The whiff ofscandal involving Cardinal Mahony and a separate case involving Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien is overshadowing the transition period to the next papacy, the BBC's David Willey in Rome says.
Barely a week goes by without a report on the latest national food safety scandal or caseof illegal pollution in both traditional and social media, with such reports often followed by government investigations.
The long-running scandal over a fen-phen case gone awry has already destroyed the careers of at least three lawyers as well as the Kentucky judge who oversaw the original lawsuit.