Cardinal Roger Mahoney passed the crosier, the crooked
staff, to Archbishop Jose Gomez on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at Our Lady of the
Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles. Cardinal Mahoney thereby transferred
leadership of the largest Catholic diocese in America, 4.3 million Catholics,
on his 75th birthday.
Archbishop Gomez on Thursday, January 31, 2013 notified
Cardinal Mahoney that he will no longer have administrative or public duties in
the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The Church had released a few hours earlier about 12,000
pages of documents concerning the handling of clergy abuse cases by 122 accused
priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. These documents laid out a sordid tale
of clergy abuse, a coverup by Cardinal Mahoney and his Vicar for Clergy,
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, and unconcern for the victims.
The documents were required to be disclosed pursuant to the
terms of a 2007 settlement in which the diocese settled 508 cases for $660
million. Even then the Cardinal and his attorneys stalled, hoping at least to
redact the names of the Church officials involved in the coverup. Judge Emilie
Elias ordered the release by February 22 and Archbishop Gomez complied before
the judicial deadline.
Archbishop Gomez came from Texas so he is in a position to
put the scandal behind him; the Church can move forward.
It is assumed that Archbishop Gomez would not have publicly
stripped the Cardinal of his duties without the concurrence of the Vatican.
This act is believed to be unprecedented in the history of the Church in
America.
I will now say what I’ve wanted to say for years in
following the scandal. The Cardinal should be defrocked for his conduct.
Archbishop Gomez called these files “brutal and painful
reading.” He called the behavior “terribly sad and evil,” adding “There is no
excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children.”
The Boston and Los Angeles dioceses seem to be the most
egregious with these cases, shuffling priests from parish to parish, sending
them to other dioceses without warning the receiving diocese, assigning them to
elementary schools, and covering up.
Cardinal Bernard Law, the Archbishop of Boston, was forced
to resign in 2002, but the Vatican gave him a cushy position in Rome.
Cardinal Mahoney survived, perhaps because of his 25 year record
as Archbishop of Los Angeles. He worked with Cesar Chavez, fought for immigrant
rights, union rights, women’s tights, the living wage and economic justice He
was against capital punishment. He built the beautiful, new cathedral. He even
compared Arizona’s passage of S.B. 1070 to Nazi Germany.
History though will remember him for sullying his record by
protecting clergy abuse. The documents clearly show he was engaged in a
conspiracy to obstruct justice. A June 2010 release from the LA DA’s Office
found information suggesting “criminal culpability” in the Church hierarchy, but
insufficient evidence to bring charges against the Church officials involved.
The newly released documents provide clear evidence for such
charges, unless the statute of limitations has run. It may not because of the
doctrine of fraudulent concealment, but even then a prosecutor will be leery of
bringing charges against a Cardinal, a Prince of the Church.
One of the major crimes involved is the failure to notify
the authorities of child abuse. John Manly, a plaintiff’s attorney, asked the
Cardinal in a deposition “[Y]ou would agree with me that the first thing any
priest should do … when you learn that a priest has molested a child is call
the police, right?”
The Cardinal’s response was “Not necessarily.” He didn’t
contact the authorities in reports of clergy abuse. Nor did he even try to
contact the victims in many cases. In one case a warning was given to a priest,
who immediately fled, presumably to Mexico.
The doping conspiracy by Lance Armstrong may have duped the
world, but it did not physically harm an innocent victim. The conduct of
Cardinal Mahoney perpetuated the rape of young boys by the priests under his
liege in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Many of the victims were immigrants,
for whom he expressed his support.
Cardinal Mahoney has publicly apologized for his mistakes,
but still doesn’t understand. He has said before, and repeated today in his blog,
that there was nothing in the course materials covering this situation in the
two years he worked on a Masters in Social Work at Catholic University.
One must assume that he would have understood that rape was
illegal. Hence, why should he believe that pedophiles could be cured through prayer
and renewed faith at a retreat house in New Mexico.
The Church acted as if it was blindsided by the wave of
clergy abuse revealed in the past 20 years. This wave was but the third in a
series going back to the 1950’s. The reality is that the Church had not learned
from the earlier cases. Only the widespread publicity, but especially the
billions of dollars in earthy settlements, has converted, we believe, today’s
Church into a zero tolerance policy.
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