bishop with a track record of protecting children may be elected."

VOTF has not, as of this writing, posted the full text of its letter to the bishops on its Web site. Neither has the Archdiocese of Chicago, though the paper did note that an archdiocesan spokesperson said that there were errors in VOTF's letter to the bishops.

This is not the first time VOTF has criticized Cardinal George and called for him to step down, at least temporarily, from a governing position in the USCCB. VOTF issued statements in February and March, 2006, over what it saw as Cardinal George's failure to promptly remove Fr. Daniel McCormack from a Chicago school. Grant Gallicho covered that story on our blog in March.

McCormack plead guilty to molesting boys at the school where he taught this summer.

Linkable, complete information about this latest VOTF-Cardinal George showdown seems sketchy.

Is it possible to say something more than "talk is cheap" against the way Cardinal George dealt with reports about McCormack (Cardinal George later apologized for the way he handled the situation)?

Is it possible to do more than accuse VOTF of using abuse as a handy straw man to oust conservative bishops (VOTF calls its position "centrist")?

I'm sure it is possible. Perhaps those more in the know can enlighten us.