.
“This week’s revelations of deliberate efforts by [Los Angeles Cardinal] Mahony and others to shield abusers from law enforcement authorities are deplorable yet entirely unsurprising. It all fits the M.O. that’s was in place at least through the 1980s:
“Conceal the church’s dirty secrets at all costs. Don’t notify the police when abuse is reported. Keep prosecutors at bay with legal challenges. Avoid reforms until public pressure mounts. And, when all else fails, have Mahony issue a carefully scripted ‘apology.’
“His latest was perhaps his most odious and offensive, with Mahony saying he didn’t fully appreciate the hell victims had been put through until many years later.
“You need years of reflection to realize that the rape, abuse, betrayal and psychological exploitation of children by their spiritual leaders is both devastating and unconscionable?”
This is how Steve Lopez, LA Times columnist, describes the outrage of the recently released documents in a current legal proceeding against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by a victim of a priest.
SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, describes the relevance of these documents:
“Because of one survivor’s fight in the California Civil Courts against Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, never seen before documents containing vital evidence of how clergy abuse cases were handled by the Archdiocese are now available for public view.
Portions of the thousands of documents filed in this case are posted on the web site www.abusedinsocal.com. The documents, which were not a part of the documents involved in the 2007 settlements with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, demonstrate that former Archbishop and now Cardinal Roger Mahoney knew from his first days in office that priests under his supervision were sexually abusing children in Los Angeles.
The documents further demonstrate that contrary to Mahony’s past claims, he was intimately involved in handling the sex abuse scandal of priests in Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011 and communicated directly with priest perpetrators and their therapists–just as his predecessors McIntrye and Manning had done before him.
Also included in the documents is evidence that as Archbishop, Mahony worked with his Vicar for Clergy to thwart law enforcement involvement by ordering Pastors to not give Altar Boy lists to LAPD detectives, while at the same time, cozying up to high ranking officers at LAPD Juvenile Division.
And finally, even though Mahony and his Vicars for Clergy were aware of the crimes of the priests, the names of the children, and the names of the families; he did not call law enforcement or child protective services but offered counseling in order to keep his perceived enemies closer.
Mahony, the first native Angeleno to be created Cardinal, now holds the title of Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles.”
A local testimony of this horrible practice was shared by Matthew Carrigan, on July 2012
“…Words really can’t describe what you did to me. The abuse you subjected me to has ripped me apart. Here I stand at 39 years old still trying to heal and piece my life together. I can not ask why you did it, because you’d never be able to answer that question. I wouldn’t want to hear your sick and twisted spin on it like you gave your parishioners . I can not call you a man of god. You are nothing more than a demented monster. A monster that hides under a religious organization who protects you and allows you to continue abusing children even after you have been accused. You stole from me my childhood, my innocence, my trust, my sense of being, my security, my education, my self worth, my sanity. The list goes on and on…”
The Cardinal should stand trial, don’t you think so?
References:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0123-lopez-mahony-20130123,0,2185624.column
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/07/timothy_raemakers_corpus_christi.php
http://theworthyadversary.com/author/jcasteix
http://ianmasters.com/ January 22 interview of Joelle Casteix a spokesperson for SNAP, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Matt Cunningham etc. etc.
Greg, the statute of limitations on criminal charges is a well-known hurdle at this point, but is there a shot at a civil trial at this point?
It’s out of my area, but I do know an expert if anyone actually needs an answer.
I’m less interested in the argument that Cardinal Mahoney should stand trial than in the argument that Cardinal Mahoney should not stand trial. The default should be that yes, he should stand trial; it’s incumbent on those who disagree to explain affirmatively why he should be an exception. I’ll look forward to hearing those arguments.
But Matt Cunningham is tapping his foot, whistling, looking up at the ceiling, and thinking, “Restrain yourself, nobody’s paying you to do this yet.”
Payment will be Eternal Salvation. Fidei Defensor.
Fair enough. What’s the charge, Dr. D?
Not that I’m going to make the argument, but in the interest of sparking one, perhaps the request should be specific.
I would think there would be multiple charges…charges like child endangerment, obstruction of justice, perjury, conspiracy, etc.
The Monsignor and then-Archbishop Mahony also violated their legal obligations as ordained clergy and their priestly offices. Its my understanding of common law that ordained ministers, like psychologists/psychiatrists, must report people who confess to criminal activity even in a confessional.
While the privacy of the confessional is sacrosanct, it is no protection from the legal system. They knew these people were criminals yet reported nothing to anyone. They violated their priestly office when they allowed priests whom they knew to be criminals to skulk out of the state. The Roman Catholic Church itself should excommunicate them for their failures.
So, a church that will swiftly condemn you to eternal perdition for having sex before marriage rewards pedophile priests with a free ticket out of town? I’ve seen war criminals at Nuremberg express more sincere remorse than Mahony.
Anyone who in any way decides to enable, cover up, or help a perp escape justice should be charged. There is NO way in the world that either society or the church should tolerate the kind of behavior that has been demonstrated by individuals and the church. I sure as hell don’t need “years of reflection” to figure that out!
I don’t care about the bogus arguments of forgiveness. God can forgive them if he so chooses, society can not, should not and should go after the church under RICO statutes as well as civil monetary penalties and all of the individuals involved, to whatever extent available. While unsuccessful in Cleveland I think it’s a little different in the LA cases. If nothing else it would certainly send a strong signal to the Vatican that it will not be tolerated anymore.
WE should demand that federal prosecutors do their jobs and protect all our children from known dangers. At the very least make the attempt and bring this serious and continuing problem out in the open so that everyone can be informed of what the Vatican has tolerated, covered up and facilitated by their lack of action on one hand and demonic actions on another level.
I am SO disgusted with the entire molestation mess inside the Catholic church, I can hardly keep my words civil. This is such a blatant disregard for what the church openly espouses and then privately engages in. Oh the hypocrisy! It’s time to ask the Catholic church, What would Jesus do? Well…?
Even criminals in prison know what to do with child molesters, is the criminal justice system or the church so blind that they don’t?
As a survivor of priest rape and torture I guess I can only say that the RCC cannot even keep their words in their own Catechism:
“Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for live. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still is the rape of children committed by parents (incest) or those responsible for the education of children entrusted to them.” (no. 2356)
But this was proven false to me when Cardinal Timothy Dolan, another of the Pedophile Pimps of the RCC after saying to New York he felt betrayed they passed a same sex marriage law, attacked the legislators who wanted to end the one year statue of limitations against child rape by stating:
Dolan also explained that he wanted to keep the statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims to one-year, because if the church gets sued, “The perpetrators don’t suffer. There’s no burden on them. What suffers are the services and the ministries of the apostolates that we’re doing now. Because where does the money come from? So the bishops of 30 years ago that allegedly may have reassigned abusers, they don’t suffer. They’re dead. So the people that suffer are those who are being served right now by the church. We feel that’s a terribly unjust burden.”
So as a survivor of priest rape and torture I have made it my mission since coming out of the priest abuse closet to do all I can to expose this evil and make the perpetrators pay for their crimes against us children.
I have also asked the parishioners of the Roman Catholic Church one question I would love answered above all others. Why do they call this Pope, his Cardinals and his Bishops holy, worthy of heaven, blessed knowing that these scum covered up the rapes of their own children, yet have the unmitigated gall to say people like me, who walked away from this religion for good reason and rejects their god and jesus christ, are bound for hell and that we should stop attacking their beloved church and their pope and leaders.
*Sadly, unless Mahoney uploads the photos to his Facebook page…..there probably isn’t much chance that he is going anywhere.
Time in grade……..prior service and all that stuff…ya know?
At least Mahony has been removed from public church duties:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/01/cardinal-mahony-stripped-of-public-church-duties-amid-priest-abuse-.html
I heard a KNX news radio report today that the Catholic church is, with the help of a consultant, scoping out a fund raising campaign with a target of $200 million, the money to be used to replenish the hole left by the payment of settlements to sexual abuse victims. Given this sorid sexual abuse history, and the availablility of tens of millions of dollars to buy the Crystal Cathedral, why would the flock contribute money to such a fund raising campaign? A good way to communicate the unacceptability of the behavior of priests and other in this sexual abuse controversey, including the stonewalling and cover up, would be for loyal Catholics to refuse to contribute to any such campaign, it seems to me.
It’s tempting to express our displeasure instead by burning down the Crystal Cathedral.
As your pretend attorney I pretend advise against that.
Glass melts at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and doesn’t really burn.
Abused Altar Boys throwing rocks might be a better way to go.