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VATICAN CITY (AFP) February 25, 2013 5:09:19 AM EST

$\"Maltese$

Andreas Solaro/AFP/File

Maltese bishop Charles Scicluna of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith speaks to the press on February 3, 2012 in Rome. Cardinals suspected of having protected predator priests should be allowed to take part in next month\’s papal conclave, the Vatican\’s former prosecutor on child sex abuse cases said Monday.

Cardinals suspected of having protected predator priests should be allowed to take part in next month\’s papal conclave, the Vatican\’s former prosecutor on child sex abuse cases said Monday.

Amid mounting criticism over the presence of such cardinals, notably Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, among the men who will choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, Monsignor Charles Scicluna said they had kept quiet \”out of fear of scandal\”.

Citing canon law, he said the cardinals \”have the right and duty\” to vote in the conclave.

\”Wisdom is not (God)-given just to saints but also to sinners,\” said Scicluna, who was in charge of Vatican efforts to combat the scourge of predator priests before his promotion to auxiliary bishop of Malta in 2012.

\”Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,\” he told the Italian daily La Stampa in an interview published Monday.

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