Posted on 04/29/2002 8:50:43 PM PDT by history_matters
Four men who say they were molested by a priest in the largest US Catholic community sued Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony for allegedly covering up sexual abuse by clergymen for years.
The lawsuits claim the cardinal and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles effectively conspired to protect priests through racketeering, negligence and fraud.
The alleged victims filed two lawsuits with the Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming they were misled about the fate of priest who allegedly molested them in the 1960s while he was allowed to continue ministering.
"We would not be here today if I was not lied to in 1991 by Cardinal Mahony," said Andy Cicchillo, one of the four.
The 46-year-old, who is suing along with his brother Joseph and two unidentified men, said he outlined the alleged abuse, which he says began when he was just seven, in a 1991 letter to Mahony.
But instead of removing the priest from the church as he promised to do, the cardinal instead transferred him to another ministry and took no action until earlier this year, the lawsuit claims.
The priest was forced into retirement and reported to police earlier this year following a complaint against him.
Mahony "engaged in a pattern of concealment, deception, obstruction of judicial process and the protection of pedophile priests," the plaintiffs' attorney Jeffrey Anderson said. "And he has done that for years."
The latest court action comes as the Roman Catholic church battles to control a snowballing priestly sex abuse scandal which prompted Pope John Paul II to summon 12 of his US cardinals to the Vatican last week.
The emergency meeting resulted in a much-criticized "zero tolerance" policy to handle future, but not past, sex-abuse complaints against priests.
The two new lawsuits each seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages against the cardinal and the church as well as costs.
The plaintiffs, together with a group of abuse survivors, had planned to try to personally serve the lawsuits on Mahony.
But the 66-year-old cardinal was hospitalized late Sunday suffering from a blood clot in his lung following his return from Rome, the archdiocese said in a statement. He is expected to be kept there for several days, the statement said.
Mahony was at the centre of a controversy earlier this year after he sacked or retired seven priests accused of child abuse -- including the man accused in Monday's lawsuits -- but refused to divulge their identities.
His silent and low-key approach to the growing global scandal sparked public anger and concerns that some abuse cases were covered up.
In March, Mahony apologized for the "sinful and deplorable" actions of priests who molested children, saying that the Church and the priesthood were being "purified."
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