Posted on 02/01/2013 7:10:16 AM PST by marshmallow
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cardinal Roger Mahony, who retired with a tainted career after dodging criminal charges over how he handled pedophile priests, was stripped of duties by his successor as a judge ordered confidential church personnel files released.
The unprecedented move by Archbishop Jose Gomez came less than two weeks after other long-secret priest personnel records showed how Mahony worked with top aides to protect the Roman Catholic church from the engulfing scandal.
One of those aides, Monsignor Thomas Curry stepped down Thursday as auxiliary bishop in the Los Angeles archdiocese's Santa Barbara region. Gomez said Mahony, 76, would no longer have administrative or public duties in the diocese.
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading," Gomez said in a statement, referring to 12,000 pages of files posted online by the church Thursday night just hours after a judge's order. "The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children."
The fallout was highly unusual and marks a dramatic shift from the days when members of the church hierarchy emerged largely unscathed despite the roles they played in covering up clergy sex abuse, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.
"It's quite extraordinary. I don't think anything like this has happened before," Reese said. "It's showing that there are consequences now to mismanaging the sex abuse crisis."
Several of the documents released late Thursday echo recurring themes that emerged over the past decade in dioceses nationwide, where church leaders moved problem priests between parishes and didn't call the police.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
30 years too late.
30 years late, but never TOO late.
“In one instance, a draft of a plan with Mahony’s name on it calls for sending a molester priest to his native Spain for a minimum of seven years, paying him $400 a month and offering health insurance. In return, the cardinal would agree to write the Vatican and ask them to cancel his excommunication.”
In return?!? Why would you be bargaining with molesters in the first place? Besides, both the compensation package and the letter are for the benefit of the molester, meaning there is no quid pro quo, so what is this “in return” for?
It is about 250 years too late to turn him over to the secular arm. Say what you like about the Spanish Inquisition—it would have gotten to the bottom of this.
[Faithful Departed author Philip] Lawler points out that while less than five percent of American priests have been accused of sexual abuse, some two-thirds of our bishops were apparently complicit in cover-ups. The real scandal isn't the sick excesses of a few dozen pedophiles, or even the hundreds of priests who had affairs with teenage boys -- the bulk of abuse cases. No, according to Lawler, it is the malfeasance of wealthy, powerful, and evidently worldly men who fill the thrones -- but not the shoes -- of the apostles. In case after case, we read in their correspondence, in the records of their soulless, bureaucratic responses to victims of psychic torture and spiritual betrayal, these bishops' prime concern was to save the infrastructure, the bricks and mortar and mortgages. Ironically, their lack of a supernatural concern for souls is precisely what cost them so much money in the end.
-- from the thread Kneeling Before the World"The Dublin Archdiocese's preoccupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid-1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church and the preservation of its assets," said the report. "All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the state"....
-- from the thread Pope calls Irish church leaders to Vatican to discuss abuse report
If the InsideCatholic.com blog can be believed, two-thirds of all American bishops were complicit in covering up the immoral and illegal actions of 4% or fewer Catholic clergymen. All we can say with certainty is that 96+% - 105,302 Catholic clergymen - were never accused, yet 95 percent of all Catholic dioceses in the United States were impacted negatively. The numbers are more damning for the bishops then they are for the priests.
.... Alex Murphy, Sept. 29, 2009
You’ve got to love Archbishop Gomez. Slowly and surely he will clean up the mess in LA. He’s a quiet, yet thorough, person. I bet a lot of cleaning house has been going on — this just got the media’s attention.
That's a rhetorical question.
**Some church critics said Gomez’s actions, particularly against Mahony, amounted to a slap on the wrist as long as he remained a cardinal and a member of the powerful Vatican body that elects the Pope.**
I was wondering he Mahony would still be a member of the College of Cardinals.
Wow! Over a thousand comments at the site!
Mahony was also a big supporter of Illegal Alien Amnesty....so wonder how many illegal alien youths were pedophiled? Probably never know....but probably a big reason why Mahony supported Illegal Alienism
He should be in jail.
So is his replacement, Archbishop José Gómez:
Latino Bishops: Undocumented Immigrants Are Not Criminals [USCCB / Archbishop José Gómez]
Law threatens Church’s ministry [official statement by Catholic Archbishop Jose Gomez]
USCCB backs Alabama bishops’ efforts to reverse immigration law [Archbishop Gomez statement]
USCCB campaign urges parishes to pray, preach on behalf of DREAM Act
Defeat of DREAM Act only a temporary setback, says Archbishop Gomez
President's immigration reform speech a good sign,says US Conference Catholic Bishops migration dir
New L.A. Archbishop...Discusses Immigration & Hispanics In Church
Immigration Integration [Catholic Bishops Advocate for Humane Treatment of Illegal Immigrants]
Catholic bishop calls for new thinking on illegal immigration
How to Train Catholic Citizens to Elect Morally-Perverted Catholic Politicians
US Catholic Latino leaders meet with Vatican officials, discuss ‘Hispanic reality’
Bishops to the Left of Senate Dems on Immigration
Praying for immigration reform [Catholic "Immigration Mass" in Los Angeles, CA]
Jose Gomez, champion of illegal immigrants [2005 post]
You’ve got to love Archbishop Gomez.
That's the policy, or so I'm told.
At least there is no Catholic bashing going on this thread unlike other threads.
At least he is doing the needed house cleaning.
Rule One: "Rome" is the locus of all evil in the universe.
Rule Two: In case of doubt, see Rule One.
Conclusion: "Rome" must be destroyed. All else (even the truth) is irrelevant.
There are people on this forum whose behaviour can be understood by assuming that their beliefs are as outlined above. I cannot read their minds; I do not know what they think, or how they are motivated. BUT ... if I assume that they believe "Rule One", "Rule Two" and "Conclusion" above ... I find their behaviour to be explicable and predictable.
....And they forget that what took place in regards to child sex abuse took place in other places of worship and even in the schools as well.
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