Updated March 4, 2014
Read our new blog: Pope Francis the CON Christ. Pretender & Impostor of Jesus. Merlin hoax CANNOT CLONE JESUS or dogs http://pope-francis-con-christ.blogspot.ca/
Our latest related article about New Jersey "Bling" Bishop Myers http://pope-francis-con-christ.blogspot.ca/2014/02/new-jersey-bling-bishop-myers-wants-100.html
Updated February 19, 2014
Updated February 20, 2013
Judge Elias,
Goliath-bully Bill Donohue is a Vatican Catholic, not a Roman Catholic.
St. Joseph
If you live in Los Angeles and are planning a “pilgrimage” to the Oratory of St. Joseph, ponder on donating that money to the Red Cross or your local charity - or sponsor a poor student and pay for his or her school supplies and school lunch for a year instead of flying to Montreal to see the Oratory Beast - and God will listen more to your prayers in your act of mercy rather feeding the Vatican Mammon Beast or St. Joseph Oratory Mammon Beast copying the Vatican Titanic sinking in moral bankruptcy. http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/boycott-oratory-of-saint-joseph-candles.html
Vatican Goliath-bully Bill Donohue rattles like a snake as he attempts to attack and kill the NYT from his Octopus Dei tentacle Catholic League with this title all in caps: NEW YORK TIMES GETS MALICIOUS.
Vatican Goliath-bully Bill Donohue rattles like a snake as he attempts to attack and kill the NYT from his Octopus Dei tentacle Catholic League with this title all in caps: NEW YORK TIMES GETS MALICIOUS: “There is almost no sexual abuse being committed by priests in the U.S. Los Angeles Los Angeles Lincoln Hollywood Hollywood Hollywood can ever produced…and they claim to be more powerful magicians than Merlin and Harry Potter. Read here, The Nazis and the JP2 Army are in inherently evil all-male hierarchy born out of the Devil’s Bowels http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/
But that is what the Vatican wants - that those Cardinals, Bishops and Vicars who were accessories to pedophilia - to go invariably unpunished and glorified, read our related article, John Paul II deified Cardinal Bernard Law and Fr. Marcial Maciel , read http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ncaa-penn-state-more-moral-than-vatican.html
The entire 27 years papacy of John Paul II was controlled by Opus Dei and what mess they left behind for the Jesuit janitor Lombardi to clean up in public. So now, the Vatican Pied Piper news “Vatican Insider” came out with a clever title The Opus Dei and Benedict XVI’s “silent clean-up" operation, see news below.
Remember the historical cloned sheep Dolly? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep) It was the cream of the crop top team of scientists who cloned her.
ONE-MINUTE "CLONING of CHRIST" in the MASS Black Magic of God's flesh
Our comment: Transubstantiation or the Mass is a recent development . St. Peter and St. Paul and the Apostles never celebrated Mass and never “transubstantiated” the bread into the flesh of Christ, what they did was to preach about Christ. The Mass was a slow development from the 12th century through various liturgical reforms until the 20th century. It was only in 1215 at the Fourth Council of the Lateran that the Mass began to take form and in 1551 at the Council of Trent that transubstantiation became what it is today. The Vatican has come to use it as its main crux of power on earth deceiving Catholics and peoples of all faiths that only Popes and men-priests have the exclusive power to transubstantiate God’s flesh. Because of the Mass, the Vatican has gotten away with all kinds of heinous crimes, e.g. the Crusades, the Inquisition, the burning of women and witches http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006/11/john-paul-ii-revived-inquisition.html “For the sake of the Eucharist” and because of the shortage of priests, John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, the Opus Dei who controls the Vatican, the Cardinals and Bishops shuffled pedophile priests from one parish to another. The rest is history: the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army committed Holy ES Eucharist-and-Sodomy of Biblical proportions see the John Paul II Millstone http://jp2m.blogspot.com/.
No matter how we look at it, finite-man cannot create an infinite-God. Man can never create God’s flesh. Not in in-vitro fertilization of the scientific laboratories. Not in the sacred altars of holy Roman Catholic churches which by the way were the same pedophile altars of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army See the John Paul II Millstone http://jp2m.blogspot.com/
Rome, call us heretics and we don’t care because in Boston and in America, we have freedom of speech. It was our freedom of speech that got rid of criminal-Cardinal Bernard Law and sent him packing out of our sight and out of our land. But only you, Rome, you the Roman Catholic Church a.k.a. Magisterium would glorify criminals like Cardinal Bernard Law and John Paul II. No other American state has been able to replicate our courage as Bostonians who got rid of the first Cardinal caught guilty of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in America. Yes, we caught the first SS officer of the Third Reich of the Roman Catholic Church … but he went into glorious exile in Rome because only in the Catholic Church are criminals glorified See The John Paul II Millstone John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army expands into Ireland &John Paul is elevated as "Venerable"... only in the Catholic Church are criminals glorified http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/12/john-paul-ii-pedophile-priests-army.html
Benedict XVI, from the Chair of Peter, thinks his papal letter will heal the victims and solve the problem of clergy abuse in Ireland. The fact is, Benedict XVI’s words are powerless. NO POPE has ever healed anyone. As this picture shows,
\
They came sick and they left sick.
There is no "Apostolic" authority or succession here,
for no Pope has EVER been able to heal like Peter or Paul did.
The Hague: Full text Criminal Charges against Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/05/full-text-of-criminal-charges-against.html
John Paul II portrait by Danish artist http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2007/10/john-paul-ii-portrait-by-danish-artist.html
Rome's 3 GAY priests caught in video at gay clubs and having casual flings' http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/07/romes-3-gay-priests-caught-in-video-at.html
Benedict XVI is a mixed-up Pope. The Catholic Church is the safest haven for criminals http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html
Benedict XVI and Georg his GAY Private Secretary are GAYS.!. http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
Benedict XVI's fourth bite: mass excommunications of Catholic groups http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html
This post is prayerfully and compassionately dedicated to all suffering victims of the JP2 Army - John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army as commissioned by St. Michael the Archangel, read the vision of Paris Arrow on how St. Michael tied a giant millstone on the neck of JP2 in his last World Youth Day in Toronto http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2006_08_01_archive.html here
Updated February 6, 2013
Remember the historical cloned sheep Dolly? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep) It was the cream of the crop top team of scientists who cloned her. Well, the black magic holy words of a team of “holy priests” cannot clone Christ the Son God either, read about the Divine Trinity http://pope-ratz.blogspot.ca/2010/12/gay-trinity-of-father-son-and-holy
Vatican Deceits in Los Angeles
The cloning process that produced Dolly
http://www.youtube.com/embed/39BbcZVCx8I - video how they cloned Dolly
We are anti-Vatican abuse of Mary’s and Christ’s Name, using God’s Name for profit like the Oratory of St. Joseph uses Saint Brother Andre as their cash-cow, read here BOYCOTT Oratory http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/boycott-oratory-of-saint-joseph-candles.html
The
BOYCOTT Oratory of
See news updates for February 6, 2013 below.
Los Angeles CALIFORNIA
San Bernardino
CA- A new scapegoat
The media seems to have forgotten that Mahony is still a voting Cardinal and is eligible for the papacy until he is 80.
So Opus Dei is laughing at all the media prancing to the Vatican Pied Piper tune of Archbishop Gomez.
Do not forget that Archbishop Gomez resubmitted a proposal that would have redacted the names of Mahony and top church leaders from the documents and only provided the names of those officials in a generic cover sheet attached to the priest’s file. The church’s actions were nothing short of an attempt to delay justice and conceal the truth from the victims and the public”....up until the judgement of Judge Elias last Thursday.
February 1, 2013
Nazis and the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army were both an inherently evil all-male elite hierarchy born from the Devil's bowels - read our article here http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2011/01/nazis-and-john-paul-ii-pedophiles.html
We wrote her that she must reveal the whole truth like in the Bible and she did truly give us the - Bible of the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in Los Angeles, without withholding one single document back.
Thank you, Judge Elias, we are sure that Our Lady of Guadalupe is very pleased with what you did.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of Los Angeles, pray for us
Bible of JP2 Army
http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2008/07/letter-to-opus-dei-pope-john-paul-ii.html The names of the transferring or covering up Bishops and Cardinals are: Roll Call Please!
========================================================
Articles for February 3, 2013
CALIFORNIA
Fort Mill
SAN DIEGO
Last night, the Los Angeles Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church took two major actions: it released 12,000 documents relating to priests accused of child sexual abuse, and simultaneously announced Cardinal Roger Mahony had been relieved of his duties. Cardinal Mahony has been heavily criticized for his handling of sex-abuse charges against Church officials, and yesterday the Church also relieved his subordinate, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, the current Regional Bishop ofSanta Barbara
Irwin Zalkin, an attorney with The Zalkin Law Firm who has represented numerous victims of child sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests, and has been directly involved in the efforts to obtain public release of the documents from the Los Angeles Archdiocese responded to questions today about the news from the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
Q: What do you think of Cardinal Mahony’s demotion?
A: The demotion of Cardinal Mahony is nothing more or less than a public relations ploy. He is retired and not very involved with the public anyway. This man is a criminal aider and abetter of child sexual abuse and should be criminally accountable. Criminal prosecution against him is long overdue.
Q: What’s the history of these records and why are we hearing about them now?
A: In the summer of2007, a $660 million global settlement was reached between 508 victims of sexual abuse within the LA Archdiocese and several Catholic religious Orders. The settlement required the LA Archdiocese to release files on all priests who, over the last 50 years, had credible claims of sexual abuse made against them. While the settlement included a very clear process for identifying which records to make public, it has taken six years to get the LA Archdiocese to comply with that agreement. Finally, the world can know the whole truth about what they did to protect predator clergy members and the Church’s reputation at the expense of young innocent children.
Mahony the very rot at core of Church
CALIFORNIA
The Record
Diary of a Wimpy Catholic
February 2, 2013 By Max Lindenman
In the summer of 1945, following a three-week trial, a jury convicted Maréchal Philippe Pétain of treason and sentenced him to death. The verdict excited controversy. Though, in four years asFrance Verdun Germany England
In Cardinal Roger Mahony’s record asLos Angeles
But Mahony’s record on curbing priestly sex abuse is abysmal. As memos exchanged by the future cardinal and Msgr. Thomas Curry reveal, Mahony effectively shielded three abusive priests from civil authorities. Each of the three priests faced multiple allegations from victims as young as 12. Mahony recognized that some of those allegations amounted to first-degree felonies. Yet when Curry’s plans to keep them out of the courts (and out of the papers) showed an ingenuity that verged on cunning, Mahony approved. After Fr. Michael Baker admitted privately to abusing young boys, Mahony wrote of Curry’s advice, that the information be concealed from psychiatrists, “sounds good — please proceed!”
Cardinal sins
KTAR
[HISTORICAL EVOLUTION of DEALING with the SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINORS - Cardinal Mahony Blogs LA]
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The public rebuke of retired Cardinal Roger Mahony for failing to take swift action against abusive priests adds tarnish to a career already overshadowed by the church sex abuse scandal but does little to change his role in the larger church.
Mahony can still act as a priest, keep his rank as cardinal and remain on a criticalVatican panel that elects the next pope.
While Archbishop Jose Gomez's decision to strip Mahony of his administrative and public duties was unprecedented in the American Roman Catholic Church, it was another attempt by the church to accept responsibility for the abuse scandal that has engulfed it.
Victims were quick to point out that Mahony's new, paired-down local standing was in stark contrast to his continued position among the prelates at theVatican
The decision "is little more than window dressing. Cardinal Mahony is still a very powerful prelate," Joelle Casteix, the Western regional director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said at a Friday news conference outside theLos Angeles Rome and still a very powerful man in Los Angeles
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on February 01, 2013
Headlines falsely claim that Mahony has been “banished” or “punished” or “outed.” That’s baloney. Listen to what knowledgeable Catholic staffers and journalists are saying about this.
From long time Mahony public relations flak Tod Tamberg:
“(Tamberg) said that beyond canceling his confirmation schedule, Mahony's day-to-day life as a retired priest would be largely unchanged. He resides at aNorth Hollywood parish, and Tamberg said he would remain a ‘priest in good standing.’ He can continue to celebrate Mass and will be eligible to vote for pope until he turns 80 two years from now, Tamberg said."
From noted Catholic blogger Rocco Palmo:
"While a sitting archbishop may make any request he wishes on the extent of his cardinal-predecessor's role and public presence, it technically has no bearing on anything whatsoever. By the provisions of canon law, the universal faculties granted every member of the College, or any limitation of them in specific instances, rest solely within the competence of the Holy See. Ergo, barring an explicit papal move restricting his de iure perks, Mahony retains his seat in a Conclave to elect the next Pope until his 80th birthday in 2016, and all the other prerogatives that come with the "red hat" for life.
Likewise, Curry's departure as regional bishop forSanta Barbara has no legal impact on his standing in active ministry – only the 70 year-old prelate's resignation submitted to Rome , and its acceptance by the Pope, can officially end his ministry as an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles
10 News
LOS ANGELES - One day after the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexual misconduct, victims of clergy abuse will push the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles Friday to continue investigating the problem.
The diocese on Thursday released files on more than 100 clergy members, and Archbishop Jose Gomez said his predecessor -- former Archbishop Roger Mahony -- will "no longer have any administrative or public duties." Meanwhile, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, Mahony's former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, stepped down asSanta Barbara
"We suggest that Bishop Gomez do more from here and not treat what happened yesterday as the end of the line on this," Joelle Casteix of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, told City News Service. "We want him to help support more police investigations into sexual abuse. For us, this is the beginning, not the end."
Casteix and other SNAP members and their supporters held news conference outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to discuss the issue, insisting that it was only through legal action and continued pressure by victims that the church finally took action.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 01, 2013
The brave and persistent survivors who fought to get these records uncovered and the truth made public deserve praise for their courage and constancy. We thank them for leading the fight to make the truth known about what Church officials inLos Angeles
Thanks are also due to their families who supported them and the advocates who helped them. Victims of abuse often need a good support system, and these families and advocates have provided a great one. We thank them deeply for their unwavering commitment to the victim that they supported.
There are four parts here: Gomez, Mahony, Curry and the files. . .
Archbishop Gomez refuses to act decisively to prevent future cover ups. There are three problems with his alleged 'restriction' of his predecessor.
First, his predecessor is already retired. Second, Catholic bishops have long claimed they'd 'restrict' wrongdoers - like child molesting clerics. But they rarely follow through. And third, this virtually meaningless move will likely have zero impact. It won't make a single Catholic official - now or in the future - to start acting with courage and compassion and honesty in clergy sex cases. It's like a band aid on cancer.
Los Angeles Times
By Paul Thornton
February 1, 2013
It didn't take too long for Friday's front-page story that Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez had relieved his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, of his public duties for readers to start filling up the morning mailbag. And it wasn't with letters praising Gomez for taking decisive action; to the contrary, the reaction has varied between "it's about time" and "too little, too late."
Letters written in response to the article will likely run in Sunday's paper, and they can also be viewed at latimes.com/letters. Here's what we have so far (and some of these submissions may make it onto Sunday's page).
Charles Fox ofHuntington Beach
"Let me see if I've got this right: Gomez becameL.A.
LA Observed
By Kevin Roderick | February 2, 2013
The two top editors of the Los Angeles Times sent the staff a memo on Friday afternoon giving kudos to the team that scurried to cover Thursday's late-breaking release of sexual abuse files by the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Reporter Harriet Ryan is their star of the story.
Subject: FW: Message from Davan Maharaj and Marc Duvoisin
To the staff:
Harriet Ryan was celebrating her birthday with her husband and daughter at a Mexican cantina onFourth Street
TheLos Angeles
And Archbishop Jose Gomez, expressing disgust at the “evil” conduct described in the files, had stripped his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public duties with the church.
Harriet did what any working mother would do while enjoying a rare night out with her family: She left the restaurant and headed straight for the newsroom.
There, she found Victoria Kim in a controlled frenzy of reporting, putting out calls and downloading the just-released files. Over the next few hours, Harriet and Vic, with help from a band of devoted colleagues, pulled together a remarkably complete, authoritative and flowing account of this latest astonishing turn in the church molestation scandal.
The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 2, 2013
Think of it this way:
Mahony’s punishment is tantamount to Archbishop Gomez taking away Mahony’s key to the Executive Washroom. Now this “prince of the church” has to use the public restroom like the rest of us mere (moral and ethical) peasants.
But hopefully, the damage to Mahony’s credibility will be permanent. In fact, I think he would look quite dashing in jailhouse orange.
The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 2, 2013
It looks as if theLA Archdiocese (in their rush to dump more than 12,000 pages of files after 5 years of legal haggling) has published the contact info for many of their accused clerics.
Did they mean to do this?
Redactions have been an issue for the Archdiocese, who is now getting pounded for redacting the names of low-level priests who covered up abuse. They also “FORGOT” to redact the names of a number of victims. I won’t tell you where those are, out of respect for those victims.
Wall Street Journal
By JENNIFER LEVITZ
The thicket of personnel files released Thursday night by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles showed that several of its priests accused of sexual abuse were sent to New Mexico in the mid-1980s for psychological treatment.
The Servants of Paraclete treatment center in Jemez Springs, N.M., about60 miles north of Albuquerque, served clergy who had problems such as alcoholism, emotional disorders, or, increasingly from the 1970s on, priests who had been accused of sexual abuse, said Thomas Plante, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University in California who researches sex-offending clergy.
Priests would stay for months in theNew Mexico
IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests
We want to join the ACP in support of Father Tony Flannery in the hope that his many years of dedicated faithful priestly ministry might be respected in the discussion with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
We are concerned about similar penalties imposed upon American priests such as Fr. Roy Bourgeois and Fr. Bill Brennan, S.J. Not all of our members may agree with the statements of these priests, but they deserve to be treated more compassionately byVatican officials. The fact that their penalties are more severe than those imposed upon bishops and priests involved in the recent paedophilia scandals certainly raises questions of fairness and justice.
We stand in solidarity with our brother priests in the sense of “Presbyterium Ordinis” from Vatican II and “Pastores Dabo Vobis” from Blessed Pope John Paul II, and we assure them of our prayerful support and remembrance in our Masses.
IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests
ACP Meeting with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and members of the Dublin Diocesan Council of Priests
Tuesday 29 January 2013, 2.30 – 4.15pm
Attendance:
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Gareth Byrne (chair of Council), Séamus Ahearne OSA, Peter O’Reilly, Ciaran McDermott (members of Council).
Brendan Hoban, PJ Madden, Tim Murphy, Arthur O’Neill, Gerry O’Hanlon SJ, Pádraig McCarthy (members of ACP).
Séamus Ahearne and Peter O’Reilly are also members of ACP.
Apologies from Auxiliary Bishops Éamonn Walsh and Ray Field.
The context of the meeting:
The ACP sought a meeting with the Episcopal Conference; the Conference proposed that a better way would be for meetings with the Councils of Priests in each diocese.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin welcomed all, and welcomed the opportunity for listening, with respect for difference, out of a shared love for the Church.
Gareth Byrne chaired the meeting, which opened with prayer.
The prepared agenda:
1. Vocations
2. Procedures for dealing with allegations against priests.
3. Impending new translation of Lectionary.
4. Pastoral implications of the current economic situation.
5. Role of priests in appointment of bishops.
6. Renewal of the Church in the Year of Faith.
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA
Friends in Christ,
This morning I sent this letter to Archbishop Jose H. Gomez giving the history and context of what we have been through since the mid-1980s. There is nothing confidential in my letter. I have been encouraged by others to publish it, so I am do so on my personal Blog. I hope you find it useful.
+ + + + +
February 1, 2013
Dear Archbishop Gomez:
In this letter I wish to outline briefly how the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and I responded to the evolving scandal of clergy sexual misconduct, especially involving minors.
Nothing in my own background or education equipped me to deal with this grave problem. In two years [1962—1964] spent in graduate school earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work, no textbook and no lecture ever referred to the sexual abuse of children. While there was some information dealing with child neglect, sexual abuse was never discussed.
Shortly after I was installed on September 5, 1985 I took steps to create an Office of the Vicar for the Clergy so that all our efforts in helping our priests could be located in one place. In the summer of 1986 I invited an attorney-friend fromStockton to address our priests during our annual retreat at St. John’s
During these intervening years a small number of cases did arise. I sought advice from several other Bishops across the country, including Cardinal John O’Connor ofNew York , Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago , and then Bishop Adam Maida of Green Bay
Los Angeles Times
February 1, 2013
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez's decision to relieve Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of all public duties over his mishandling of clergy sex abuse of children decades ago does not go far enough, some abuse victim advocates said Friday.
David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the massive volume of files on abuse that the archdiocese released Thursday evening "reveals the horrors in black and white that victims have known for so long.”
But Clohessy and other church critics said they believe Gomez's action does not go far enough, noting Mahony remains a cardinal in good standing in the church.
“Cardinal Mahony remains a man of power within the church despite all that he has done,” Clohessy said.
Miami
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- A clergy abuse victim group is not satisfied with actions taken by the Roman Catholic archbishop ofLos Angeles
Archbishop Jose Gomez late Thursday announced that his predecessor, Mahony, will no longer have any administrative or public duties.
Standing Friday in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, a regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called that "window dressing."
Joelle Casteix (KAS-tihks) says the move is only symbolic, and Mahony is still a powerful man inRome and Los Angeles
Wall Street Journal
By TAMARA AUDI, VAUHINI VARA and JIMCARLTON
LOS ANGELES—The 12,000 pages of personnel files released Thursday night by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles promised to shed light on the church hierarchy's response to decades of sexual-abuse allegations, though plaintiffs' lawyers and others said it could be days before they are able to fully explore the documents.
The documents were released after years of wrangling during which lawyers for the church repeatedly sought permission to redact the names of senior officials before making the papers public. ALos Angeles
Nationwide, the church has released thousands of pages of documents over the years relating to abuse, but lawyers and victims' advocates said theLos Angeles
A Good Measure
February 1, 2013 By Lisa M. Hendey
The news hit in a big way last night.
It wasn’t a surprise in any way. We know it’s been brewing for years, and what came out last night in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is simply another chapter in a tragedy that’s been unfolding before our eyes. If you’re one of the few who doesn’t know the details of Archbishop Gomez’ release of documents from the abuse scandals and his personal letter, Rocco’s got the best rundown I’ve seen. I’d encourage you to read the full letter by Archbishop Gomez and to look personally at the files released by the Archdiocese.
Catholic bloggers — and indeed anyone who calls themselves “Catholic” — are left to ponder what we can possibly add to the conversation, but more importantly how we pick up the pieces and serve the victims. For me, this tragedy hits home personally. I grew up in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and was educated in her Catholic schools. Along with reading the official statement, I spent the past hour reading the official file of a pedophile priest who served my family parish, someone who was indeed quite close to our family.
Of course this story is not a surprise to me — I’ve watched it play out over the years and end in multiple tragedies for several of the players involved. But reading the official documents, even with names redacted to protect the innocent and the victims, brought me a feeling of nausea so tangible that I had to finally close them and step away. I simply can’t fathom how the abused — those upon whom such horrible acts were perpetrated — must be feeling today. Surely there is a sense of vindication for them, and yet their tales of tragedy — opened fully for perhaps the first time and set on public display — must undoubtedly reopen terrible wounds that have been festering for such a very long time.
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez's decision to relieve his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, of all public duties over his mishandling of clergy sex abuse of children decades ago was met by both resignation and disbelief in churches across the region.
"I was hoping it wasn't true," 71-year-old Ann Gapas said outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels after a morning prayer Friday.
"Then I come here this morning and everything is so silent and the news vans are here. It's so sad."
The news of the sex scandals have been conflicting for Gapas, who stood outside the cathedral's doors in a sweater and jeans, holding a church newsletter.
Priests "are our role models and we respect them so much," Gapas said. "You always hope it's not true."
CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on February 01, 2013
Dear California SNAP member;
As you've likely heard, thousands of pages of long-secret church records about child molesting clerics and their corrupt colleagues are finally surfacing inLos Angeles
Make no mistake about it - this is a huge victory for innocent kids and wounded adults. And you deserve the credit!
Maybe you aren't one of the 500 LA survivors who sought justice in court. Maybe you weren't abused by an LA area priest, nun, seminarian, bishop, brother or other church employee. Maybe you aren't a victim (but a loved one or a caring parishioner). None of this matters.
What matters is that progress is being made. This accomplishment is due to you and to every single person inCalifornia
We thank you and we congratulate you.
End of news update for February 3, 2013
==================================================
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on January 23, 2013
It’s factually and morally wrong to assume that criminal charges can’t be brought against current and former top LA archdiocesan officials, especially with tens of thousands of church records about to be released.
We aren’t police, prosecutors or even lawyers. But for 25 years, we’ve seen – in the words of Martin Luther King – “the long arc of history bend toward justice.” We’ve seen secular authorities become increasingly assertive and creative and successful in pursuing sophisticated criminals.
Remember one simple fact and one simple adage:
Al Capone was nailed on tax evasion.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
The irresponsible assumption that Mahony, Curry and others can’t be prosecuted rests on another irresponsible assumption: that their behavior has changed. Can we be more reckless than to assume that these men - who have repeatedly done serious wrong for decades and have entirely escaped penalties – have magically, completely, and voluntarily reformed?
All the policies and panels and procedures and promises made by church officials don’t change one simple truth – Archbishop Gomez and Bishop Curry and others still have the ability, right now, to do exactly as they’ve done for decades in child sex cases.
LA Weekly
By Patrick Range McDonald
Wed., Jan. 23 2013
On the front page of this morning's Los Angeles Times, the paper notes that several legal experts suspect Cardinal Roger Mahony will not face criminal charges for covering up clergy sex abuse due to the statute of limitations. One advocacy group says those experts have it wrong.
"We aren't police, prosecutors or even lawyers," says David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), in a press statement today. "But for 25 years, we've seen, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., 'the long arc of history bend toward justice.' We've seen secular authorities become increasingly assertive and creative and successful in pursuing sophisticated criminals."
Founded in 1988, SNAP is the world's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims and has more than 12,000 members.
Clohessy adds, "Remember one simple fact and one simple adage: Al Capone was nailed on tax evasion [and] 'Where there's a will, there's a way.'"
OneNewsNow
Becky Yeh - California correspondent (OneNewsNow.com)
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Concerning the cover-up of sex abuse in the Lost Angeles Archdiocese, a Christian attorney says a little government "intrusion" is necessary to ensure that justice be served.
Prosecutors who were unable to build a case against leaders of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are now reviewing internal church documents that were recently released. According to the Los Angeles Times, the files show how church leaders protected molester priests and sought to hide information from other church leaders. The documents reveal that retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and church hierarchy failed to discipline pedophile priests, even though they were aware there were other victims.
Bob Tyler of Advocates for Faith & Freedom says this case calls for unusual measures.
"In this case, the victims certainly deserve justice. However, a judge needs to decide whether that includes publicly identifying those individuals who may have known about the abuse but did nothing about it," he asserts.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on January 23, 2013
It’s factually and morally wrong to assume that criminal charges can’t be brought against current and former top LA archdiocesan officials, especially with tens of thousands of church records about to be released.
We aren’t police, prosecutors or even lawyers. But for 25 years, we’ve seen – in the words of Martin Luther King – “the long arc of history bend toward justice.” We’ve seen secular authorities become increasingly assertive and creative and successful in pursuing sophisticated criminals.
Remember one simple fact and one simple adage:
Al Capone was nailed on tax evasion.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
The irresponsible assumption that Mahony, Curry and others can’t be prosecuted rests on another irresponsible assumption: that their behavior has changed. Can we be more reckless than to assume that these men - who have repeatedly done serious wrong for decades and have entirely escaped penalties – have magically, completely, and voluntarily reformed?
All the policies and panels and procedures and promises made by church officials don’t change one simple truth – Archbishop Gomez and Bishop Curry and others still have the ability, right now, to do exactly as they’ve done for decades in child sex cases.
NBC Los Angeles
[with video]
By Jonathan Lloyd and Olsen Ebright
Tuesday, Jan 22, 2013
Church abuse victims Tuesday made a renewed call for criminal prosecutions following the release of confidential files that show top Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials tried to cover up the allegations.
"We've always been called 'alleged victims.' I think today the word 'alleged' will be left out and I think today you guys you will truly see and understand that we were victims -- truly victims of manipulative men who made cold, calculated decisions as how to protect themselves and save face in the community," said Manuel Vega, who was abused from age 10 to 15.
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a late-morning news conference at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. Victims spoke about the recently released documents and called for an end to legal maneuvers that they say have delayed the release of more documents.
"We demand justice and we deserve justice, on behalf of the children we all were when we so terribly hurt," said Joelle Casteix, SNAP Western Regional Director.
Press TV (Iran)
Reports of newly released files showing concerted efforts by a major US Catholic church to conceal child abuse by its priests has prompted fresh demands from victims to bring church officials to justice.
Despite numerous calls over the past decade to bring the church’s top leader Cardinal Roger Mahony and his top deputies to criminal prosecution for actively trying to hide sexual abuse of children by its clergy, none of the several legal efforts on such cases resulted in “charges against he archdiocese’s hierarchy,” The Los Angeles Times reports Wednesday.
“At least three grand juries, two district attorneys and a US attorney have subpoenaed documents and summoned witnesses,” the report emphasizes, adding that all the legal measures failed to win conviction for officials of the California church.
While the Los Angeles County district attorney vowed to review and evaluate all of the newly-revealed documents “for criminal conduct,” the daily cites “legal experts” as insisting that the massive quantity of files “were unlikely to lead to charges, let alone convictions.”
The Orange Juice Blog
By
Ricardo Toro
– January 24, 2013
“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.
Times LIVE (South Africa)
Reuters | 23 January, 2013
Victims of paedophile priests called for renewing a criminal investigation into the role of Catholic Church leaders in Los Angeles, including Cardinal Roger Mahony, in covering up child sexual abuse as revealed in newly released Church records.
Documents made public on Monday showed that Mahony, then archbishop of the nation's largest Catholic archdiocese, worked with a top adviser to shield known molesters in the clergy from law enforcement scrutiny in the 1980s.
According to the internal Church personnel records, Mahony and a monsignor who oversaw sex abuse cases in the archdiocese, Thomas Curry, arranged with other Church officials to send paedophile priests out of state to avoid prosecution.
Mahony and Curry also tried to keep priests sent away to a Church-run paedophile treatment center from later revealing their misconduct to private therapists who would be obligated to report the crimes to police, the documents showed.
NPR
[audio]
by Tovia Smith
January 24, 2013
Prosecutors in California say they are reviewing newly-released personnel files that document efforts by the Los Angeles Archdiocese to cover up clergy sexual abuse. They haven't said whether they might pursue criminal charges against retired Cardinal Roger Mahony. Statutes of limitations make prosecution difficult, but victims are calling on authorities to be more creative and find a way to punish church higher-ups for protecting abusive priests, rather then children.
BishopAccountability.org
The long-awaited Los Angeles archdiocesan documents are beginning to appear. Already we see strong indications that Cardinal Mahony and his management team acted deliberately to prevent abusers from being apprehended by the police. We urge the U.S. Attorney and the Los Angeles County District Attorney to examine this evidence, and if Cardinal Mahony, Bishop Curry, and their associates conspired to obstruct justice, then indictments should follow. We urge prosecutors also to consider the evidence in the Aguilar files of international cooperation between bishops to help a known child molester evade criminal prosecution. These documents and other files that will be released in coming months offer a basis to determine whether priests were transferred in violation of federal law.
Terence McKiernan
President
BishopAccountability.org
508-479-9304 cell
About BishopAccountability.org
Founded in 2003, BishopAccountability.org is an online library with more than 100,000 pages of church records, legal documents, and media reports. Its mission is to give the public one-stop access to information pertaining to the crisis in all U.S. dioceses and throughout the world. An independent non-profit, BishopAccountability.org is an archive and data center. It is not a victims' advocacy group nor a reform group.
Los Angeles Times
Newly released L.A. Archdiocese records showing how officials handled the priest sex abuse scandal have prompted a new call for law enforcement action.
The documents released Monday show that then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement.
The archdiocese’s failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement had previously been known. But the new memos offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation’s largest Catholic diocese to keep abusers from the attention of police.
DOCUMENTS: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files
The SNAP Network, an activist group that works on behalf of abuse victims, released a statement Monday calling on authorities to look into the new documents.
"We urge law enforcement to carefully evaluate all of these files and do the best they can to deliver criminal indictments to anyone who abused or knowingly endangered a child. It is only when criminals are punished to the fullest extent of the law that children are kept safe from abuse," the group said.
In the confidential letters, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese’s chief advisor on sex abuse cases, proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they had abused young boys.
KABC
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
Q McCray
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Church sex abuse victims and their supporters are expected to blast the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and retired Cardinal Roger Mahony during a rally in Downtown Los Angeles Tuesday.
The protest is over newly released documents detailing a pattern of cover-ups.
Victims are demanding action in Tuesday's conference and asking current Archbishop Jose Gomez to publically admonish former Cardinal Roger Mahony for knowingly covering for molester priests.
The newly released documents reveal that retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top officials with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles tried to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement decades ago.
The files show church leaders moved abusive priests out of state, handled damage control and consulted with accused priests behind the scenes.
CBS Atlanta
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Prosecutors will review internal priest personnel files kept by the Los Angeles Roman Catholic archdiocese that show retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top church officials worked to shield molester priests.
District attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said in an emailed statement Tuesday that the office will "evaluate all documents as they become available to us."
Thousands of pages of confidential records from the files of 14 priests accused of sex abuse were made public Monday.
The documents show how the church handled abuse allegations for decades and provide the strongest evidence to date that Mahony and a top aide consulted about how to handle molester priests and protect the archdiocese from scandal.
NBC San Diego
By Nicole Gonzales and R. Stickney
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013
A San Diego attorney who represents sexual abuse victims of Catholic priests said even he was shocked at the extensive cover up revealed in newly-released documents.
Thousands of pages from the internal disciplinary files of 14 priests made public Monday show retired Los Angeles Archdiocese Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top aides maneuvered behind the scenes to shield molester priests and provide damage control for the church.
San Diego attorney Irwin Zalkin has represented survivors of clergy sexual abuse for the past decades and some of his clients are included in the 30,000 pages of confidential files made public.
He told NBC 7 San Diego he’s amazed at how long this scandal was covered up.
“Clearly, clearly no interest in protecting children. None,” Zalkin said. “This was all about protecting the church from scandal.”
Los Angeles Times
By D.J. Waldie
January 27, 2013
In January 2002, the Boston Globe published the first in a series of articles that exposed the sordid history of sexual abuse of youth in the Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese. Those stories revealed how church officials had kept knowledge of abuse from parishioners and kept abusing priests in parishes where they continued to blight the lives and faith of the innocent.
Later in 2002, as more cases of sexual abuse in more dioceses tumbled out of the dark and the silence to which they had been consigned, the U.S. Conference of Bishops hurriedly promised transparency. The Catholic faithful, the bishops said, should know the extent of priestly abuse and their church's response.
In 2007, after paying at least $660 million in abuse settlements, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles joined a torturous legal defense of a privilege to conceal its part in that history. The Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press, along with advocates for the victims, challenged the claim of archdiocesan officials.
Last week, in response to a court order, the archdiocese released internal records documenting the actions church officials took — or failed to take — when priests were accused of abuse. More documents will be released in coming weeks, but from those we've seen already, we know that in the 1980s, then-Archbishop Roger Mahony and his Vicar of Clergy, then-Msgr. Thomas Curry, failed repeatedly when moral judgment required them to choose the good of the Catholic community over loyalty to their fraternity of parish priests.
Mahony’s Legacy
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Minnesota SNAP
By Vinnie Nauheimer
Let’s hear it for Cardinal Mahony!
Never was one so full of baloney;
Cunning hypocrite of the first order;
Priest, whose hypocrisy knows no border.
Panderer to the pedophile priest
Let loose the sick, hungry, ravaging beast
Who gorged upon the innocent flesh
Of our children; their pure souls to enmesh.
Roger the dodger spent untold dollars
Keeping, out of jail, rapists with collars!
Spending for lawyers to tighten the screws
On tortured child victims from the pews!
Press-Telegram
By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer
dailynews.com
Posted: 01/22/2013
Los Angeles County prosecutors said today they will begin reviewing internal documents released by the Los Angeles Archdiocese which show that retired Monsignor Roger Mahony and other church leaders maneuvered to protect priests accused of child molestation from law enforcement.
The revelations were contained in thousands of pages of documents released Monday by the attorney for a man who claims he was abused by a priest and has filed suit against the church. The flood of records from the personnel files for 14 priests reveal publicly for the first time how the Catholic Church handled abuse allegations, and the elaborate strategies for keeping molestation secret.
The files of about 75 additional priests are slated to become public in the next few weeks under the terms of a 2007 settlement with more than 500 victims, who received a record payout of $660 million.
A lawyer for about 30 of the priests fought to keep the records sealed, but a judge recently ordered their release without redacting the names of church leaders.
National Survivor Advocates Coalition
The Roman Catholic Church in the United States is spending a bucketload of Catholic cash on the Catholics Come Home advertising campaign currently running in a number of media markets.
The Church has also spent incredible amounts of Catholic cash on attorneys and public relations firm to suppress, hide, and delay making public what the Catholic hierarchy and their aides and chancery staffs did with their knowledge of sexual abuse of children and minors.
Now in Los Angeles comes the deluge.
The deluge of the documents that as part of the 2007 clergy sexual abuse victims’ $660 million settlement were to be made – and now are being made – public.
But not before the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press joined forces to bring pressure to bear for the agreement for the records to be made public. And not before the Archdiocese of Los Angeles tried a last minute desperate effort to Swiss cheese the documents of the names of those in authority. The ploy didn’t work thanks to a stand-up judge who simply asked the question: don’t Catholics have a right to know what happened in their Church?
Santa Barbara Independent
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents - BishopAccountability.org]
Thursday, January 24, 2013
By Nick Welsh
Santa Barbara’s Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry has been accused of “thwarting” potential sex abuse investigations by responsible law enforcement agencies concerning at least three pedophile priests during the 1980s when Curry served as the archdiocese’s chief advisor to archbishop — and later cardinal — Roger Mahony on sex abuse cases.
Attorney Tony De Marco submitted just-released church personnel records demonstrating how concerned Curry and Mahony were that sexual-offender priests might come to the attention of law enforcement investigators. De Marco submitted these documents as part of a lawsuit he filed on behalf of a man who claims he’d been abused by a priest, Nicholas Aguilar Rivera. Rivera remains at large, and De Marco is demanding the opportunity to depose Curry and Mahony to demonstrate the extent to which the archdiocese was “thwarting law enforcement investigations.”
In 1986, Curry wrote a memo to Mahony about Michael Baker, a priest who’d admitted to molesting boys that year. Curry cautioned against allowing Baker to see a California therapist. “I see a problem here, in that if he were to mention his problem with child abuse it would put the therapist in a position of having to report him.” Curry then added, “I think we have to be very careful about whom he goes to see and what kind of information is released to the program. Given the fact that he cannot mention his past problem, the necessity to be so circumspect might defeat the purpose of his going to a therapist.”
KCOY
[with video]
By Liberty Zabala
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Dark days fall upon the Catholic Church as files upon files of alleged child sex abuse finally come to light.
Letters between Archdiocese of Los Angeles - Santa Barbara Region Bishop Thomas J. Curry and Cardinal Roger Mahony show they knew about alleged child sex abuse but choose to cover it up.
"You can imagine what the church has to lose," says Child Sex Abuse Therapist Nancy Gutfreund. "You're supposed to be an organization that completely protects its people and when there's damage done nobody wants to admit it."
But Bishop Curry was forced to, releasing this statement saying:
"I wish to apologize for those instances when I made decisions regarding the treatment and disposition of clergy accused of sexual abuse that in retrospect appear inadequate or mistaken."
Asian Journal
Friday, 25 January 2013
Mico Letargo | AJPress
LOS ANGELES – Confidential records attached in a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles revealed how church officials attempted to keep silent about abuse allegations for decades, and maneuvered outside of the public eye to shield molester priests.
An in-depth report by the Associated Press revealed that one of the molester priests was exiled to the Philippines by archdiocese officials and was paid a ‘secret salary’ as well.
The exiled priest, along with six other clerics, were accused of having sex with a teen and impregnating her.
The lawsuit also implicated retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top church officials in the handling of the damage control campaign for the archdiocese, in attempts to keep parishioners uninformed of the abuses.
Uprising Radio
In the same week that Jewish ultra-Orthodox counselor Nechemya Weberman was sentenced to 103 years in prison for sexually abusing a teenage girl in 2007, documents were released this past Monday showing that Catholic religious leader Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese knowingly conspired with other church officials to protect priests who were known to have sexually abused children in the 1980s.
The LA Archdiocese, which is the nation’s largest, had been fighting to keep the documents secret since 2007 when a $660 million dollar judgment was awarded to 500 victims of church sexual abuse. A recent LA superior court judge’s ruling however, ordered the release of 30,000 documents naming the pedophile priests despite the church’s pleas to protect their privacy.
Although all the documents have not yet been released, the ones which have, provide proof that Mahony and Monsignor Thomas J. Curry acted to protect Monsignor Peter Garcia who had bound and raped an 11 year old boy and sexually abused more than a dozen other boys.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents - BishopAccountability.org]
Posted by David Clohessy on January 23, 2013
Two groups that deal with clergy sex abuse are asking the top Catholic official in Los Angeles to demote one of his highest ranking staff members.
Leaders of BishopAccountability.org and of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing Archbishop José H. Gomez, urging him to discipline Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, who was implicated in newly-released church records about pedophile priests.
"It's bad enough to deceive parents, parishioners and the public. It's even worse to deceive police and prosecutors. Bishop Curry has done both," said Joelle Casteix, SNAP Western Regional Director. “He should be fired, censured or demoted immediately.”
In memos from 1986 and 1987, between then-Msgr. Curry and Cardinal Roger Mahony, then the leader of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Curry offers suggestions on way to prevent and circumvent investigations by police of priests who had admitted abusing young boys. His tactics included avoiding therapists who might alert authorities and sending priests to assignments out of state.
“This is an opportunity for Archbishop Gomez to make a clean break with the failed policies of his predecessor, Cardinal Mahony,” said Terence McKiernan, President of BishopAccountability.org, a website that archives Catholic abuse documents. “The documents show that Auxiliary Bishop Curry’s management of the Wempe, Baker, and Peter Garcia cases was immoral and likely illegal. At a time when managerial malfeasance has been judged criminal in Philadelphia and Kansas City, Archbishop Gomez must do the accountable thing: remove Bishop Curry from his positions of power and make a full disclosure of the archdiocese’s previous obstructionist practices.”
KEYT
Written by Shirin Rajaee
Santa Barbara- Some confidential files released this week on clergy sex abuse in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, reveal ties to at least one prominent local religious figure. For years, the Catholic Church has fought to keep these files secret, but the documents that date back to the 1980's are revealing. They clearly show how Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top adviser, Bishop Thomas Curry, who now presides over the Santa Barbara region plotted to hide child molestation by priests, from reaching the police.
Santa Barbara Attorney, Tim Hale, who represents a number of the 500 abuse victims says that there were discussions in these memos where church leaders would knowingly give the abusive priests out of the area assignments to keep them from being exposed, and kept them from seeing psychologists, in case the therapist alerted police.
Father James Ford who was assigned to many locations in the area, is one of the abusers that Mahony and Curry were covering up for.
OneNewsNow
Becky Yeh - California correspondent (OneNewsNow.com)
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Concerning the cover-up of sex abuse in the Lost Angeles Archdiocese, a Christian attorney says a little government "intrusion" is necessary to ensure that justice be served.
Prosecutors who were unable to build a case against leaders of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are now reviewing internal church documents that were recently released. According to the Los Angeles Times, the files show how church leaders protected molester priests and sought to hide information from other church leaders. The documents reveal that retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and church hierarchy failed to discipline pedophile priests, even though they were aware there were other victims.
Bob Tyler of Advocates for Faith & Freedom says this case calls for unusual measures.
"In this case, the victims certainly deserve justice. However, a judge needs to decide whether that includes publicly identifying those individuals who may have known about the abuse but did nothing about it," he asserts.
KCET
[video]
Recently discovered letters from the 1980s cast a new and disturbing light on the L.A. Archdiocese and its former archbishop, Cardinal Roger Mahony. They strongly suggest that Mahony actively conspired to keep suspected pedophile priests away from the police, even going so far as to send a priest out of state to elude authorities. Mahony has apologized -- again. But now there are fresh calls for prosecution.
Manny Vega of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) tells Madeleine his devastating story of abuse and what he thinks should be the fate of Mahony and the other priests involved in this scandal.
Justia Verdict
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents - BishopAccountability.org]
Marci A. Hamilton
The Release of the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Records Relating to Clergy Child Sex Abuse: The Insights It Reveals, and Why the Justice System Deserves Great Credit Here
The Earth moved in Los Angeles recently, without a flicker of the Richter scale. Files of the Los Angeles Archdiocese were released as part of a civil case in which members of the hierarchy were named, and their unforgivable actions described in their own words. These men knew about child-predator priests who gravely harmed dozens, if not hundreds, of victims, and they never once called the police before the year 2000. Instead, they helped one pedophile priest escape the country, suggested sending another to a therapist who was also a lawyer so as to ensure that attorney-client privilege would apply, and let another simply melt into the general population after returning from treatment. The details, reported by The Los Angeles Times,are nauseating.
These files are just the beginning of the earthshaking information still to be released in Los Angeles, as the revelations I have described above are from just one individual case. Soon, the files that were supposed to be released as part of the massive 2007 settlement between 550 survivors and the Archdiocese will also become public. While the Archdiocese pushed hard to have the names of the members of the hierarchy redacted in those files, the press fought back in court and won. Now, these additional files will be also released, and likely will be just as searing as the few just now released.
I know, I know. At this point in history, learning that bishops failed to protect children from priest child predators is something that, to quote Capt. Reynaud in Casablanca, “I’m shocked, shocked to find.” The bigger picture though, is where I would like my reader to look now. The truth about child sex abuse in our culture is pouring in; where did it come from?
Los Angeles Times
[with video]
A Roman Catholic bishop apologized Tuesday for "inadequate or mistaken" responses to clergy sex abuse when he served as a top advisor to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in the late 1980s.
"Like many others, I have come to a clearer understanding over the years of the causes and treatment of sexual abuse," Bishop Thomas J. Curry, who oversees Santa Barbara and Ventura counties for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said in a statement.
Internal church files released this week show Curry and Mahony, who was then archbishop, discussed how to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including by keeping the priests out of California to avoid prosecution. While serving as vicar of clergy, Curry also suggested to Mahony that they prevent pedophile priests from seeing therapists who might alert authorities.
DOCUMENT: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files
In one letter about a priest who had acknowledged using a 12-year-old parishioner as what a church official called his "sex partner," Curry said it was "surprising" that a church-paid counselor hadn't reported Father Michael Wempe to police. He and Wempe "agreed it would be better if Mike did not return to him."
Perhaps, Curry added, the priest could be sent to "a lawyer who is also a psychiatrist" thereby putting "the reports under the protection of privilege."
Los Angeles Times
Editorial
The release of confidential files on 1980s clergy sex abuse in the Los Angeles Archdiocese is the beginning of the end of a long and sordid saga.
January 23, 2013
For years, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles fought to keep secret its confidential files concerning pedophile priests. Hundreds of sex abuse victims hoping for a full accounting of what church leaders knew about the growing scandal and what they did to stop it were rebuffed time and again.
But the cover-up is finally coming to an end. On Monday, a series of memos and letters filed in a civil case confirmed that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and other church leaders plotted to shield pedophile priests rather than turn them over to police and prosecutors.
The documents, which date to 1986 and 1987, show how Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, his top advisor on sex abuse cases, discussed strategies to keep priests from coming to the attention of law enforcement. Curry proposed to Mahony that certain priests be kept from seeing therapists, who would have been obliged to alert police; in other cases, priests were sent out of state to avoid criminal investigations. One cleric — who had admitted molesting undocumented immigrant children for decades, and even threatened one with deportation if he reported the abuse to police — was not allowed by Mahony to return to California from a treatment center, for fear that it would spark criminal or civil action.
Cardinal Mahony's moral failure
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Paul Thornton
January 22, 2013
About a dozen readers have sent their reactions to The Times' front-page story Tuesday reporting that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011, plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement. While several of the letters raise legal questions for Mahony, many also call out the former archbishop for his moral failure to protect children. Others blame Roman Catholic Church policy for setting the conditions that led to child sex abuse.
Here is a selection of those letters, some of which may be printed later this week on The Times' letters page. Check latimes.com/letters this week for more reader reaction.
Melonie Magruder of North Hollywood says Mahony acted as if protecting the church was more important that protecting children:
"Mahony's claim that clergy weren't 'legally required to report suspected child abuse until 1997,' and, therefore, he was absolved from responsibility to do so, is staggeringly self-serving. It's as if he's saying, 'It was other people's job to report child sexual abuse,' with the implicit caveat that his responsibility was to protect the institution he served.
Los Angeles Times
This post has been updated.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Tuesday it plans to review newly released records from the late 1980s that show then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top aide worked to conceal pedophile priests from law enforcement.
The office “will review and evaluate all documents as they become available to us,” a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said.
[Updated at 12:13 p.m.: Internal Catholic church records released Monday show that 15 years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Mahony and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement.
The records offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.
CBS News
By Bill Whitaker
(CBS News) LOS ANGELES - There is new evidence that leaders of the Catholic Church in Los Angeles maneuvered secretly to shield priests accused of sexually abusing children.
Documents just released indicate they never told parishioners -- or the police -- what they knew.
"What we're seeing in these files is but a glimpse into a very, very dark, and endless tunnel of secrecy, of abuse, of silence," said Raymond Boucher, a former altar boy and current lead attorney, representing some 500 victims of sex abuse by priests in the archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The documents offer the strongest evidence yet of a cover-up that reached to the very top of Los Angeles clergy: Then-archbishop, now-retired Cardinal Roger Mahony.
"That has always been paramount for the church for decades: Protect itself from scandal," Boucher said.
Many of the documents are correspondence between Mahony and Monsignor Thomas Curry, his chief adviser on sex abuse. One concerns whether to allow Monsignor Peter Garcia to return to his duties in L.A. He had secretly been sent away for treatment in New Mexico for sexually abusing as many as 17 youngsters.
The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 23, 2013
Less than 48 hours after the historic first “document dump” in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a former Long Beach priest has been sentenced to probation and must register as a sex offender.
Fr. Cuevas, Do you have a secret file in Archbishop Gomez’ office?
And people say that the “scandal” is over …
According to the Long Beach Press Telegram:
Luis Jose Cuevas, who was once a parish priest at St. Athanasius Catholic Church, 5390 Linden Ave., was given five years of probation and must register as a sex offender as part of a plea agreement.
Cuevas, who was initially charged with nine counts, agreed to one count of sexual battery against of each of three victims, including one felony because the victim was a minor.
In April of 2012, two adult women came forward to say that Cuevas had sexually assaulted them. During the police investigation, Cuevas was allowed to remain at St. Athanasius Catholic Church. When the third victim came forward—a minor who says she was molested by Cuevas during over the course of two years—Archdiocese officials removed the priest. Cuevas was arrested in July 2012.
NBC Southern California
[with video]
By Jonathan Lloyd and Toni Guinyard
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013
A former Long Beach priest who entered a plea of no contest to sexual assault charges -- including lewd acts involving a child -- was sentenced Wednesday and ordered to register as a sex offender.
Luis Jose Cuevas, 68, who served the North Long Beach Catholic community for seven years, entered the no-contest plea in December. He was charged with eight misdemeanor counts of sex assault involving two women and one felony count of a lewd acts involving a child.
The girl, 17, accused the priest of repeatedly groping her at the church during a period of two years.
He was sentenced to five years felony probation, 40 hours of community service and one year of offender counseling. He also must register as a sex offender.
Press-Telegram
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
presstelegram.com
Posted: 01/23/2013
LONG BEACH — A former Catholic priest who pleaded no contest to three counts of sexual battery avoided jail time Wednesday at his sentencing in Long Beach Superior Court.
Luis Jose Cuevas, who was once a parish priest at St. Athanasius Catholic Church, 5390 Linden Ave., was given five years of probation and must register as a sex offender as part of a plea agreement.
Cuevas, who was initially charged with nine counts, agreed to one count of sexual battery against of each of three victims, including one felony because the victim was a minor.
Prior to the sentencing, Cuevas' lawyer, George Bird, said his client accepted responsibility for his actions and would "use his remaining time to do kind, as he attempted
Wed., Jan. 23 2013
[Ramos file - BishopAccountability.org]
[Documents Selected and Highlighted on the AbusedInSoCal.com Website - Ramos 1986]
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents - BishopAccountability.org]
I've spent nearly a decade writing about Eleuterio Ramos, the most notorious pedophile priest in the history of the Diocese of Orange, a monster who admitted to molesting "at least" 25 boys, a ghoul who church officials--including current Diocese of Boise and Diocese of Sacramento bishops Michael Driscoll and Jaime Soto, and current St. Timothy Church pastor John Urell--sent down to Tijuana in 1985 to ensure he'd escape the law after admitting to molesting a teenager at St. Anthony Claret in Anaheim.
And Tijuana is where the final mystery of Ramos exists.
The Orange diocese's personnel files on Ramos makes no mention of any Ramos victims based down there (although Ramos liked to take OC children to Tijuana to get gang-raped), and none of the dozens of people who have filed civil lawsuits against Ramos and the diocese of Orange and Los Angeles (where Ramos previously served) ever alleged they were from Ramos' Tijuana holiday. But the massive document dump yesterday by the LA Archdiocese has unearthed for the first time ever a Ramos victim in Tijuana.
In Ramos' file is a 2004 memorandum from the Diocese of San Bernardino which details a meeting that church leaders had with a man who claimed Ramos had molested him at a cabin in Crestline. The victim (whose name is redacted in the document) said that he first encountered Ramos at Divina Providencia Parish and Our Lady of Loreto chapel in Tijuana, where Ramos headed--I kid you not--a children's ministry. Starting in 1985 and continuing until the boy's family moved to San Bernardino, Ramos molested the child repeatedly--at Crestline, at hotels near Disneyland, in Los Angeles, and in Tijuana proper. In 2003, when stories about Ramos' depravity first hit Southern California newspapers, the victims family asked him if Ramos--who was a "good family friend"--had ever molested him; the victim denied it. The victim didn't want to tell his family because he was, according to the notes of the meeting, "fearful of his mother's reaction to his abuse since he recalls that his mother would frequently encourage her son to take private overnight trips with Fr. Ramos (e.g., the Crestline, Disneyland, and Universal Studios trips)."
Orange County Weekly
[Caffoe file - BishopAccountability.org]
[Documents Selected and Highlighted on the AbusedInSoCal.com Website
Caffoe 1975 – Manning's Chancellor Rawden Keeps Caffoe, Overly Affectionate with Altarboys, in Parish]
[Other Information
• Summary of Caffoe's Personnel File, in the Addendum Released by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2005
• Information on Caffoe's Assignments and Allegations, in the Database Compiled by the LA Times
• Cheat Sheet on Caffoe by AbusedInSoCal.com
• Secrecy and Reluctant Revelation in the Los Angeles Archdiocese: The Example of the Rev. Lynn Caffoe File]
By Gustavo Arellano
Thu., Jan. 24 2013
In 1975, Lynn Caffoe, a priest at St. Callistus Church in Garden Grove, approached officials at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with a curious demand: he wanted to leave because he had just molested a boy.
The Diocese of Orange had yet to be born, so each of Orange County's Catholic churches fell under the domain of LA Cardinal Timothy Manning and his right-hand man, Monsignor John A. Rawden. The two already knew that one of Caffoe's superiors had already complained that they should keep an eye on the young priest lest he spend "too much time with the chosen few," according to church documents. And who might that be? The same report said he has a "tendency to gather younger ones around."
So when parents at St. Callistus went to Rawden to complain that Caffoe had been "overly affectionate to some of the altar boys," what did Rawden do? Side with the pervert.
Caffoe, according to a document included in the LA archdiocese's recent document dump of priest personnel files, "wanted an immediate transfer in spite of the fact that he claimed innocence of the charge. He felt it better for the well being of the parish."
Ms. Magazine
January 24, 2013 By Stephanie Geske
Confidential letters between Los Angeles Catholic church officials that had been withheld for decades–despite long efforts by victims to obtain them and stonewalling by the Church–were released Monday after becoming part of a civil court case against a priest accused of molesting 26 Los Angeles children in the 1980s.
The notes from then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and Monsignor Thomas J. Curry, published by the Los Angeles Times, have provided even more insight as to how sexual- abuse accusations against priests have been covered up for years. The notes detail plans by the two men to keep police from discovering that children were being molested in Los Angeles parishes, with Curry suggesting the predator priests not see therapists who could then alert authorities; instead, he wanted to give priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal charges. Curry was the chief advisor to the Archbishop on sex-abuse cases at the time.
One priest discussed in the released files was Msgr. Peter Garcia, who tended to abuse undocumented children because he could keep them quiet by threatening to have them deported. He went to a treatment center for pedophile clergy in New Mexico, but left the priesthood in 1989 after returning to Los Angeles and refusing to take medication to contain his sexual urges toward children. Never prosecuted, he died in 2009.
Catholic Online
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In front page news, Cardinal Roger Mahony was skewered as the Los Angeles Times published a review of documents that reveal that then-Archbishop Roger Mahony knew about child sex abuse in his archdiocese and actively worked to cover it up.
The revelations are part of a document dump ordered by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. Documents were released on Monday.
According to the Times, the documents contain the best evidence to date to show that Cardinal Mahony and others actively worked to cover up the scandal. In addition to Mahony, memos he exchanged with Msgr. Thomas Curry were disclosed. The memos discuss things such as keeping an accused priest out of the state for fear of arrest and prosecution, both criminal and civil, as well as discussions related to priests who were known pedophiles.
Several pedophile priests were sent to rehabilitation programs in the 1980s. Authorities were never contacted.
Some priests even deliberately targeted the children of illegal immigrants and threatened to report those families if they talked. When informed of these heinous crimes, Cardinal Mahony's response appears to have been to cover up the incidents.
KPCC
Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles Roger M. Mahoney has again apologized for his involvement over twenty years ago in concealing child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including keeping clergy out of California to avoid prosecution. Mahoney’s apology came as his previously confidential correspondence from 1986 and 1987 recently became public evidence in a civil court case.
Mahoney has been questioned under oath in previous depositions numerous times about his handling of molestation cases, but the newly released memos written by Mahoney and other church administrators provide the strongest indication of a concerted effort by leaders in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to protect abusers from police. Last week, Anthony De Marco, the attorney representing a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed against the archdiocese asked a judge to order Mahoney and others to submit to new depositions “regarding their actions, knowledge and intent as referenced in these files.” In an apologetic statement, Mahoney confessed that memos written in those years "sometimes focused more on the needs of the perpetrator than on the serious harm that had been done to the victims."
Why did it take years for these memos to be released and made public? Is the archdiocese still trying to hide evidence that may incriminate current and former clergy? How responsible is Mahoney for the sexual abuse of children? How can victims of this abuse best recover and move on with their lives?
Guests:
Harriet Ryan, reporter with the Los Angeles Times who co-wrote the Times cover story
Barbara Dorris, outreach director of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)
Los Angeles Times
January 22, 2013 | 6:51am
Internal Catholic church records released Monday show that 15 years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement.
Times reporters Harriet Ryan and Victoria Kim will join L.A. Now Live at 9 a.m. to discuss the records.
Ryan, Kim and staff writer Ashley Powers reported that the records offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.
The records contain memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases. In the confidential letters, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they had abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent the priests from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.
Los Angeles Times
[Father Santiago Tamayo 1987 - via Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
[exhibit 50]
By Patt Morrison
January 22, 2013, 1:34 p.m.
I had to look twice at the date on the newspaper to make sure I wasn’t having a time-warp moment.
I’d heard this before. In a way, I’d covered this before.
My colleagues Ashley Powers, Victoria Kim and Harriet Ryan have dropped a doozy on Southern California with their story of memos recounting how, a decade and a half before the scandal emerged about Roman Catholic priests’ sexual abuse of young people, future Cardinal Roger Mahony and an advisor planned to hide these molestations from law enforcement, going so far as to move the suspect priests out of California.
In a word, a cover-up.
But long before those memos that The Times found about concealing priests’ misconduct, the church apparently was doing the same thing in the face of a lawsuit by a young woman named Rita Milla. I wrote the stories about her suit against seven Filipino priests working here, and the archdiocese, for $21 million in 1984. Her suit said that:
•For four years, beginning when she was 16 and a parishioner at a Wilmington Catholic Church, first one and then all seven priests had sex with her, beginning when one who fondled her through a broken confessional screen. Two of them assured her that “it was morally, ethically all right for her to have sexual intercourse with them … that by doing so, that she would be helping them and helping herself.” Milla was 16 when all this began; the age of consent in California is 18, but no question of criminal charges was evidently pursued in this matter, perhaps because of the statute of limitations.
KABC
[with video]
Leslie Miller
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Confidential personnel records are now offering a glimpse into the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. They detail a pattern of cover-ups within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For years, victims have been clamoring to get their hands on these documents.
The documents are part of a lawsuit seeking damages in a case involving a Mexican priest accused of abusing at least 26 children after he was transferred to Los Angeles in the 1980s. The documents include personnel files of 13 other clerics as well as notes written by Cardinal Roger Mahony and other church leaders.
The newly released documents reveal that retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top officials with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles tried to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement decades ago.
The files show church leaders moved abusive priests out of state, handled damage control and consulted with accused priests behind the scenes.
Los Angeles Times
January 22, 2013
Standing a few feet outside the doors of the Los Angeles Archdiocese headquarters, clergy abuse victims who settled with the church in a landmark $660-million settlement called for the release of the documents it agreed to make public in 2007.
The demands come in the wake of internal Catholic church records released Monday in a separate claim. Those memos, written in 1986 and 1987 by Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, displayed a concerted effort by officials to shield abusers from police.
Flanked by people who said they were abused by clergy, Joelle Casteix, western regional director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, demanded the release of the files. She also called for the immediate removal and punishment of any abuser still in the church.
DOCUMENT: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files
Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles must end his silence, Casteix said, and release the unredacted documents of those involved in molesting children, as well as those who helped cover it up.
“They must be held accountable to the same laws that everyone standing behind me here is held accountable to,” Casteix said. “We are victims of clergy sexual abuse and supporters. We demand justice; we deserve justice.”
Southwest Riverside News Network
By City News Service, on January 22, 2013
Victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles demanded today that former Cardinal Roger Mahony and other high-ranking officials be publicly admonished for trying to cover-up clergy molestations.
Diocese officials said, however, they have apologized for actions of the past and taken wide-ranging steps to prevent abuse and report it quickly if it does occur.
The exchange came in response to internal church documents that were released Monday as part of a pending civil lawsuit against the archdiocese.
“We are here in response to the hundreds of pages of documents that were released yesterday that showed that Cardinal Roger Mahony had personal involvement in the cover-up of childhood sexual abuse in the archdiocese,”
Joelle Casteix of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.
National Catholic Reporter
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
by Joshua J. McElwee | Jan. 22, 2013
Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony and an auxiliary bishop shielded archdiocesan priests known to be sex abusers from law enforcement during the 1980s, even suggesting they leave the state of California to avoid prosecution, according to a series of church records released Monday.
The records, which were filed as part of a civil lawsuit against the archdiocese and were first reported Monday by the Los Angeles Times, indicate Mahony and Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry intentionally sent abusive priests to out-of-state treatment facilities as protection from arrest.
L.A. county prosecutors "will review and evaluate all [newly released] documents as they become available to us," Sandi Gibbons, a public information officer for the L.A. County District Attorney’s office, said in a brief statement.
The release of the files, which concern 14 priests, comes as the archdiocese is preparing to release records of at least 75 more accused abusers under the terms of a separate 2007 civil settlement with more than 500 clergy abuse victims.
While the files of the 14 priests are almost three decades old -- coming from long before the U.S. bishops started to address the wider issue of sex abuse by clergy in 2002 -- the revelations they contain point to lingering questions about the accountability of bishops, says a former chairman of the U.S. bishops' National Review Board for clergy sex abuse.
MarketWatch
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Jan. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- In response to today's Los Angles Times story Mahony Tried to Conceal Abuse, John Manly, an attorney who has deposed former Cardinal Roger Mahony in sex abuse cases involving the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, issued the following statement:
The documents revealed in court demonstrate clearly and without question that the Archdiocese was engaged and remains engaged in an alleged conspiracy to protect pedophile priests and the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. Cardinal Roger Mahony is at the center of this conduct. The question that needs to be answered is, "Did law enforcement, and specifically its leadership in Los Angeles, either completely miss these crimes or did they ignore them?" These documents have been in the possession of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for years and yet no action, and little, if any criticism has been leveled against Cardinal Mahony and the Hierarchy.
It is reasonable to ask why and how such an alleged miscarriage of justice was allowed to occur. Cardinal Mahony has been deposed on three separate occasions by me and my law firm. In addition, we have deposed Bishop Curry, the Archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, who features prominently in the documents released last week. A review of these depositions demonstrates substantial inconsistencies with their sworn answers and the conduct illustrated in the documents.
Los Angeles Times
By Harriet Ryan, Ashley Powers and Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times
January 22, 2013
Over the last decade, there have been numerous calls to prosecute Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his top aides for their mishandling of clergy sex abuse. At least three grand juries, two district attorneys and a U.S. attorney have subpoenaed documents and summoned witnesses. None of those cases resulted in charges against the archdiocese's hierarchy.
The release this week of a trove of internal church records showing a concerted effort to hide abuse from police triggered new demands from victims and church critics that Mahony and his advisors be held criminally accountable.
The Los Angeles County district attorney pledged to review all the files and evaluate them for criminal conduct, but legal experts consulted Tuesday said the reams of new documents were unlikely to lead to charges, let alone convictions.
A nearly insurmountable barrier is the statute of limitations, the experts said. A quarter-century has passed since Mahony and his chief aide for sex abuse cases, Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, wrote memos outlining strategies to prevent police investigations of three priests who had admitted abusing boys. The 1986 and 1987 letters fall decades beyond the three-year statute of limitations for felonies such as child endangerment, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit those offenses.
Los Angeles Times
By Steve Lopez
January 22, 2013
Every time we learn something new about the molestation scandal in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, it becomes more obvious why Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his minions have fought so tenaciously to keep things under wraps.
Not to protect the privacy of victims or the rights of suspected abusers, as the church hierarchy has contended. But to hide the unconscionable deception by church leaders, who repeatedly did more to protect their own image than to help the victims of horrific crimes.
This week's revelations of deliberate efforts by 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.
Lez Get Real
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on January 22, 2013.
Evidence showing that the Catholic Church protected Monsignor Peter Garcia and several other priests sexually abused children. The evidence is in the form of letters filed in the civil case leveled against Father Nicholas Aguilar Rivera.
During his decades long ministry, Garcia targeted illegal immigrants. In at least one case, he threatened to have one boy deported if he went to the authorities. One monsignor documented the case in a letter sent to one of the archbishops stating “The priest took him to the jail and instructed him to either behave or else he would end up either in jail of back in Mexico. He was supposedly told if you talk, I have lawyer friends and I will surely have you deported.”
Garcia died in 2009 and never faced prosecution. He did, before he died, admit to raping boys since he was ordained in 1966. The letters describe Garcia’s behavior, and document incidents including him tying up a young boy and raping him. In 1986, former Archbishop of Los Angeles Roger Mahoney discussed discussed strategies to protect Garcia from prosecution.
The New York Times
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: January 22, 2013
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, for more than 25 years the savvy shepherd of the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles, retired nearly two years ago to a renovated yellow house behind his childhood parish, pledging to stay in the spotlight by continuing to fight for the rights of immigrants.
But the cardinal now finds himself in a most unwelcome spotlight, one that he sought for years to avoid. Internal church personnel files released this week as part of a civil court case reveal that he and his top adviser knowingly shielded priests accused of child sexual abuse from law enforcement. In one letter, the cardinal ordered a clergyman to stay in New Mexico, where he had been sent for treatment, to avoid the possibility of being reported to the police in California.
Lawyers for the Los Angeles Archdiocese fought for years to prevent the release of the files, but a demand for transparency was a primary goal of the more than 500 victims of clergy abuse who signed a record settlement for $660 million with the archdiocese in July 2007. When a judge ordered the files to be made public despite the church’s objections, the archdiocese fought to be allowed to redact names and identifying details. But it recently lost that battle and now awaits an imminent cascade of 30,000 more documents that could further tarnish Cardinal Mahony’s legacy.
“He played a very prominent role as social and spiritual leader,” said William Deverell, the director of the Huntington-University of Southern California Institute on California and the West. “He’s a native, knows greater Los Angeles exceedingly well and presided over an already globally changed city, leading it into the next phase. He earned a great deal of ecumenical trust and leadership, which is now going to be re-examined.”
Religion Dispatches
Post by Joanna Brooks
Today, Los Angeles Times published a front-page story reporting that Archbishop Roger Mahony of Los Angeles sat on reports of felony-level sexual abuse of children by priests for almost 15 years before he took action, and that the Los Angeles Catholic diocese waited at least 14 years before reporting abuse to law enforcement.
The LA Times report was based on letters written by Mahony in 1986 and 1987 recently entered as evidence in a civil suit. More documents will be disclosed in the coming weeks.
Here at RD, I have argued that it was the feminist movement’s emphasis on bearing witness to sexual abuse that raised consciousness and created critical mass among Catholic laity towards breaking the abuse scandal open.
And it sure doesn’t take a degree in gender studies to see how a hierarchical patriarchal institution will protect its own before it protects children.
KPCC
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
Ruxandra Guidi | January 22nd, 2013
While former L.A. Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony tries to address the latest revelations implicating him in coverups of priest sex abuse, angry survivors of abuse say the church still has not suffered enough for its past actions.
Sixty-five-year-old Tony Carone was abused 56 years ago when he was an altar boy. He sighs deeply as he tries to describe coming forward about a taboo he’d kept silent about for years.
"If you talk about it, a lot of people don’t like you, especially Catholics. He says his wife was "disgusted that I would bring it up."
Things got so bad that Carone separated from his wife two years ago and moved into his parents' house.
In 2008, Carone received part of the 660 million-dollar settlement from the LA Archdiocese—the largest payout in a sex abuse scandal. Sitting next to him, 70 year-old Udo Strutynski, another abuse survivor, nods when Carone talks about how difficult it was to receive that cash. Strutynski calls the settlement, “blood money”. He says he eventually left the church, and joined the Southern California chapter of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Ventura County Star
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
By Tom Kisken
Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Curry offered a public apology Tuesday, a day after the release of church personnel records showing he played a role in protecting priests accused of molestation.
The records of 14 priests — expected to be followed eventually by a huge wave of records on more accused priests — include correspondence showing Curry, retired Archdiocese of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony and others worked to shield priests and the church.
Curry, then vicar of clergy, is now auxiliary bishop of a region in the archdiocese that includes Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
"I wish to acknowledge and apologize for those instances when I made decisions regarding the treatment and disposition of clergy accused of sexual abuse that in retrospect appear inadequate or mistaken," Curry said in a prepared statement.
"Like many others, I have come to a clearer understanding over the years of the causes and treatment of sexual abuse and I have fully implemented in my pastoral region the archdiocese's policies and procedures for reporting abuse, screening those who supervise children and abuse prevention training for adults and children."
Orange County Weekly
By Gustavo Arellano
Tue., Jan. 22 2013
Yesterday, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles released thousands of pages of personnel files that confirms what those of us who have followed the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal have known for a good decade but which the vast majority of Catholics refuse to acknowledge: that their leaders, for forever, not only knew about the pedophile priests in their ranks but actively sought to cover up the rapes.
So why should we care about what happens in LA? Because some of those personnel files involve priests who raped in Orange County back when we were part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which we're going to display in the coming days. And, unsurprisingly, because part of the coverup up in LA involved the Diocese of Orange and our own former, perpetually bumbling bishop, Tod D. Brown.
In today's episode of How the Brownie Protects Pedo-Priests, we turn our attention to disgraced priest Michael D. Buckley. We had previously written about Buckley in 2005, when information at the time revealed Buckley molested at least eight boys while at Immaculate Heart of Mary in SanTana, back when it was a part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Information at the time on Buckley's perversion was hard to find, though, namely because his personnel file hadn't been released by then-Cardinal Roger Mahony, and it was technically an Archdiocese of Los Angeles case and thus out of my beat.
Now that his case file is out, though, it turns out that Buckley was a monster in Orange County--and that not only LA diocesan officials know, but that Brown never bothered to alert Immaculate Heart of Mary parishioners after hearing from the victims who finally brought Buckley down.
Anthony DeMarco
Jeff Anderson & Associates
[This site has links to priest files from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.]
January 21, 2013
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 Mahony 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 imtimately involve 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. ...
Priest files.
A Priest cheat sheet
Father Cristobal Garcia O.P. 1985
Father Eleuterio Ramos 1975
Father James Ford 1987
Father Larry Lovell C.M.F. 1985
Father Lynn Caffoe 1975
Father Matthew Sprouffske O.Carm 1986
Father Michael Baker 1986
Father Michael Baker 1987
Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera 1987
Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera II 1988
Father Santiago Tamayo 1987
Monsignor Peter Garcia 1984
Monsignor Peter Garcia 1987
Wempe LAARCH 021282
The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 21, 2013
The complete library of documents can be viewed here.
For years, all we heard from Cardinal Roger Mahony was that he “may have made mistakes” and that “new policies would ensure child safety.”
Now we know that Cardinal Mahony’s role in the cover-up of child sex abuse in the Los Angeles Archdiocese was hands-on, insidious and evil.
From the Los Angeles Times:
"In a letter about Father Michael Wempe, who had acknowledged using a 12-year-old parishioner as what a church official called his “sex partner,” [Msgr. Thomas J.] Curry recounted extensive conversations with the priest about potential criminal prosecution.
“He is afraid … records will be sought by the courts at some time and that they could convict him,”Curry wrote to Mahony. ”He is very aware that what he did comes within the scope of criminal law.”
Curry proposed Wempe could go to an out-of-state diocese “if need be.” He called it “surprising” that a church-paid counselor hadn’t reported Wempe to police and wrote that he and Wempe ”agreed it would be better if Mike did not return to him.”
Los Angeles Archdiocese: Priest abuse files
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
The former leader of the Los Angeles archdiocese, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the sexual abuse of children from law enforcement officials, according to internal church records released Monday.
In memos written to Mahony in 1986 and 1987 contained in personnel files for 14 priests and filed this month as evidence in a court case, his chief advisor on sex abuse cases proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted molesting young boys to church officials.
Catholic Culture
Phil Lawler
In 2002, when Pope John Paul II called the leaders of the US bishops’ conference to Rome for a discussion of the sex-abuse crisis, one cardinal, speaking to the Los Angeles Times under cover of anonymity, said that the prelates would push for the resignation of Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law.
Cardinal Law was in trouble, of course, because of the revelations that he had covered up evidence of sexual abuse by priests, and shuffled abusive priests from one parish to another without informing parishioners.
The anonymous prelate who called for Law’s scalp was never identified, but most informed observers believe that it was Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles.
That was back in 2002. Now, after a decade of legal resistance, the Los Angeles archdiocese has released files that show how Cardinal Mahony had handling sex-abuse complaints: roughly the same way Cardinal Law did. Thanks to the dogged efforts of lawyers for the LA archdiocese, this evidence became public only after Cardinal Mahony’s retirement. But if it was indeed Cardinal Mahony who wanted Cardinal Law to step down in 2002, it seems quite clear that he should have followed his own advice.
Los Angeles Times
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony on Monday apologized for the way the L.A. archdiocese dealt with priest child abuse claims after a new round of documents were released.
"I am sorry," Mahony's statement concluded.
The new documents show:
Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Mahony and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement.
DOCUMENTS: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files
The archdiocese's failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement had been known previously. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being abused.
In the confidential letters, filed this month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.
NBC Los Angeles
[live video]
By Jonathan Lloyd
Tuesday, Jan 22, 2013
Clergy abuse victims plan Tuesday to discuss church personnel files that show how top Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials shielded molester priests and conducted damage control to cover up allegations of abuse.
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) scheduled an 11 a.m. news conference at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. Victims plan to speak about the recently released documents and call for an end to legal maneuvers that they say have delayed the release of more documents.
The files are attached to a motion seeking punitive damages in a case involving a Mexican priest sent to Los Angeles in 1987 after he was brutally beaten in his parish south of Mexico City. Parents in LA complained about the priest, but he fled to Mexico, according to court documents.
The priest remains a fugitive.
Huffington Post
Michael D'Antonio
After years of delay, orchestrated by some of the most able lawyers in the country, the Catholic Church may soon reveal more truth about how it dealt with priests who sexually abused hundreds of children in the sprawling Archdiocese of Los Angeles. A court order issued Monday, in a case joined by the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press, requires the release of more than 30,000 pages of documents, with the names of abusers and their superiors un-redacted. Considering previous actions by higher courts, Judge Emilie Elias's decision is likely to survive appeals and the deluge of new facts could occur in weeks, if not days.
At the very least, the memos, personnel files and psychiatric reports will give the public an unprecedented look inside the process followed by then Cardinal Roger Mahony and his fellow officials, as they received complaints about priests whose crimes included the serial rape of minors. The papers will also reveal something of the Catholic hierarchy's mindset as it weighed the imperatives of the law against the needs of the Church. At times in the decades-long, international sexual abuse crisis, top churchmen did cover-up crimes and protect perpetrators. It's hard to imagine this did not occur in America's largest diocese, where more than $700 million has been paid to compensate men and women who were sexually violated as boys and girls.
It's hard to imagine, too, that the files on notorious priest abusers, who continued in service after complaints were lodged against them, won't raise serious questions about the conduct of their supervisors including Cardinal Mahony. As the recent conviction of Monsignor William Lynn of Philadelphia showed, high-level Catholic leaders risked being charged with serious crimes as they sought to protect the Church from scandal and neglected their duty to protect the public. The self-protective impulse, reinforced by the oath cardinals take to avoid scandal, has inclined some clerics toward unconscionable cover-ups and evasions including the transfer of priests out of jurisdictions where their arrest was imminent. Transfers, including international reassignments, have permitted priests to escape arrests. Others have been hidden in psychiatric treatment centers out of the reach of police and prosecutors.
CALIFORNIA
Press-Telegram
Special Report
Thousands of pages of court documents show how the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for decades knowingly shielded more than a dozen priests suspected of child sex abuse.
A Los Angeles News Group special report offers an in-depth look into how and when the church knew about the abuse and chose instead to move accused priests from parish to parish, even allowing the most abusive to move out of the country.
Church officials in some cases tried to get priests into therapy, but at the same time took steps to keep the horrific accusations from ever surfacing or being reported to authorities. Victims and their families pleaded for justice, only to fall on deaf ears. This report details the depth of secrecy and covert actions taken by top church officials to keep the accusations in the shadows.
In the decades since, archdioceses everywhere have taken steps to recognize and stop such abuse from happening again.
In the meantime, victims feel the weight and still live in the shadow of abuse.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
The New York Times
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents - BishopAccountability.org]
Editorial
No member of the Roman Catholic hierarchy fought longer and more energetically than Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles to conceal the decades-long scandal involving the rape and intimidation of children by rogue priests. For years, the cardinal withheld seamy church records from parents, victims and the public, brandishing endless litigation and fatuous claims of confidentiality.
The breadth of Cardinal Mahony’s cover-up became shockingly clear last week with the release in court of archdiocese records detailing how he and a top aide concocted cynical strategies to keep police authorities in the dark and habitual offenders beyond the reach of criminal prosecution.
“Sounds good — please proceed!” the cardinal, now retired, instructed in 1987 after the aide, Msgr. Thomas Curry, cautioned against therapy for one confessed predator — lest the therapist feel obliged to tell authorities and scandalize the archdiocese. The two discussed another priest, Msgr. Peter Garcia, who admitted specializing in the rape of Latino immigrant children and threatened at least one boy with deportation if he complained. Cardinal Mahony ordered that he stay out of California after his release from a New Mexico treatment center out of fear that “we might very well have some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors.” Monsignor Curry worried that there might be 20 young people able to identify the priest in “first-degree felony” cases.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Get Religion
As strange as it sounds, the goal of this post is to praise The Los Angeles Times for a page-one story focusing on a single case history linked to the decades of sexual abuse of children and teens by Catholic priests.
At the center of the story are two brothers, Damian and Bob Eckert and the priest, Father Robert Van Handel, who led the community boys choir in which they sang while growing up in Santa Barbara, Calif. Damian was 9 or 10 when he joined and Bob was about 8.
But the key to this remarkable story, other than the painful memories of Damian Eckert, is a once confidential document. This quotable source surfaced in the legal proceedings linked to the wave of sexual-abuse cases in California, including the Van Handel cases and others linked to the now-closed St. Anthony’s Seminary in Santa Barbara.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Hector Becerra, Ashley Powers and Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times
January 26, 2013
On a Sunday night at Dodger Stadium in 1986, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony celebrated Mass in flawless Spanish. In an era when immigrants in Los Angeles were routinely derided as parasites and criminals, the archbishop told the crowd of 55,000 that whether they were born in Puebla, San Salvador or Managua, they were part of his flock.
"The Catholic Church is your home and I am your pastor," Mahony said.
But even as cheers of "Rogelio! Rogelio!" rained down from the upper decks, Mahony was covering up the sexual abuse of some of the most vulnerable in the church, including in his beloved Latino community, church records show.
Over the last four decades, hundreds of people have come forward to say they were abused by priests in the archdiocese. Children were victimized at parishes across the L.A. area, in poor neighborhoods as well as wealthy ones. But internal church documents released last week shined a spotlight on Mahony's mishandling of two pedophile priests who abused the undocumented — a group the prelate often described as society's most in need of protection. Mahony worked to make sure the priests got therapy, found new jobs and stayed out of prison. For the child victims, little was done.
CALIFORNIA
Pasadena Star-News
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents - BishopAccountability.org]
By Barbara Jones and Tracy Manzer, Staff Writerss
gvtribune.com
Posted: 01/26/2013
When the Most Rev. Roger Michael Mahony was tapped by Pope John Paul II to be the shepherd of Los Angeles' 3 million Roman Catholics, a local priest called the choice "a breath of fresh air for the archdiocese."
Within months of his installation as archbishop on Sept. 5, 1985, the North Hollywood native had advocated for immigration reform, encouraged interfaith communication and launched plans to expand spiritual and social programs for the region's Hispanic Catholics. Mahony quickly became a fixture in Los Angeles as he ministered to the region's disenfranchised residents and rubbed elbows with its civic leaders.
"We must realize that Christ came as the son of God not only to spend his time in the synagogue, but also to involve himself in the daily life of the people," he said in an interview at the time.
"We as his disciples must realize the Gospel must speak to actual, current situations."
For Mahony, those situations would include complaints that scores of his priests were abusing children — altar boys, students in parochial schools, sons and daughters of their parishioners.
CALIFORNIA
The Record
By The Record
January 27, 2013
Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony said again this week how sorry he is.
In a slightly different way, the word sorry can also be used to describe Mahony as a person and as a one-time leader of the nation's largest Catholic enclave, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Confidential files just made public clearly show that Mahony, for five years bishop of the Stockton diocese before moving to his Los Angeles post in 1985, shielded numerous molester priests.
Much of this has been suspected if not conclusively known for years, but memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Monsignor Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief adviser on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police.
LA Observed
By Kevin Roderick | January 21, 2013
Documents ordered released from the sexual abuse files of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles are starting to get out. Today's LA Times lede is a grabber: "Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including keeping them out of California to avoid prosecution..."
The archdiocese's failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.
In the confidential letters, filed this month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.
CalCoast News
[Monsignor Peter Garcia 1984 - via DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
[Monsignor Peter Garcia 1987]
[exhibit 54]
A Los Angeles priest used bondage and targeted illegal immigrants in his decades long practice of raping Southern California boys, Catholic church records released Monday show.
Confidential letters filed as evidence in a civil case against Father Nicholas Aguilar Rivera reveal that church leaders protected Monsignor Peter Garcia and several other priests who sexually abused boys.
Garcia threatened to have one boy deported if he came forward to law enforcement with sexual abuse allegations. A monsignor documented the case in a letter to an archbishop.
“The priest took him to the jail and instructed him to either behave or else he would end up either in jail of back in Mexico,” the letter reads. “He was supposedly told if you talk, I have lawyer friends and I will surely have you deported.”
The Arizona Republic
[Lovell file - BishopAccountability.org]
[Documents Selected and Highlighted on the AbusedInSoCal.com Website - Lovell 1985]
By Michael Clancy
The Republic | azcentral.com
Thu Jan 24, 2013
A former Diocese of Phoenix priest imprisoned in Arizona is one of 14 priests whose files were released this week in a Los Angeles court case involving sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Lawrence Lovell is serving a 14-year sentence for abusing children in Yavapai and Maricopa counties. He is imprisoned at the Central Arizona Correctional Facility in Florence.
His file included a letter from his superior in the Claretian religious order, a report of his history in the Los Angeles area, a list of actions taken against him, and a letter from a parent accusing Lovell of molesting his children.
What it does not include is Lovell’s full clerical history, including assignments in Prescott and Phoenix.
Southwest Riverside News Network
By City News Service, on January 21, 2013
Former Archbishop Roger Mahony and a top adviser discussed ways to prevent law enforcement from learning about molestations of children by clergy more than a decade before the abuses became public knowledge, according to internal Catholic church records released today.
Communications penned in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas Curry, then the archdiocese’s chief adviser on sex abuse cases, document efforts by the diocese to keep law enforcement in the dark, the Los Angeles Times reported on its website.
In the confidential letters filed in connection with a civil court case — and obtained by The Times — Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys.
Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent the clergymen from seeing therapists who might alert authorities.
The New York Times
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
By IAN LOVETT
Published: January 21, 2013
LOS ANGELES — The retired archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, and other high-ranking clergymen in the archdiocese worked quietly to keep evidence of child molesting away from law enforcement officials and shield abusive priests from criminal prosecution more than a decade before the scandal became public, according to confidential church records.
The documents, filed in court as part of lawsuit against the archdiocese and posted online by The Los Angeles Times on Monday, offer the clearest glimpse yet of how the archdiocese dealt with abusive priests in the decades before the scandal broke, including Cardinal Mahony’s personal involvement in covering up their crimes.
Rather than defrocking priests and contacting the police, the archdiocese sent priests who had molested children to out-of-state treatment facilities, in large part because therapists in California were legally obligated to report any evidence of child abuse to the police, the files make clear.
In 1986, Cardinal Mahony wrote to a New Mexico treatment center where one abusive priest, Msgr. Peter Garcia, had been sent.
“I believe that if Monsignor Garcia were to reappear here within the archdiocese we might very well have some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors,” Cardinal Mahony wrote.
dotCommonweal
January 21, 2013, 9:28 pm
Posted by Paul Moses
Newly released documents detailing how far church leaders in Los Angeles went to conceal clergy sexual abuse in the late 1980s help fill in the story of the scandal and how it developed at the highest level of the nation’s largest diocese. As reported in the Los Angeles Times:
Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement, according to internal Catholic church records released Monday.
The archdiocese’s failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese’s chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation’s largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders’ own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.
The documents also show that in addition to hiding cases from police, an effort was made to avoid having predatory priests get counseling within the state because the California therapists would need to report the abuse to authorities. These scenes from internal records of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles offer further evidence that a coverup was orchestrated at high levels of the church. There is no sense that Mahony and his vicar were misled by therapists. They knew the abusive priests’ conduct was criminal. They may not have known the full scope of the sexual abuse that existed, but they knew it was a gigantic problem and sought to keep it secret.
Redlands Daily Facts
By Dana Bartholomew, Barbara Jones and Brenda Gazzar, Staff Writers
dailynews.com
Posted: 01/21/2013
Nearly a decade ago, Manuel Vega held a weeklong sidewalk vigil downtown in the hope of persuading the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to come clean about sexual abuse by its priests.
With Monday's court-ordered release of hundreds of pages of unredacted personnel files, Vega feels that his prayers - and those of other clerical abuse victims - are finally being answered.
"Overall, I think it's a win-win," said Vega, a 46-year-old former policeman who lives in Oxnard and who testified more than a decade ago in the early days of the abuse scandal that eventually shattered the church.
"I think this should serve as a model for the release of other (unredacted) files by the archdiocese," said Vega, a former altar boy whose lawsuit claimed he was abused by Father Fidencio Silva at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Oxnard.
South Bend Tribune
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
Reuters
12:36 a.m. EST, January 22, 2013
(Reuters) - Two Catholic Church officials in California plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement as late as 1987, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday, citing newly released internal Church records.
The records show that Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony, who is now retired, and his top adviser on child sex abuse cases, Monsignor Thomas Curry, worked with other Church officials in 1987 to send priests accused of abuse out of state to avoid prosecution, the newspaper said.
Mahony and Curry also tried to keep pedophile priests from confessing to therapists who would be obligated to report the crimes, the newspaper said, citing the records, which were released on Los Angeles Times' website.
Curry even suggested in 1987 they send a pedophile priest to "a lawyer who is also a psychiatrist" to put the priest's "reports under the protection of privilege," the Times reported.
The Catholic World Report
January 22, 2013
By Catherine Harmon
In the wake of the release of confidential documents showing how leaders of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles conspired to keep priests who sexually abused children out of jail, Cardinal Roger Mahony—archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles—has apologized for his role in “the archdiocese’s long struggle with the sexual abuse of minors.” Mahony claims he was “naïve” about the impact of abuse upon the priests’ young victims.
That archdiocesan leaders failed to report to the police priests who admitted abusing children was already known; Mahony admitted as much in a 2010 deposition. The documents posted yesterday on the L.A. Times website, which are part of the on-going civil case against the archdiocese, demonstrate a coordinated effort on the part of archdiocesan officials—specifically Cardinal Mahony and his then-vicar of clergy Thomas J. Curry (now an auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese)—to keep abusive priests away from law enforcement. From the Times report:
The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.
In the confidential letters, filed this month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.
National Catholic Reporter
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
by Catholic News Service | Jan. 22, 2013
Los Angeles --
As the Archdiocese of Los Angeles released church records on clergy sexual abuse, Cardinal Roger Mahony again apologized to abuse victims, saying he was naive about its impact on their lives.
The cardinal, who retired as archbishop of Los Angeles in 2011, also said in a statement Monday that he prays for victims of abuse by priests daily as he celebrates Mass in his private chapel.
"It remains my daily and fervent prayer that God's grace will flood the heart and soul of each victim, and that their life journey continues forward with ever greater healing," he said, explaining that on his altar he keeps cards with the names of each of the 90 victims he met with from 2006 to 2008.
"As I thumb through those cards I often pause as I am reminded of each personal story and the anguish that accompanies that life story," Mahony said.
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
Updated January 23, 2013
8 SUGGESTIONS on how to publicly defy and stop Benedict XVI excommunication of Fr. Flannery
Italian Galileo & Irish Tony Flannery: parallel victims of Vatican Last Tsar Benedict XVI Tyranny
In the 17th Century, Galileo offered the Pope and the Vatican Inquisition to look at the telescope “a thousand times” but they refused. By using merely their naked eyes to look at the planets, they doggedly insisted that ‘the Earth is the center of the universe and that the Sun revolved around the Earth’ - based on the Bible alone, and they shamed and condemned Galileo for his scientific beliefs. The rest is history.
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
BOYCOTT the Vatican Museum and boycott ALL donations to the Vatican Catholic Church Reign of Terror
Vatican Assets in England and in the United States of America
Vatican assets in London
- premises of Bulgari, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street
- headquarters of the wealthy investment bank Altium Capital, on the corner of St James's Square
- Pall Mall
LA Daily Nes
Doug McIntyre: Facts blow holes in Cardinal Roger Mahony's accounts
By Doug McIntyre, Columnistdailynews.com
Posted: 01/22/2013
He has index cards, says the Holy Man. And on those index cards are names. He prays in his chapel nightly for the names on those index cards.
They're the names of children molested - even raped - by priests in his charge.
"I was naive" about abuse, says the Holy Man. "I'm sorry," he says.
Which is not what he says in internal church documents, 30,000 unredacted pages worth, finally brought into the light of day after years of foot-dragging, stonewalling and legal maneuvering.
The Holy Man is the former head of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony.
In these documents we find the Smoking Cassock proving Mahony complicit in the cover-up of the worst crime short of murder, child molestation.
"This is all intolerable and unacceptable to me," Mahony wrote in 1991.
Yet he continued to tolerate it. He continued to accept it.
The Philly Post
Joel Mathis
In a scene no doubt hauntingly familiar to many Philadelphians, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles on Monday apologized for mishandling sex abuse allegations that emerged in the archdiocese between 1986 and 1997. Newly released documents from that era show Mahony and other officials made a “concerted effort” to keep police from finding out children had been abused by priests.
Mahony released a statement, which read in part:
Various steps toward safeguarding all children in the Church began here in 1987 and progressed year by year as we learned more about those who abused and the ineffectiveness of so-called “treatments” at the time. Nonetheless, even as we began to confront the problem, I remained naïve myself about the full and lasting impact these horrible acts would have on the lives of those who were abused by men who were supposed to be their spiritual guides. That fuller awareness came for me when I began visiting personally with victims. During 2006, 2007 and 2008, I held personal visits with some 90 such victims. (HOGWASH)
New York Post
Justice arrived surely and sternly for child sex abuser Nechemya Weberman, thanks to an effective prosecution by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.
Give him and his office credit — without forgetting that it has taken far too long for victims of sex crimes in the borough’s Hasidic community to have their prosecutor fully in their corner.
Let this welcome change be a permanent one.
Weberman, 54, was sentenced Tuesday to 103 years in prison for repeatedly preying upon a young girl, starting when she was just 12.
She fell into his power when her school told her parents to send her to Weberman for counseling. At their sessions, he forced her to perform oral sex and reenact scenes from pornographic videos.
New York Post
There’s no understating the importance of the 103-year prison sentence imposed this week on Nechemya Weberman. A respected member of the Satmar Hasidic community, Weberman will probably die in prison now that Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Ingram threw the book at him after his conviction for sexually abusing a child he was “counseling.”
His fate is richly deserved.
The conviction wouldn’t have come without the courage of the victim, now a teenager, who defied the politically connected Orthodox sect to testify.
It was also a big win for Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes, who finally brought a sex-abuse case against a member of the insular Satmar community. Of course, only the harsh glare of the press spotlight — shone by The Post, among others — got Hynes to act.
The DA says this case marks “a sea change.” We sure hope so.
The Jewish Daily Forward
By Batya Ungar-Sargon
Published January 24, 2013.
When is a long prison sentence too long?
That’s the question many inside and outside the ultra-Orthodox community are asking this week after a judge dealt Nechemya Weberman a 103-year term behind bars for abusing a young girl.
“The abuse of a child cannot be swept under the rug or dealt with by insular groups believing only they know what is best for their community,” Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said at a press conference following Weberman’s sentencing.
The prosecutor’s statement closely echoed his thoughts in a written statement published in the New York Daily News on January 19, in which Hynes compared the Hasidim to organized crime groups. He proudly trumpeted the Weberman sentencing as a way to “send a message” to the community as a whole.
“I compare it to the Mafia, but at least in Mafia cases we can offer victims witness protection. That does not work in these insular communities,” Hynes wrote. “I hope the verdict and sentence sends a very clear and unmistakable message to people in certain parts of the Orthodox community.”
New York Post
Justice arrived surely and sternly for child sex abuser Nechemya Weberman, thanks to an effective prosecution by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.
Give him and his office credit — without forgetting that it has taken far too long for victims of sex crimes in the borough’s Hasidic community to have their prosecutor fully in their corner.
Let this welcome change be a permanent one.
Weberman, 54, was sentenced Tuesday to 103 years in prison for repeatedly preying upon a young girl, starting when she was just 12.
She fell into his power when her school told her parents to send her to Weberman for counseling. At their sessions, he forced her to perform oral sex and reenact scenes from pornographic videos.
New York Post
There’s no understating the importance of the 103-year prison sentence imposed this week on Nechemya Weberman. A respected member of the Satmar Hasidic community, Weberman will probably die in prison now that Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Ingram threw the book at him after his conviction for sexually abusing a child he was “counseling.”
His fate is richly deserved.
The conviction wouldn’t have come without the courage of the victim, now a teenager, who defied the politically connected Orthodox sect to testify.
It was also a big win for Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes, who finally brought a sex-abuse case against a member of the insular Satmar community. Of course, only the harsh glare of the press spotlight — shone by The Post, among others — got Hynes to act.
The DA says this case marks “a sea change.” We sure hope so.
===================================================================
Los Angeles Times
By Sandra Hernandez
January 31, 2013, 4:47 p.m.
Earlier this month, a state judge ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to include the names of church leaders who mishandled sex-abuse claims when it finally releases scores of confidential priest files as part of a 2007 settlement.
Yet despite that court order, the archdiocese has continued to act as if the rules don’t apply to it. This week, the church resubmitted a proposal that would have redacted the names of top church leaders from the documents and only provided the names of those officials in a generic cover sheet attached to the priest’s file. The church’s actions were nothing short of an attempt to delay justice and conceal the truth from the victims and the public.
I can’t say the church’s request came as a surprise. The archdiocese has spent years in court fighting to keep those records under wraps. And last week, we learned why.
As The Times' Victoria Kim and Harriet Ryan reported, confidential letters and memos, filed in a civil court case, reveal Cardinal Roger M. Mahony’s role in plotting to shield pedophile priests from coming to the attention of police or prosecutors. The letters document how Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, his top advisor on sex-abuse cases, discussed strategies to keep pedophile priests out of state.
Washington
Judge orders LA archdiocese to release 30K pages of priest files without blacked-out names
By Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A judge on Thursday ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to turn over 30,000 pages from the confidential files of priests accused of child molestation without blacking out the names of top church officials who were responsible for key decisions in how to handle the sexually abusive priests.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Emilie Elias ordered the nation’s largest archdiocese to turn over the files to attorneys for alleged victims no later than Feb. 22.
The archdiocese had planned to black out the names of members of the church hierarchy who were responsible for the molesting priests in the documents and instead provide a cover sheet for each priest’s file, listing the names of top officials who handled that case. The church reversed course Wednesday after The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and plaintiff attorneys objected in court.
The archdiocese had also planned to black out handwritten comments on the files inked by recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and provide those in typewritten form instead.
A record-breaking $660 million settlement in 2007 with more than 500 alleged victims paved the way for the ultimate disclosure of the tens of thousands of pages, but the archdiocese and individual priests fought to keep them secret for more than five years. The AP and the Los Angeles Times intervened in court in January because the 4.3 million-person archdiocese intended to release the files with the names of top officials, including Mahony’s, blacked out.
Los Angeles Times
A trove of confidential church files detailing how the Los Angeles archdiocese dealt with priests accused of molestation must be released “as soon as possible” and include the names of Cardinal Roger Mahony and his aides, a judge ruled Thursday.
In a written order, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Emilie H. Elias gave the church a Feb. 22 deadline to turn over about 30,000 pages of internal memos, psychiatric reports,Vatican correspondence and other documents.
“Let’s just get it done,” Elias said in court Thursday.
Her order brought to a close five and a half years of legal wrangling and delays and set the stage for a raft of new and almost certainly embarrassing revelations about the church’s handling of pedophile priests. A small portion of the files were made public in a civil case last week and showed that in the 1980s Mahony and a top aide discussed methods for concealing abuse from police, including giving molesters out-of-state assignments.
DOCUMENT: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files
The files Elias ordered released are the final piece of a landmark 2007 settlement between the archdiocese and about 500 people who said clergy abused them. As part of that $660-million settlement, the archdiocese agreed to hand over the personnel files of accused abusers. Victims said the files would provide accountability for church leaders who let pedophiles remain in the ministry; law enforcement officials said the records would be important investigative tools.
But the release was delayed for years by appeals and the painstaking process of reading and redacting 89 files, some hundreds of pages long. A private mediator in 2011 ordered the church to black out the names of victims and archdiocese employees not accused of abuse, saying he wanted to avoid “guilt by association.”
ABC 6
Posted: Jan 31, 2013
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A judge has ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to turn over 30,000 pages from the confidential files of priests accused of sex abuse without blacking out the names of top church officials who were responsible for handling their cases.
Judge Emilie Elias on Thursday ordered the nation's largest archdiocese to release the files by Feb. 22.
A record-breaking $660 million settlement with more than 500 victims in 2007 set the stage for the release of the files, but the archdiocese and individual priests fought for five years to keep them secret.
NBCSouthern California
By Patrick Healy and Jonathan Lloyd
Thursday, Jan 31, 2013
A judge is expected to issue an order Thursday afternoon governing the release of personnel files that include the names of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles leaders who handled priest abuse cases.
Attorneys and the judge concluded a conference call Thursday morning in which they discussed how the 30,000 pages of confidential personnel files will be released. The archdiocese is expected to be given 30 days to comply, but officials might have the documents ready in as soon as one week.
The files will be provided to attorneys for clergy abuse victims.
Attorneys for the archdiocese said Wednesday they will not pursue a plan that would have blacked out church leaders' names when the files are released, according to the Associated Press. The move is a reversal of the archdiocese's plan to redact the names, citing privacy rights of priests and others.
Jeff Anderson & Associates
Jeffrey R. Anderson
While better late than never as the saying goes, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles today continued to preserve its own reputation at all costs. Simultaneous to releasing 12,000 damning documents that illustrate decades of concealment, cover up and deliberate, reckless disregard for the safety of children in the Archdiocese, the Archdiocese made public the resignation of Bishop Curry and Cardinal Mahony from any public ministry. After fighting in court against the release of these documents for over six years, it is incredibly disingenuous of the Archdiocese to now make news of the resignation of these two officials. The resignations are an empty gesture, a hollow attempt to right decades of horrific wrongs by these two hierarchs and many others.
In the end, survivors have triumphed. What is finally made public this evening by court order, as a provision of the 2007 settlement, is a long time coming for the survivors, their families and those survivors who have yet to come forward. 12,000 documents, encompassing the secret files on all of the credibly accused priests within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, these documents expose the truth; they unveil a concerted conspiracy to deny, minimize and conceal, to preserve the reputation of the Archdiocese over the safety of children at all costs. Although today the Archdiocese's shameless attempts to save face have not changed, what has changed is the scope of public knowledge regarding the appalling practices of this Archdiocese in the handling of dangerous predators among its ranks. The released files lay bare the festering flesh of this Archdiocese for all the world to critique, a momentous day for survivors indeed.In the end, survivors have triumphed. What is finally made public this evening by court order, as a provision of the 2007 settlement, is a long time coming for the survivors, their families and those survivors who have yet to come forward. 12,000 documents, encompassing the secret files on all of the credibly accused priests within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, these documents expose the truth; they unveil a concerted conspiracy to deny, minimize and conceal, to preserve the reputation of the Archdiocese over the safety of children at all costs. Although today the Archdiocese's shameless attempts to save face have not changed, what has changed is the scope of public knowledge regarding the appalling practices of this Archdiocese in the handling of dangerous predators among its ranks. The released files lay bare the festering flesh of this Archdiocese for all the world to critique, a momentous day for survivors indeed.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on February 01, 2013
Bishop Thomas Curry stepping down is a small, belated step in the right direction, though it's obviously only being done because the horrific extent of his complicity is about to become publicly known. He should have been fired long ago.
Several bishops across the globe have stepped down when their reckless, callous and deceitful actions in clergy sex cases has become known. It should happen far more often. But it would be much more powerful if the Pope and other high ranking church officials would actually force their corrupt colleagues out.
Hand-slapping Mahony is a nearly meaningless gesture. When he had real power, and abused it horribly, he should have been demoted or disciplined by the church hierarchy, inRome and in the US
Statement by Los Angeles SNAP leader Esther Hatfield of Huntington Beach CA
The posting of this information byLA Catholic officials is a public relations gambit to divert attention from years and years of deception about pedophile priests and children’s safety. They’ll posture as "transparent."
But that will be a desperate and laughable ruse.
In truth, LA church officials – including Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop Jose Gomez, Bishop Thomas Curry and others - have relentlessly and expensively and successfully fought for years to keep these horrific secrets secret.
It's ludicrous for Mahony, Gomez and Curry to claim to be "forthcoming" with records they've successfully kept hidden for decades, using millions of dollars from generous parishioners to pay high prices lawyers to obstruct disclosures.
KPCC
Frank Stoltze with KPCC wire services and KPCC staff
UPDATE 6:31 a.m.: The following is a sampling of the reaction to the release Thursday evening of thousands of pages of personnel files of priests accused of child molestation, and of Archbishop Jose Gomez's decision to strip Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his duties:
•Los Angeles archdiocese: The files' release "concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our local church."
•Archbishop Jose Gomez: "I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children."
•Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit and senior fellow at theWoodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University
•Terry McKiernan, founder of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks the release of priest files nationally: The reprimand is a "purely symbolic punishment that they hope will satisfy at least some people in the archdiocese. I don't think that many savvy observers of this will be deceived."
•David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP): "Hand-slapping Cardinal Roger Mahony is a nearly meaningless gesture. When he had real power, and abused it horribly, he should have been demoted or disciplined by the church hierarchy, inRome and in the U.S.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[the Los Angeles files]
Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 01, 2013
■Victims beg Catholics “Read abuse files”
■And they urge ex-church staff: “Help fill in gaps”
■Group believes archdiocese records are incomplete
■SNAP: “Now’s the time for witnesses & whistleblowers to step up”
■Mahony’s restriction & Curry’s resignation are “weak,” victims say
What:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will react to the moves by two top Los Angeles officials (Archbishop Gomez & Bishop Curry).
They will also urge:
-- victims, witnesses, police, prosecutors, church employees and lay Catholics to step forward with information about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups that is NOT in the newly-disclosed files,
-- parishoners and the public to read the files carefully and discuss them with friends, family and fellow church-goers, and
-- law enforcement authorities to “double down” on efforts to prosecute high-ranking Catholic supervisors who ignored, enabled and concealed the “heinous crimes” of 252 LA-area predator priests.
When:
Friday, February 1 at 11 am
Where:
Outside of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple (at Hill),Los Angeles
The Voice ofRussia
On Thursday, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles released personnel files of over a hundred clergy members involved in the 2007 settlement of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by priests.
Archbishop Jose Gomez said that former Archbishop Roger Mahony would "no longer have any administrative or public duties." In the wake of the scandal, Mahony's ex- top adviser on sexual abuse issues, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, stepped down as regional bishop ofSanta Barbara
The clergy files include the names of priests, culminating years of legal debate over whether names should be redacted from the paperwork.
“The 2013 public release of the files of clergy who were subject of the 2007 global settlement concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our local church,” the church statement said.
Jakarta
Michael Thurston | February 01, 2013
The archbishop ofLos Angeles
Archbishop Jose Gomez said retired Cardinal Roger Mahony will "no longer have any administrative or public duties," while Mahony's former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, Thomas Curry, has stepped down as a regional bishop.
"These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious," he wrote, releasing the personnel files online after prolonged wrangling over whether the names should be blanked out. ...
But the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a victims group, dismissed Curry's resignation as a "small, belated step in the right direction" and said "hand-slapping Mahony is a nearly meaningless gesture."
"The lesson here for Catholic staff is clear: if you successfully conceal your wrongdoing, you can keep your job. If, however, you fail, there's an extraordinarily slim chance you might experience some slight consequences," SNAP director David Clohessy said in a statement.
Daily News
By Jonathan Dobrer
dailynews.com
Posted: 01/31/2013
Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony apologizes for realizing only late in the game that molestation was going on, or having any idea of its scope, or believing that is was really traumatic. Really?
The only plausible excuse he has for any part of the cover up is possibly a mistaken view on the efficacy of therapy for pedophiles. In the 1980s, some might have thought it could work. They were quickly disabused of that notion but allowed children to continue to be abused.
Mahony's statements of remorse for his sins of omission ring hollow, since he worked day and night until his retirement to keep the records sealed and prevent the victims and their families from knowing what was reported, who got sent to rehab, and how many were reassigned. He worked virtually till the day that the records and correspondence were released to keep the documents secret, then just highly redacted. All this was done to "protect" the identity of the victims, he claimed. Not credible. None of it.
The Worthy Adversary
[the Los Angeles files]
Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 31, 2013
Moments after a judge ordered a final halt to decades of secrecy by top LA archdiocesan officials, Archbishop Jose Gomez’ lawyer made this outlandish claim:
Michael Hennigan said that after what he called an inevitable “media blitz” over the file release, he hoped the focus would shift to the church’s current well-regarded program for preventing abuse.
“You’ve written almost nothing about what has happened in the last 10 years,” he told reporters outside court. “The church is at the front edge of how to deal with these issues.”
CA - SNAP's Letter to California victims
CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Waiting for Godot to Leave
My friends, do you wonder why people abandon the Church? Do you wonder why atheism is all the rage among the pierced and tattooed teens and college kids who work at Subway? Do you wonder why nobody takes the whole God thing too seriously any more?
Well, there are many reasons.
But one reason is this. It's because so few bishops do whatLos Angeles
Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I’ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011. ... Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.
Thus writes Archbishop Gomez, banning Cardinal Mahoney, a "prince of the Church", from any public or administrative duties. Why? Because Mahoney deliberately and with care and precision shielded child abusing priests from the law, shuffling them from parish to parish, and pawning them off on other dioceses. He let the predators have continued access to their prey - innocent children - as long as it did not cost the archdiocese any money or him personally any embarrassment. His reputation and the almighty dollar counted for more than the safety of children, for the effective treatment of priests, or for the service of justice.
Religion News Service
Michael J. O'Loughlin | Jan 31, 2013
There was once a time when Catholic Cardinals in theUS Los Angeles ’ Cardinal Roger Mahony, who spent decades championing the rights of undocumented Latino immigrants in that city and across the US Massachusetts
But now, with startling revelations coming out of LA about Mahony’s attempts to protect known pedophile priests in his archdiocese while seemingly ignoring the victims, some are questioning his ability to fight for the undocumented. From theLA Times :
On a Sunday night at Dodger Stadium in 1986, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony celebrated Mass in flawless Spanish. In an era when immigrants inLos Angeles were routinely derided as parasites and criminals, the archbishop told the crowd of 55,000 that whether they were born in Puebla , San Salvador or Managua
Victim group not satisfied with action on Mahony
Action against Cardinal Mahony: Readers aren't impressed
Zenit
[the Los Angeles files]
Junno De Jesús Arocho Esteves
LOS ANGELES, February 1, 2013 (Zenit.org).
Archbishop Jose Gomez ofLos Angeles
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed," the Archbishop stated.
Stressing the need to acknowledge the "terrible failure", Archbishop Gomez stated the need to pray for the victims of abuse and to support them in their healing while "restoring the trust that was broken."
Cardinal Roger Mahoney, Archbishop Emeritus ofLos Angeles , and Bishop Thomas Curry, bishop of Santa Barbara Santa Clara
+Gomez Breaks the Omerta
Mahony defends legacy on church abuse in blog
At North Hollywood parish that Cardinal Roger Mahony calls home, Catholics react to his rebuke over sex abuse scandal
CALIFORNIA
San Gabriel Valley
HISTORICAL EVOLUTION of DEALING with the SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINORS
Mahony responds to ban: 'Not once' did successor raise questions
Cardinal Mahony's removal not enough, church critics say
Lawyer who fought for documents' release says discipline a good first step
Roman Catholic Archdiocese ofLos Angeles
Personnel Files of clergy who where subject of the 2007 global settlement have been publicly released and are listed below. We ask that you read the introduction page before exploring content below.
Frequently Asked Questions/Clergy Personnel Files:
1. Which files are being disclosed?
The files concern those priests named in the litigation that settled in 2007. Pursuant to the settlement agreement between victims and the Archdiocese, retired Federal Judge Dickran Tevrizian ordered files released subject to certain rules designed to protect the privacy of certain individuals, including the redaction of the names of victims, third parties and church hierarchy.
Judge Emilie Elias then adopted the Judge Tevrizian order with certain modifications. Specifically, she ordered that the names of the church hierarchy generally be disclosed in the files. The Archdiocese accepted her ruling, and has restored the names of church hierarchy in the documents being released. ...
Clergy Personnel Files
•Abercombie, Leonard
•Aguilar-Rivera, Nicolas
•Alzugaray, Joseph
•Arzube, Juan
•Baker, Michael
•Barmasse, Kevin
•Boyer, Leland
•Brennan, John
•Buckley, Michael
•Buckman, Franklin
•Caffoe, Lynn
•Carey, Cleve
•Carriere, David
•Carroll, Michael
•Casey, Edward
•Casey, John
•Castro, Willebaldo
•Chandler, David
•Coffield, John
•Cosgrove, John
•Coughlin, Richard
•Cronin, Sean
•Cruces, Angel
•Daley, Wallace
•Dawson, John
•Deady, John
•DeJonghe, Harold
•Devaney, James
•Diesta, Arwyn
•Doherty, John
•Dolan, James
•Duggan, Albert
•English, Thomas
•Farabaugh, Clint
•Farmer, Donald
•Farris, John
•Faue, Matthias
•Feeney, John
•Fernando, Walter
•Fessard, Gerald
•Fitzpatrick, James
•Ford, James
•Gallagher, George
•Garcia, Cristobal
•Garcia, Peter
•Garcia, Richard
•Ginty, Denis
•Granadino, David
•Grill, Philip
•Grimes, James
•Gunst, George
•Hackett, John
•Hagenbach, Clinton
•Hanley, Bernard
•Haran, Michael
•Hartman, Richard
•Henry, Richard
•Hernandez, Stephen
•Hovath, Bertrand
•Hunt, Michael
•Hurley, Daniel
•Jaramillo, Luis
•Kearney, Christopher
•Kelly, Matthew
•Knoernschild, John
•Kohnke, John
•Lapierre, David
•Lindner, Jerold
•Llanos, Theodore
•Loomis, Richard
•Lopez, Joseph
•Lovell, Lawrence
•MacSweeney, Eugene
•Marshall, Thomas
•Martinez, Ruben
•Mateo, Leonard
•McAsey, Joseph
•McCarthy, Kevin
•McElhatton, Thomas
•Miani, Titian
•Miller, George
•Monte, Alfred
•Nocita, Michael
•O'Carroll, Charles
•O'Connor, Donal
•Orellana-Mendoza, Samuel
•Pecharich, Michael
•Perez, Henry
•Pina, Joseph
•Plesetz, Gerald
•Ramos, Eleutario
•Reilly, Terrence
•Rodriguez, Carlos
•Roemer, Donald
•Roper, William
•Rowe, Dorian
•Rozo, Efrain
•Rucker, George
•Ruhl, John
•Ryan, Joseph
•Salazar, John
•Salinas, Gabriel
•Sanchez, Manuel
•Santillan, John
•Savino, Dominic
•Scott, George
•Sharpe, Joseph
•Sheahan, John
•Shimmaly, Edward
•Silva-Flores, Fidencio
•Stalkamp, Louis
•Sutphin, Carl
•Tamayo, Santiago
•Tepe, Raymond
•Terra, Michael
•Ugarte, Jose
•Van Liefde, Christopher
•Vetter, Henry
•Villa Gomez, Nemoria
•Weitz, Wilfrid
•Wempe, Michael
•Ziemann, Patrick
•z-I
•z-II
•z-III
•z-IV
•z-V
•z-VI
Beverly Hills
[with video]
(CNS) Posted Thursday, January 31, 2013–7:17 PM
After a years-long legal battle, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles today released personnel files of more than 100 clergy members as part of a 2007 settlement of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by priests.
In conjunction with the release, Archbishop Jose Gomez announced that former Archbishop Roger Mahony will “no longer have any administrative or public duties,” and Mahony’s former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, has stepped down as regional bishop ofSanta Barbara
The clergy files include the names of priests, culminating years of legal wrangling over whether names should be redacted from the paperwork.
“The 2013 public release of the files of clergy who were subject of the 2007 global settlement concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our local church,” according to a diocese statement announcing the release of the files. “In the 2004 Report to the People of God and elsewhere, the archdiocese acknowledged and apologized for failing to treat victims of abuse with compassion, as well as for employing what we now know to be inadequate standards for treatment and supervision of priests who were found to have abused children and young people.”
The Tablet (United Kingdom
1 February 2013
Archbishop Jose Gomez ofLos Angeles issued a statement yesterday announcing that he has stripped his predecessor Cardinal Roger Mahony of "any administrative or public duties", and accepted a request from his auxiliary bishop Thomas Curry to be relieved of his responsibility as the regional bishop of Santa Barbara
Archbishop Gomez took the action in response to the recent release of archdiocesan documents pertaining to abuse by priests in the 1980s, showing that then-Archbishop Mahony and Mgr Curry tried to keep information from the police and move perpetrators out of the state beyond the reach of law enforcement officials.
The Australian
[the Los Angeles files]
AFP
February 02, 2013
THE Archbishop of Los Angeles stripped his predecessor of all church duties last night as he released files on more than 100 clerics, as required under a 2007 lawsuit deal over alleged sex abuse.
Archbishop Jose Gomez said retired cardinal Roger Mahony would "no longer have any administrative or public duties", while Cardinal Mahony's former top adviser on sex abuse issues, Thomas Curry, had stepped down as a regional bishop.
"These files document abuses that happened decades ago, but that does not make them less serious," Archbishop Gomez wrote, releasing the personnel files online after prolonged wrangling over whether the names should be blanked out.
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed. We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today."
Wall Street Journal
By TAMARA AUDI and ERICA E. PHILLIPS
The Catholic Archbishop ofLos Angeles
Cardinal Mahony was a well-known figure inLos Angeles
Shortly after announcing the decision regarding Cardinal Mahony, the church unexpectedly released thousands of pages of documents about more than 100 priests believed to have abused children. The document release is part of a $660 million civil settlement reached with more than 500 plaintiffs in 2007.
In a statement, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez called the files "brutal and painful reading."
CBS 47
[with video]
Reported by: Lemor Abrams
Email: LemorAbrams@cbsfresno.com
A bombshell from the Catholic Church.
Retired cardinal Roger Mahony is relieved of his remaining duties with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
It comes as the Church releases 12,000 documents from files on priests accused of sexual abuse.
Records show Mahony worked for years to conceal molestation by the clergy from law enforcement.
Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez released a statement late Thursday.
He says in part:
"My predecessor, Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties."
The Times (United Kingdom)
Lucinda Beaman
America
The former head of theLos Angeles
Press TV (Iran
A US Catholic archbishop has stripped a top cardinal, who led a Los Angeles Archdiocese before him, of all church duties for his role in concealing child sexual abuse offenses by Catholic priests from authorities.
Archbishop Jose Gomez announced in a Thursday statement by the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese that he had removed his predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties.
Former top advisor to 76-year-old Mahony on child sexual abuse cases in the church, Thomas Curry, 70, who colluded with him in hiding child molestation offenses by Catholic priests, has reportedly quit his current position as a bishop in theCalifornia city of Santa Barbara
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil," Gomez proclaimed in a statement issued by the largest Catholic archdiocese in theUS
Redlands
By Susan Abram and Barbara Jones, Staff Writersdailynews.com
Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has stood at the center of the Los Angeles Archdiocese clergy sex abuse scandal after mounting evidence showed he shielded pedophile priests from law enforcement, has been relieved of all public duties, Archbishop Jose Gomez announced late Thursday.
Gomez's unexpected announcement came as the archdiocese, under court order, released some 12,000 documents from the internal personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse.
"Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties," Gomez said in a written statement.
He also said auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, who served as Mahony's vicar of clergy and his point person on sex abuse cases, has stepped down as regional bishop ofSanta Barbara
"I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility," Gomez said.
Indian Express
The archbishop ofLos Angeles
Archbishop Jose Gomez said retired Cardinal Roger Mahony will "no longer have any administrative or public duties," while Mahony's former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, Thomas Curry, has stepped down as a regional bishop.
"These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious," he wrote, releasing the personnel files online after prolonged wrangling over whether the names should be blanked out.
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children.
CNN
By Ben Brumfield, CNN
updated 7:12 AM EST, Fri February 1, 2013
(CNN) -- ACalifornia
There were many -- 192 priests and bishops were named in litigation, the archdiocese said.
"The cases span decades," Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in a statement Thursday. Some go back to the 1930s.
"But that does not make them less serious. I find these files to be brutal and painful reading," he said.
U-T San Diego
By Gillian Flaccus Associated Press
Los Angeles
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez announced Thursday night he has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties and a former top aide to Mahony has stepped down from his post, on the same night the church released thousands of pages of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse.
“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” Gomez said in a statement, referring to the newly released files made public by the church Thursday night 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.”
Gomez announced he has “informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”
Mahony, who retired in 2011 after more than a quarter-century at the helm of the archdiocese, has publicly apologized for mistakes he made in dealing with priests who molested children.
The Guardian (United Kingdom
Reuters inLos Angeles
guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 February 2013
The Catholic archdiocese ofLos Angeles
Archbishop Jose Gomez said he had stripped his predecessor, the retired cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties. "I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil," Gomez said in a statement released by theUS
"There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed," he said.
Mahony's former top aide, Thomas Curry, also stepped down as bishop ofSanta Barbara
The 12,000 pages of files were made public more than a week after church records relating to 14 priests were unsealed as part of a separate civil suit, showing that church officials plotted to conceal the abuse from law enforcement agencies as late as 1987.
Newser
By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff
Posted Feb 1, 2013
(Newser) – The former archbishop ofLos Angeles
BBC News
A retiredLos Angeles
Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, 76, has apologised for his "failure", Archbishop Jose Gomez said on Thursday.
TheLos Angeles archdiocese, the largest in the US
Cardinal Mahony retired in 2011, having run the archdiocese for 25 years.
In 2007Los Angeles
Cardinal Mahony has publicly apologised for mistakes he made handling the clerical sex abuse issue.
'They failed'
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading," Archbishop Gomez said in a statement. "The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil.
Coshocton Tribune
by Cathy Lynn Grossman,USA
One of the most powerful Catholic leaders in theUSA , Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired archbishop of Los Angeles
Just hours after a court-ordered massive release of priest personnel files revealed the extent of Mahony's role in covering up for known sexual predators, Archbishop José Gómez announced Thursday night that he has relieved Mahony of his remaining duties.
A former top aide to Mahony also stepped down from his current post.
This is the first time since the massive abuse scandal exploded in 2002 hen there were direct repercussions for top church officials. In December 2002, Cardinal Bernard Law resigned his post as archbishop ofBoston
RTE News (Ireland)
The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, after years of legal battles, has released files on priests accused of molesting children.
Archbishop Jose Gomez said he had stripped his predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties.
He also removed a top clergyman who had been linked to efforts to conceal the abuse.
Cardinal Mahony's former top aide, Thomas Curry, stepped down as bishop ofSanta Barbara
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil," Archbishop Gomez said in a statement.
IrishCentral
By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Friday, February 1, 2013, 7:05 AM
A Catholic Archbishop has described the efforts of the American church to thwart police investigations into clerical sex abuse as ‘terribly sad and evil’ – after he banned Cardinal Roger M. Mahony from public life.
The Los Angeles Times has revealed that new documents show that Cardinal Mahony has been removed from all public office by his successor Archbishop José H. Gomez.
Cardinal Mahony was leader ofAmerica
National Catholic Reporter
by Jerry Filteau | Feb. 1, 2013
In an action possibly without any precedent in church history, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez has barred his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, from any public ministry inLos Angeles
“Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties” Gomez said in a Jan 31 letter.
He cited Mahony’s alleged failures to protect young people from sexually abusive priests – extensively documented in court filings in recent years – as grounds for the extraordinary decision, in church terms, to bar the cardinal from any future public activities in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
Mahony, archbishop ofLos Angeles from 1985 to 2011 and a cardinal since 1991, has long been one of the leading church figures in the United States
Church law gives cardinals extraordinary authority even beyond their own dioceses, with Canon 357 of the Code of Canon Law saying that “in those matters which pertain to their own person, cardinals living outside ofRome
St. Augustine Record
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 theLos Angeles archdiocese's Santa Barbara
"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."
Declaración sobre los archivos de personal de sacerdotes
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles
Monseñor José H. Gomez
Arzobispo de Los Ángeles
Los Angeles, 31 de enero de 2013
Hermanos y Hermanas en Cristo,
Esta semana estamos haciendo públicos los archivos de los sacerdotes que abusaron sexualmente a niños mientras servían enla Arquidiócesis de Los Angeles.
Estos archivos contienen documentación sobre abusos que sucedieron hace varias décadas. Pero eso no los hace menos graves.
La lectura de esos archivos es brutal y dolorosa. El comportamiento que se describe ahí es tristísimo y terriblemente malo. No hay excusas ni explicaciones posibles sobre lo que pasó a esos niños. Los sacerdotes involucrados tenían el deber de ser sus padres espirituales, y fallaron.
Hoy, necesitamos admitir esas terribles faltas. Tenemos que rezar por todos aquellos que alguna vez han sido heridos por miembros dela Iglesia. Y tenemos que seguir ofreciendo nuestro apoyo en el largo y doloroso proceso de la sanación de sus heridas, así como de la recuperación de la confianza que fue destrozada.
No puedo deshacer los errores del pasado que se encuentran en esas páginas. Leer esos archivos, reflexionar sobre las heridas causadas, ha sido la experiencia más triste que he tenido desde que asumí la responsabilidad de ser su Arzobispo en el 2011.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles
[en espanol]
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop ofLos Angeles
Los Angeles
My brothers and sisters in Christ,
This week we are releasing the files of priests who sexually abused children while they were serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious.
I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed.
We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today. We need to pray for everyone who has ever been hurt by members of the Church. And we need to continue to support the long and painful process of healing their wounds and restoring the trust that was broken.
I cannot undo the failings of the past that we find in these pages. Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I’ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011.
My predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as Vicar for Clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regional Bishop ofSanta Barbara
To every victim of child sexual abuse by a member of our Church: I want to help you in your healing. I am profoundly sorry for these sins against you.
To every Catholic in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, I want you to know: We will continue, as we have for many years now, to immediately report every credible allegation of abuse to law enforcement authorities and to remove those credibly accused from ministry. We will continue to work, every day, to make sure that our children are safe and loved and cared for in our parishes, schools and in every ministry in the Archdiocese.
Los Angeles Times
By Harriet Ryan and Victoria Kim,Los Angeles
February 1, 2013
In a move unprecedented in the American Catholic Church, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez announced Thursday that he had relieved his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, of all public duties over his mishandling of clergy sex abuse of children decades ago.
Gomez also said that Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry, who worked with Mahony to conceal abusers from police in the 1980s, had resigned his post as a regional bishop inSanta Barbara
The announcement came as the church posted on its website tens of thousands of pages of previously secret personnel files for 122 priests accused of molesting children.
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil," Gomez wrote in a letter addressed to "My brothers and sisters in Christ."
The release of the records and the rebuke of the two central figures in L.A.'s molestation scandal signaled a clear desire by Gomez to define the sexual abuse crisis as a problem of a different era — and a different archbishop.
These above are the media tentacles of Octopus Dei
========================================================
News Updates for February 6, 2013
Mahony should resign
Vatican Mammon Beast to raise $200 million fund campaign in Los Angeles
Los Angeles
In the midst of renewed public outrage over its handling of the priest molestation cases, the Los Angeles Archdiocese is considering a $200-million fund-raising campaign.
The archdiocese has hired aNew York
The archdiocese is $80 million in debt, according to a recent church financial report. In 2007, the archdiocese agreed to a record $600-million settlement with more than 500 alleged victims of priest abuse.
The consultants conducting the six-month study are interviewing every pastor in the archdiocese, as well as lay leaders.
A spokesman for the church said initial feedback has been “very positive.” The funds used would “be put into various endowments earmarked to support the pastoral priorities of the archdiocese, as well as for the general repair and upkeep of our parish churches and schools,” spokesman Tod Tamberg said in a statement.
KPCC
Mike Roe |February 5th, 2013
The Los Angeles Archdiocese, amidst dealing with the latest in the ongoing fallout of how it handle priest molestation cases, is looking at a possible $200 million fundraising campaign, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The company Guidance in Giving out ofNew York
The study is set to take six months and includes interviews with all of the archdiocese’s pastors, plus lay leaders, the Times reports. A church spokesman said that early feedback was “very positive,” according to the Times.
===========================================================
NEWS UPDATES for FEBRUARY 14, 2013
During an ongoing investigations/trials in Australia in recent days... a priest has testified that from the Vatican on down the line, that it was known and accepted for priests to have sex with children & men. He stated that under the Vatican's rules: a priest having sex with women was the only way to breach rules of celibacy, that sex with children victims & other men does not breach the oath.
The Vatican's rule that kids (& men) were a free-for-all and this mindset undoubtedly resulted the entire church's hostile treatment of priest's victims since in their 'rules' priests were not doing anything wrong.
USA Vatican
Bill Donohue, President of Catholic League, Claims New York Times Makes "Malicious" Attack on OC's Worst Pedo-Priest
CALIFORNIA
Orange County
By Gustavo Arellano
Fri., Feb. 8 2013
The ink hadn't even dried (or whatever the digital equivalent of that dead-tree era metaphor is) on author Daniel A. Olivas' moving New York Times op-ed piece on OC's worst-ever pedophile priest, Eleuterio Ramos, before Bill Donohue, the president of the long-irrelevant Catholic League, began complaining.
See, Donohue is the type of guy who believes anyone who brings up the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal is anti-Catholic because those molesting priests were homosexual, they molested long ago, and everyone else does it, so why concentrate on priests? It's a strategy he tried on me, leading to a smackdown that was as easy for me to do as dig up OC pioneers who were Klan members.
Yesterday, Donohue sent out a commentary to his donors railing against Olivas and the Times, charging them with being "malicious." Laughably, it has as many holes in it as the arguments to make Junipero Serra a saint.
Donohue tries to gloss over Ramos' career to his nonagenarian followers by saying he "was suspended from ministry in the 1990s," implying that church officials briskly took away Ramos' priestly faculties upon finding out his pederast ways. As usual, Donohue didn't even bother with a quick Google search: Weekly readers know that Ramos never lost his priestly faculties, and was only removed from active parish life after a civil suit forced Diocese of Orange officials to fish him back up from the Tijuana parish where they had deposited him after molesting another boy--and this after 15 years of shuffling him from parish to parish after every molestation. But why bother Donohue with details?
The Priest That Preyed
CALIFORNIA
The New York Times
[Eleutario Ramos -Los Angeles
By DANIEL A. OLIVAS
Published:February 6, 2013
IT is the autumn of 2003, and I am sitting with my wife and teenage son at a large table that is groaning with plates of Mexican food and soft drinks and wine. We’re celebrating my sister’s anniversary, and like most Mexican parties inLos Angeles
This time, it’s a nun whom I’ve known since I was a student atSt. Thomas
Immediately, I know whom she’s talking about, and I begin to perspire.
The title story of the book, called “Assumption,” describes a fictionalized priest, Father González, who served a parish in a neighborhood not unlike the one I grew up in. The priest in the story is known for being “cool” and spending time with some of the more troubled boys at the nearby grammar school. The boys talk about how he has invited them to visit his room, drink wine, listen to Sly Stone and look at dirty magazines. These visits, of course, lead to the boys’ molesting. In the story, the priest gets caught and, in disgrace, hangs himself.
In real life, shame did not bring an end to the abuse. The priest I based the story on, the priest the sister recognized, was the Rev. Eleuterio Ramos. My parish knew him as Father Al, the hip young priest who spoke out for immigrant and Chicano rights, railed against the Vietnam War, could drink with the best of them and dedicated his spare time to mentoring the most troubled boys atSt. Thomas
Eleuterio Ramos Makes the Op/Ed Pages of the New York Times
CALIFORNIA
Orange County
By Gustavo Arellano
Thu.,Feb. 7 2013
In 2003, Daniel A. Olivas released Assumption and Other Stories, a well-received collection of pieces based on his life growing up and living inSouthern California . The titular tale details a Latino priest, popular with his working-class barrio parish, who ends up molesting boys.
Today, in a dramatic op/ed piece for the New York Times, Olivas reveals who the inspiration for the pedo-priest was: none other than Eleuterio Ramos, the most prolific pedophile priest in the history of the Diocese of Orange, and Olivas' childhood priest in East Los Angeles at St. Thomas the Apostle.
"My parish knew him as Father Al, the hip young priest who spoke out for immigrant and Chicano rights, railed against the Vietnam War, could drink with the best of them and dedicated his spare time to mentoring the most troubled boys at St. Thomas," Olivas writes.
The Tidings
Written by Archbishop José H. Gomez
Friday, 08 February 2013
There have been challenging days for our local Church here inLos Angeles
I have been talking and reflecting with Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Curry, along with our other Auxiliary Bishops about the events of last week. We are committed to moving forward in our ministries with hope and confidence in God’s grace.
We need to keep praying for those who are hurting. We need to ask again for forgiveness for the sins of the past and for our own failings. And we need to match our prayers for grace with concrete actions of healing and renewal.
And recent events should inform our prayer, penance and charity in this season of Lent, which begins next week with Ash Wednesday.
All of us need the grace of a new conversion. This is what Lent is for.
OpEd News
By Vinnie Nauheimer
Accepting the Oscar for "The Sting LA Style" are Roger Cardinal Mahony and Archbishop Jose Gomez for their stellar performances in a remake of "The Sting." Produced, directed, and orchestrated by theVatican Los Angeles Hollywood
Anyone believing the sincerity of the this "made for public consumption" feud should reach into their Tinker Bell pouches and throw some pixie dust on themselves so they can remain in La La Land. Are we really supposed to believe that Gomez was unaware of the extent of Mahony's malfeasance? No more than that insulting excuse that Mahony made when he proffered, "nothing in my training prepared me for priests raping children." If true, we ought to put both their faces on the Naivete Awards! Mahony for not knowing that the rape, sodomization, and molestation of children was a heinous, immoral, and criminal act. Gomez, who obviously doesn't read, deserves his award in honor of his empty protestations that he knew nothing of how bad things were under Mahony. Really, did this man live under a rock for the past 10 years? As Mahony said, "Gomez never complained about me before." These pernicious lines were written by theVatican spin masters to add drama to the feud, and Mahony followed the script perfectly, giving a convincing performance penned to create the illusion of a genuine feud. "Please Don't Throw Me into the Briar Patch, Archbishop Gomez!" wink, wink.
The New York Times
By FRANK BRUNI
Published: February 4, 2013
Last week, the Obama administration proposed a further tweak to its rules about insurance coverage of contraception, trying to quiet religious organizations’ complaints that the edict tramples on their beliefs. Roman Catholic officials have been especially vociferous. Their moral conviction, they insist, cannot be slave to secular convention.
Except, that is, when it works to their advantage. When it profits them. And this two-tracked approach was illustrated by another recent news story, one that flickered onto and then off the public’s radar more quickly than it should have, and deserves a closer look.
The news story brought to light a wrongful-death suit by a widower, Jeremy Stodghill, in regard to his wife and the twin 28-week-old fetuses inside her when she died in a Catholic hospital, St. Thomas More, inCañon City , Colorado
The hospital’s lawyers argued that the woman’s death couldn’t have been prevented. As to whether proper medical attention might have yielded the delivery of two healthy baby boys, lawyers argued that the question was ultimately irrelevant, because wrongful death can apply only to people and, legally speaking, fetuses aren’t human lives. ...
We’ve been getting a fresh and galling peek into that with the court-compelled release of documents from the Los Angeles Archdiocese, which engaged in a pattern of willful blindness and outright cover-up so egregious that the current archbishop, José Gomez, took the shocking step last week of publicly reprimanding his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony.
The documents show that Mahony and his lieutenants repeatedly failed to report allegations to law enforcement officials and urged accused priests to leave or stay out of the state, lest they face prosecution. They decided, in short, that the church’s representatives and reputation mattered more than justice: that the church could hold itself above laws that governed everybody else.
OpEd News
By Dave Lefcourt
OpEdNews Op Eds2/4/2013
"Protect the Church at all costs". That would represent the true official policy of the Catholic Church.
Unfortunately, the latest "news" coming out of the Archdiocese of Los Angele reveals something more familiar. On Thursday "12,000 pages of once-confidential personnel files of more than 100 priests accused of abuse" was posted on its web site after aLos Angeles
The archdiocese was given three weeks to make the documents public but chose to release them immediately,(one supposes as some "act of valor" considering it had previously stonewalled all efforts to release the files with 5 - years of legal wrangling). Too bad the Church hierarchy hadn't taken immediate action when their priests molesting of children first became known, but that's an old story.
In this latest revelation of church hierarchy "dirty laundry", one of the documents came from the "Servants of the Paraclete", a Catholic order inNew Mexico New Mexico
National Catholic Reporter
by Eugene Cullen Kennedy |Feb. 8, 2013 Bulletins from the Human Side
Archbishop Jose Gomez has earned and retired the Shocked, Shocked Award based on the response of Captain Louis Renault, played by Claude Rains in the movie "Casablanca," who, when pressed for his reasons for closing down Rick's Café, says indignantly as he is handed his winnings for the night, that he is "shocked, shocked," to learn that gambling has been going on there.
Gomez uses Renault's tones in a letter relieving his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of his administrative and public duties, professing to be shocked, shocked, to learn from the court-ordered release of files on priests that sex abuse has been going on in the archdiocese ofLos Angeles
He finds these files, he claims, "to be brutal and painful reading. ... The behavior described ... is terribly sad and evil." He writes further of Mahony's "failure to fully protect young people."
This is the same Mahony he praised when, on succeeding him in March 2011, said, "I am very grateful ... to serve the Church with a mentor and leader like Cardinal Mahony."
LA Daily News
By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer
dailynews.com
Posted:02/09/2013
Half of them are dead, a handful are in prison, a few have continued in the ministry.
And the rest of the former priests -- those accused in Los Angeles Archdiocese files of sexually abusing altar boys, parishioners' kids and schoolchildren -- could be just about anywhere.
Because of efforts by Cardinal Roger Mahony and his top aides to shield scores of suspect priests from prosecution, many have been free to leave the church and start new lives without anyone else knowing about their past.
Although the priests are aging -- the youngest is nearing 60, and most are in their 70s and 80s -- victims and their advocates worry about the inability of the system to track these alleged abusers and to notify the public.
"The frightening prospect is that the gentle man next door, who is so friendly and engaging with children, might well turn out to be somebody who has a sickness and disease that makes him a danger to children," said attorney Raymond Boucher, who helped secure a $660 million settlement in 2007 against the archdiocese in the sex-abuse scandal.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God - BishopAccountability.org]
Posted by Barbara Dorris onFebruary 14, 2013
Archbishop Gomez is behaving exactly like Cardinal Mahony - posturing as a reforming but acting like an enabler. Once again, parishioners and the public learn about potentially dangerous clerics thanks to outside sources.
Earlier this week the organization Bishop Accountability discovered a document naming two dozen clergy predators who have never been publicly named.
Frankly, Gomez's explanation defies common sense and archdiocesan history. In almost every instance, LA Catholic officials have disclosed information about predator priests only when forced or pushed to do so by external pressures or sources.
Every day Gomez has hidden – and keeps hiding – information about child molesters is a day child molesters are able to keep molesting.
Gomez took over the LA archdiocese onMarch 1, 2011 . So he's had 716 days to educate himself and warn others about hundreds of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. Many of those clerics still work and walk free among unsuspecting families, friends and colleagues. On his first day in office, Gomez should have been poring over abuse files. Within weeks, he should have fully and frankly revealed everything that archdiocesan staff knew about these predators.
VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider (An Opus Dei VATICAN PIED PIPER media arm ofVatican Deceits)
Rafael García de la Serrana Villalobos’ appointment as vice director of the Department of Technical Services for the Governorate of Vatican City State, is a step in this direction
Andrès Beltramo Alvarez
Vatican City
His appointment went practically unnoticed but is proof of the great trust Benedict XVI has in the Opus Dei as part of his strategy to silently clean up the Roman Curia in the aftermath of the Vatileaks scandal. TheVatican City State
Last 26 January, the priest was appointed vice director of the Department of Technical Services for the Governorate of the world’s smallest State. And he was not chosen by chance. Only yesterday he was head of logistics at the Opus Dei headquarters inRome
The not-quite-50-year-old priest was ordained presbyter on23 May 2009 . His is a classical “adult vocation” that was born within the body founded by San Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer. An engineer by training, he coupled the skills needed in his new task with a deep spirituality (BULLSHIT SPIRITUALITY THAT MADE JOHN PAUL II SAID AND DID NOTHING FOR 27 YEARS TO STOP HIS JP2 ARMY – JOHN PAUL II PEDOPHILE PRIESTS ARMY) .
He came to theVatican
===++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++==
A lawyer for a person who is alleging to have been abused by the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera said Friday that an agreement has been reached that will allow him to question the cardinal about his handling of the case.
According to the Associated Press, Aguilar Rivera was a visiting Mexican priest in 1987 suspected of molesting 26 children during his nine-month stay.
The AP report says Aguilar Rivera fled to Mexico a year later after parents
complained and remains a fugitive with warrants out for his arrest in both the U.S. and Mexico.
The cardinal’s deposition is slated for Feb. 23, days before he is expected to travel
to Rome to help select the next pope.
====
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_22600955/cardinal-roger-mahony-be-deposed-church-abuse-suit
Cardinal Roger Mahony, the former Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, will be questioned under oath next week as part of a clergy abuse lawsuit just days before he flies to Rome to help select the next pope, attorneys said Friday.
The recently retired head of the nation's largest archdiocese will be deposed Feb. 23 about how he handled a visiting Mexican priest who police believe molested 26 children in the Los Angeles archdiocese during a nine-month stay in 1987. The Rev. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera fled to Mexico in 1988 after parents complained. He has since been defrocked but remains a fugitive, with warrants for his arrest in both the U.S. and Mexico.
The agreement was brokered behind closed doors Friday by a Los Angeles judge. Michael Hennigan, an archdiocese attorney, confirmed the parties agreed to a four-hour deposition with no limitations on the line of questioning.
Mahony has been deposed in civil clergy abuse lawsuits multiple times over the years. Next week's deposition, however, would be the first since the archdiocese released thousands of pages under court order from the confidential personnel files of more than 120 priests accused of sex abuse.
The files show that Mahony and other top archdiocese officials maneuvered behind the scenes to shield accused priests and protect the church from a growing scandal while keeping parishioners in the dark.
The depostion agreement allows attorneys to question Mahony before he leaves for Rome, said Anthony De Marco, who represents a 35-year-old man who alleges he was abused by Aguilar Rivera.
Church officials warned the priest that parents had complained about abuse but then waited two days to call police - allowing him to flee to Mexico, court papers allege. One memo in Aguilar Rivera's confidential file shows that Mahony later ordered church officials not to turn over a list of altar boys to police who were investigating.
"We cannot give such a list for no cause whatsoever," Mahony added in a handwritten note on a memo from Jan. 26, 1988.
De Marco hopes to get much more out of this deposition of the cardinal than he did in 2007, when he questioned Mahony but had strict limits about what he could ask.
At the time, he said, he only had about 40 pages of the priest's 158-page confidential file.
Since then, he has seen nearly 540 pages related to the Aguilar Rivera case, he said in court filings.
"It's a vastly different examination when you have their contemporaneous notes, which we have now," De Marco said outside court Friday. "In that case, we have a whole lot more that we know and we don't have limitations on scope, so we should learn a whole lot more."
The archdiocese agreed to a record-breaking $660 million settlement in 2007 with more than 500 plaintiffs that included a promise to work to release the confidential files of priests accused of sexual abuse. Attorneys for individual accused priests, however, fought the disclosure for more than five years.
The deposition agreement allows De Marco to question Mahony about up to 25 additional priests named in clergy abuse cases, he said.
Hennigan, the archdiocese attorney, declined to comment further.
The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 15, 2013
On his blog yesterday, Cardinal Roger Mahony discussed how he has been “called to humiliation.”
Given all of the storms that have surrounded me and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles recently, God’s grace finally helped me to understand: I am not being called to serve Jesus in humility. Rather, I am being called to something deeper–to be humiliated, disgraced, and rebuffed by many.
Then, he has the arrogance to say:
In the past several days, I have experienced many examples of being humiliated. In recent days, I have been confronted in various places by very unhappy people. I could understand the depth of their anger and outrage–at me, at the Church, at about injustices that swirl around us.
Thanks to God’s special grace, I simply stood there, asking God to bless and forgive them. [emphasis mine]
Mahony is a man with no soul.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God - BishopAccountability.org]
Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 14, 2013
Archbishop Gomez is behaving exactly like Cardinal Mahony - posturing as a reforming but acting like an enabler. Once again, parishioners and the public learn about potentially dangerous clerics thanks to outside sources.
Earlier this week the organization Bishop Accountability discovered a document naming two dozen clergy predators who have never been publicly named.
Frankly, Gomez's explanation defies common sense and archdiocesan history. In almost every instance, LA Catholic officials have disclosed information about predator priests only when forced or pushed to do so by external pressures or sources.
Every day Gomez has hidden – and keeps hiding – information about child molesters is a day child molesters are able to keep molesting.
Gomez took over the LA archdiocese on March 1, 2011. So he's had 716 days to educate himself and warn others about hundreds of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. Many of those clerics still work and walk free among unsuspecting families, friends and colleagues. On his first day in office, Gomez should have been poring over abuse files. Within weeks, he should have fully and frankly revealed everything that archdiocesan staff knew about these predators.
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue
I once asked a patristics scholar how Jerome, the translator of the Bible into Latin, ever got canonized. He was a nasty, cruel man. The scholar replied that in those days Saint meant “someone important in the Church.” And not only in those days.
John Paul grievously mishandled the cases of sexual abuse in the Church. Priests and at least one cardinal (Schoenborn) pleaded with him to do something, and he refused. Children committed suicide because of abuse that John Paul’s failures and willful blindness allowed to continue. And now he is Blessed John Paul and soon will be Saint John Paul.
Why?
Poland.
Poland is the last Catholic country in Europe and what John Paul did to help bring down Communism eclipses for the Poles everything else he did or failed to do.
Little will happen to Cardinal Mahony.
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue
Several people here and elsewhere have criticized Archbishop Gomez, He has been in charge of the Los Angles archdiocese for two years - why did he wait until now to do anything, as Mahony himself asked.
My guess is that events passed something like this:
When Gomez began archbishop, it took him a while to assimilate what had happened. He had enormous new duties as archbishop, the paper trail ran to tens of thousands of pages, and the leftover staff from Mahony’s years was not in a hurry to point out how compromising the documents were.
When Gomez realized what had happened, he knew he had to do two things: release the documents and rebuke Mahony.
They had to be done simultaneously.
Boston Globe
By Joan Vennochi
Globe Columnist
February 17, 2013
THE CATHOLIC Church can’t get to a bright, new future until it finally breaks with the ugliness of the past.
One way to make such a break would be to keep Cardinal Roger Mahony from participating in the next election to determine a new pope.
If past is prologue, as Shakespeare wrote, keeping Mahony away from the upcoming conclave seems unlikely. Church leaders, from the pope down, never understood the depth of outrage over the long-running clergy sexual abuse scandal. Apology, not accountability, was supposed to quiet the rebellious.
But the scenario involving Mahony — the retired archbishop of Los Angeles — has its own distinction. Two weeks ago, Mahony was relieved of all public duties by current Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez. What The New York Times called “an extraordinary moment in Catholic Church history” occurred after long-sought documents revealed that Mahony actively worked to protect priests who were abusing children from police, rather than protect victims from their abusers.
GlobalPost
Agence France-Presse
February 19, 2013
US cardinal Roger Mahony, retired from church duties as part of a paedophilia scandal, cannot be banned from the conclave to elect a new pope, but could be advised to stay away, a fellow cardinal and canon law expert said in an interview on Tuesday.
"The common practise is to use persuasion. There is no more that can be done. Cardinal Mahony has the right and duty to take part," Velasio De Paolis, one of the 117 cardinal electors due to participate, told La Repubblica daily.
"This is a troubling situation but the rules must be followed," he said.
"He could be advised not to take part only through a private intervention by someone with great authority," the cardinal said, adding that ultimately "it will be up to his conscience to decide whether to take part or not".
Digital Journal
[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God - BishopAccountability.org]
By Brett Wilkins
Feb 14, 2013
Los Angeles - The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added two dozen priests and other clergymen to the list of individuals suspected of raping or sexually assaulting children in what was already a major part of a massive worldwide Catholic sex abuse scandal.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the 24 names were disclosed in a report posted on the archdiocese's website last month along with 12,000 pages of internal records detailing how the church dealt with abuse claims. BishopAccountability.org, a non-profit group that researches and archives documents related to clergy sex abuse, originally uncovered the list and published the names of the suspected offenders.
The Catholic Church readily admits that the allegations against the 24 men are "credible." But the archdiocese will not release any further information about the accusations against them, including how many accusers there are, when the alleged sex abuse occurred or the parishes where the alleged abusers worked.
Terry McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org told the Times that the disclosure of such information is "essential."
"It is essential for everyone to know the nature of the allegations against these priests and brothers, because some of them may still pose a danger to children in Los Angeles, elsewhere in the United States, and in other countries," he said.
San Bernardino Sun
By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer
dailynews.com
Posted: 02/13/2013
[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God - BishopAccountability.org]
[FINAL ADDENDUM
To view the final addendum to the 2004 Report to the People of God, click here.]
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added the names of two dozen priests and brothers to its list of clergy accused of sexually abusing children.
In a two-page "final addendum" to its 2004 Report to the People of God, which was the church's response to the growing sex-abuse scandal, the archdiocese said the newly released names included those found during a follow-up review of its files. Some also were named in a lawsuit against the archdiocese, which resulted in a 2007 settlement of $660 million to more than 500 victims.
As part of the settlement, the archdiocese recently released some 12,000 documents detailing allegations of molestation against children, some going back decades. The files also revealed a cover-up of the abuse by Cardinal Roger Mahony, which led to an unprecedented public rebuke of the retired archbishop by his successor.
The list was posted on the archdiocese website at the same time the files were released, although no mention was made of it. The list of 49 names includes two dozen who were not previously known to be accused, according to BishopAccountability.org, which has been tracking sex-abuse in the Catholic Church and discovered the addendum.
BishopAccountability.org
BishopAccountability.org discovered this document on the website of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It lists 49 "names of clergy from a follow up review of Archdiocesan files, and names of clergy involved in Clergy I litigation which were not previously posted." The list includes 24 names of accused priests not previously known.
In a letter to Archbishop Gomez, this organization urged him to make public the allegations against the priests and brothers, as well as their career histories. Such information has been provided by the archdiocese when they released lists of names in the past. We also expressed concern that this list, which has apparently existed since October 2008, has not been made public in a proper way, and that children have been put at risk as a result.
The PDF properties of the document show that it was created and presumably posted on January 31, 2013. No announcement was made by the archdiocese of the document's publication, although it is clearly related to the archdiocese's release on the same day of clergy files, under the nonmonetary terms of the 2007 settlement. Archbishop Gomez did not mention the release of the Final Addendum in his January 31, 2013 letter.
This release of names is momentous. Perhaps only when Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore released his list on September 25, 2002, have so many names of accused priests come into the public domain by a bishop's actions. On several occasions, bishops have been compelled to release names by survivors' nonmonetary conditions in a bankruptcy proceeding (e.g., Bishop Kettler in Fairbanks) or by a grand jury report (Cardinal Rigali, who removed 21 priests in Philadelphia), but Archbishop Gomez' release of 24 new names is a remarkable and disturbing development.
The release of the names was first reported in L.A. Archdiocese Adds Priests' Names to Abuse List, by Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times (2/13/13).
Los Angeles Times
By Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times
February 13, 2013
[addendum to the list of clergy and brothers accused of abuse - BishopAccountability.org]
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added two dozen priests and brothers to its list of clergy accused of child molestation.
Though the church deems the allegations against the men credible, the archdiocese has declined to release information about the complaints, including the number of accusers, the dates of the alleged abuse and the parishes where the men worked.
The names were disclosed in a two-page report posted on the archdiocese's website last month alongside 12,000 pages of internal records related to its handling of abuse claims.
The document was discovered recently by BishopAccountability.org, a nonprofit that researches and archives records of the Catholic abuse scandal.
The group's president, who stumbled upon the document during a recent Google search, criticized the inconspicuous way the men were named and the lack of information provided about their cases.
"The terrible mess in the Catholic church happened because information was hidden and controlled, and that attitude is very clearly wrong," said Terry McKiernan.
Orange County Weekly
By Gustavo Arellano
Thu., Feb. 14 2013
Last month, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles released thousands of pages of documents pertaining to its long, proud history of protecting pedophile priests. Yesterday, Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, which archives documents pertaining to the Catholic Church's sex-abuse scandal going back to the 1950s, discovered that LA Archbishop Jose H. Gomez had also sneaked in a list of 49 priests accused of child rape, including 24 previously never publicly acknowledged. Sneaky!
Orange County has been well-documented in this document dump, given parishes here were under the domain of the archdiocese until 1976, so it's no surprise that an OC priest would be among those listed for the first time.
We're going to have to hop onto the wayback machine for this one, but the pedo-priest's name is William Hollinger, and he served at Our Lady of Fatima in San Clemente from 1966 through 1969. You gotta remember that in those days, San Clemente was the end of the Earth in Southern California, and that Hollinger's assignment report had him bouncing from parish to parish most of his life (including two stints in the Long Beach area), so Hollinger accused mostly likely translates as Hollinger a monster.
BishopAccountability.org has yet to go through the assignments of all these new pedo-priests, so I wouldn't be surprised if more OCers pop up. "In a letter to Archbishop Gomez, this organization urged him to make public the allegations against the priests and brothers, as well as their career histories," McKiernan wrote. Such information has been provided by the archdiocese when they released lists of names in the past. We also expressed concern that this list, which has apparently existed since October 2008, has not been made public in a proper way, and that children have been put at risk as a result."
=================================================================
Vatican Terror on Galileo, priests and the poor, women and children
UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
Updated January 23, 2013
8 SUGGESTIONS on how to publicly defy and stop Benedict XVI excommunication of Fr. Flannery
Italian Galileo & Irish Tony Flannery: parallel victims of Vatican Last Tsar Benedict XVI Tyranny
In the 17th Century, Galileo offered the Pope and the Vatican Inquisition to look at the telescope “a thousand times” but they refused. By using merely their naked eyes to look at the planets, they doggedly insisted that ‘the Earth is the center of the universe and that the Sun revolved around the Earth’ - based on the Bible alone, and they shamed and condemned Galileo for his scientific beliefs. The rest is history.
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
BOYCOTT the Vatican Museum and boycott ALL donations to the Vatican Catholic Church Reign of Terror
Vatican Assets in England and in the United States of America
Vatican assets in London
- premises of Bulgari, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street
- headquarters of the wealthy investment bank Altium Capital, on the corner of St James's Square
- Pall Mall
Read our new blog: Pope Francis the CON Christ. Pretender & Impostor of Jesus. Merlin hoax CANNOT CLONE JESUS or dogs http://pope-francis-con-christ.blogspot.ca/
Our latest related article about New Jersey "Bling" Bishop Myers http://pope-francis-con-christ.blogspot.ca/2014/02/new-jersey-bling-bishop-myers-wants-100.html
Updated February 19, 2014
Jeff Anderson & Associates held a
public conference in Los Angeles to expose how ‘the Los Angeles Archdiocese used therapy scam to
defraud victims of civil rights; Cardinal, Bishop thwarted police, helped
criminal priest escape US justice. A
landmark, $13m settlement on behalf of 17 survivors who were sexually abused by
five different perpetrators in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, including Fr.
Nicolas Aguilar Rivera was settled. They
also discussed how the Archdiocese paid for survivor’s therapy but did not
inform survivors of their legal rights to sue, as required by law, see news
compilation below.
Read our related articles Ex-Jesuit Gov.Jerry Brown vetoes
SB131,invokes Roman law, perpetuates cover-up of 20th Century JP2 Army who
stabs the heart of Jesus’ mother http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/08/california-bill-sb-131-must-win-next.html
UN condemns Vatican
http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/02/un-condemns-vatican-for-crimes-against.html
Vatican Vipers attack UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Failure of the Sacraments. Letter to a Christian Nation (USA) http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/02/vatican-vipers-attack-un-committee-on.html
UN condemns Vatican
http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/02/un-condemns-vatican-for-crimes-against.html
Vatican Vipers attack UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Failure of the Sacraments. Letter to a Christian Nation (USA) http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/02/vatican-vipers-attack-un-committee-on.html
Women.Legion of Christ.OpusDei.Francis
Hypocrisies...Legion of Christ feeds Vatican Mammon Beast. Opus Dei Mafia of
Cardinals and Bishops. G-8 Cardinals are phony reformers recycling old Vatican
Deceits http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/10/women-legion-christ-opusdei-francis.html
Read our new blog Pope Francis the CON Christ. Pretender &
Imposter of Jesus. Merlin hoax CANNOT CLONE JESUS or dogs http://pope-francis-con-christ.blogspot.ca/
Updated February 20, 2013
Cardinal Mahony will be deposed on February 23, 2013, for his role in the cover-up in an LA pedophile priest Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera, see news updates below. If there is any ground for the prosecution of Cardinal Mahony, he must NOT be allowed to go to Rome for the Conclave because he will NEVER come back to Los Angeles for his trial.
His pal criminal Cardinal Bernard Law, after he was forced to resign as Archbishop of Boston because of his cover-up of 80 pedophile priests, was rewarded by John Paul II a prestigious job as High Priest of the St. Mary Major, the ‘mother of all basilicas in Rome’. Cardinal Law settled $100 million in compensation to victims compared to Cardinal Mahony who settled $660 million in compensation payout to 500 victims of 124 pedophile priests he covered-up.
please do not allow this same chance for Cardinal Mahony to go and retire in the glories of Rome like his pal Cardinal Bernard Law did, please read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ncaa-penn-state-more-moral-than-vatican.html
There is also an increasing call for Cardinal Mahony to NOT attend the Papal Conclave because he is quite a "tarnished" Cardinal not worthy to partake in the highest honor of the Vatican hierarchy, read news updates below.
Dedicated toLos Angeles
Dedicated to
This post is appreciatively dedicated to the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press who fought Cardinal Mahony and Archbishop Gomez and their expensive lawyers when they refused to release all LA confidential files. Read our letter to Judge Elias to support the LA Time and AP http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/12/judge-elias-please-release-all.html
Commemoration of victims of JP2 Army
We’d like to suggest to the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press to sponsor the bi-annual memorial days of September 11 (9/11) and May 1 (beginning and end of school year) for the victims of the JP2 Army wherein these Los Angeles files will be cited to children now and for all generations to come, read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/07/may-1-september-11-anniversaries-for.html. A special gathering of children and people of LA could be held in the park or somewhere feasible and candles could be held in memory of the victims of these holy pedophile priests of LA... (like victims of the Holocaust and 9/11 are also remembered)
We’d like also to suggest that on every Saturday, a special column for children’s awareness - in the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press – will recount the sordid stories of these Los Angeles pedophile and rapists priests to remind children that they must be alert in holy churches, in schools, in parks, and everywhere these holy priests have raped children in Los Angeles. (This would be like the weekly America
These true stories of more than 124 Vatican (not Roman) Catholic sex maniac pedophile priests in LA are more useful for the sex education, protection and empowerment of children than all the 500+ holy saints whom John Paul II canonized in the Vatican (not Rome) because saints cannot protect children like the Zeus statue of Saint Joseph who gazed over 50 years sodomy of young students a few feet from him at the Oratory of Saint Joseph while he and Saint Brother Andre did nothing to stop them, read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/boycott-oratory-of-saint-joseph-candles.html
All children must never call him “blessed” or “saint” because John Paul II the Great did and said nothing to stop the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army named aptly after him, read here http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/ .
News updates for February 14, 2013
1) Goliath-bully Bill Donohue attacks New York Times for its Feb. 6 dramatic op/ed piece about Eleuterio Ramos, the most prolific pedophile priest in the history of the Diocese of Orange. Eleuterio Ramos was among the secret LA files
2) Cardinal Mahony is going to the Vatican
3) criminal Cardinal Mahony’s future statue and shrine inside LA cathedral vis-à-vis Joe Paterno’s statue that was removed from Penn State, read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ncaa-penn-state-more-moral-than-vatican.html
4) 24 more pedophile priests were added to the released LA files, thanks to BishopsAccountability.org for noticing that they were missing, see links below
For those who do not know Goliath-bully Bill Donohue, here is how he looks like and how much he is paid by the Vatican Deceits Empire http://pope-ratz.blogspot.ca/2011/04/opus-deis-usa-mouthpiece-bill-donohue.html
Goliath-bully Bill Donohue is a Vatican Catholic, not a Roman Catholic.
The Pope is not Roman. Catholics are not Roman.
The Pope has no power in Rome
The Vatican Rome
The Pope is not a citizen of Rome
The allegiance of Catholics is to the Pope and the Vatican Rome
The allegiance of Goliath-bully Bill Donohue the president of Catholic League is NOT to Rome
Goliath-bully Bill Donohue is a Vatican Catholic, not a Roman Catholic, read more about “Vatican Catholics” in our latest related article, Vatican Last Tsar Benedict XVI resigns http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/02/vatican-last-tsar-benedict-xvi-resigns_13.html
Goliath-bully Bill Donohue attacked the New York Times for its Feb. 6 dramatic op/ed piece about Eleuterio Ramos, the most prolific pedophile priest in the history of the Diocese of Orange whose secret file was among those released in Los Angeles (see articles below) saying, Every time I read about another homosexual priest who molested someone (less than 5 percent of abusive priests were pedophiles), I get angry, too. But what was the purpose of publishing this article?...But now, given the latest round of documents gathered by the authorities involving the Archdiocese of Los Angeles under Cardinal Roger Mahony, we are being treated to more stories.” Goliath-bully Bill would like to forget the past and stop seeing and hearing about the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army – the Vatican Catholic sex maniac rapists priests and the Cardinals and Bishops who aided and abetted their crimes, his favorite is criminal Bishop Finn, read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/bishop-finn-makes-devils-bowels-smell.html
Little David threw a little pebble on giant Goliath, likewise this post is a little stone thrown to the head of Goliath-bully Bill Donohue to help him realize that children are better alerted and are better enlightened about sexual predators by reading the New York Times expose on sexual predator priests than the figures in the Bible and the saints of the Vatican Catholic Church.
Children must empower themselves with the knowledge of the Los Angeles
Children are better enlightened and empowered by learning about the cunning seductions of Eleuterio Ramos and all Vatican Sex Maniac Rapists Priests of the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army – rather than reading about the concocted lives of “holy” saints, like Saint Frere Andre who did nothing to stop the 50 years sodomy of students in the College of Notre Dame where he worked because he was too engrossed with a huge basilica, the Oratoire Saint-Joseph in Montreal. Goliath Saint Joseph in Mount-Royal is as impotent as Giant Zeus in Mount Olympus, read here Oratory of St. Joseph copy Vatican Titanic http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/boycott-oratory-of-saint-joseph-candles.html
Children are better informed and armed with the knowledge of the Los Angeles JP2 army – of Cardinal Mahony than learning about false Blessed John Paul II (who freed Poland Vatican Palace
Catholic saints cannot protect children, the 12 Apostles cannot protect children, St. Peter and his successors the Popes especially John Paul II refused to protect children during his lifetime and his over a quarter a century papacy.
The Bestial Priestly Sodomy of Biblical Proportions all occurred in holy churches and schools named after saints. The biggest saint, so-called “Spouse of Mary” and “earthly father of Jesus, the Zeus Saint Joseph St. Joseph
One of the most recent saints in modern times, the Holy Cross Congregation golden cash cow – the overly romanticized “poor” Saint Brother Andre actually became wealthy with the billionaire Congregation de Sainte-Croix(C.S.C.) and together they were so busy building the narcissistic mausoleum to Saint Joseph who did nothing to save hundreds of students being sodomized right under his gaze. People of Montreal Montreal
Remember, Zeus Saint Joseph Oratory did nothing to save those young students right under his giant gaze, read here BOYCOTT Oratory of Saint Joseph http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/boycott-oratory-of-saint-joseph-candles.html
Children are better sex educated reading the Los Angles files rather than wasting their time to attend the wizardry of the Mass where priests ceaselessly reiterate those old horrid stories of extinct people in the Bible, read here the Immoral Bible http://pope-ratz.blogspot.ca/2010_12_01_archive.html.
It’s more important and more relevant for children to know the story of Eleuterio Ramos and all JP2 Army sex maniac Vatican priests of the 20th century than the ancient Bible stories irrelevant mythical figures like Jonah being swallowed by a whale.
Goliath-bully Bill Donohue attacks the New York Times
He defends Vatican Sex Maniac Rapists Priests and Vatican Vicars who aided and abetted their crimes
Vatican Catholic Goliath-bully Bill Donohue is the most brutal speaker of the Vatican Catholic Church and his pulpit is the $25 million dollar one-man show Catholic League http://pope-ratz.blogspot.ca/2011/04/opus-deis-usa-mouthpiece-bill-donohue.html. On February, 7, 2013 , he brawled: “I get angry...why the obscene drawing of a priest whose head resembles a creature from Hell? … There is almost no sexual abuse being committed by priests in the U.S.
Vatican Goliath-bully Bill Donohue still doesn’t get it that “today” equals Pope Benedict XVI plus John Paul II plus Cardinal Mahony plus Cardinal Bernard Law – plus all Popes, Cardinals and Bishops who covered-up the half-century JP2 Army John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army who committed Bestial Priestly Sodomy of Biblical Proportions…but these very same people demand to be seen as holy vicars of Christ and John Paul II as the fastest-tracking saint in the 21st century, read here John Allen’s Opus Dei Newsweek article of why John Paul II deserves to be a saint http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/.
Today = Benedict XVI + his Crimen Sollicitationis + his crimes against humanity at The Hague
Today = John Paul II + JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army during his 27 years papacy where he said and did nothing to stop pedophile priests
Today = Cardinal Mahony + 124 pedophile priests
Today = Cardinal Bernard Law + 80 pedophile priests
Today = Bishop Finn + Fr. Ratigan
Today = Monsignor Lynn + Philadelphia JP2 pedophile priests
Today = ALL Cardinals and Bishops and Monsignors who aided and abetted and covered-up all pedophile priests of the JP2 Army - John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in the USA, Ireland, Germany, Australia, etc. etc. http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/
John Paul II as a “blessed” is the worst Vatican Catholic Lie of the 21st century. To ensnare children to pray to him as a “saint” is not the truth – beyond a reasonable doubt – and is not the truth of Christ . The title “saint” John Paul II is worse than the Devil’s lie in the Garden of Eden.
To forget the JP2 Army is to forget the Nazis
The biggest mission of Goliath-bully Bill Donohue is to propagate the Vatican Deceit strategy to make Catholics forget “the past” of thousands of pedophile priests - which is equivalent as the Vatican Auschwitz - and the Vatican Nazis of Cardinals and Bishops who aided and abetted the JP2 Army - John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. Opus Dei wants to focus on today’s priests and forget all the hundreds of thousands of little boys (and girls) they sodomized for half-a-century especially under the Opus Dei orchestrated longest papacy of John Paul II who actually had the biggest millstone tied to his papal neck, read here http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/
Vatican Goliath-bully Bill Donohue hollering to Catholics to focus on “today” is tantamount to telling the Jews to forget “the past” Nazi camps and forget those old Nazis who now live in quiet retirement “today”, read more about the 97 year old Nazi caught last year - Holy Cross Congregation delays $18 million compensation payout http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/csc-holy-cross-congregation-delay-18.html
In the Vatican Catholic Church reality show, “today” refer to the vicars of Christ who self-proclaim themselves as having divine attributes and having godly powers to clone God-the-Christ even when they cannot clone Dolly-the-sheep.
Opus Dei Goliath-bully Bill is numb like typical Vatican Catholics to the plight of victims of the JP2 Army. He should watch this movie “Mea Maxima Culpa” and should meet with William K., now 45, is Roman Catholic and a child rape victim. He is gay, and he is angry. He appeared briefly in the documentary, “Mea Maxima Culpa,” which debuted Feb. 4 on HBO. As the Wisconsin Gazette today reported, “The accessories to pedophilia are almost invariably unpunished. Child victims are raped – mentally, physically, even morally. Few victims overcome their experience. Confessing to their past is just this side of mental and emotional crucifixion”.
But that is what the Vatican wants - that those Cardinals, Bishops and Vicars who were accessories to pedophilia - to go invariably unpunished and glorified, read our related article, John Paul II deified Cardinal Bernard Law and Fr. Marcial Maciel , read http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ncaa-penn-state-more-moral-than-vatican.html
Octopus Dei Tentacles in the Vatican Titanic sinking in moral bankruptcy
The entire 27 years papacy of John Paul II was controlled by Opus Dei and what mess they left behind for the Jesuit janitor Lombardi to clean up in public. So now, the Vatican Pied Piper news “Vatican Insider” came out with a clever title The Opus Dei and Benedict XVI’s “silent clean-up" operation, see news below.
Priests and nuns are not holier than us and not better than us
Priests and nuns are not holier-than-you and not better-than-you. Priests and nuns are not holier or better simply because they recite a formula of holy prayers and have (hypocritical) vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to the Pope, Cardinals and Bishops especially who aided and abetted half a century of JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests heinous crimes http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011_04_01_archive.html).
Priests and nuns are not holier or better than lay teachers, nurses, social workers, doctors, lab technicians, the police, firefighters, workers at McDonalds and restaurants, janitors, all professions and laborers.
No matter what good deeds the priests and nuns are doing, they are not holier-than nor better than -- the Red Cross workers and Doctors without Borders who are instantly everywhere in war zone or disaster areas regardless of race and creed – while those Popes, Cardinals and Bishops sit in the lap of luxury in the Vatican Palace and Bishops’ Palaces counting the Vatican Billions, and priests and nuns live in their comfy rectories and hushed million dollars convents, read here - The fantastic wealth of Irish Catholic religious orders revealed http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/07/fantastic-wealth-of-irish-catholic.html,
And Opus Dei million dollar houses of their priests and “numeraries” equivalent to nuns and religious brothers http://www.odan.org/foundations.htm
“Holiness” is not measured by the holy prayers a person recites because Christ condemned those Holy Priests Pharisees precisely because they recited the most holy prayers from the Bible and He called them white washed sepulchres, read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/10/boston-to-host-former-swiss-guards.html
“It is acts of mercy” that I desire, God said in the Bible, and “not material or animal holocaust”. Christ got angry at those merchants selling those holy lambs for sacrifice in the Temple of Solomon
Read about the impotent Zeus statue of St. Joseph who overlooked 50 years of sodomy in College Notre Dame here, BOYCOTT Oratory of St.Joseph http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/boycott-oratory-of-saint-joseph-candles.html
The “Holy Father“ Pope and his copy-cat “holy fathers” Catholic priests cannot clone Dolly the sheep and therefore they cannot clone Christ either, read our related article, OC Diocese buys Crystal Cathedral as flesh-factory of Christ... for wealthy God-flesh-eating Catholics http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/oc-diocese-buys-crystal-cathedral-as.html
Remember the historical cloned sheep Dolly? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep) It was the cream of the crop top team of scientists who cloned her.
Well, the black magic holy words of a team of “holy priests” cannot clone Christ the Son God either, read about the Divine Trinity http://pope-ratz.blogspot.ca/2010/12/gay-trinity-of-father-son-and-holy
The black belt means she is pregnant
\
The womb of the Immaculate Conception of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe carried Jesus this way
![[30.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4DxeIokv0wYjRUZU6DvfDQWD7aQjJrp8LZXnK-gMlwObOfVsfTY4Huq49fFEMdUzd8cYFoUYi1GmkwOXxM3NtZc7OK12skj2f-Sqn07rxgPojGTZFghK3WXS0q-X8UXILcz6kXg53ww/s1600/30.jpg)
The cloning process that produced Dollyhttp://www.youtube.com/embed/39BbcZVCx8I
BLACK MAGIC OF EUCHARIST
BLACK MAGIC OF EUCHARIST
ONE-MINUTE "CLONING of CHRIST" in the MASS Black Magic of God's flesh
Our comment: Transubstantiation or the Mass is a recent development . St. Peter and St. Paul and the Apostles never celebrated Mass and never “transubstantiated” the bread into the flesh of Christ, what they did was to preach about Christ. The Mass was a slow development from the 12th century through various liturgical reforms until the 20th century. It was only in 1215 at the Fourth Council of the Lateran that the Mass began to take form and in 1551 at the Council of Trent that transubstantiation became what it is today. The Vatican has come to use it as its main crux of power on earth deceiving Catholics and peoples of all faiths that only Popes and men-priests have the exclusive power to transubstantiate God’s flesh. Because of the Mass, the Vatican has gotten away with all kinds of heinous crimes, e.g. the Crusades, the Inquisition, the burning of women and witches http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006/11/john-paul-ii-revived-inquisition.html “For the sake of the Eucharist” and because of the shortage of priests, John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, the Opus Dei who controls the Vatican, the Cardinals and Bishops shuffled pedophile priests from one parish to another. The rest is history: the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army committed Holy ES Eucharist-and-Sodomy of Biblical proportions see the John Paul II Millstone http://jp2m.blogspot.com/.
In the name of Hail Mary, we dare challenge and defy the Magisterium: No words pronounced by any finite-man can create an infinite-God! No words of the Pope and priests can re-create or re-incarnate Christ’s flesh. The words of sinful popes and priests are powerless and can never create God! Only Mary the Immaculate Conception deserved to bear God in her womb. No evil pope and evil priests is worthy to touch and hold God in their evil hands. The words of popes and Cardinals, Bishops and priests are mere clashing-cymbals of St. Paul see John Paul II the Great clashing cymbal of St. Paul http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/11/john-paul-ii-great-clashing-cymbal-of.html. See Benedict XVI to beatify John Paul II is “brought to nothing” by St. Paul http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2009/11/benedict-xvi-to-beatify-john-paul-ii-is.html
No matter how we look at it, finite-man cannot create an infinite-God. Man can never create God’s flesh. Not in in-vitro fertilization of the scientific laboratories. Not in the sacred altars of holy Roman Catholic churches which by the way were the same pedophile altars of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army See the John Paul II Millstone http://jp2m.blogspot.com/
Rome, call us heretics and we don’t care because in Boston and in America, we have freedom of speech. It was our freedom of speech that got rid of criminal-Cardinal Bernard Law and sent him packing out of our sight and out of our land. But only you, Rome, you the Roman Catholic Church a.k.a. Magisterium would glorify criminals like Cardinal Bernard Law and John Paul II. No other American state has been able to replicate our courage as Bostonians who got rid of the first Cardinal caught guilty of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in America. Yes, we caught the first SS officer of the Third Reich of the Roman Catholic Church … but he went into glorious exile in Rome because only in the Catholic Church are criminals glorified See The John Paul II Millstone John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army expands into Ireland &John Paul is elevated as "Venerable"... only in the Catholic Church are criminals glorified http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/12/john-paul-ii-pedophile-priests-army.html
Benedict XVI, from the Chair of Peter, thinks his papal letter will heal the victims and solve the problem of clergy abuse in Ireland. The fact is, Benedict XVI’s words are powerless. NO POPE has ever healed anyone. As this picture shows,
\
They came sick and they left sick.
There is no "Apostolic" authority or succession here,
for no Pope has EVER been able to heal like Peter or Paul did.
Opus Dei Goliath-bully Bill want to propagate Catholic Medieval Doctrine that all crimes of JP2 Army of pedophile priests are already forgiven and forgotten under the Sacrament of Confession that protects criminals and persecutes their victims, read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/11/sacrament-of-confession-protects.html
Bill Donohue’s Vaticanesia
Goliath-bully Bill Donohue is carrying Vaticanesia like his “Holy Father” Benedict XVI in his Christmas Speech when he denigrated and rebuked people of the world that in their “hectic, technology-driven lives”, they “cannot find the time and room for God and for others, for children, for the poor, for the strangers.” Look who’s talking? The Last Tsar of the Vatican
Opus Dei makes sure that today’s priests must parrot the Angelus and the Eucharist in Latin and they believe that that’s enough to brand them as good priests. But we’ve good news that those Opus Dei priests cannot clone Dolly the Sheep and therefore they cannot clone Christ either through their medieval transubstantiation formula as magical as Harry Potter and the Twilight Saga.
Bill Donohue is the loud speaker of the Vatican Mammon Beast in the USA
Bill Donohue is in denial that The Nazis and the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army were both an inherently evil all-male elite hierarchy born from the Devil's bowels - read our article here http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2011/01/nazis-and-john-paul-ii-pedophiles.html
Vatican Deceits yoyo media circus
While the Vatican Deceits are thanking the media, see news below, Donohue is attacking the media again, especially the New York Times which Benedict XVI attacked as “Cheap Gossip” on Easter Sunday two years ago http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/2010/04/petty-cash-for-petty-gossip-3-billion.html
The problem with Octopus Dei in helm of the Vatican Titanic is that they have cried Wolf” Wolf” Wolf” more than three times too much.
The biggest problem of Goliath-bully Bill Donohue is that he wants to holler to the whole world to simply worship the Opus Dei Golden Cow John Paul II and they will be saved from Hell, see here http://stella0maris.blogspot.ca/
Anti-Vatican Evils
We are not anti-Catholic. We are simply anti-Vatican Deceits and anti-Vatican Evils and anti-Pope Crimes who have ruled the world with Vatican Terror since time immemorial through the Vatican Billions.
We are anti-Vatican abuse of Mary’s and Christ’s Name, using God’s Name for profit like the Oratory of St. Joseph uses Saint Brother Andre as their cash-cow, read here BOYCOTT Oratory of st. Joseph http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/boycott-oratory-of-saint-joseph-candles.html
We are anti-Eucharist cloning of Christ, priests cannot clone Christ because they cannot clone Dolly the sheep, read here why http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/oc-diocese-buys-crystal-cathedral-as.html
We must worship Jesus Christ, but we must not worship his self-proclaimed vicars of Christ who claim to have supernatural powers of cloning Christ and most of all have a history of committing Pope Crimes and Vatican Evils for centuries because their false god is the Vatican Mammon Beast of the Vatican Billions http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html Read Forbes delusion of Vatican Last Tsar http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/12/forbes-delusion-of-vatican-last-tsar.html
No Vicar of Christ should be revered above innocent helpless vulnerable children and women.
Read our related article Vatican Terror on Galileo, priests and the poor, women and children http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/vatican-terrorism-on-galileo-women-and.html
No priest should be seen as more powerful than all human beings – because priests are fictitious Merlin Magicians who cannot clone Dolly the sheep and priests and the Pope cannot Clone Jesus the Shepherd.
A picture speaks a thousand words so let’s educate this Octopus Dei American Goliath mouth Bill Donohue with these pictures
Christ condemned the Temple of Solomon
Victims in USA - Attackers - Responsible Leaders
Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto
WTC & 9/11 attacks - 3,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden
JP2 Army - 15,736 victims - 6,100 pedophile priests covered-up the Vatican Trinity of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Opus Dei, plus all Cardinals, Bishops, vicars
Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto
WTC & 9/11 attacks - 3,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden
JP2 Army - 15,736 victims - 6,100 pedophile priests covered-up the Vatican Trinity of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Opus Dei, plus all Cardinals, Bishops, vicars
9/11 victims 3,000. JP2 Army 100,000s. May Day: both Hitler and bin Laden Announced Dead on May 1 on John Paul II Beatification Day B-Day http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/05/911-victims-5000-jp2-army-100000s-may.html.
Look deeply into this image of Our Lady of Guadalupe defending and protecting children from the Serpent ... compared to the JOhn Paul II and CArdinal Ratzinger and Cardinals, Bishops, vicar, and others who coverd-up pedophile priests
http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2008/07/letter-to-opus-dei-pope-john-paul-ii.html The names of the transferring or covering up Bishops and Cardinals are: Roll Call Please!
Amnesty International Report included the Vatican “Torture, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment” on tens of thousands of children sexually abused by priests in Ireland http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/09/amnesty-international-report-vatican.html
Hague Is Asked to Investigate Vatican Over Child Abuse. Bravo to SNAP and the Center for Constitutional Rights!! Court Filing details. http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/09/hague-is-asked-to-investigate-vatican.html
Rome's 3 GAY priests caught in video at gay clubs and having casual flings' http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/07/romes-3-gay-priests-caught-in-video-at.html
Benedict XVI and Georg his GAY Private Secretary are GAYS.!. http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
Benedict XVI's fourth bite: mass excommunications of Catholic groups http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html
Updated February 6, 2013
- More call for the investigation and prosecution of Cardinal Mahony
- The LAPD is launching investigation into the newly released Los Angeles
- Los Angeles Archdiocese plan $200 Million campaign
The LAPD is launching an investigation into the newly released Los Angeles Vatican Deceits in action in Los Angeles
There is an increasing call to bring Cardinal Mahony to face justice, read news updates below.
Priests and nuns are not holier-than-you and not better-than-you. Priests and nuns are not holier than us and not better than us. Priests and nuns are not holier or better simply because they recite a formula of holy prayers and have (hypocritical) vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to the Pope, Cardinals and Bishops especially who aided and abetted half a century of JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests heinous crimes http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011_04_01_archive.html).
Priests and nuns are not holier or better than lay teachers, nurses, social workers, doctors, lab technicians, the police, firefighters, workers at McDonalds and restaurants, janitors, all professions and laborers.
No matter what good deeds the priests and nuns are doing, they are not holier-than nor better than -- the Red Cross workers and Doctors without Borders who are instantly everywhere in war zone or disaster areas regardless of race and creed – while those Popes, Cardinals and Bishops sit in the lap of luxury in the Vatican Palace and Bishops’ Palaces counting the Vatican Billions, and priests and nuns live in their comfy rectories and hushed million dollars convents, read here - The fantastic wealth of Irish Catholic religious orders revealed http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/07/fantastic-wealth-of-irish-catholic.html
“Holiness” is not measured by the holy prayers a person recites because Christ condemned those Holy Priests Pharisees precisely because they recited the most holy prayers from the Bible and He called them white washed sepulchres, read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/10/boston-to-host-former-swiss-guards.html “It is acts of mercy” that I desire, God said in the Bible, and “not material or animal holocaust”. Christ got angry at those merchants selling those holy lambs for sacrifice in the Temple of Solomon
The “Holy Father“ Pope and his copy-cat “holy fathers” Catholic priests cannot clone Dolly the sheep and therefore they cannot clone Christ either, read our related article, OC Diocese buys Crystal Cathedral as flesh-factory of Christ... for wealthy God-flesh-eating Catholics http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/oc-diocese-buys-crystal-cathedral-as.html
Remember the historical cloned sheep Dolly? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep) It was the cream of the crop top team of scientists who cloned her. Well, the black magic holy words of a team of “holy priests” cannot clone Christ the Son God either, read about the Divine Trinity http://pope-ratz.blogspot.ca/2010/12/gay-trinity-of-father-son-and-holy
Christ condemned the Temple of Solomon
The poster girl of nuns is Mother Angelica with her 150 million dollars diamond studded chapel in her monastery in Alabama
Read our related articles about criminal nuns in Ireland New York
Read our latest commentaries about Mahony vis-à-vis Joe Paterno in - NCAA & Penn State more moral than Vatican
Today the largest and wealthiest diocese in America, the Los Angeles Archdiocese announced a $200 Million Dollar campaign (see news update below) and Catholics will reveal their true beliefs if they wish to support the Vatican Mammon Beast in Los Angeles - after discovering that their Cardinal Mahony aided and abetted and covered-up 124 pedophile priests and paid out easily $600 million in compensation in 2007 to 500 victims. Archbishop Gomez is an Opus Dei priest who is acting on the strategy of the Vatican Titanic sinking in moral bankruptcy. (See Murdoch’s 10 million donation to the LA cathedral here http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/07/rupert-murdoch-supporter-of-paedophilia.html
Of course, the Vatican Billions can easily give this $200 Million but will orchestrate first that this was given by donations but it was simply pulled out from its own coffers, another Vatican Deceit in action in LA, Hollywood style, read here about the Vatican Billions http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html
Of course, the Vatican Billions can easily give this $200 Million but will orchestrate first that this was given by donations but it was simply pulled out from its own coffers, another Vatican Deceit in action in LA, Hollywood style, read here about the Vatican Billions http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html
Children should not be brainwashed to believe that mortal men can clone the immortal God who created them. The Wizards of Host - Pope, Cardinals and Bishops and priests cannot clone Dolly the sheep, therefore, they cannot clone Christ either, read more here http://stella0maris.blogspot.com/2010/01/magisterium-benedict-versus-holy-mary.html. As long as Catholics perpetuate this Eucharistic Lie, the Vatican
Priests cannot clone Dolly the sheep and they cannot clone Christ either
http://www.youtube.com/embed/39BbcZVCx8I - video how they cloned Dolly
Catholics really must read the crimes against humanity committed by Benedict XVI which are now before The Hague because one them is his infallible power to command and burn billions of non-Catholics in Hell— simply because they refuse to believe in the magical powers of the pope and priests in the Eucharist, read the details of the lawsuit here http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/05/full-text-of-criminal-charges-against.html
Anti-Vatican Evils
We are not anti-Catholic. We are simply anti-Vatican Deceits and anti-Vatican Evils and anti-Pope Crimes who have ruled the world with Vatican Terror since time immemorial through the Vatican Billions, read here Vatican Terror on Galileo, priests and the poor, women and children
We are anti-Vatican abuse of Mary’s and Christ’s Name, using God’s Name for profit like the Oratory of St. Joseph uses Saint Brother Andre as their cash-cow, read here BOYCOTT Oratory http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/boycott-oratory-of-saint-joseph-candles.html
We are anti-Eucharist cloning of Christ, priests cannot clone Christ because they cannot clone Dolly the sheep, read here why http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/oc-diocese-buys-crystal-cathedral-as.html.
We pray that Cardinal Mahony will be prosecuted and be brought to justice and jailed like Nazis who retired in wealth and peace but now must face justice in their final years in their lifetime on this earth.
We must not wait for the Devil in Hell to render justice for these thousands of children sexually abused and ruined forever by these predator Holy Father priests who are claiming “like God” that they can clone the flesh of Christ when they cannot even clone sheep like Dolly, read more here -- Eucharist feeds “dysfunction, disconnection, elitism...narcissism” of Benedict XVI, therefore, Ireland must not “invite” Pope to Eucharistic Congress http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/12/eucharist-feeds-dysfunction.html
Benedict XVI already blames the Devil for this “mystery” of JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army, read here, Eve and Benedict XVI blame the Devil. Analysis of Pope’s homily in Year for Priests -sorcerers of Christ’s flesh and blood
Someone from some rose healing garden suggested that prison time is too expensive for Mahony and so she’d rather do it like the Devil does in hell – meaning, make Mahony sit and look at mirrors surrounding him and watch the stories of all abuses he covered-up. And who is supposed to make Mahony sit down – in his lifetime? Who will produce the videos of the lives he ruined? Mea Maxima Culpa was expensive enough to produce – now she is talking about endless videos of victims? If the justice system followed her recipe and waited for the Devil to render justice, our jails would be empty. The Devil’s bowels smell like roses in the Vatican
It is time that those holy priests lose their clout and the Pope and his Cardinals like Mahony lose their diplomatic immunity because the Vatican
The Vatican United States of America
Read our related article, USA Vatican
The Vatican
The Vatican
The only reason Cardinal Ratzinger silenced those Liberation Theology priests is that their Christ the Liberator would have awakened the poor to claim their rights, and those Vatican properties – stolen properties – through despots through centuries of colonization – would dissipate.
Good priests can continue to minister – but the Pope and his evil team of Cardinals and Bishops should not piggyback on their merits.
The Pope and Cardinals and Bishops sit in the lap of luxury while priests and nuns do the dirty job on the field.
The evil Pope maintains the Vatican Mammon Evils from far-flung Vatican country and he should not enjoy the praise for the hard works he did not do in other countries.
BOYCOTT Oratory of Saint Joseph St. Joseph
Vatican Billions: its history, sources, and assets today worldwide. BOYCOTT the Vatican Museum Vatican Catholic Church Reign of Terror
Updated February 3, 2013
Archbishop Gomez’ punishment on Cardinal Mahony is no punishment at all . Here are articles that explain the heinous crimes of Cardinal Mahony that deserve fair justice in Los Angeles, in his lifetime, not in the afterlife in Hell.
Today is Super Bowl Sunday and we wish to thank Judge Elias for giving us this timely full revelation of the secret files of Vatican Evils in Los Angeles
The Vatican Catholic Church is more astute than Hollywood
It was more important for John Paul II to protect his army of pedophile priests because they were needed to continue cloning Christ in the Eucharist - even faster than the scientists could clone Dolly the sheep, read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/oc-diocese-buys-crystal-cathedral-as.html
Today is SuperBowl Sunday and so we’ve added the story of Mahony to Joe Paterno’s story, read our commentaries in - NCAA & Penn State more moral than Vatican. Sports is more moral than John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Vatican Titanic sinking in moral bankruptcy http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ncaa-penn-state-more-moral-than-vatican.html
The biggest Vatican Deceit playing before the world stage from Los Angeles
But unfortunately, the media is buying and prancing to his Vatican Deceits strategy. The Vatican Billions can indeed buy souls of journalists- after all it has bought the soul of Forbes Magazine that named Benedictr XVI as the 5th Most Powerful Person in the world, read here Forbes delusion of Vatican Last Tsar Benedict XVI powers http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/12/forbes-delusion-of-vatican-last-tsar.html
Except for a few honest journalists who won’t sell their soul to the Vatian Mammon Beast, they wrote news articles which we quote here , see news updates for February 3, 2013.
It is important to gauge the high Richter scale of Mahony’s crimes because he has a world record of cover-up of more than 124 pedophile priests with more than 500 victims in Los Angeles
With 124 pedophile priests attached to his name, Mahony is still "a priest in good standing" who can celebrate Mass and as a cardinal, vote for pope, or even be a candidate for the papacy himself for another 3 years till he turns 80 (Jesus, another criminal for a pope!) With 124 pedophile priests attached to his name, when Mahony dies, his big statue of his full figure as Cardinal will be on top of his tomb as his permanent shrine at the huge LA basilica. Joe Paterno covered-up one (1) pedophile football coach but his statue was immediately removed from Penn State University, read more here NCAA & Penn State more moral than Vatican. Sports is more moral than John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Vatican Titanic sinking in moral bankruptcy http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ncaa-penn-state-more-moral-than-vatican.html
Doug McIntyre, Columnist
DailyNews.comFebruary 2, 2013
DailyNews.comFebruary 2, 2013
The headline is a grabber - "Mahony Relieved of Duties."
On the surface it looks like Archbishop Jose H. Gomez has finally put the Archdiocese of Los Angeles on the road to righteousness by censoring his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony.
But when you scratch the headline's surface, you only find more surface.
Sadly, Archbishop Gomez's condemnation of his predecessor is right out of his predecessor's playbook; Do the minimum while pretending to do the maximum.
Granted, a public rebuke of a cardinal by a prelate of a lower rank is exceptionally rare. But equally rare is the depth and breadth of Mahony's complicity in a conspiracy to obstruct justice.
While it's historically significant the church has finally taken official action against the holy man who helped cover up child rape and other crimes against children, it's important to remember this action comes only after the archdiocese had exhausted every other legal option.
By Steve Lopez
February 2, 2013
February 2, 2013
Do we have a little spat going on now at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles?
Archbishop Jose Gomez and Cardinal Roger M. Mahony seemed to be going at each other in recent days over the molestation scandal that just won't die, thanks to Mahony's years-long efforts to keep all the dirty little secrets under wraps.
On Wednesday, Bishop Gomez issued a rebuke, announcing that Mahony was being relieved of public duties now that the priest personnel records have been made public. And by the way, I'm not clear as to why it took Gomez two years to look into the files he describes as making "brutal and painful reading," for their descriptions of behavior that was "terribly sad and evil."
Archbishop Jose Gomez and Cardinal Roger M. Mahony seemed to be going at each other in recent days over the molestation scandal that just won't die, thanks to Mahony's years-long efforts to keep all the dirty little secrets under wraps.
On Wednesday, Bishop Gomez issued a rebuke, announcing that Mahony was being relieved of public duties now that the priest personnel records have been made public. And by the way, I'm not clear as to why it took Gomez two years to look into the files he describes as making "brutal and painful reading," for their descriptions of behavior that was "terribly sad and evil."
But even as Mahony was being kicked aside by Gomez, church spokesman Tod Tamberg was eagerly telling us Mahony is still "a priest in good standing" who can celebrate Mass and even, as a cardinal, vote for pope.
A priest in good standing? What in the world do you have to do to fall out of favor?
A priest in good standing? What in the world do you have to do to fall out of favor?
02/02/2013
The horror, the sordidness of the awful abuse of children by figures of spiritual authority is not much assuaged by current Archbishop Jose Gomez relieving Cardinal Mahony of "all public duties" after mounting evidence showed he shielded pedophile priests from law enforcement.
So Mahony won't be overseeing the Sacrament of Confirmation at Our Lady of the Angels anytime soon. But he is not only still a priest who can perform Mass - he is still one of the 120 cardinals who form the leadership of a church with more than 1.1 billion adherents worldwide, in a line going back to St. Peter.
Given what we now know about Mahony's active efforts to protect known and suspected sexual abusers in clerical collars, this removal of him from public life is not only not enough - it's no punishment at all.
And this crime deserves punishment. That was made clear by the heartbreaking letters that were made public last week.
Go to any one of over 100 of them posted last week at la-archdiocese.org. The very first one in this alphabetical order was written by a anonymous parishioner molested as a child at a Colorado Roman Catholic Church summer camp by the Rev. Leonard Abercrombie, who later worked in Los Angeles
UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Mike Hunter
February 02, 2013
Call me a hopeless optimist, but I think the developments in LA put more pressure on the Vatican to take action against Bishop Finn in Kansas City
Don't misunderstand me: Mahony's so-called 'restrictions' and Curry's so-called 'resignation' are ineffectual symbolism and hollow gestures. Both retain their titles (Cardinal and Bishop, respectively). Both have ever-so-slightly lighter workloads. Both keep their salaries, health insurance, dental coverage, car allowances, and all the rest.
Both will be a little bit less visible. (That, however, may be advantageous for them, given how horrifically they've treated hundreds of victims and hundreds of thousands of Catholics.)
Still, something has been done in LA. In contrast, nothing has been done in KC.
One can argue "Mahony and Curry have been deceptive for much longer than Finn." True, but Finn's deception – in the Fr. Shawn Ratigan case and others - is far more recent. Read full article below or click on headline. Read our related article, Criminal Bishop Finn attacks National Catholic Reporter as he desperately cling to power as a tyrannical ruler http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/criminal-bishop-finn-attacks-national.html
Don't misunderstand me: Mahony's so-called 'restrictions' and Curry's so-called 'resignation' are ineffectual symbolism and hollow gestures. Both retain their titles (Cardinal and Bishop, respectively). Both have ever-so-slightly lighter workloads. Both keep their salaries, health insurance, dental coverage, car allowances, and all the rest.
Both will be a little bit less visible. (That, however, may be advantageous for them, given how horrifically they've treated hundreds of victims and hundreds of thousands of Catholics.)
Still, something has been done in LA. In contrast, nothing has been done in KC.
One can argue "Mahony and Curry have been deceptive for much longer than Finn." True, but Finn's deception – in the Fr. Shawn Ratigan case and others - is far more recent. Read full article below or click on headline. Read our related article, Criminal Bishop Finn attacks National Catholic Reporter as he desperately cling to power as a tyrannical ruler http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/criminal-bishop-finn-attacks-national.html
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 01, 2013
Vindictive victims, greedy lawyers, salacious reporters, inept therapists, unfair laws - these are among the many targets of Cardinal Roger Mahony's favorite hobby - blaming others for his archdiocese's on-going clergy sex crimes and cover up crisis.
Today, he's added another culprit: his allegedly poor education.
According to the National Catholic Reporter, Mahony writes on his personal blog that "Nothing in my own background or education equipped me to deal with this grave problem. In graduate school earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work, no textbook and no lecture ever referred to the sexual abuse of children."
According to the National Catholic Reporter, Mahony writes on his personal blog that "Nothing in my own background or education equipped me to deal with this grave problem. In graduate school earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work, no textbook and no lecture ever referred to the sexual abuse of children."
[Click here for the story.]
This may well be Mahony’s wildest claim yet. Even grade school drop outs know that laws prohibit child sex crimes and that when we know about or suspect child sex crimes, we are supposed to call the police. Period.
When Mahony was in school, there was probably no mention of gang rape or identity theft or child porn either. So because Mahony took no course in these crimes, it’s OK if he enables and conceals them?
Just in case this “poor education” excuse doesn’t fly, Mahony tosses out a few of his old favorites again, taking yet another swipe at the often-Catholic therapists he picked and paid to allegedly “evaluate” pedophile priests (and who often seemed to give Mahony the ‘diagnosis’ that coincidently seemed to be advantageous to him).
This may well be Mahony’s wildest claim yet. Even grade school drop outs know that laws prohibit child sex crimes and that when we know about or suspect child sex crimes, we are supposed to call the police. Period.
When Mahony was in school, there was probably no mention of gang rape or identity theft or child porn either. So because Mahony took no course in these crimes, it’s OK if he enables and conceals them?
Just in case this “poor education” excuse doesn’t fly, Mahony tosses out a few of his old favorites again, taking yet another swipe at the often-Catholic therapists he picked and paid to allegedly “evaluate” pedophile priests (and who often seemed to give Mahony the ‘diagnosis’ that coincidently seemed to be advantageous to him).
Steve Lopez: Removing Cardinal Mahony just a first step
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
Just when you think things can’t get much worse for Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, along comes a stunning rebuke from his successor, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez.
“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” Gomez said of the molestation files Mahony tried desperately to keep out of the hands of police, even as known pedophiles claimed more victims. “The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil.”
So far, so good. But in The Times story on the decision by Gomez to distance the Archdiocese from Mahony, church spokesman and Mahony loyalist Tod Tamberg said the cardinal’s life would be largely unchanged and that he would remain “a priest in good standing.”
Excuse me?
How could he still be in good standing?
And why did it take until Thursday for the archdiocese to announce that Santa Barbara Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, Mahony’s go-to man in the 1980s on molestation, has stepped down? The church has known for years what Curry’s role was in the scandal.
“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” Gomez said of the molestation files Mahony tried desperately to keep out of the hands of police, even as known pedophiles claimed more victims. “The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil.”
So far, so good. But in The Times story on the decision by Gomez to distance the Archdiocese from Mahony, church spokesman and Mahony loyalist Tod Tamberg said the cardinal’s life would be largely unchanged and that he would remain “a priest in good standing.”
Excuse me?
How could he still be in good standing?
And why did it take until Thursday for the archdiocese to announce that Santa Barbara Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, Mahony’s go-to man in the 1980s on molestation, has stepped down? The church has known for years what Curry’s role was in the scandal.
Red more news updates below for February 3, 2013 where a few journalists are searching for truth and justice in this most heinous crimes against children covered-up by one of the most heinous Cardinal of the Vatican Catholic church.
Updated February 2, 2013
Opus Dei Archbishop Gomez is a Master Manipulator of the Media, just like his Holy Father Benedict XVI. With his superficial "relieve" of Cardinal Mahony of "public duties" he has managed to segue the media's attention away from the gravity of the crimes of Mahony. The Nazis and criminals should learn of the strategies of the Octopus Dei tentacles and all our jails would be empty.
How can he "relieve" Mahony of public duties? That's like firing someone who has retired or has already quit the job . What Gomez did is all for show just like the Vatileaks is a sham. Vatican Deceits in action in Los Angeles! Starring Archbishop Gomez!
Gomez and Mahony write each other a love letter, and they say, look left, and the media turn their heads and look left. Typical Vatican Pied Piper manipulation and the media are all caught up in the Octopus Dei tentacles read here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/03/faces-of-rapists-priests-from-father.html
The media seems to have forgotten that Mahony is still a voting Cardinal and is eligible for the papacy until he is 80.
So Opus Dei is laughing at all the media prancing to the Vatican Pied Piper tune of Archbishop Gomez.
Do not forget that Archbishop Gomez resubmitted a proposal that would have redacted the names of Mahony and top church leaders from the documents and only provided the names of those officials in a generic cover sheet attached to the priest’s file. The church’s actions were nothing short of an attempt to delay justice and conceal the truth from the victims and the public”....up until the judgement of Judge Elias last Thursday.
Do not forget that Archbishop Gomez tried to cover-up Mahony at all cost - until last Thursday - by his ingenious plan to black out handwritten comments on the files inked by recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and provide those in typewritten form instead.”. These strategies prove the hypocrisy of Archbishop Gomez and his crocodile tears...and his copying the Vatileaks sham as his way to cover-up his own role in the JP2 Army - John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in Los Angeles - as he tried to save his Opus Dei pal Mahony from final shame http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2011/05/may-day-john-paul-iiadolf-hitlerosama.html
But Judge Elias did not buy the Opus Dei Plan of Archbishop Gomez. Judge Elias could not get caught in the Octopus Dei tentacle and Vatican Billions Empire could not buy her soul! Read our January 26, 2013 commentary on her below.
February 1, 2013
Judge Elias’ final ruling on Thursday ordered all secret LA Archdiocese files to be released by February 22. In his letter of defeat, Archbishop Gomez relieved Cardinal Emeritus Mahony of “public duties” (relieve? he’s retired, for Christ’s sake!) And the media is prancing to Vatican Pied Piper Gomez’ tune, except for the LA Times and the Associated Press.
The world must never forget that Cardinal Mahony fought for five years to keep these LA files secret… and that Archbishop Gomez fought - through his expensive lawyers - to keep them secret up until last Wednesday, January 30, 2013. That’s only 48 hours ago.
Cardinal Mahony is not-above-the-law and he should be prosecuted immediately before he flees the country at the invite of Benedict XVI - just like his criminal pal, Cardinal Bernard Law who fled to Rome at the invite of John Paul II, read here http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/05/heil-satanas-jp2-patron-saint-of.html
In every presidential election, the candidate always prepares a victory speech and a defeat speech. For Opus Dei Archbishop Gomez, his defeat speech was to slap the wrist of Cardinal Mahony, “Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties”. Yet, according to diocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg, Mahony’s daily routine will remain largely unchanged. Cardinal Mahony is already Cardinal Emeritus and therefore he “no longer has any administrative or public duties” anyway. Gomez did nothing new, but he is trying hard to deceive the world to appear different from his other cohorts criminal Bishops and criminal Cardinals, the highest one, of course, is Pope Benedict XVI with his crimes against humanity pending at The Hague http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/05/full-text-of-criminal-charges-against.html
So why is the media prancing to the sound of Vatican Pied Piper Archbishop Gomez - as if he did something new or laudable? Michael Sean Winters hails Gomez as morally courageous: “If you want to see what leadership looks like, re-read Archbishop Gomez’s bold, succinct, unaffected, rigorous letter.” Baloney, he’s a classic Vatican religious bullshiter talking and kissing Opus Dei asses! The only justice left is for Mahony to go and rot in jail like Nazis and not be buried in the huge basilica of Los Angeles which he built, read our article of January 26, 2013, below, with our analysis of Mahony’s crocodile tears letter of apology.
A record-breaking $660 million settlement with more than 500 victims in 2007 set the stage for the release of the files, but the world must never forget that Cardinal Mahony fought for five years to keep them secret… and Archbishop Gomez tried to keep them secret up until last Wednesday, January 30, 2013.
The media seems to blindly follow the deceptive trail of Vatican Pied Piper Gomez and they seem to have forgotten that only 48 hours ago, Archbishop Gomez and his lawyers were not playing by the rules.
Last Wednesday, January 30, 2013, for one last time, Archibishop Gomez desperately tried to dissuade Judge Elias. The Los Angeles Times that reported that Archbishop Gomez lawyers -- tired to twist Judge Elias' arms:
“This week, the church resubmitted a proposal that would have redacted the names of top church leaders from the documents and only provided the names of those officials in a generic cover sheet attached to the priest’s file. The church’s actions were nothing short of an attempt to delay justice and conceal the truth from the victims and the public”.
The Associated Press in the Washington Post likewise reported it, “The archdiocese had also planned to black out handwritten comments on the files inked by recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and provide those in typewritten form instead.” Read news update below for January 31, 2013.
Last Wednesday, January 30, 2013, for one last time, Archibishop Gomez desperately tried to dissuade Judge Elias. The Los Angeles Times that reported that Archbishop Gomez lawyers -- tired to twist Judge Elias' arms:
“This week, the church resubmitted a proposal that would have redacted the names of top church leaders from the documents and only provided the names of those officials in a generic cover sheet attached to the priest’s file. The church’s actions were nothing short of an attempt to delay justice and conceal the truth from the victims and the public”.
The Associated Press in the Washington Post likewise reported it, “The archdiocese had also planned to black out handwritten comments on the files inked by recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and provide those in typewritten form instead.” Read news update below for January 31, 2013.
“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” wrote Archbishop Jose Gomez in a letter to the clergy and faithful of Los Angeles
FYI, Opus Dei Gomez, here are the excuses of your Opus Dei Mammon Vatican Beast:
Opus Dei response to Priestly Sex Scandal in 2002 and they are still saying the same things today.... http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/04/opus-dei-response-to-priestly-sex.html
Opus Dei origin of "the Great" John Paul II. Opus Dei tentacles in USA, Chile, Nicaragua, Philippines, Cuba, and others http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/04/opus-dei-origin-of-great-john-paul-ii.html
Navarro-Valls in New York Times interview: A psychiatrist with a penchant for media manipulation. Two open letters sent to Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/04/navarro-valls-in-new-york-times.html
Reasons why Opus Dei covered-up the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army for decades: Words of Opus Dei Joaquin Navarro-Valls http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/2010/04/reasons-why-opus-dei-covered-up-john.html
Opus Dei female symbol for John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/2010/04/opus-dei-female-symbol-for-john-paul-ii.html
Why John Paul II is Opus Dei's Patron Saint: analysis of conference at Holy Cross Pontifical University in Rome http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/04/why-john-paul-ii-is-opus-deis-patron.html
John Paul II, Patron of Pederasts and Opus Dei – analysis of Joaquin Navarro-Valls’ reasons for JP2 beatification at Opus Dei conference in Rome http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/04/john-paul-ii-patron-of-pederasts-and.html
Holy Heist! John Paul II WYD had no role with Arab youths who liberated Egypt from Mubarak who stole then deposited billions into Vatican Swiss Banks http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/02/holy-heist-john-paul-ii-wyd-had-no-role.html
Saint? John Paul II slept in peace at the Vatican knowing that Fr. Marcial Maciel plus thousands of pedophile priests were raping thousands of boys http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/02/saint-john-paul-ii-slept-in-peace-at.html
John Paul II the Pope Sun (see the Danish cartoonist depiction of him as the Pope Sun http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_archive.html
John L.Allen Jr.Pied Piper of John Paul II deceives Catholics with his essay Fast-Track Saint in Newsweek -- with Vatican lunacy & Satanic timeline http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/
The Nazis of Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church of Benedict XVI they both burn human beings in Auschwitz and in Hell http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2011/02/nazis-of-hitler-and-roman-catholic.html
Opus Dei Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts and Rapists : Prayer to Saint John Paul II = Opus Dei Pope #1.... Benedict XVI is Opus Dei Pope #2 http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/2011/04/john-paul-ii-saint-of-pedophiles-and.html
The Opus Dei fabricates “The Age of Benedict XVI” in Rome http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/2010/06/opus-dei-fabricate-age-of-benedict-xvi.html
Popenesia in Christmas Message: Vatican Last Tsar Benedict XVI does not 'practise what he preach’ and he’s suffering from Vaticanesia (papal amnesia) http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/popenesia-in-christmas-message-vatican.html
Theology and John Paul II are heartless and together they made Father Marcial Maciel and pedophile priests thrive, read our related article here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/05/theology-and-john-paul-ii-are-heartless.html
John Paul smelled Devil`s Bowels as roses for 27 years as he deified Father Marcial Maciel and deified Cardinal Bernard Law - read our article here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/04/john-paul-smelled-devils-bowels-as.html.
Opus Dei orchestrated John Paul II's trip to El Salvador - by Jon Sobrino http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2007/11/john-paul-ii-oppressed-ignacio.html
Christ did not wear red shoes like the Pope http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2007/08/benedict-xvi-vicar-of-christ-and-jon.html
Oprah did more good than John Paul II for 25 years. Oprah gave truth and exposed evil while John Paul II hid them in his 2 evil papal Achilles Heels http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/05/oprah-did-more-good-than-john-paul-ii.html
Catholics can emulate Jews [who hunted down Nazi officers] by hunting down pedophile priests’ officers Benedict XVI & Bishops into the World Court read more here http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/02/catholics-can-emulate-jews-who-hunted.html.
The Catholic Church is worse than communism where there is no ‘freedom of speech’ - read our related article here about Vatican Temple Police http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2011/05/temple-police-australian-is-part-of.html Vatican Terror on Galileo, priests and the poor, women and children
Priests are the WIZARDS of HOST – BLACK MAGIC magicians of the flesh of God! read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/oc-diocese-buys-crystal-cathedral-as.htm
NCAA & Penn State more moral than Vatican. Sports is more moral than John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Vatican Titanic sinking in moral bankruptcy
Pope’s Christmas speech of 2012 , our analysis here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/popenesia-in-christmas-message-vatican.html
USA ambassador to Vatican - for what exactly? “Pray” with the pope in one office, in one basilica that equals “one country”? http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/02/usa-ambassador-to-vatican-for-what.html
Opus Dei Criminal Bishop Finn attacks National Catholic Reporter as he desperately cling to power as a tyrannical ruler http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/criminal-bishop-finn-attacks-national.html
“Effective immediately” is too late for the Los Angeles Vatican Catholic Archdiocese sinking in moral bankruptcy with the Vatican Titanic. This Los Angeles confidential files of 30,000 documents is the biggest iceberg to hit the Archdiocese and no Black Magic of the Eucharist can save it -- because Opus Dei Archbishop Gomez and all his priests cannot clone cats and they cannot clone Christ either, read our related article http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/oc-diocese-buys-crystal-cathedral-as.html.
Does anyone remember the cloned sheep Dolly? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep) It was the cream of the crop top team of scientists who cloned her. Well, the black magic words of a team of “holy priests” cannot clone Christ the Son God either, read about the Divine Trinity http://pope-ratz.blogspot.ca/2010/12/gay-trinity-of-father-son-and-holy
Does anyone remember the cloned sheep Dolly? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep) It was the cream of the crop top team of scientists who cloned her. Well, the black magic words of a team of “holy priests” cannot clone Christ the Son God either, read about the Divine Trinity http://pope-ratz.blogspot.ca/2010/12/gay-trinity-of-father-son-and-holy
John Paul II is prancing in Hell with the Devil because he successfully covered-up and never spoke a word about his JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army – for over a quarter of a century as he obsessively tries to leave a legacy as John Paul II “the Great”. John Paul II knew what Cardinal Mahony did, he knew about these 30,000 documents, just like he knew what Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston did, and JP2 PAPAL FARTed at us Bostonians by taking Bernie to Rome and rewarded him a “High Priest” of the mother of all basilicas the Santa Maria Maggiore until he retired in the glories of Rome, read our related article, Heil Satanas JP2! http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/05/heil-satanas-jp2-patron-saint-of.html
We have grouped together our news compilation into 5 categories, highlighted always in yellow:
First, the news articles calling for the prosecution of Cardinal Mahony
Second, the news articles that analyse and reveal the Archdiocese deceptive manoeuvrings
Third, news articles about the files in general
Fourth, Vatican Pied Piper articles, pro-Opus Dei, we put a sub-heading before the news articles of February 1, 2013. These news articles headlines Gomez right away in an effort to divert world’s attention from criminal Cardinal Mahony
Fifth, our analysis of Cardinal Mahony’s apology and continuing trail of his whereabouts. Our prediction is that he will be given a prestigious job in Rome
See news updates for Feburary 1, 2013 below.
January 26, 2013 - Our Commentary
The District Attorney office and people of Los Angeles must not look at Cardinal Mahony as an old man daily performing the Wizardry of the Eucharist in his quiet retirement, but think of what he did at the height of his power when he covered-up pedophile priests in Los Angeles and he ruined lives of children – as based on these newly released L.A. confidential files - therefore, he must now face justice and jailed like a Nazi caught in his old age. Read about the 97 year old Nazi caught last year in a parallel universe where he worked as a quiet art dealer in Montreal, Canada in our related article: Oratory of St. Joseph copy Vatican Titanic. Montreal Police announce arrest of 2 Holy Cross CSC pedophile priests for 14 years sodomy at College Notre Dame http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/12/oratory-of-st-joseph-copy-vatican.html
Below is a compilation of all news coming out of Los Angeles especially - the call for the prosecution of Cardinal Mahony - which we put together at the top of all news. Read our related article Catholics can emulate Jews [who hunted down Nazi officers] by hunting down pedophile priests’ officers Benedict XVI & Bishops into the World Court http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/02/catholics-can-emulate-jews-who-hunted.html.
This post will be constantly updated.
This post will be constantly updated.
We also analyse Cardinal Mahony’s letter of apology which proves that he is a pathological liar and a hypocrite just like his “Holy Father” Benedict XVI, read our related articles, Popenesia in Christmas Message: Vatican Last Tsar Benedict XVI does not 'practise what he preach’ and he’s suffering from Vaticanesia (papal amnesia) http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/popenesia-in-christmas-message-vatican.html
Cardinal Mahony said in his apology that he met 90 victims of pedophile priests and he wrote their names in 3 X 5 cards which were placed on his altar where he prays for them every day. Typical Vatican bullshit prayers! What, his holy prayers are suppose to give therapy and indirect healing to these 90 victims? Mahony cannot clone dead cats and he cannot CLONE CHRIST in the Eucharist either. The Mass is pure BLACK MAGIC by BLACK robed men, read here why the Eucharist is pure SORCERY -- OC Diocese buys Crystal Cathedral as flesh-factory of Christ... for wealthy God-flesh-eating Catholics http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/oc-diocese-buys-crystal-cathedral-as.html
Mahony's fellow “Prince of the Church” Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston aided and abetted 80 pedophile priests but John Paul II PAPAL FARTed at us Bostonians by promoting him to be High Priest of St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome , where he prayed for those pedophile priests victims, read our related article here Rosary could not defeat JP2 Army John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in the 20th Century ... unlike the Battle of Lepanto in the 16th Century http://jp2m.blogspot.com/
Vatican History now proves that, whether these red robed Cardinals Mahony and Law met 80 or 90 victims of JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army, their modus operandi were all the same – cover-up the pedophile priests and do not report them to the police, and protect the reputation of the Vatican Catholic Church (no longer Roman Catholic Church) at all cost – hire the best lawyers that the Vatican Billions money can buy, read the story and assets of the Vatican Billions here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html.
Vatican History now proves that, whether these red robed Cardinals Mahony and Law met 80 or 90 victims of JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army, their modus operandi were all the same – cover-up the pedophile priests and do not report them to the police, and protect the reputation of the Vatican Catholic Church (no longer Roman Catholic Church) at all cost – hire the best lawyers that the Vatican Billions money can buy, read the story and assets of the Vatican Billions here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html.
Pope Benedict XVI is now threatening excommunication on one good Irish priest of 30 years, Tony Flannery, for his spiritual views on the ordination of women and homosexuality, but Benedict has not excommunicated one among countless Los Angeles pedophile priests who sodomized more than 500 children which are revealed in these newly released Los Angles files. Read about Flannery here, Vatican Terror on Galileo, priests and the poor, women and children http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/vatican-terrorism-on-galileo-women-and.html
All slimy creepy bastards pedophile priests and Cardinal Mahony and those vicars who covered-them-up in these L.A. confidential files should be excommunicated immediately.
Their decades of priestly pedophile crimes are worse than the ordination of good women and GAY marriages.
Thank God, Obama is not a Catholic and he spoke about GAYS being treated equally at his Presidential Inaugural Address. That was America’s open war the Vatican 5th Most powerful Person in the world, Benedict XVI of Forbes, read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/12/forbes-delusion-of-vatican-last-tsar.html
WE hope that Michelle Obama will never wear black-dress-and-a-veil if or when she visits the Pope because that is a sign of women-subjugation and kowtowing to Vatican misogyny in the Vatican Catholic Church (it’s no longer Roman Catholic Church). WE hope that Obama and his family will never go to the Vatican to visit the Pope because that is a sign of recognition of the smallest “country” and bowing to the Vatican Billions and the Vatican Mammon Beast Empire which are intrinsic in the machinery of wars, read the history, sources and assets of the Vatican Billions here
Vatican Billions: its history, sources, and assets today worldwide. BOYCOTT the Vatican Museum and boycott ALL donations to the Vatican Catholic Church Reign of Terror
It is time the UN United Nations annul the Vatican as a “country” because it has a permanent population of only eight hundred (800) people homosexuals in one antique building compared to millions of population in real countries like the USA, China, Russia.
Benedict XVI cannot dare excommunicate Catholic Melinda Gates for openly defying Vatican edicts on contraception, as she openly distributes billions of dollars worth of contraceptives to women and poor people worldwide. But his only power left is on a few good priests like Tony Flannery, read here Vatican Terror on Galileo, priests and the poor, women and children http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/vatican-terrorism-on-galileo-women-and.html
Brave woman judge of Los Angels
First, we wish to thank a brave secular woman judge in Los Angeles who obviously is not a member of the most secretive Opus Dei because LA Archbishop Gomez is a priest of Opus Dei. Obviously his holy Opus Dei prayers and his Wizardry of the Host couldn’t influence her either, read our related article here on the Black Magic of the Eucharist http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/oc-diocese-buys-crystal-cathedral-as.html Anyone who has read about Vatileaks is a sham and the trial of the Pope’s butler would have seen that the judges of the Vatican Court - first prayed to the Divine Trinity - before they uttered other words, see the Divine Trinity here http://pope-ratz.blogspot.ca/2010/12/gay-trinity-of-father-son-and-holy.html.
This Los Angeles judge did not utter a Vatican prayer and therefore no Vatican Evils was present in her court of law!
Judge Emile Elias made it possible for all of us to see today one of the most complete files of all pedophile priests in one archdiocese, the largest in the USA. If she didn’t, Cardinal Mahony, Archbishop Gomez and their Opus Dei gang would be popping champagne and dancing by now at the Archbishop’s Palace. And we would all have been left in the dark and wallowing in disappointment in bitter silence. Today, Los Angeles is popping out with non-stop news and the District Attorney office has its work cut out for the New Year - to bring some final justice to the Catholic hierarchy of Cardinal Mahony and his cohorts who systemically covered-up these most heinous “holy” crimes against children committed by in the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/.
This was our letter to Judge Elias on December 29, 2012, inspired by Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Michael the Archangel to help convince her to release all documents http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/12/judge-elias-please-release-all.html
We wrote her that she must reveal the whole truth like in the Bible and she did truly give us the - Bible of the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in Los Angeles, without withholding one single document back.
Thank you, Judge Elias, we are sure that Our Lady of Guadalupe is very pleased with what you did.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of Los Angeles, pray for us
Our Lady of Guadalupe knew everything that happened in L.A. and she wanted the whole world to know it too. Judge Elias was her “voice of truth” and she appreciates it because like Rachel, she weeps for her thousands of children destroyed forever by the JP2 Army.
.
.
But this time, Our Lady of Guadalupe will not settle for crocodile tears and hypocritical apologies and Vatican bullshit prayers, she wants fierce justice on Cardinal Mahony and his cohorts who must go rot in jail.
Our Lady of Guadalupe has been used as a sweet mask by John Paul II during his longest papacy of 27 years as he covered-up his JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army - and PAPAL FARTed at us Bostonians by promoting Cardinal Bernard Law to the St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome after we successfully forced him to resign for covering-up 80 pedophile priests, read our related article John paul Totus tuus Marie http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2008/12/john-paul-ii-betrayed-totus-tuus-marie.html. The Rosary and Our Lady have been used as banners by the Vatican to camouflage their Pope Crimes and Vatican Evils for centuries, but now she has enough of it. Last December 31, a 92 year old Jesuit priest in Colombia, a good priest for more than 50 years, was excommunicated for raising questions about her virginity and criticising Pope Benedict’s book Jesus of Nazareth, read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/vatican-terrorism-on-galileo-women-and.html But not one pedophile priest has been excommunicated for their decades of heinous crimes against Catholic children because they simply perform the Wizardry of the Eucharist and hypocritically pray the Rosary, read here Rosary could not defeat JP2 Army - John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011_10_01_archive.html.
Look deeply into this image of Our Lady of Guadalupe defending and protecting children from the Serpent ... compared to the Bishops, vicar, and others who coverd-up pedophile priests
http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2008/07/letter-to-opus-dei-pope-john-paul-ii.html The names of the transferring or covering up Bishops and Cardinals are: Roll Call Please!
The Hague: Full text Criminal Charges against Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/05/full-text-of-criminal-charges-against.htmlBible of JP2 Army
Announcing the Bible of JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army - Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the most complete files revealed, a compilation of all news coming out of Los Angeles.
We will be updating this soon as news and analysis come out of Los Angeles or other parts of the world. So check this post often. The news articles that are calling for the DA to prosecute Cardinal Mahony are together and among the first news.
Cardinal Mahony tried so hard to keep secret these L.A. confidential files and he spent millions on lawyers’ fees. The largest members of the JP2 Army are in Los Angeles with more than 500 known victims and with the largest compensation payout of $660 million in 2007, the largest payout in the USA and in the world.
These L.A. confidential files prove that Cardinal Mahony and vicars aided and abetted the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army – in their most heinous crimes against hundreds if not thousands of children in Los Angeles. These evil priests are named aptly after John Paul II who had the longest papacy but not once did he speak up, and not once did he stop or excommunicate one pedophile priest, read here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/09/911-decade-and-jp2-millstones-9th.html
Children in Los Angeles, in the USA and around the world, in this generation and all generations to come must not call John Paul II “Blessed” or “Saint” because St. Michael tied the largest millstone around his neck at his last World Youth Day in 2002, when the priest pedophilia was erupting in Boston and he refused to stop by, an hour flight from Toronto, to meet with the victims of 80 pedophile priests whom Cardinal Bernard Law covered-up and transferred from one parish to another. Read Paris Arrow’s vision wherein St. Michael dragged the unrepentant John Paul II for his cover-up of the Vatican half-century JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006/08/john-paul-ii-pope-of-sodomy.html and the Vatican’s admission of its half century most heinous crimes against children of which the Los Angeles Archdiocese is the biggest chapter.
Children in Los Angeles, in the USA and around the world, in this generation and all generations to come must not call John Paul II “Blessed” or “Saint” because St. Michael tied the largest millstone around his neck at his last World Youth Day in 2002, when the priest pedophilia was erupting in Boston and he refused to stop by, an hour flight from Toronto, to meet with the victims of 80 pedophile priests whom Cardinal Bernard Law covered-up and transferred from one parish to another. Read Paris Arrow’s vision wherein St. Michael dragged the unrepentant John Paul II for his cover-up of the Vatican half-century JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006/08/john-paul-ii-pope-of-sodomy.html and the Vatican’s admission of its half century most heinous crimes against children of which the Los Angeles Archdiocese is the biggest chapter.
It is now very clear that Cardinal Mahony and high-ranking church officials covered-up pedophile priests in Los Angeles, and we pray that they will be soon brought to justice and jailed for their heinous crimes against children. Yesterday, a Rabbi in New York was sentenced to 103 years in jail for a 3 year crime he committed, Cardinal Mahony committed worse crimes - than the Rabbi - for covering-up hundreds of L.A. pedophile priests and therefore they should also go rot in jail like those Nazis caught in their old age, read more here about the Rabbi http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/popenesia-in-christmas-message-vatican.html
Analysis of Cardinal Mahony’s letter of apology
Cardinal Mahony, Nazi of JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army
The apology of Cardinal Mahony PROVES HE IS a FIRST-CLASS PATHOLOGICAL LIAR.
Mahony said that he visited 90 victims in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and that he found “those visits were heart-wrenching experiences” but… “I remained naïve myself about the full and lasting impact these horrible acts would have on the lives”. His statements contradict themselves: “Heart-wrenching” and being “naïve” are worlds apart and not compatible. How can one experience “heart wrenching” and then go home and remain “naïve” and sleep-in-peace each night for years knowing that those predator priests are still roaming free preying on more children in Los Angeles?
Whether he met 9 or 19 or 90 victims, Mahony would still have remained “naive” because the fact is, he has a “callous heart” void of compunction just like his Holy Father John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Mahony smelled Devil’s Bowels of priests pedophilia in Los Angeles as if they were roses because that is what the ritual of the Sorcery of Eucharist do to criminals, read here smell the Devil’s Bowels smell like roses in the Vatican http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/07/vatican-titanic-ship-hits-icebergs-in.html
Sacrament of Confession protects criminals and persecutes their victims http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/11/sacrament-of-confession-protects.html
Mahony said those during his visits to 90 victims, “At times we cried together, we prayed together, we spent quiet moments in remembrance”…Vatican bullshit statement – “quiet moments in remembrance”? This is a manipulation for the media to accept nonchalantly – and stay quietly – about this most heinous crime against children of the Vatican Mammon Beast which Cardinals serve with their diplomatic immunity to manage and Los Angeles is one of the wealthiest Archdiocese and has Vatican properties in the USA, read our related article about the Vatican Billions http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html .
For centuries, Pope Crimes and Vatican Evils harmed thousands of people and the world simply had “quiet remembrance” about them and simply prayed for them in the Wizardry of the Eucharist, look at how the Vatican physically tortured women here http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2006/11/john-paul-ii-revived-inquisition.html.
Today the Vatican hate women to the point that women are not allowed in the altars and not allowed to speak in the pulpits during the Mass, women are not allowed to be ordained priests, and they’ll excommunicate any priests who “speak” about the matter, read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/vatican-terrorism-on-galileo-women-and.html
Women should BOYCOTT the Catholic churches and they will go bankrupt becuas most church goers are women. Read the Vatican Billions, BOYCOTT the Vatican Museum http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html
For centuries, Pope Crimes and Vatican Evils harmed thousands of people and the world simply had “quiet remembrance” about them and simply prayed for them in the Wizardry of the Eucharist, look at how the Vatican physically tortured women here http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2006/11/john-paul-ii-revived-inquisition.html.
Today the Vatican hate women to the point that women are not allowed in the altars and not allowed to speak in the pulpits during the Mass, women are not allowed to be ordained priests, and they’ll excommunicate any priests who “speak” about the matter, read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/vatican-terrorism-on-galileo-women-and.html
Women should BOYCOTT the Catholic churches and they will go bankrupt becuas most church goers are women. Read the Vatican Billions, BOYCOTT the Vatican Museum http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html
Mahony wrote: “At times we cried together, we prayed together – what? For lives that are destroyed forever? Crying is not justice - crying is crocodile tears. Only JUSTICE and JAIL TIME is true justice - and that is where Cardinal Mahony must spend the rest of his life in true repentance. Like the Nazis, crying will not wipe out their crimes in their heydays, only jail time is true justice.
“Cried and prayed” are Opus Dei pathetic words and Opus Dei pathological lies, read our related article
Pope Benedict, what the Church need are not more "reflections" but financial compensations for victims and a "Catholic Registry of Pedophile Priests" http://pope-ratz.blogspot.ca/2010/12/pope-benedict-what-church-need-are-not.html
Crocodile tears and empty pharisaical prayers are all that Opus Dei can offer to lives they have ruined forever in the longest papacy they orchestrated of the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army -- their fastest tracking saint burning in hell with the largest Millstone around his neck tied by St. Michael the Archangel read more here http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/2010/04/reasons-why-opus-dei-covered-up-john.html.
The Opus Dei formula for the most heinous crimes against children is
Crocodile tears + prayers = QUIET remembrance or SILENCE
Then, afterwards, they loudly chant and chant “JP2, we love you”
For the biggest Opus Dei Golden Cow John Paul II http://stella0maris.blogspot.ca/
For the fastest tracking saint John Paul II, read here http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/.
Read our related article: Synod of Bishops & New Evangelization...or New Marketing of Old Vatican Deceits. Why Vatican must end as a “country” . Christ the Vatican Slave! Australia JP2 Army! http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/07/why-vatican-must-end-as-country-vatican.html
Cardinal Mahony was like John Paul II and John L. Allen Jr. who slept in peace at night in Rome while the JP2 army sodomized little boys and girls worldwide read here http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011_05_01_archive.html
Mahony’s “naiveté” means his heart was numb and callous towards those 90 victims – just like John Paul II who had neither compassion or compunction for the victims of the 80 pedophile priests whom Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston covered-up, or the victims of Fr. Marcial Maciel, that is why they are his evil Achilles Heels and therefore can never be called a saint by American children, read here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/05/theology-and-john-paul-ii-are-heartless.html a
Cardinal Mahony apology statements prove that those Cardinals who are “Prince of the Catholic Church” are out-of-touch-with-reality and they are there to manage the Vatican Billions through their “diplomatic immunity” by using the mask of their red Cardinal robes and red hats as they perform their Wizardry of the Host, read our related article, The narcissism and grandiosity of John Paul II, Cardinal Bernard Law, Benedict XVI, and Bishop Roger Vangheluwe are nauseating and despicable - add the narcissism of Mahony there nhttp://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/04/narcissism-and-grandiosity-of-john-paul.html .
Cardinal Mahony’s apology is too late and his “prayer cards” in his Opus Dei altar are all in vain. ardinal Mahony cannot clone an ant or a cat and he cannot clone the flesh of Christ either in the Eucharist, Mahony Sorcery of the fake-flesh of Christ cannot heal those victims, read our related article Spiritual healing, the Eucharist and the Rosary bring NEITHER JUSTICE NOR SAFETY FOR CHILDREN, the preys of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/05/spiritual-healing-eucharist-and-rosary.html
Cardinal Mahony should be brought to justice like those old Nazis who are caught later in their old age, read more about the 97 year old Nazis caught last year here Oratory of St. Joseph copy Vatican Titanic http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/12/oratory-of-st-joseph-copy-vatican.html
Cardinal Mahony should be jailed for his cover-up of the most heinous crimes against children, because like those Nazis who are caught in their old age, going to jail is the only justice there is left for them to taste the bitterness of their crimes..
Cardinal Mahony’s apology is like Pope Benedict XVI’s apology, they are crocodile tears, and Penance is not justice; penitence is inequality to the lifetime suffering of victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/penance-is-not-justice-penitence-is.html
Cardinal Mahony said in his statement: “During 2006, 2007 and 2008, I held personal visits with some 90 such victims…I have a 3 x 5 card for every victim I met with on the altar of my small chapel. I pray for them every single day. (BOLLOCKS! BALONEY! With carbon dating, they were freshly written to save his criminal face!) As I thumb through those cards I often pause as I am reminded of each personal story and the anguish that accompanies that life story (Vatican BULLSHIT! LIAR! LIAR! Vatican LIAR! VATICAN DECEITS!)
The Nazis and the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army were both an inherently evil all-male elite hierarchy born from the Devil's bowels - read our article here http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2011/01/nazis-and-john-paul-ii-pedophiles.html
Cardinal Mahony said in his statement: “During 2006, 2007 and 2008, I held personal visits with some 90 such victims…I have a 3 x 5 card for every victim I met with on the altar of my small chapel. I pray for them every single day. (BOLLOCKS! BALONEY! With carbon dating, they were freshly written to save his criminal face!) As I thumb through those cards I often pause as I am reminded of each personal story and the anguish that accompanies that life story (Vatican BULLSHIT! LIAR! LIAR! Vatican LIAR! VATICAN DECEITS!)
The Nazis and the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army were both an inherently evil all-male elite hierarchy born from the Devil's bowels - read our article here http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2011/01/nazis-and-john-paul-ii-pedophiles.html
Cardinal Mahony’s complete letter of apology is below - at the bottom - of all news updates.
Victims in USA - Attackers - Responsible Leaders
Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto
WTC & 9/11 attacks - 3,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden
Priest pedophilia - 15,736 victims - 6,000 pedophile priests covered-up by Cardinals, Bishops, vicars
Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto
WTC & 9/11 attacks - 3,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden
Priest pedophilia - 15,736 victims - 6,000 pedophile priests covered-up by Cardinals, Bishops, vicars
Read our related article here Diamond bride Mother Angelica’s EWTN acquires Fr. Marcial Maciel’s National Catholic Register: same God and Mammon, same hypocrisy http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/01/diamond-bride-mother-angelicas-ewtn.html
Heil Satanas JP2 Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts Rapists-Priests! John Paul II is the same yesterday and today-- he cannot protect children http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/05/heil-satanas-jp2-patron-saint-of.html
Benedict calls Cardinals for a one-day conference to tackle the 26+ years Clergy Sex Abuse of Biblical Proportions (with Vatican crocodile tears) http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/11/benedict-calls-cardinals-for-one-day.html
Premier Vaticanista John L. Allen Jr describes his unlimited access into the Vatican and Papal apartments http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/11/premier-vaticanista-john-l-allen-jr.html
The Hague: Full text Criminal Charges against Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/05/full-text-of-criminal-charges-against.html
Premier Vaticanista John L. Allen Jr describes his unlimited access into the Vatican and Papal apartments http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/11/premier-vaticanista-john-l-allen-jr.html
The Hague: Full text Criminal Charges against Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/05/full-text-of-criminal-charges-against.html
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Judge Elias, please release ALL confidential church records of names of vicars, bishops, others who handled reports of child sexual abuse in Los Angeles Archdiocese
Updated January 7, 2013
Dear Judge Elias,
Thank you for your courage and being the "Good Judge" of the 21st Century who will release all the personnel files and the names of high-ranking Catholic church officials in 30,000 pages of confidential records about Catholic priests accused of abusing children in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
You'll probably be - the first and only judge - to do this but you will set a good example for other dioceses and countries - to be fearless in revealing the whole truth and nothing but the entire truth - that are just beginning to wake up to this most heinous crime systemically covered-up by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Read the full letter here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/12/judge-elias-please-release-all.html
Dear Judge Elias,
Thank you for your courage and being the "Good Judge" of the 21st Century who will release all the personnel files and the names of high-ranking Catholic church officials in 30,000 pages of confidential records about Catholic priests accused of abusing children in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
You'll probably be - the first and only judge - to do this but you will set a good example for other dioceses and countries - to be fearless in revealing the whole truth and nothing but the entire truth - that are just beginning to wake up to this most heinous crime systemically covered-up by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Read the full letter here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/12/judge-elias-please-release-all.html
========================================================
Articles for February 3, 2013
Six Things to Know about the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Predator-Priest Records
Last night, the Los Angeles Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church took two major actions: it released 12,000 documents relating to priests accused of child sexual abuse, and simultaneously announced Cardinal Roger Mahony had been relieved of his duties. Cardinal Mahony has been heavily criticized for his handling of sex-abuse charges against Church officials, and yesterday the Church also relieved his subordinate, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, the current Regional Bishop of
Irwin Zalkin, an attorney with The Zalkin Law Firm who has represented numerous victims of child sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests, and has been directly involved in the efforts to obtain public release of the documents from the Los Angeles Archdiocese responded to questions today about the news from the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
Q: What do you think of Cardinal Mahony’s demotion?
A: The demotion of Cardinal Mahony is nothing more or less than a public relations ploy. He is retired and not very involved with the public anyway. This man is a criminal aider and abetter of child sexual abuse and should be criminally accountable. Criminal prosecution against him is long overdue.
Q: What’s the history of these records and why are we hearing about them now?
A: In the summer of
Mahony the very rot at core of Church
The Record
By Michael Fitzgerald
Record Columnist
Record Columnist
February 03, 2013
In my time, I have met killers, swindlers, perverts, corrupt politicians and all manner of toads. How ironic I met one of the worst on an altar.
In my time, I have met killers, swindlers, perverts, corrupt politicians and all manner of toads. How ironic I met one of the worst on an altar.
I was a Catholic student and altar boy who served high Mass in Annunciation Cathedral with then-Bishop Roger Mahony. Oh, the majesty! The spiritual authority!
Mahony, retired head of the Diocese of Los Angeles, was stripped of any administrative and public church duties last week. Newly released Catholic sex abuse files show His Excellency covered for molesters and lied like a rug.
Mahony was bishop of Stockton Stockton
When foot-dragging lay authorities finally investigated O'Grady, wide-eyed Mahony said he had no idea O'Grady was a pedophile - though the diocese had a sub secreto confidential personnel file on him as thick as a phone book.
Cardinal Mahony: Couldn’t Happen to a Nicer Guy
LOS ANGELES (CA)Diary of a Wimpy Catholic
February 2, 2013 By Max Lindenman
In the summer of 1945, following a three-week trial, a jury convicted Maréchal Philippe Pétain of treason and sentenced him to death. The verdict excited controversy. Though, in four years as
In Cardinal Roger Mahony’s record as
But Mahony’s record on curbing priestly sex abuse is abysmal. As memos exchanged by the future cardinal and Msgr. Thomas Curry reveal, Mahony effectively shielded three abusive priests from civil authorities. Each of the three priests faced multiple allegations from victims as young as 12. Mahony recognized that some of those allegations amounted to first-degree felonies. Yet when Curry’s plans to keep them out of the courts (and out of the papers) showed an ingenuity that verged on cunning, Mahony approved. After Fr. Michael Baker admitted privately to abusing young boys, Mahony wrote of Curry’s advice, that the information be concealed from psychiatrists, “sounds good — please proceed!”
Cardinal sins
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles
Editorial
Only now is the full scope of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles' culpability in the sex abuse scandal being confirmed.
February 3, 2013
Not only did the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles fail to protect children from pedophile priests, but its leaders, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, subsequently sought to protect its reputation by covering up cases of sexual abuse and shielding priests from the arrest and prosecution they deserved. The archdiocese then spent more than a decade fighting to keep that coverup from being revealed in court.
What is most horrible about the facts in the paragraph above is that they come as a surprise to almost no one. The archdiocese's malfeasance has been alleged for a long time, but only now is the full scope of its culpability in the sex abuse scandal being confirmed. On Thursday, Archbishop Jose Gomez, under court order, released tens of thousands of pages of confidential personnel files of 122 priests accused or convicted of molesting children. Calling the behavior described in the records "terribly sad and evil," Gomez also relieved Mahony of his public duties, which apparently means little more than canceling his confirmation schedule. Mahony will remain a "bishop in good standing in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles," Gomez said Friday, "with full rights to celebrate the holy sacraments of the church and to minister to the faithful without restriction."
Gomez's actions and apologies aren't enough, not given the fierce legal battle the church has waged over the last decade to protect itself. The release of the files last week with priests' names unredacted marked the end of an effort that began years earlier when the church advanced a frivolous argument to protect communication between a priest and his bishop as privileged and protected by the 1st Amendment. Fortunately, lower courts rejected that argument and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to entertain it.
What is most horrible about the facts in the paragraph above is that they come as a surprise to almost no one. The archdiocese's malfeasance has been alleged for a long time, but only now is the full scope of its culpability in the sex abuse scandal being confirmed. On Thursday, Archbishop Jose Gomez, under court order, released tens of thousands of pages of confidential personnel files of 122 priests accused or convicted of molesting children. Calling the behavior described in the records "terribly sad and evil," Gomez also relieved Mahony of his public duties, which apparently means little more than canceling his confirmation schedule. Mahony will remain a "bishop in good standing in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles," Gomez said Friday, "with full rights to celebrate the holy sacraments of the church and to minister to the faithful without restriction."
Gomez's actions and apologies aren't enough, not given the fierce legal battle the church has waged over the last decade to protect itself. The release of the files last week with priests' names unredacted marked the end of an effort that began years earlier when the church advanced a frivolous argument to protect communication between a priest and his bishop as privileged and protected by the 1st Amendment. Fortunately, lower courts rejected that argument and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to entertain it.
Mahony defends legacy on church abuse in blog
LOS ANGELES (CA)KTAR
[HISTORICAL EVOLUTION of DEALING with the SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINORS - Cardinal Mahony Blogs LA]
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The public rebuke of retired Cardinal Roger Mahony for failing to take swift action against abusive priests adds tarnish to a career already overshadowed by the church sex abuse scandal but does little to change his role in the larger church.
Mahony can still act as a priest, keep his rank as cardinal and remain on a critical
While Archbishop Jose Gomez's decision to strip Mahony of his administrative and public duties was unprecedented in the American Roman Catholic Church, it was another attempt by the church to accept responsibility for the abuse scandal that has engulfed it.
Victims were quick to point out that Mahony's new, paired-down local standing was in stark contrast to his continued position among the prelates at the
The decision "is little more than window dressing. Cardinal Mahony is still a very powerful prelate," Joelle Casteix, the Western regional director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said at a Friday news conference outside the
CA - Facts about Mahony's alleged "restriction"
LOS ANGELES (CA)Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on February 01, 2013
Headlines falsely claim that Mahony has been “banished” or “punished” or “outed.” That’s baloney. Listen to what knowledgeable Catholic staffers and journalists are saying about this.
From long time Mahony public relations flak Tod Tamberg:
“(Tamberg) said that beyond canceling his confirmation schedule, Mahony's day-to-day life as a retired priest would be largely unchanged. He resides at a
From noted Catholic blogger Rocco Palmo:
"While a sitting archbishop may make any request he wishes on the extent of his cardinal-predecessor's role and public presence, it technically has no bearing on anything whatsoever. By the provisions of canon law, the universal faculties granted every member of the College, or any limitation of them in specific instances, rest solely within the competence of the Holy See. Ergo, barring an explicit papal move restricting his de iure perks, Mahony retains his seat in a Conclave to elect the next Pope until his 80th birthday in 2016, and all the other prerogatives that come with the "red hat" for life.
Likewise, Curry's departure as regional bishop for
Victims: Continue clergy abuse probe
LOS ANGELES (CA)10 News
LOS ANGELES - One day after the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexual misconduct, victims of clergy abuse will push the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles Friday to continue investigating the problem.
The diocese on Thursday released files on more than 100 clergy members, and Archbishop Jose Gomez said his predecessor -- former Archbishop Roger Mahony -- will "no longer have any administrative or public duties." Meanwhile, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, Mahony's former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, stepped down as
"We suggest that Bishop Gomez do more from here and not treat what happened yesterday as the end of the line on this," Joelle Casteix of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, told City News Service. "We want him to help support more police investigations into sexual abuse. For us, this is the beginning, not the end."
Casteix and other SNAP members and their supporters held news conference outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to discuss the issue, insisting that it was only through legal action and continued pressure by victims that the church finally took action.
CA - Four parts to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles situation
LOS ANGELES (CA)Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 01, 2013
The brave and persistent survivors who fought to get these records uncovered and the truth made public deserve praise for their courage and constancy. We thank them for leading the fight to make the truth known about what Church officials in
Thanks are also due to their families who supported them and the advocates who helped them. Victims of abuse often need a good support system, and these families and advocates have provided a great one. We thank them deeply for their unwavering commitment to the victim that they supported.
There are four parts here: Gomez, Mahony, Curry and the files. . .
Archbishop Gomez refuses to act decisively to prevent future cover ups. There are three problems with his alleged 'restriction' of his predecessor.
First, his predecessor is already retired. Second, Catholic bishops have long claimed they'd 'restrict' wrongdoers - like child molesting clerics. But they rarely follow through. And third, this virtually meaningless move will likely have zero impact. It won't make a single Catholic official - now or in the future - to start acting with courage and compassion and honesty in clergy sex cases. It's like a band aid on cancer.
Action against Cardinal Mahony: Readers aren't impressed
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
By Paul Thornton
February 1, 2013
It didn't take too long for Friday's front-page story that Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez had relieved his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, of his public duties for readers to start filling up the morning mailbag. And it wasn't with letters praising Gomez for taking decisive action; to the contrary, the reaction has varied between "it's about time" and "too little, too late."
Letters written in response to the article will likely run in Sunday's paper, and they can also be viewed at latimes.com/letters. Here's what we have so far (and some of these submissions may make it onto Sunday's page).
Charles Fox of
"Let me see if I've got this right: Gomez became
How LA Times coverage of Archdiocese documents came together
LOS ANGELES (CA)By Kevin Roderick | February 2, 2013
The two top editors of the Los Angeles Times sent the staff a memo on Friday afternoon giving kudos to the team that scurried to cover Thursday's late-breaking release of sexual abuse files by the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Reporter Harriet Ryan is their star of the story.
Subject: FW: Message from Davan Maharaj and Marc Duvoisin
To the staff:
Harriet Ryan was celebrating her birthday with her husband and daughter at a Mexican cantina on
The
And Archbishop Jose Gomez, expressing disgust at the “evil” conduct described in the files, had stripped his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public duties with the church.
Harriet did what any working mother would do while enjoying a rare night out with her family: She left the restaurant and headed straight for the newsroom.
There, she found Victoria Kim in a controlled frenzy of reporting, putting out calls and downloading the just-released files. Over the next few hours, Harriet and Vic, with help from a band of devoted colleagues, pulled together a remarkably complete, authoritative and flowing account of this latest astonishing turn in the church molestation scandal.
No more heated towels for Mahony …
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 2, 2013
Think of it this way:
Mahony’s punishment is tantamount to Archbishop Gomez taking away Mahony’s key to the Executive Washroom. Now this “prince of the church” has to use the public restroom like the rest of us mere (moral and ethical) peasants.
But hopefully, the damage to Mahony’s credibility will be permanent. In fact, I think he would look quite dashing in jailhouse orange.
Ever wanted to call a perpetrator priest?
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 2, 2013
It looks as if the
Did they mean to do this?
Redactions have been an issue for the Archdiocese, who is now getting pounded for redacting the names of low-level priests who covered up abuse. They also “FORGOT” to redact the names of a number of victims. I won’t tell you where those are, out of respect for those victims.
Diocese Sent Priests to Church-Run Center for Treatment
LOS ANGELES (CA)Wall Street Journal
By JENNIFER LEVITZ
The thicket of personnel files released Thursday night by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles showed that several of its priests accused of sexual abuse were sent to New Mexico in the mid-1980s for psychological treatment.
The Servants of Paraclete treatment center in Jemez Springs, N.M., about
Priests would stay for months in the
American priests seek to join with ACP in support of Tony Flannery
Association of Catholic Priests
We want to join the ACP in support of Father Tony Flannery in the hope that his many years of dedicated faithful priestly ministry might be respected in the discussion with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
We are concerned about similar penalties imposed upon American priests such as Fr. Roy Bourgeois and Fr. Bill Brennan, S.J. Not all of our members may agree with the statements of these priests, but they deserve to be treated more compassionately by
We stand in solidarity with our brother priests in the sense of “Presbyterium Ordinis” from Vatican II and “Pastores Dabo Vobis” from Blessed Pope John Paul II, and we assure them of our prayerful support and remembrance in our Masses.
ACP meets with Archbishop Martin and Dublin Priests’ Council
Association of Catholic Priests
ACP Meeting with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and members of the Dublin Diocesan Council of Priests
Tuesday 29 January 2013, 2.30 – 4.15pm
Attendance:
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Gareth Byrne (chair of Council), Séamus Ahearne OSA, Peter O’Reilly, Ciaran McDermott (members of Council).
Brendan Hoban, PJ Madden, Tim Murphy, Arthur O’Neill, Gerry O’Hanlon SJ, Pádraig McCarthy (members of ACP).
Séamus Ahearne and Peter O’Reilly are also members of ACP.
Apologies from Auxiliary Bishops Éamonn Walsh and Ray Field.
The context of the meeting:
The ACP sought a meeting with the Episcopal Conference; the Conference proposed that a better way would be for meetings with the Councils of Priests in each diocese.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin welcomed all, and welcomed the opportunity for listening, with respect for difference, out of a shared love for the Church.
Gareth Byrne chaired the meeting, which opened with prayer.
The prepared agenda:
1. Vocations
2. Procedures for dealing with allegations against priests.
3. Impending new translation of Lectionary.
4. Pastoral implications of the current economic situation.
5. Role of priests in appointment of bishops.
6. Renewal of the Church in the Year of Faith.
HISTORICAL EVOLUTION of DEALING with the SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINORS
LOS ANGELES (CA)Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA
Friends in Christ,
This morning I sent this letter to Archbishop Jose H. Gomez giving the history and context of what we have been through since the mid-1980s. There is nothing confidential in my letter. I have been encouraged by others to publish it, so I am do so on my personal Blog. I hope you find it useful.
+ + + + +
February 1, 2013
Dear Archbishop Gomez:
In this letter I wish to outline briefly how the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and I responded to the evolving scandal of clergy sexual misconduct, especially involving minors.
Nothing in my own background or education equipped me to deal with this grave problem. In two years [1962—1964] spent in graduate school earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work, no textbook and no lecture ever referred to the sexual abuse of children. While there was some information dealing with child neglect, sexual abuse was never discussed.
Shortly after I was installed on September 5, 1985 I took steps to create an Office of the Vicar for the Clergy so that all our efforts in helping our priests could be located in one place. In the summer of 1986 I invited an attorney-friend from
During these intervening years a small number of cases did arise. I sought advice from several other Bishops across the country, including Cardinal John O’Connor of
Cardinal Mahony's removal not enough, church critics say
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
February 1, 2013
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez's decision to relieve Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of all public duties over his mishandling of clergy sex abuse of children decades ago does not go far enough, some abuse victim advocates said Friday.
David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the massive volume of files on abuse that the archdiocese released Thursday evening "reveals the horrors in black and white that victims have known for so long.”
But Clohessy and other church critics said they believe Gomez's action does not go far enough, noting Mahony remains a cardinal in good standing in the church.
“Cardinal Mahony remains a man of power within the church despite all that he has done,” Clohessy said.
Victim group not satisfied with action on Mahony
LOS ANGELES (CA)By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- A clergy abuse victim group is not satisfied with actions taken by the Roman Catholic archbishop of
Archbishop Jose Gomez late Thursday announced that his predecessor, Mahony, will no longer have any administrative or public duties.
Standing Friday in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, a regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called that "window dressing."
Joelle Casteix (KAS-tihks) says the move is only symbolic, and Mahony is still a powerful man in
Church Files Shed Light on Response to Abuse Claims
LOS ANGELES (CA)Wall Street Journal
By TAMARA AUDI, VAUHINI VARA and JIM
LOS ANGELES—The 12,000 pages of personnel files released Thursday night by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles promised to shed light on the church hierarchy's response to decades of sexual-abuse allegations, though plaintiffs' lawyers and others said it could be days before they are able to fully explore the documents.
The documents were released after years of wrangling during which lawyers for the church repeatedly sought permission to redact the names of senior officials before making the papers public. A
Nationwide, the church has released thousands of pages of documents over the years relating to abuse, but lawyers and victims' advocates said the
Tales of Tragedy Told: Archdiocese of LA Releases Files
LOS ANGELES (CA)A Good Measure
February 1, 2013 By Lisa M. Hendey
The news hit in a big way last night.
It wasn’t a surprise in any way. We know it’s been brewing for years, and what came out last night in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is simply another chapter in a tragedy that’s been unfolding before our eyes. If you’re one of the few who doesn’t know the details of Archbishop Gomez’ release of documents from the abuse scandals and his personal letter, Rocco’s got the best rundown I’ve seen. I’d encourage you to read the full letter by Archbishop Gomez and to look personally at the files released by the Archdiocese.
Catholic bloggers — and indeed anyone who calls themselves “Catholic” — are left to ponder what we can possibly add to the conversation, but more importantly how we pick up the pieces and serve the victims. For me, this tragedy hits home personally. I grew up in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and was educated in her Catholic schools. Along with reading the official statement, I spent the past hour reading the official file of a pedophile priest who served my family parish, someone who was indeed quite close to our family.
Of course this story is not a surprise to me — I’ve watched it play out over the years and end in multiple tragedies for several of the players involved. But reading the official documents, even with names redacted to protect the innocent and the victims, brought me a feeling of nausea so tangible that I had to finally close them and step away. I simply can’t fathom how the abused — those upon whom such horrible acts were perpetrated — must be feeling today. Surely there is a sense of vindication for them, and yet their tales of tragedy — opened fully for perhaps the first time and set on public display — must undoubtedly reopen terrible wounds that have been festering for such a very long time.
Rebuke of Cardinal Mahony casts a lengthy shadow at L.A. churches
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez's decision to relieve his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, of all public duties over his mishandling of clergy sex abuse of children decades ago was met by both resignation and disbelief in churches across the region.
"I was hoping it wasn't true," 71-year-old Ann Gapas said outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels after a morning prayer Friday.
"Then I come here this morning and everything is so silent and the news vans are here. It's so sad."
The news of the sex scandals have been conflicting for Gapas, who stood outside the cathedral's doors in a sweater and jeans, holding a church newsletter.
Priests "are our role models and we respect them so much," Gapas said. "You always hope it's not true."
CA - SNAP's Letter to California victims
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on February 01, 2013
Dear California SNAP member;
As you've likely heard, thousands of pages of long-secret church records about child molesting clerics and their corrupt colleagues are finally surfacing in
Make no mistake about it - this is a huge victory for innocent kids and wounded adults. And you deserve the credit!
Maybe you aren't one of the 500 LA survivors who sought justice in court. Maybe you weren't abused by an LA area priest, nun, seminarian, bishop, brother or other church employee. Maybe you aren't a victim (but a loved one or a caring parishioner). None of this matters.
What matters is that progress is being made. This accomplishment is due to you and to every single person in
We thank you and we congratulate you.
What Mahony Should Hear
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue
February 2nd, 2013
On rare occasions the clerical vetting system fails and a Christian becomes a bishop or even a pope.
A Catholic Christian knows the gravity of sin and the necessity of repentance, which includes doing penance to expiate sin.
If Archbishop Gomez were a Christian, he would first privately and then publicly address Cardinal Mahony in terms such as these:
My dear brother, I fear for your salvation and I do not want to see you burn forever in the fires of hell, alienated from God, condemned by the voices of the abused children whose bodies and souls you allowed to be ruined.
You must immediately and publicly repent.
Send your cardinal’s hat back to the pope. Resign your priesthood. It is better to enter into life a layman than to be cast with a cardinal’s robes into Gehenna.
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue
February 2nd, 2013
On rare occasions the clerical vetting system fails and a Christian becomes a bishop or even a pope.
A Catholic Christian knows the gravity of sin and the necessity of repentance, which includes doing penance to expiate sin.
If Archbishop Gomez were a Christian, he would first privately and then publicly address Cardinal Mahony in terms such as these:
My dear brother, I fear for your salvation and I do not want to see you burn forever in the fires of hell, alienated from God, condemned by the voices of the abused children whose bodies and souls you allowed to be ruined.
You must immediately and publicly repent.
Send your cardinal’s hat back to the pope. Resign your priesthood. It is better to enter into life a layman than to be cast with a cardinal’s robes into Gehenna.
Why Little Will Happen to Mahony
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue
I once asked a patristics scholar how Jerome, the translator of the Bible into Latin, ever got canonized. He was a nasty, cruel man. The scholar replied that in those days Saint meant “someone important in the Church.” And not only in those days.
John Paul grievously mishandled the cases of sexual abuse in the Church. Priests and at least one cardinal (Schoenborn) pleaded with him to do something, and he refused. Children committed suicide because of abuse that John Paul’s failures and willful blindness allowed to continue. And now he is Blessed John Paul and soon will be Saint John Paul.
Why?
Poland.
Poland is the last Catholic country in Europe and what John Paul did to help bring down Communism eclipses for the Poles everything else he did or failed to do.
Little will happen to Cardinal Mahony.
Why?
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue
I once asked a patristics scholar how Jerome, the translator of the Bible into Latin, ever got canonized. He was a nasty, cruel man. The scholar replied that in those days Saint meant “someone important in the Church.” And not only in those days.
John Paul grievously mishandled the cases of sexual abuse in the Church. Priests and at least one cardinal (Schoenborn) pleaded with him to do something, and he refused. Children committed suicide because of abuse that John Paul’s failures and willful blindness allowed to continue. And now he is Blessed John Paul and soon will be Saint John Paul.
Why?
Poland.
Poland is the last Catholic country in Europe and what John Paul did to help bring down Communism eclipses for the Poles everything else he did or failed to do.
Little will happen to Cardinal Mahony.
Why?
Sex scandals, lies mar US churches
LOS ANGELES (CA)
China Daily
LOS ANGELES - Anyone who rapes teenage boys and girls is a crime, but when priests had sex with teenagers, archbishops tried to cover them up to avoid punishment. That has happened in churches in Los Angeles and other US cities.
In 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles paid at least $660 million to settle sex abuse charges, and then joined a torturous legal defense of a privilege to conceal its part in that history.
Last week, in response to a court order, the archdiocese released internal records documenting the actions church officials took, or failed to take, when priests were accused of abuse.
Those documents revealed that in the 1980s, then-Archbishop Roger Mahony and his top aide, Thomas Curry, who is now a bishop, maneuvered to shield priests from prosecution, kept parishioners in the dark and failed to call police about sex crimes against minors.
China Daily
LOS ANGELES - Anyone who rapes teenage boys and girls is a crime, but when priests had sex with teenagers, archbishops tried to cover them up to avoid punishment. That has happened in churches in Los Angeles and other US cities.
In 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles paid at least $660 million to settle sex abuse charges, and then joined a torturous legal defense of a privilege to conceal its part in that history.
Last week, in response to a court order, the archdiocese released internal records documenting the actions church officials took, or failed to take, when priests were accused of abuse.
Those documents revealed that in the 1980s, then-Archbishop Roger Mahony and his top aide, Thomas Curry, who is now a bishop, maneuvered to shield priests from prosecution, kept parishioners in the dark and failed to call police about sex crimes against minors.
Why Did the Pope Shame LA’s Mahony, But Not Brady of Ireland?
UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Pope Benedict XVI for the first time publicly shamed a voting Cardinal, Mahony of Los Angeles. The Pope’s pawn, Archbishop Gomez, publicly referred to Mahony’s child abuse cover-up conduct as “evil”. This unprecedented and selective public papal condemnation, in my view as an experienced retired lawyer, significantly increases the risk for Mahony that he will yet still be criminally prosecuted, possibly for obstruction of justice or perjury. Prosecutors now have a papal blessing to go after Mahony. Yet the Pope has also just permitted Ireland’s voting Cardinal Brady to exit gracefully, without papal condemnation. Brady was reportedly involved in priest abuse cover-ups at least as “evil” as Mahony. Why the different treatment for two Cardinals?
The likeliest explanation is current papal election politics. Conservative Cardinals in the Vatican clique, including American ones like Burke, Law and Stafford, and their right-wing U.S. Republican contributors, have for years targeted Mahony, often an ally of U.S. Democratic political leaders, as an obstacle to the Vatican clique’s efforts to maintain Vatican domination of the Catholic Church worldwide, through groups like Opus Dei that Gomez and convicted criminal Bishop Finn are members of. Brady, on the other hand, supports domination by the Vatican clique, as evidenced by his acquiescence in the current unchallenged attack on one of Brady’s most popular priests, Fr. Tony Flannery, by the Pope’s new German Inquisitor. Flannery’s brother is a top ally to Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who has strongly opposed papal domination in Ireland.
The signal is clear. The Vatican is prepared, it appears, to use selectively the criminal prosecution risks inherent in the worldwide abuse scandal to intimidate voting Cardinals who oppose the current Vatican clique’s candidate to be next Pope. Since most Cardinals likely have been involved in some cover-up activity, this election blackmail is a significant threat. It also is a compelling reason for Cardinals to call now for a worldwide conference as explained at: http://wp.me/P2YEZ3-gW .
Children in the USA cannot be used as leverage in a papal election. The Pope and local political leaders and prosecutors have repeatedly failed to curtail effectively priest sexual abuse of children. The President has the clout needed to curtail this abuse and he must now step-up and use it. A petition has been opened for signatures asking President Obama to set up a national investigation commission into the sexual abuse of children by priests, rabbis, ministers and other religious leaders. Already many have begun to sign it, including abuse survivors and their supporters. Please take 30 seconds to sign it no matter where in the world you live. This is a worldwide epidemic. Just click on the below link at:
[Click here for the petition.]
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Pope Benedict XVI for the first time publicly shamed a voting Cardinal, Mahony of Los Angeles. The Pope’s pawn, Archbishop Gomez, publicly referred to Mahony’s child abuse cover-up conduct as “evil”. This unprecedented and selective public papal condemnation, in my view as an experienced retired lawyer, significantly increases the risk for Mahony that he will yet still be criminally prosecuted, possibly for obstruction of justice or perjury. Prosecutors now have a papal blessing to go after Mahony. Yet the Pope has also just permitted Ireland’s voting Cardinal Brady to exit gracefully, without papal condemnation. Brady was reportedly involved in priest abuse cover-ups at least as “evil” as Mahony. Why the different treatment for two Cardinals?
The likeliest explanation is current papal election politics. Conservative Cardinals in the Vatican clique, including American ones like Burke, Law and Stafford, and their right-wing U.S. Republican contributors, have for years targeted Mahony, often an ally of U.S. Democratic political leaders, as an obstacle to the Vatican clique’s efforts to maintain Vatican domination of the Catholic Church worldwide, through groups like Opus Dei that Gomez and convicted criminal Bishop Finn are members of. Brady, on the other hand, supports domination by the Vatican clique, as evidenced by his acquiescence in the current unchallenged attack on one of Brady’s most popular priests, Fr. Tony Flannery, by the Pope’s new German Inquisitor. Flannery’s brother is a top ally to Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who has strongly opposed papal domination in Ireland.
The signal is clear. The Vatican is prepared, it appears, to use selectively the criminal prosecution risks inherent in the worldwide abuse scandal to intimidate voting Cardinals who oppose the current Vatican clique’s candidate to be next Pope. Since most Cardinals likely have been involved in some cover-up activity, this election blackmail is a significant threat. It also is a compelling reason for Cardinals to call now for a worldwide conference as explained at: http://wp.me/P2YEZ3-gW .
Children in the USA cannot be used as leverage in a papal election. The Pope and local political leaders and prosecutors have repeatedly failed to curtail effectively priest sexual abuse of children. The President has the clout needed to curtail this abuse and he must now step-up and use it. A petition has been opened for signatures asking President Obama to set up a national investigation commission into the sexual abuse of children by priests, rabbis, ministers and other religious leaders. Already many have begun to sign it, including abuse survivors and their supporters. Please take 30 seconds to sign it no matter where in the world you live. This is a worldwide epidemic. Just click on the below link at:
[Click here for the petition.]
End of news update for February 3, 2013
==================================================
Bible of JP2 Army in Los Angeles
Here are compilations of all the news coming out of Los Angeles regarding the release of all the confidential files of all pedophile priests that Cardinal Mahony tried so hard to keep secret. We will be updating this often soon as fresh news come out of Los Angeles or other parts of the world.
January 26, 2013
January 26, 2013
January 23, 2013
CA - Victims dispute hopelessness about charges vs. Mahony
LOS ANGELES (CA)Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on January 23, 2013
It’s factually and morally wrong to assume that criminal charges can’t be brought against current and former top LA archdiocesan officials, especially with tens of thousands of church records about to be released.
We aren’t police, prosecutors or even lawyers. But for 25 years, we’ve seen – in the words of Martin Luther King – “the long arc of history bend toward justice.” We’ve seen secular authorities become increasingly assertive and creative and successful in pursuing sophisticated criminals.
Remember one simple fact and one simple adage:
Al Capone was nailed on tax evasion.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
The irresponsible assumption that Mahony, Curry and others can’t be prosecuted rests on another irresponsible assumption: that their behavior has changed. Can we be more reckless than to assume that these men - who have repeatedly done serious wrong for decades and have entirely escaped penalties – have magically, completely, and voluntarily reformed?
All the policies and panels and procedures and promises made by church officials don’t change one simple truth – Archbishop Gomez and Bishop Curry and others still have the ability, right now, to do exactly as they’ve done for decades in child sex cases.
Will Cardinal Roger Mahony Face Charges for Sex Abuse Cover Up? SNAP says Yes
LOS ANGELES (CA)LA Weekly
By Patrick Range McDonald
Wed., Jan. 23 2013
On the front page of this morning's Los Angeles Times, the paper notes that several legal experts suspect Cardinal Roger Mahony will not face criminal charges for covering up clergy sex abuse due to the statute of limitations. One advocacy group says those experts have it wrong.
"We aren't police, prosecutors or even lawyers," says David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), in a press statement today. "But for 25 years, we've seen, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., 'the long arc of history bend toward justice.' We've seen secular authorities become increasingly assertive and creative and successful in pursuing sophisticated criminals."
Founded in 1988, SNAP is the world's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims and has more than 12,000 members.
Clohessy adds, "Remember one simple fact and one simple adage: Al Capone was nailed on tax evasion [and] 'Where there's a will, there's a way.'"
'Unique case' calls for gov't 'intrusion'
LOS ANGELES (CA)OneNewsNow
Becky Yeh - California correspondent (OneNewsNow.com)
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Concerning the cover-up of sex abuse in the Lost Angeles Archdiocese, a Christian attorney says a little government "intrusion" is necessary to ensure that justice be served.
Prosecutors who were unable to build a case against leaders of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are now reviewing internal church documents that were recently released. According to the Los Angeles Times, the files show how church leaders protected molester priests and sought to hide information from other church leaders. The documents reveal that retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and church hierarchy failed to discipline pedophile priests, even though they were aware there were other victims.
Bob Tyler of Advocates for Faith & Freedom says this case calls for unusual measures.
"In this case, the victims certainly deserve justice. However, a judge needs to decide whether that includes publicly identifying those individuals who may have known about the abuse but did nothing about it," he asserts.
CA - Victims dispute hopelessness about charges vs. Mahony
LOS ANGELES (CA)Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on January 23, 2013
It’s factually and morally wrong to assume that criminal charges can’t be brought against current and former top LA archdiocesan officials, especially with tens of thousands of church records about to be released.
We aren’t police, prosecutors or even lawyers. But for 25 years, we’ve seen – in the words of Martin Luther King – “the long arc of history bend toward justice.” We’ve seen secular authorities become increasingly assertive and creative and successful in pursuing sophisticated criminals.
Remember one simple fact and one simple adage:
Al Capone was nailed on tax evasion.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
The irresponsible assumption that Mahony, Curry and others can’t be prosecuted rests on another irresponsible assumption: that their behavior has changed. Can we be more reckless than to assume that these men - who have repeatedly done serious wrong for decades and have entirely escaped penalties – have magically, completely, and voluntarily reformed?
All the policies and panels and procedures and promises made by church officials don’t change one simple truth – Archbishop Gomez and Bishop Curry and others still have the ability, right now, to do exactly as they’ve done for decades in child sex cases.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 21, 2013
These documents hold the truth that victims have known for years: Archdiocese officials knew their priests were abusing kids and concealed these heinous crimes.
For more than five years since the the LA settlement, victims and the public have been promised the truth of the documents. Instead, we were given delays, legal maneuvers and double talk. And since coming to Los Angeles, Archbishop Gomez has continued this secrecy and betrayal. What is he doing to ensure that crimes like the ones in these files have been stopped? What will we learn when all of the documents promised in the 2007 settlement are released?
We urge law enforcement to carefully evaluate all of these files and do the best they can to deliver criminal indictments to anyone who abused or knowingly endangered a child. It is only when criminals are punished to the fullest extent of the law that children are kept safe from abuse.
We urge law enforcement to carefully evaluate all of these files and do the best they can to deliver criminal indictments to anyone who abused or knowingly endangered a child. It is only when criminals are punished to the fullest extent of the law that children are kept safe from abuse.
Renewed Call for Criminal Prosecutions in Church Abuse Scandal
LOS ANGELES (CA)NBC Los Angeles
[with video]
By Jonathan Lloyd and Olsen Ebright
Tuesday, Jan 22, 2013
Church abuse victims Tuesday made a renewed call for criminal prosecutions following the release of confidential files that show top Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials tried to cover up the allegations.
"We've always been called 'alleged victims.' I think today the word 'alleged' will be left out and I think today you guys you will truly see and understand that we were victims -- truly victims of manipulative men who made cold, calculated decisions as how to protect themselves and save face in the community," said Manuel Vega, who was abused from age 10 to 15.
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a late-morning news conference at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. Victims spoke about the recently released documents and called for an end to legal maneuvers that they say have delayed the release of more documents.
"We demand justice and we deserve justice, on behalf of the children we all were when we so terribly hurt," said Joelle Casteix, SNAP Western Regional Director.
Victims of child sexual abuse by US Catholic church demand justice
LOS ANGELES (CA)Press TV (Iran)
Reports of newly released files showing concerted efforts by a major US Catholic church to conceal child abuse by its priests has prompted fresh demands from victims to bring church officials to justice.
Despite numerous calls over the past decade to bring the church’s top leader Cardinal Roger Mahony and his top deputies to criminal prosecution for actively trying to hide sexual abuse of children by its clergy, none of the several legal efforts on such cases resulted in “charges against he archdiocese’s hierarchy,” The Los Angeles Times reports Wednesday.
“At least three grand juries, two district attorneys and a US attorney have subpoenaed documents and summoned witnesses,” the report emphasizes, adding that all the legal measures failed to win conviction for officials of the California church.
While the Los Angeles County district attorney vowed to review and evaluate all of the newly-revealed documents “for criminal conduct,” the daily cites “legal experts” as insisting that the massive quantity of files “were unlikely to lead to charges, let alone convictions.”
Cardinal Mahony Should Stand Trial.
CALIFORNIAThe Orange Juice Blog
By
Ricardo Toro
– January 24, 2013
“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.
Paedophile victims urge renewed probe of LA Catholic leaders
LOS ANGELES (CA)Times LIVE (South Africa)
Reuters | 23 January, 2013
Victims of paedophile priests called for renewing a criminal investigation into the role of Catholic Church leaders in Los Angeles, including Cardinal Roger Mahony, in covering up child sexual abuse as revealed in newly released Church records.
Documents made public on Monday showed that Mahony, then archbishop of the nation's largest Catholic archdiocese, worked with a top adviser to shield known molesters in the clergy from law enforcement scrutiny in the 1980s.
According to the internal Church personnel records, Mahony and a monsignor who oversaw sex abuse cases in the archdiocese, Thomas Curry, arranged with other Church officials to send paedophile priests out of state to avoid prosecution.
Mahony and Curry also tried to keep priests sent away to a Church-run paedophile treatment center from later revealing their misconduct to private therapists who would be obligated to report the crimes to police, the documents showed.
Victims Accuse L.A. Catholic Church Leaders Of Covering Up Sex Abuse
CALIFORNIANPR
[audio]
by Tovia Smith
January 24, 2013
Prosecutors in California say they are reviewing newly-released personnel files that document efforts by the Los Angeles Archdiocese to cover up clergy sexual abuse. They haven't said whether they might pursue criminal charges against retired Cardinal Roger Mahony. Statutes of limitations make prosecution difficult, but victims are calling on authorities to be more creative and find a way to punish church higher-ups for protecting abusive priests, rather then children.
Los Angeles Priest Files Released: Statement of Terence McKiernan, BishopAccountability.org
LOS ANGELES (CA)BishopAccountability.org
The long-awaited Los Angeles archdiocesan documents are beginning to appear. Already we see strong indications that Cardinal Mahony and his management team acted deliberately to prevent abusers from being apprehended by the police. We urge the U.S. Attorney and the Los Angeles County District Attorney to examine this evidence, and if Cardinal Mahony, Bishop Curry, and their associates conspired to obstruct justice, then indictments should follow. We urge prosecutors also to consider the evidence in the Aguilar files of international cooperation between bishops to help a known child molester evade criminal prosecution. These documents and other files that will be released in coming months offer a basis to determine whether priests were transferred in violation of federal law.
Terence McKiernan
President
BishopAccountability.org
508-479-9304 cell
About BishopAccountability.org
Founded in 2003, BishopAccountability.org is an online library with more than 100,000 pages of church records, legal documents, and media reports. Its mission is to give the public one-stop access to information pertaining to the crisis in all U.S. dioceses and throughout the world. An independent non-profit, BishopAccountability.org is an archive and data center. It is not a victims' advocacy group nor a reform group.
L.A. church molestation records spark call for criminal inquiry
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
Newly released L.A. Archdiocese records showing how officials handled the priest sex abuse scandal have prompted a new call for law enforcement action.
The documents released Monday show that then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement.
The archdiocese’s failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement had previously been known. But the new memos offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation’s largest Catholic diocese to keep abusers from the attention of police.
DOCUMENTS: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files
The SNAP Network, an activist group that works on behalf of abuse victims, released a statement Monday calling on authorities to look into the new documents.
"We urge law enforcement to carefully evaluate all of these files and do the best they can to deliver criminal indictments to anyone who abused or knowingly endangered a child. It is only when criminals are punished to the fullest extent of the law that children are kept safe from abuse," the group said.
In the confidential letters, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese’s chief advisor on sex abuse cases, proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they had abused young boys.
Cardinal Roger Mahony should be publically admonished, SNAP says
LOS ANGELES (CA)KABC
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
Q McCray
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Church sex abuse victims and their supporters are expected to blast the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and retired Cardinal Roger Mahony during a rally in Downtown Los Angeles Tuesday.
The protest is over newly released documents detailing a pattern of cover-ups.
Victims are demanding action in Tuesday's conference and asking current Archbishop Jose Gomez to publically admonish former Cardinal Roger Mahony for knowingly covering for molester priests.
The newly released documents reveal that retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top officials with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles tried to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement decades ago.
The files show church leaders moved abusive priests out of state, handled damage control and consulted with accused priests behind the scenes.
DA will review LA church files for crimes
LOS ANGELES (CA)CBS Atlanta
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Prosecutors will review internal priest personnel files kept by the Los Angeles Roman Catholic archdiocese that show retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top church officials worked to shield molester priests.
District attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said in an emailed statement Tuesday that the office will "evaluate all documents as they become available to us."
Thousands of pages of confidential records from the files of 14 priests accused of sex abuse were made public Monday.
The documents show how the church handled abuse allegations for decades and provide the strongest evidence to date that Mahony and a top aide consulted about how to handle molester priests and protect the archdiocese from scandal.
Files Revealing Sex Abuse Coverup Shocks Attorney
SAN DIEGO (CA)NBC San Diego
By Nicole Gonzales and R. Stickney
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013
A San Diego attorney who represents sexual abuse victims of Catholic priests said even he was shocked at the extensive cover up revealed in newly-released documents.
Thousands of pages from the internal disciplinary files of 14 priests made public Monday show retired Los Angeles Archdiocese Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top aides maneuvered behind the scenes to shield molester priests and provide damage control for the church.
San Diego attorney Irwin Zalkin has represented survivors of clergy sexual abuse for the past decades and some of his clients are included in the 30,000 pages of confidential files made public.
He told NBC 7 San Diego he’s amazed at how long this scandal was covered up.
“Clearly, clearly no interest in protecting children. None,” Zalkin said. “This was all about protecting the church from scandal.”
The church retains its barrier of silence
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
By D.J. Waldie
January 27, 2013
In January 2002, the Boston Globe published the first in a series of articles that exposed the sordid history of sexual abuse of youth in the Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese. Those stories revealed how church officials had kept knowledge of abuse from parishioners and kept abusing priests in parishes where they continued to blight the lives and faith of the innocent.
Later in 2002, as more cases of sexual abuse in more dioceses tumbled out of the dark and the silence to which they had been consigned, the U.S. Conference of Bishops hurriedly promised transparency. The Catholic faithful, the bishops said, should know the extent of priestly abuse and their church's response.
In 2007, after paying at least $660 million in abuse settlements, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles joined a torturous legal defense of a privilege to conceal its part in that history. The Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press, along with advocates for the victims, challenged the claim of archdiocesan officials.
Last week, in response to a court order, the archdiocese released internal records documenting the actions church officials took — or failed to take — when priests were accused of abuse. More documents will be released in coming weeks, but from those we've seen already, we know that in the 1980s, then-Archbishop Roger Mahony and his Vicar of Clergy, then-Msgr. Thomas Curry, failed repeatedly when moral judgment required them to choose the good of the Catholic community over loyalty to their fraternity of parish priests.
Mahony’s Legacy
LOS ANGELES (CA)Minnesota SNAP
By Vinnie Nauheimer
Let’s hear it for Cardinal Mahony!
Never was one so full of baloney;
Cunning hypocrite of the first order;
Priest, whose hypocrisy knows no border.
Panderer to the pedophile priest
Let loose the sick, hungry, ravaging beast
Who gorged upon the innocent flesh
Of our children; their pure souls to enmesh.
Roger the dodger spent untold dollars
Keeping, out of jail, rapists with collars!
Spending for lawyers to tighten the screws
On tortured child victims from the pews!
L.A. County prosecutors reviewing documents released by Los Angeles Archdiocese
CALIFORNIAPress-Telegram
By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer
dailynews.com
Posted: 01/22/2013
Los Angeles County prosecutors said today they will begin reviewing internal documents released by the Los Angeles Archdiocese which show that retired Monsignor Roger Mahony and other church leaders maneuvered to protect priests accused of child molestation from law enforcement.
The revelations were contained in thousands of pages of documents released Monday by the attorney for a man who claims he was abused by a priest and has filed suit against the church. The flood of records from the personnel files for 14 priests reveal publicly for the first time how the Catholic Church handled abuse allegations, and the elaborate strategies for keeping molestation secret.
The files of about 75 additional priests are slated to become public in the next few weeks under the terms of a 2007 settlement with more than 500 victims, who received a record payout of $660 million.
A lawyer for about 30 of the priests fought to keep the records sealed, but a judge recently ordered their release without redacting the names of church leaders.
Catholics, Come Home to Naïveté or the Truth?
UNITED STATESNational Survivor Advocates Coalition
The Roman Catholic Church in the United States is spending a bucketload of Catholic cash on the Catholics Come Home advertising campaign currently running in a number of media markets.
The Church has also spent incredible amounts of Catholic cash on attorneys and public relations firm to suppress, hide, and delay making public what the Catholic hierarchy and their aides and chancery staffs did with their knowledge of sexual abuse of children and minors.
Now in Los Angeles comes the deluge.
The deluge of the documents that as part of the 2007 clergy sexual abuse victims’ $660 million settlement were to be made – and now are being made – public.
But not before the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press joined forces to bring pressure to bear for the agreement for the records to be made public. And not before the Archdiocese of Los Angeles tried a last minute desperate effort to Swiss cheese the documents of the names of those in authority. The ploy didn’t work thanks to a stand-up judge who simply asked the question: don’t Catholics have a right to know what happened in their Church?
‘Thwarting’ an Investigation
CALIFORNIASanta Barbara Independent
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents - BishopAccountability.org]
Thursday, January 24, 2013
By Nick Welsh
Santa Barbara’s Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry has been accused of “thwarting” potential sex abuse investigations by responsible law enforcement agencies concerning at least three pedophile priests during the 1980s when Curry served as the archdiocese’s chief advisor to archbishop — and later cardinal — Roger Mahony on sex abuse cases.
Attorney Tony De Marco submitted just-released church personnel records demonstrating how concerned Curry and Mahony were that sexual-offender priests might come to the attention of law enforcement investigators. De Marco submitted these documents as part of a lawsuit he filed on behalf of a man who claims he’d been abused by a priest, Nicholas Aguilar Rivera. Rivera remains at large, and De Marco is demanding the opportunity to depose Curry and Mahony to demonstrate the extent to which the archdiocese was “thwarting law enforcement investigations.”
In 1986, Curry wrote a memo to Mahony about Michael Baker, a priest who’d admitted to molesting boys that year. Curry cautioned against allowing Baker to see a California therapist. “I see a problem here, in that if he were to mention his problem with child abuse it would put the therapist in a position of having to report him.” Curry then added, “I think we have to be very careful about whom he goes to see and what kind of information is released to the program. Given the fact that he cannot mention his past problem, the necessity to be so circumspect might defeat the purpose of his going to a therapist.”
Santa Barbara Bishop Apologizes In Catholic Church Cover Up
CALIFORNIAKCOY
[with video]
By Liberty Zabala
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Dark days fall upon the Catholic Church as files upon files of alleged child sex abuse finally come to light.
Letters between Archdiocese of Los Angeles - Santa Barbara Region Bishop Thomas J. Curry and Cardinal Roger Mahony show they knew about alleged child sex abuse but choose to cover it up.
"You can imagine what the church has to lose," says Child Sex Abuse Therapist Nancy Gutfreund. "You're supposed to be an organization that completely protects its people and when there's damage done nobody wants to admit it."
But Bishop Curry was forced to, releasing this statement saying:
"I wish to apologize for those instances when I made decisions regarding the treatment and disposition of clergy accused of sexual abuse that in retrospect appear inadequate or mistaken."
LA priest accused of sex crimes exiled to PH
LOS ANGELES (CA)Asian Journal
Friday, 25 January 2013
Mico Letargo | AJPress
LOS ANGELES – Confidential records attached in a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles revealed how church officials attempted to keep silent about abuse allegations for decades, and maneuvered outside of the public eye to shield molester priests.
An in-depth report by the Associated Press revealed that one of the molester priests was exiled to the Philippines by archdiocese officials and was paid a ‘secret salary’ as well.
The exiled priest, along with six other clerics, were accused of having sex with a teen and impregnating her.
The lawsuit also implicated retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top church officials in the handling of the damage control campaign for the archdiocese, in attempts to keep parishioners uninformed of the abuses.
Documents Reveal Cardinal Roger Mahony Covered Up Sex Crimes By Priests
UNITED STATESUprising Radio
In the same week that Jewish ultra-Orthodox counselor Nechemya Weberman was sentenced to 103 years in prison for sexually abusing a teenage girl in 2007, documents were released this past Monday showing that Catholic religious leader Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese knowingly conspired with other church officials to protect priests who were known to have sexually abused children in the 1980s.
The LA Archdiocese, which is the nation’s largest, had been fighting to keep the documents secret since 2007 when a $660 million dollar judgment was awarded to 500 victims of church sexual abuse. A recent LA superior court judge’s ruling however, ordered the release of 30,000 documents naming the pedophile priests despite the church’s pleas to protect their privacy.
Although all the documents have not yet been released, the ones which have, provide proof that Mahony and Monsignor Thomas J. Curry acted to protect Monsignor Peter Garcia who had bound and raped an 11 year old boy and sexually abused more than a dozen other boys.
CA - Two groups want LA auxiliary bishop demoted
LOS ANGELES (CA)Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents - BishopAccountability.org]
Posted by David Clohessy on January 23, 2013
Two groups that deal with clergy sex abuse are asking the top Catholic official in Los Angeles to demote one of his highest ranking staff members.
Leaders of BishopAccountability.org and of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing Archbishop José H. Gomez, urging him to discipline Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, who was implicated in newly-released church records about pedophile priests.
"It's bad enough to deceive parents, parishioners and the public. It's even worse to deceive police and prosecutors. Bishop Curry has done both," said Joelle Casteix, SNAP Western Regional Director. “He should be fired, censured or demoted immediately.”
In memos from 1986 and 1987, between then-Msgr. Curry and Cardinal Roger Mahony, then the leader of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Curry offers suggestions on way to prevent and circumvent investigations by police of priests who had admitted abusing young boys. His tactics included avoiding therapists who might alert authorities and sending priests to assignments out of state.
“This is an opportunity for Archbishop Gomez to make a clean break with the failed policies of his predecessor, Cardinal Mahony,” said Terence McKiernan, President of BishopAccountability.org, a website that archives Catholic abuse documents. “The documents show that Auxiliary Bishop Curry’s management of the Wempe, Baker, and Peter Garcia cases was immoral and likely illegal. At a time when managerial malfeasance has been judged criminal in Philadelphia and Kansas City, Archbishop Gomez must do the accountable thing: remove Bishop Curry from his positions of power and make a full disclosure of the archdiocese’s previous obstructionist practices.”
Newly Released Files on Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal
CALIFORNIAKEYT
Written by Shirin Rajaee
Santa Barbara- Some confidential files released this week on clergy sex abuse in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, reveal ties to at least one prominent local religious figure. For years, the Catholic Church has fought to keep these files secret, but the documents that date back to the 1980's are revealing. They clearly show how Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top adviser, Bishop Thomas Curry, who now presides over the Santa Barbara region plotted to hide child molestation by priests, from reaching the police.
Santa Barbara Attorney, Tim Hale, who represents a number of the 500 abuse victims says that there were discussions in these memos where church leaders would knowingly give the abusive priests out of the area assignments to keep them from being exposed, and kept them from seeing psychologists, in case the therapist alerted police.
Father James Ford who was assigned to many locations in the area, is one of the abusers that Mahony and Curry were covering up for.
'Unique case' calls for gov't 'intrusion'
LOS ANGELES (CA)OneNewsNow
Becky Yeh - California correspondent (OneNewsNow.com)
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Concerning the cover-up of sex abuse in the Lost Angeles Archdiocese, a Christian attorney says a little government "intrusion" is necessary to ensure that justice be served.
Prosecutors who were unable to build a case against leaders of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are now reviewing internal church documents that were recently released. According to the Los Angeles Times, the files show how church leaders protected molester priests and sought to hide information from other church leaders. The documents reveal that retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and church hierarchy failed to discipline pedophile priests, even though they were aware there were other victims.
Bob Tyler of Advocates for Faith & Freedom says this case calls for unusual measures.
"In this case, the victims certainly deserve justice. However, a judge needs to decide whether that includes publicly identifying those individuals who may have known about the abuse but did nothing about it," he asserts.
Roger Mahony's Apology for Abuse Cover-Up Not Enough, say Victims
LOS ANGELES (CA)KCET
[video]
Recently discovered letters from the 1980s cast a new and disturbing light on the L.A. Archdiocese and its former archbishop, Cardinal Roger Mahony. They strongly suggest that Mahony actively conspired to keep suspected pedophile priests away from the police, even going so far as to send a priest out of state to elude authorities. Mahony has apologized -- again. But now there are fresh calls for prosecution.
Manny Vega of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) tells Madeleine his devastating story of abuse and what he thinks should be the fate of Mahony and the other priests involved in this scandal.
The Release of the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Records ...
LOS ANGELES (CA)Justia Verdict
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents - BishopAccountability.org]
Marci A. Hamilton
The Release of the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Records Relating to Clergy Child Sex Abuse: The Insights It Reveals, and Why the Justice System Deserves Great Credit Here
The Earth moved in Los Angeles recently, without a flicker of the Richter scale. Files of the Los Angeles Archdiocese were released as part of a civil case in which members of the hierarchy were named, and their unforgivable actions described in their own words. These men knew about child-predator priests who gravely harmed dozens, if not hundreds, of victims, and they never once called the police before the year 2000. Instead, they helped one pedophile priest escape the country, suggested sending another to a therapist who was also a lawyer so as to ensure that attorney-client privilege would apply, and let another simply melt into the general population after returning from treatment. The details, reported by The Los Angeles Times,are nauseating.
These files are just the beginning of the earthshaking information still to be released in Los Angeles, as the revelations I have described above are from just one individual case. Soon, the files that were supposed to be released as part of the massive 2007 settlement between 550 survivors and the Archdiocese will also become public. While the Archdiocese pushed hard to have the names of the members of the hierarchy redacted in those files, the press fought back in court and won. Now, these additional files will be also released, and likely will be just as searing as the few just now released.
I know, I know. At this point in history, learning that bishops failed to protect children from priest child predators is something that, to quote Capt. Reynaud in Casablanca, “I’m shocked, shocked to find.” The bigger picture though, is where I would like my reader to look now. The truth about child sex abuse in our culture is pouring in; where did it come from?
Bishop sorry for ‘inadequate or mistaken’ response to priest abuse
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
[with video]
A Roman Catholic bishop apologized Tuesday for "inadequate or mistaken" responses to clergy sex abuse when he served as a top advisor to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in the late 1980s.
"Like many others, I have come to a clearer understanding over the years of the causes and treatment of sexual abuse," Bishop Thomas J. Curry, who oversees Santa Barbara and Ventura counties for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said in a statement.
Internal church files released this week show Curry and Mahony, who was then archbishop, discussed how to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including by keeping the priests out of California to avoid prosecution. While serving as vicar of clergy, Curry also suggested to Mahony that they prevent pedophile priests from seeing therapists who might alert authorities.
DOCUMENT: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files
In one letter about a priest who had acknowledged using a 12-year-old parishioner as what a church official called his "sex partner," Curry said it was "surprising" that a church-paid counselor hadn't reported Father Michael Wempe to police. He and Wempe "agreed it would be better if Mike did not return to him."
Perhaps, Curry added, the priest could be sent to "a lawyer who is also a psychiatrist" thereby putting "the reports under the protection of privilege."
The archdiocese's cover-up
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
Editorial
The release of confidential files on 1980s clergy sex abuse in the Los Angeles Archdiocese is the beginning of the end of a long and sordid saga.
January 23, 2013
For years, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles fought to keep secret its confidential files concerning pedophile priests. Hundreds of sex abuse victims hoping for a full accounting of what church leaders knew about the growing scandal and what they did to stop it were rebuffed time and again.
But the cover-up is finally coming to an end. On Monday, a series of memos and letters filed in a civil case confirmed that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and other church leaders plotted to shield pedophile priests rather than turn them over to police and prosecutors.
The documents, which date to 1986 and 1987, show how Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, his top advisor on sex abuse cases, discussed strategies to keep priests from coming to the attention of law enforcement. Curry proposed to Mahony that certain priests be kept from seeing therapists, who would have been obliged to alert police; in other cases, priests were sent out of state to avoid criminal investigations. One cleric — who had admitted molesting undocumented immigrant children for decades, and even threatened one with deportation if he reported the abuse to police — was not allowed by Mahony to return to California from a treatment center, for fear that it would spark criminal or civil action.
Cardinal Mahony's moral failure
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
By Paul Thornton
January 22, 2013
About a dozen readers have sent their reactions to The Times' front-page story Tuesday reporting that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011, plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement. While several of the letters raise legal questions for Mahony, many also call out the former archbishop for his moral failure to protect children. Others blame Roman Catholic Church policy for setting the conditions that led to child sex abuse.
Here is a selection of those letters, some of which may be printed later this week on The Times' letters page. Check latimes.com/letters this week for more reader reaction.
Melonie Magruder of North Hollywood says Mahony acted as if protecting the church was more important that protecting children:
"Mahony's claim that clergy weren't 'legally required to report suspected child abuse until 1997,' and, therefore, he was absolved from responsibility to do so, is staggeringly self-serving. It's as if he's saying, 'It was other people's job to report child sexual abuse,' with the implicit caveat that his responsibility was to protect the institution he served.
Prosecutors to review new church abuse records; ex-D.A. skeptical
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
This post has been updated.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Tuesday it plans to review newly released records from the late 1980s that show then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top aide worked to conceal pedophile priests from law enforcement.
The office “will review and evaluate all documents as they become available to us,” a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said.
[Updated at 12:13 p.m.: Internal Catholic church records released Monday show that 15 years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Mahony and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement.
The records offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.
Evidence shows bold L.A. priest abuse cover-up
LOS ANGELES (CA)CBS News
By Bill Whitaker
(CBS News) LOS ANGELES - There is new evidence that leaders of the Catholic Church in Los Angeles maneuvered secretly to shield priests accused of sexually abusing children.
Documents just released indicate they never told parishioners -- or the police -- what they knew.
"What we're seeing in these files is but a glimpse into a very, very dark, and endless tunnel of secrecy, of abuse, of silence," said Raymond Boucher, a former altar boy and current lead attorney, representing some 500 victims of sex abuse by priests in the archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The documents offer the strongest evidence yet of a cover-up that reached to the very top of Los Angeles clergy: Then-archbishop, now-retired Cardinal Roger Mahony.
"That has always been paramount for the church for decades: Protect itself from scandal," Boucher said.
Many of the documents are correspondence between Mahony and Monsignor Thomas Curry, his chief adviser on sex abuse. One concerns whether to allow Monsignor Peter Garcia to return to his duties in L.A. He had secretly been sent away for treatment in New Mexico for sexually abusing as many as 17 youngsters.
Los Angeles scandal over? Hardly. Fmr LA priest sentenced for sexual assault
LONG BEACH (CA)The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 23, 2013
Less than 48 hours after the historic first “document dump” in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a former Long Beach priest has been sentenced to probation and must register as a sex offender.
Fr. Cuevas, Do you have a secret file in Archbishop Gomez’ office?
And people say that the “scandal” is over …
According to the Long Beach Press Telegram:
Luis Jose Cuevas, who was once a parish priest at St. Athanasius Catholic Church, 5390 Linden Ave., was given five years of probation and must register as a sex offender as part of a plea agreement.
Cuevas, who was initially charged with nine counts, agreed to one count of sexual battery against of each of three victims, including one felony because the victim was a minor.
In April of 2012, two adult women came forward to say that Cuevas had sexually assaulted them. During the police investigation, Cuevas was allowed to remain at St. Athanasius Catholic Church. When the third victim came forward—a minor who says she was molested by Cuevas during over the course of two years—Archdiocese officials removed the priest. Cuevas was arrested in July 2012.
Former Long Beach Priest Sentenced for Sex Crimes
LONG BEACH (CA)NBC Southern California
[with video]
By Jonathan Lloyd and Toni Guinyard
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013
A former Long Beach priest who entered a plea of no contest to sexual assault charges -- including lewd acts involving a child -- was sentenced Wednesday and ordered to register as a sex offender.
Luis Jose Cuevas, 68, who served the North Long Beach Catholic community for seven years, entered the no-contest plea in December. He was charged with eight misdemeanor counts of sex assault involving two women and one felony count of a lewd acts involving a child.
The girl, 17, accused the priest of repeatedly groping her at the church during a period of two years.
He was sentenced to five years felony probation, 40 hours of community service and one year of offender counseling. He also must register as a sex offender.
Former Long Beach priest sentenced to probation for sexual battery
LONG BEACH (CA)Press-Telegram
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
presstelegram.com
Posted: 01/23/2013
LONG BEACH — A former Catholic priest who pleaded no contest to three counts of sexual battery avoided jail time Wednesday at his sentencing in Long Beach Superior Court.
Luis Jose Cuevas, who was once a parish priest at St. Athanasius Catholic Church, 5390 Linden Ave., was given five years of probation and must register as a sex offender as part of a plea agreement.
Cuevas, who was initially charged with nine counts, agreed to one count of sexual battery against of each of three victims, including one felony because the victim was a minor.
Prior to the sentencing, Cuevas' lawyer, George Bird, said his client accepted responsibility for his actions and would "use his remaining time to do kind, as he attempted
LA Archdiocese Document Dump: The First-Ever Known Tijuana Victim of Pedo-Priest Eleuterio Ramos
By Gustavo ArellanoWed., Jan. 23 2013
[Ramos file - BishopAccountability.org]
[Documents Selected and Highlighted on the AbusedInSoCal.com Website - Ramos 1986]
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents - BishopAccountability.org]
I've spent nearly a decade writing about Eleuterio Ramos, the most notorious pedophile priest in the history of the Diocese of Orange, a monster who admitted to molesting "at least" 25 boys, a ghoul who church officials--including current Diocese of Boise and Diocese of Sacramento bishops Michael Driscoll and Jaime Soto, and current St. Timothy Church pastor John Urell--sent down to Tijuana in 1985 to ensure he'd escape the law after admitting to molesting a teenager at St. Anthony Claret in Anaheim.
And Tijuana is where the final mystery of Ramos exists.
The Orange diocese's personnel files on Ramos makes no mention of any Ramos victims based down there (although Ramos liked to take OC children to Tijuana to get gang-raped), and none of the dozens of people who have filed civil lawsuits against Ramos and the diocese of Orange and Los Angeles (where Ramos previously served) ever alleged they were from Ramos' Tijuana holiday. But the massive document dump yesterday by the LA Archdiocese has unearthed for the first time ever a Ramos victim in Tijuana.
In Ramos' file is a 2004 memorandum from the Diocese of San Bernardino which details a meeting that church leaders had with a man who claimed Ramos had molested him at a cabin in Crestline. The victim (whose name is redacted in the document) said that he first encountered Ramos at Divina Providencia Parish and Our Lady of Loreto chapel in Tijuana, where Ramos headed--I kid you not--a children's ministry. Starting in 1985 and continuing until the boy's family moved to San Bernardino, Ramos molested the child repeatedly--at Crestline, at hotels near Disneyland, in Los Angeles, and in Tijuana proper. In 2003, when stories about Ramos' depravity first hit Southern California newspapers, the victims family asked him if Ramos--who was a "good family friend"--had ever molested him; the victim denied it. The victim didn't want to tell his family because he was, according to the notes of the meeting, "fearful of his mother's reaction to his abuse since he recalls that his mother would frequently encourage her son to take private overnight trips with Fr. Ramos (e.g., the Crestline, Disneyland, and Universal Studios trips)."
Meet Lynn Caffoe, the Garden Grove Pedo-Priest Whom the Orange Diocese Didn't Reveal for Decades
CALIFORNIAOrange County Weekly
[Caffoe file - BishopAccountability.org]
[Documents Selected and Highlighted on the AbusedInSoCal.com Website
Caffoe 1975 – Manning's Chancellor Rawden Keeps Caffoe, Overly Affectionate with Altarboys, in Parish]
[Other Information
• Summary of Caffoe's Personnel File, in the Addendum Released by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2005
• Information on Caffoe's Assignments and Allegations, in the Database Compiled by the LA Times
• Cheat Sheet on Caffoe by AbusedInSoCal.com
• Secrecy and Reluctant Revelation in the Los Angeles Archdiocese: The Example of the Rev. Lynn Caffoe File]
By Gustavo Arellano
Thu., Jan. 24 2013
In 1975, Lynn Caffoe, a priest at St. Callistus Church in Garden Grove, approached officials at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with a curious demand: he wanted to leave because he had just molested a boy.
The Diocese of Orange had yet to be born, so each of Orange County's Catholic churches fell under the domain of LA Cardinal Timothy Manning and his right-hand man, Monsignor John A. Rawden. The two already knew that one of Caffoe's superiors had already complained that they should keep an eye on the young priest lest he spend "too much time with the chosen few," according to church documents. And who might that be? The same report said he has a "tendency to gather younger ones around."
So when parents at St. Callistus went to Rawden to complain that Caffoe had been "overly affectionate to some of the altar boys," what did Rawden do? Side with the pervert.
Caffoe, according to a document included in the LA archdiocese's recent document dump of priest personnel files, "wanted an immediate transfer in spite of the fact that he claimed innocence of the charge. He felt it better for the well being of the parish."
L.A. Church Officials Tried to Cover Up Priest Abuse
CALIFORNIAMs. Magazine
January 24, 2013 By Stephanie Geske
Confidential letters between Los Angeles Catholic church officials that had been withheld for decades–despite long efforts by victims to obtain them and stonewalling by the Church–were released Monday after becoming part of a civil court case against a priest accused of molesting 26 Los Angeles children in the 1980s.
The notes from then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and Monsignor Thomas J. Curry, published by the Los Angeles Times, have provided even more insight as to how sexual- abuse accusations against priests have been covered up for years. The notes detail plans by the two men to keep police from discovering that children were being molested in Los Angeles parishes, with Curry suggesting the predator priests not see therapists who could then alert authorities; instead, he wanted to give priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal charges. Curry was the chief advisor to the Archbishop on sex-abuse cases at the time.
One priest discussed in the released files was Msgr. Peter Garcia, who tended to abuse undocumented children because he could keep them quiet by threatening to have them deported. He went to a treatment center for pedophile clergy in New Mexico, but left the priesthood in 1989 after returning to Los Angeles and refusing to take medication to contain his sexual urges toward children. Never prosecuted, he died in 2009.
Cardinal Mahony hit hard by document release
LOS ANGELES (CA)Catholic Online
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In front page news, Cardinal Roger Mahony was skewered as the Los Angeles Times published a review of documents that reveal that then-Archbishop Roger Mahony knew about child sex abuse in his archdiocese and actively worked to cover it up.
The revelations are part of a document dump ordered by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. Documents were released on Monday.
According to the Times, the documents contain the best evidence to date to show that Cardinal Mahony and others actively worked to cover up the scandal. In addition to Mahony, memos he exchanged with Msgr. Thomas Curry were disclosed. The memos discuss things such as keeping an accused priest out of the state for fear of arrest and prosecution, both criminal and civil, as well as discussions related to priests who were known pedophiles.
Several pedophile priests were sent to rehabilitation programs in the 1980s. Authorities were never contacted.
Some priests even deliberately targeted the children of illegal immigrants and threatened to report those families if they talked. When informed of these heinous crimes, Cardinal Mahony's response appears to have been to cover up the incidents.
Letters show L.A. Catholic archdiocese tried to hide abuse of children by priests
LOS ANGELES (CA)KPCC
Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles Roger M. Mahoney has again apologized for his involvement over twenty years ago in concealing child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including keeping clergy out of California to avoid prosecution. Mahoney’s apology came as his previously confidential correspondence from 1986 and 1987 recently became public evidence in a civil court case.
Mahoney has been questioned under oath in previous depositions numerous times about his handling of molestation cases, but the newly released memos written by Mahoney and other church administrators provide the strongest indication of a concerted effort by leaders in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to protect abusers from police. Last week, Anthony De Marco, the attorney representing a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed against the archdiocese asked a judge to order Mahoney and others to submit to new depositions “regarding their actions, knowledge and intent as referenced in these files.” In an apologetic statement, Mahoney confessed that memos written in those years "sometimes focused more on the needs of the perpetrator than on the serious harm that had been done to the victims."
Why did it take years for these memos to be released and made public? Is the archdiocese still trying to hide evidence that may incriminate current and former clergy? How responsible is Mahoney for the sexual abuse of children? How can victims of this abuse best recover and move on with their lives?
Guests:
Harriet Ryan, reporter with the Los Angeles Times who co-wrote the Times cover story
Barbara Dorris, outreach director of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)
L.A. Now Live: L.A. priest abuse files, Mahony's apology
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
January 22, 2013 | 6:51am
Internal Catholic church records released Monday show that 15 years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement.
Times reporters Harriet Ryan and Victoria Kim will join L.A. Now Live at 9 a.m. to discuss the records.
Ryan, Kim and staff writer Ashley Powers reported that the records offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.
The records contain memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases. In the confidential letters, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they had abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent the priests from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.
Priestly sexual abuse, churchly cover-ups
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
[Father Santiago Tamayo 1987 - via Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
[exhibit 50]
By Patt Morrison
January 22, 2013, 1:34 p.m.
I had to look twice at the date on the newspaper to make sure I wasn’t having a time-warp moment.
I’d heard this before. In a way, I’d covered this before.
My colleagues Ashley Powers, Victoria Kim and Harriet Ryan have dropped a doozy on Southern California with their story of memos recounting how, a decade and a half before the scandal emerged about Roman Catholic priests’ sexual abuse of young people, future Cardinal Roger Mahony and an advisor planned to hide these molestations from law enforcement, going so far as to move the suspect priests out of California.
In a word, a cover-up.
But long before those memos that The Times found about concealing priests’ misconduct, the church apparently was doing the same thing in the face of a lawsuit by a young woman named Rita Milla. I wrote the stories about her suit against seven Filipino priests working here, and the archdiocese, for $21 million in 1984. Her suit said that:
•For four years, beginning when she was 16 and a parishioner at a Wilmington Catholic Church, first one and then all seven priests had sex with her, beginning when one who fondled her through a broken confessional screen. Two of them assured her that “it was morally, ethically all right for her to have sexual intercourse with them … that by doing so, that she would be helping them and helping herself.” Milla was 16 when all this began; the age of consent in California is 18, but no question of criminal charges was evidently pursued in this matter, perhaps because of the statute of limitations.
Newly released records show Mahony, Archdiocese covered up abuse
LOS ANGELES (CA)KABC
[with video]
Leslie Miller
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Confidential personnel records are now offering a glimpse into the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. They detail a pattern of cover-ups within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For years, victims have been clamoring to get their hands on these documents.
The documents are part of a lawsuit seeking damages in a case involving a Mexican priest accused of abusing at least 26 children after he was transferred to Los Angeles in the 1980s. The documents include personnel files of 13 other clerics as well as notes written by Cardinal Roger Mahony and other church leaders.
The newly released documents reveal that retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top officials with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles tried to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement decades ago.
The files show church leaders moved abusive priests out of state, handled damage control and consulted with accused priests behind the scenes.
Clergy abuse victims: 'We demand justice'
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
January 22, 2013
Standing a few feet outside the doors of the Los Angeles Archdiocese headquarters, clergy abuse victims who settled with the church in a landmark $660-million settlement called for the release of the documents it agreed to make public in 2007.
The demands come in the wake of internal Catholic church records released Monday in a separate claim. Those memos, written in 1986 and 1987 by Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, displayed a concerted effort by officials to shield abusers from police.
Flanked by people who said they were abused by clergy, Joelle Casteix, western regional director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, demanded the release of the files. She also called for the immediate removal and punishment of any abuser still in the church.
DOCUMENT: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files
Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles must end his silence, Casteix said, and release the unredacted documents of those involved in molesting children, as well as those who helped cover it up.
“They must be held accountable to the same laws that everyone standing behind me here is held accountable to,” Casteix said. “We are victims of clergy sexual abuse and supporters. We demand justice; we deserve justice.”
Los Angeles: Sexual abuse victims demand public admonishment of Catholic officials
LOS ANGELES (CA)Southwest Riverside News Network
By City News Service, on January 22, 2013
Victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles demanded today that former Cardinal Roger Mahony and other high-ranking officials be publicly admonished for trying to cover-up clergy molestations.
Diocese officials said, however, they have apologized for actions of the past and taken wide-ranging steps to prevent abuse and report it quickly if it does occur.
The exchange came in response to internal church documents that were released Monday as part of a pending civil lawsuit against the archdiocese.
“We are here in response to the hundreds of pages of documents that were released yesterday that showed that Cardinal Roger Mahony had personal involvement in the cover-up of childhood sexual abuse in the archdiocese,”
Joelle Casteix of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.
Records show Los Angeles cardinal, bishop shielded abusive priests
LOS ANGELES (CA)National Catholic Reporter
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
by Joshua J. McElwee | Jan. 22, 2013
Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony and an auxiliary bishop shielded archdiocesan priests known to be sex abusers from law enforcement during the 1980s, even suggesting they leave the state of California to avoid prosecution, according to a series of church records released Monday.
The records, which were filed as part of a civil lawsuit against the archdiocese and were first reported Monday by the Los Angeles Times, indicate Mahony and Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry intentionally sent abusive priests to out-of-state treatment facilities as protection from arrest.
L.A. county prosecutors "will review and evaluate all [newly released] documents as they become available to us," Sandi Gibbons, a public information officer for the L.A. County District Attorney’s office, said in a brief statement.
The release of the files, which concern 14 priests, comes as the archdiocese is preparing to release records of at least 75 more accused abusers under the terms of a separate 2007 civil settlement with more than 500 clergy abuse victims.
While the files of the 14 priests are almost three decades old -- coming from long before the U.S. bishops started to address the wider issue of sex abuse by clergy in 2002 -- the revelations they contain point to lingering questions about the accountability of bishops, says a former chairman of the U.S. bishops' National Review Board for clergy sex abuse.
Attorney John Manly, Who Deposed Cardinal Mahony, Responds To LA Times Article
CALIFORNIAMarketWatch
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Jan. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- In response to today's Los Angles Times story Mahony Tried to Conceal Abuse, John Manly, an attorney who has deposed former Cardinal Roger Mahony in sex abuse cases involving the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, issued the following statement:
The documents revealed in court demonstrate clearly and without question that the Archdiocese was engaged and remains engaged in an alleged conspiracy to protect pedophile priests and the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. Cardinal Roger Mahony is at the center of this conduct. The question that needs to be answered is, "Did law enforcement, and specifically its leadership in Los Angeles, either completely miss these crimes or did they ignore them?" These documents have been in the possession of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for years and yet no action, and little, if any criticism has been leveled against Cardinal Mahony and the Hierarchy.
It is reasonable to ask why and how such an alleged miscarriage of justice was allowed to occur. Cardinal Mahony has been deposed on three separate occasions by me and my law firm. In addition, we have deposed Bishop Curry, the Archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, who features prominently in the documents released last week. A review of these depositions demonstrates substantial inconsistencies with their sworn answers and the conduct illustrated in the documents.
Church sex abuse files unlikely to lead to charges, experts say
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
By Harriet Ryan, Ashley Powers and Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times
January 22, 2013
Over the last decade, there have been numerous calls to prosecute Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his top aides for their mishandling of clergy sex abuse. At least three grand juries, two district attorneys and a U.S. attorney have subpoenaed documents and summoned witnesses. None of those cases resulted in charges against the archdiocese's hierarchy.
The release this week of a trove of internal church records showing a concerted effort to hide abuse from police triggered new demands from victims and church critics that Mahony and his advisors be held criminally accountable.
The Los Angeles County district attorney pledged to review all the files and evaluate them for criminal conduct, but legal experts consulted Tuesday said the reams of new documents were unlikely to lead to charges, let alone convictions.
A nearly insurmountable barrier is the statute of limitations, the experts said. A quarter-century has passed since Mahony and his chief aide for sex abuse cases, Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, wrote memos outlining strategies to prevent police investigations of three priests who had admitted abusing boys. The 1986 and 1987 letters fall decades beyond the three-year statute of limitations for felonies such as child endangerment, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit those offenses.
Mahony's efforts to hide abuse are deplorable but unsurprising
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
By Steve Lopez
January 22, 2013
Every time we learn something new about the molestation scandal in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, it becomes more obvious why Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his minions have fought so tenaciously to keep things under wraps.
Not to protect the privacy of victims or the rights of suspected abusers, as the church hierarchy has contended. But to hide the unconscionable deception by church leaders, who repeatedly did more to protect their own image than to help the victims of horrific crimes.
This week's revelations of deliberate efforts by 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.
Catholic Church Shielded Priest Who Preyed On Immigrant Children
LOS ANGELES (CA)Lez Get Real
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on January 22, 2013.
Evidence showing that the Catholic Church protected Monsignor Peter Garcia and several other priests sexually abused children. The evidence is in the form of letters filed in the civil case leveled against Father Nicholas Aguilar Rivera.
During his decades long ministry, Garcia targeted illegal immigrants. In at least one case, he threatened to have one boy deported if he went to the authorities. One monsignor documented the case in a letter sent to one of the archbishops stating “The priest took him to the jail and instructed him to either behave or else he would end up either in jail of back in Mexico. He was supposedly told if you talk, I have lawyer friends and I will surely have you deported.”
Garcia died in 2009 and never faced prosecution. He did, before he died, admit to raping boys since he was ordained in 1966. The letters describe Garcia’s behavior, and document incidents including him tying up a young boy and raping him. In 1986, former Archbishop of Los Angeles Roger Mahoney discussed discussed strategies to protect Garcia from prosecution.
New Sexual Abuse Files Cast Shadow on Legacy of Los Angeles Cardinal
LOS ANGELES (CA)The New York Times
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: January 22, 2013
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, for more than 25 years the savvy shepherd of the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles, retired nearly two years ago to a renovated yellow house behind his childhood parish, pledging to stay in the spotlight by continuing to fight for the rights of immigrants.
But the cardinal now finds himself in a most unwelcome spotlight, one that he sought for years to avoid. Internal church personnel files released this week as part of a civil court case reveal that he and his top adviser knowingly shielded priests accused of child sexual abuse from law enforcement. In one letter, the cardinal ordered a clergyman to stay in New Mexico, where he had been sent for treatment, to avoid the possibility of being reported to the police in California.
Lawyers for the Los Angeles Archdiocese fought for years to prevent the release of the files, but a demand for transparency was a primary goal of the more than 500 victims of clergy abuse who signed a record settlement for $660 million with the archdiocese in July 2007. When a judge ordered the files to be made public despite the church’s objections, the archdiocese fought to be allowed to redact names and identifying details. But it recently lost that battle and now awaits an imminent cascade of 30,000 more documents that could further tarnish Cardinal Mahony’s legacy.
“He played a very prominent role as social and spiritual leader,” said William Deverell, the director of the Huntington-University of Southern California Institute on California and the West. “He’s a native, knows greater Los Angeles exceedingly well and presided over an already globally changed city, leading it into the next phase. He earned a great deal of ecumenical trust and leadership, which is now going to be re-examined.”
How Long Does It Take a Man of God to Admit Child Rape is Wrong?
LOS ANGELES (CA)Religion Dispatches
Post by Joanna Brooks
Today, Los Angeles Times published a front-page story reporting that Archbishop Roger Mahony of Los Angeles sat on reports of felony-level sexual abuse of children by priests for almost 15 years before he took action, and that the Los Angeles Catholic diocese waited at least 14 years before reporting abuse to law enforcement.
The LA Times report was based on letters written by Mahony in 1986 and 1987 recently entered as evidence in a civil suit. More documents will be disclosed in the coming weeks.
Here at RD, I have argued that it was the feminist movement’s emphasis on bearing witness to sexual abuse that raised consciousness and created critical mass among Catholic laity towards breaking the abuse scandal open.
And it sure doesn’t take a degree in gender studies to see how a hierarchical patriarchal institution will protect its own before it protects children.
Revelation about Mahony coverup further angers survivors of priest sex abuse
LOS ANGELES (CA)KPCC
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
Ruxandra Guidi | January 22nd, 2013
While former L.A. Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony tries to address the latest revelations implicating him in coverups of priest sex abuse, angry survivors of abuse say the church still has not suffered enough for its past actions.
Sixty-five-year-old Tony Carone was abused 56 years ago when he was an altar boy. He sighs deeply as he tries to describe coming forward about a taboo he’d kept silent about for years.
"If you talk about it, a lot of people don’t like you, especially Catholics. He says his wife was "disgusted that I would bring it up."
Things got so bad that Carone separated from his wife two years ago and moved into his parents' house.
In 2008, Carone received part of the 660 million-dollar settlement from the LA Archdiocese—the largest payout in a sex abuse scandal. Sitting next to him, 70 year-old Udo Strutynski, another abuse survivor, nods when Carone talks about how difficult it was to receive that cash. Strutynski calls the settlement, “blood money”. He says he eventually left the church, and joined the Southern California chapter of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Area bishop apologizes for role in dealing with priests accused of molesting
CALIFORNIAVentura County Star
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
By Tom Kisken
Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Curry offered a public apology Tuesday, a day after the release of church personnel records showing he played a role in protecting priests accused of molestation.
The records of 14 priests — expected to be followed eventually by a huge wave of records on more accused priests — include correspondence showing Curry, retired Archdiocese of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony and others worked to shield priests and the church.
Curry, then vicar of clergy, is now auxiliary bishop of a region in the archdiocese that includes Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
"I wish to acknowledge and apologize for those instances when I made decisions regarding the treatment and disposition of clergy accused of sexual abuse that in retrospect appear inadequate or mistaken," Curry said in a prepared statement.
"Like many others, I have come to a clearer understanding over the years of the causes and treatment of sexual abuse and I have fully implemented in my pastoral region the archdiocese's policies and procedures for reporting abuse, screening those who supervise children and abuse prevention training for adults and children."
LA Archdiocese Document Dump Shows Anew How Former Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown Was a Pedo-Priest Protector Extraordinaire
CALIFORNIAOrange County Weekly
By Gustavo Arellano
Tue., Jan. 22 2013
Yesterday, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles released thousands of pages of personnel files that confirms what those of us who have followed the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal have known for a good decade but which the vast majority of Catholics refuse to acknowledge: that their leaders, for forever, not only knew about the pedophile priests in their ranks but actively sought to cover up the rapes.
So why should we care about what happens in LA? Because some of those personnel files involve priests who raped in Orange County back when we were part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which we're going to display in the coming days. And, unsurprisingly, because part of the coverup up in LA involved the Diocese of Orange and our own former, perpetually bumbling bishop, Tod D. Brown.
In today's episode of How the Brownie Protects Pedo-Priests, we turn our attention to disgraced priest Michael D. Buckley. We had previously written about Buckley in 2005, when information at the time revealed Buckley molested at least eight boys while at Immaculate Heart of Mary in SanTana, back when it was a part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Information at the time on Buckley's perversion was hard to find, though, namely because his personnel file hadn't been released by then-Cardinal Roger Mahony, and it was technically an Archdiocese of Los Angeles case and thus out of my beat.
Now that his case file is out, though, it turns out that Buckley was a monster in Orange County--and that not only LA diocesan officials know, but that Brown never bothered to alert Immaculate Heart of Mary parishioners after hearing from the victims who finally brought Buckley down.
Newly revealed documents contradict former LA Archbishop Mahony’s stated role in clergy abuse cases
LOS ANGELES (CA)Anthony DeMarco
Jeff Anderson & Associates
[This site has links to priest files from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.]
January 21, 2013
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 Mahony 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 imtimately involve 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. ...
Priest files.
A Priest cheat sheet
Father Cristobal Garcia O.P. 1985
Father Eleuterio Ramos 1975
Father James Ford 1987
Father Larry Lovell C.M.F. 1985
Father Lynn Caffoe 1975
Father Matthew Sprouffske O.Carm 1986
Father Michael Baker 1986
Father Michael Baker 1987
Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera 1987
Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera II 1988
Father Santiago Tamayo 1987
Monsignor Peter Garcia 1984
Monsignor Peter Garcia 1987
Wempe LAARCH 021282
Mahony’s chickens come home to roost – with links to complete document files
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 21, 2013
The complete library of documents can be viewed here.
For years, all we heard from Cardinal Roger Mahony was that he “may have made mistakes” and that “new policies would ensure child safety.”
Now we know that Cardinal Mahony’s role in the cover-up of child sex abuse in the Los Angeles Archdiocese was hands-on, insidious and evil.
From the Los Angeles Times:
"In a letter about Father Michael Wempe, who had acknowledged using a 12-year-old parishioner as what a church official called his “sex partner,” [Msgr. Thomas J.] Curry recounted extensive conversations with the priest about potential criminal prosecution.
“He is afraid … records will be sought by the courts at some time and that they could convict him,”Curry wrote to Mahony. ”He is very aware that what he did comes within the scope of criminal law.”
Curry proposed Wempe could go to an out-of-state diocese “if need be.” He called it “surprising” that a church-paid counselor hadn’t reported Wempe to police and wrote that he and Wempe ”agreed it would be better if Mike did not return to him.”
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
[with links to documents]
Documents from the late 1980s show that Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and another archdiocese official discussed strategies to keep police from discovering that children were being sexually abused by priests.
By Victoria Kim, Ashley Powers and Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times
January 21, 2013
January 21, 2013
Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement, according to internal Catholic church records released Monday.
The archdiocese's failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being abused.
In the confidential letters, filed this month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.
The archdiocese's failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being abused.
In the confidential letters, filed this month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.
One such case that has previously received little attention is that of Msgr. Peter Garcia, who admitted preying for decades on undocumented children in Spanish-speaking parishes. After Garcia's discharge from a New Mexico treatment center for pedophile clergy, Mahony ordered him to stay away from California "for the foreseeable future" in order to avoid legal accountability, the files show. "I believe that if Monsignor Garcia were to reappear here within the archdiocese we might very well have some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors," the archbishop wrote to the treatment center's director in July 1986.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Huffington Post
Huffington Post
GILLIAN FLACCUS | January 21, 2013
LOS ANGELES — Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials maneuvered behind the scenes to shield molester priests, provide damage control for the church and keep parishioners in the dark, according to church personnel files.
The confidential records filed in a lawsuit against the archdiocese disclose how the church handled abuse allegations for decades and also reveal dissent from a top Mahony aide who criticized his superiors for covering up allegations of abuse rather than protecting children.
Notes inked by Mahony demonstrate he was disturbed about abuse and sent problem priests for treatment, but there also were lengthy delays or oversights in some cases. Mahony received psychological reports on some priests that mentioned the possibility of many other victims, for example, but there is no indication that he or other church leaders investigated further.
"This is all intolerable and unacceptable to me," Mahony wrote in 1991 on a file of the Rev. Lynn Caffoe, a priest suspected of locking boys in his room, videotaping their crotches and running up a $100 phone sex bill while with a boy. Caffoe was sent for therapy and removed from ministry, but Mahony didn't move to defrock him until 2004, a decade after the archdiocese lost track of him.
"He is a fugitive from justice," Mahony wrote to the Vatican's Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI. "A check of the Social Security index discloses no report of his demise, so presumably he is alive somewhere."
The confidential records filed in a lawsuit against the archdiocese disclose how the church handled abuse allegations for decades and also reveal dissent from a top Mahony aide who criticized his superiors for covering up allegations of abuse rather than protecting children.
Notes inked by Mahony demonstrate he was disturbed about abuse and sent problem priests for treatment, but there also were lengthy delays or oversights in some cases. Mahony received psychological reports on some priests that mentioned the possibility of many other victims, for example, but there is no indication that he or other church leaders investigated further.
"This is all intolerable and unacceptable to me," Mahony wrote in 1991 on a file of the Rev. Lynn Caffoe, a priest suspected of locking boys in his room, videotaping their crotches and running up a $100 phone sex bill while with a boy. Caffoe was sent for therapy and removed from ministry, but Mahony didn't move to defrock him until 2004, a decade after the archdiocese lost track of him.
"He is a fugitive from justice," Mahony wrote to the Vatican's Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI. "A check of the Social Security index discloses no report of his demise, so presumably he is alive somewhere."
Los Angeles Archdiocese: Priest abuse files
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
The former leader of the Los Angeles archdiocese, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the sexual abuse of children from law enforcement officials, according to internal church records released Monday.
In memos written to Mahony in 1986 and 1987 contained in personnel files for 14 priests and filed this month as evidence in a court case, his chief advisor on sex abuse cases proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted molesting young boys to church officials.
Why Cardinal Mahony should have resigned 10 years ago
LOS ANGELES (CA)Catholic Culture
Phil Lawler
In 2002, when Pope John Paul II called the leaders of the US bishops’ conference to Rome for a discussion of the sex-abuse crisis, one cardinal, speaking to the Los Angeles Times under cover of anonymity, said that the prelates would push for the resignation of Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law.
Cardinal Law was in trouble, of course, because of the revelations that he had covered up evidence of sexual abuse by priests, and shuffled abusive priests from one parish to another without informing parishioners.
The anonymous prelate who called for Law’s scalp was never identified, but most informed observers believe that it was Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles.
That was back in 2002. Now, after a decade of legal resistance, the Los Angeles archdiocese has released files that show how Cardinal Mahony had handling sex-abuse complaints: roughly the same way Cardinal Law did. Thanks to the dogged efforts of lawyers for the LA archdiocese, this evidence became public only after Cardinal Mahony’s retirement. But if it was indeed Cardinal Mahony who wanted Cardinal Law to step down in 2002, it seems quite clear that he should have followed his own advice.
'I am sorry,' Cardinal Mahony says amid new priest abuse details
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony on Monday apologized for the way the L.A. archdiocese dealt with priest child abuse claims after a new round of documents were released.
"I am sorry," Mahony's statement concluded.
The new documents show:
Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Mahony and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement.
DOCUMENTS: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files
The archdiocese's failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement had been known previously. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being abused.
In the confidential letters, filed this month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.
Abuse Victims to Discuss Church Personnel Files That Reveal Cover-Up
LOS ANGELES (CA)NBC Los Angeles
[live video]
By Jonathan Lloyd
Tuesday, Jan 22, 2013
Clergy abuse victims plan Tuesday to discuss church personnel files that show how top Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials shielded molester priests and conducted damage control to cover up allegations of abuse.
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) scheduled an 11 a.m. news conference at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. Victims plan to speak about the recently released documents and call for an end to legal maneuvers that they say have delayed the release of more documents.
The files are attached to a motion seeking punitive damages in a case involving a Mexican priest sent to Los Angeles in 1987 after he was brutally beaten in his parish south of Mexico City. Parents in LA complained about the priest, but he fled to Mexico, according to court documents.
The priest remains a fugitive.
As Los Angeles Church Divulges Documents, Prosecutions May Follow
LOS ANGELES (CA)Huffington Post
Michael D'Antonio
After years of delay, orchestrated by some of the most able lawyers in the country, the Catholic Church may soon reveal more truth about how it dealt with priests who sexually abused hundreds of children in the sprawling Archdiocese of Los Angeles. A court order issued Monday, in a case joined by the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press, requires the release of more than 30,000 pages of documents, with the names of abusers and their superiors un-redacted. Considering previous actions by higher courts, Judge Emilie Elias's decision is likely to survive appeals and the deluge of new facts could occur in weeks, if not days.
At the very least, the memos, personnel files and psychiatric reports will give the public an unprecedented look inside the process followed by then Cardinal Roger Mahony and his fellow officials, as they received complaints about priests whose crimes included the serial rape of minors. The papers will also reveal something of the Catholic hierarchy's mindset as it weighed the imperatives of the law against the needs of the Church. At times in the decades-long, international sexual abuse crisis, top churchmen did cover-up crimes and protect perpetrators. It's hard to imagine this did not occur in America's largest diocese, where more than $700 million has been paid to compensate men and women who were sexually violated as boys and girls.
It's hard to imagine, too, that the files on notorious priest abusers, who continued in service after complaints were lodged against them, won't raise serious questions about the conduct of their supervisors including Cardinal Mahony. As the recent conviction of Monsignor William Lynn of Philadelphia showed, high-level Catholic leaders risked being charged with serious crimes as they sought to protect the Church from scandal and neglected their duty to protect the public. The self-protective impulse, reinforced by the oath cardinals take to avoid scandal, has inclined some clerics toward unconscionable cover-ups and evasions including the transfer of priests out of jurisdictions where their arrest was imminent. Transfers, including international reassignments, have permitted priests to escape arrests. Others have been hidden in psychiatric treatment centers out of the reach of police and prosecutors.
CALIFORNIA
Channel 3000
Channel 3000
Author: William R. Wineke, Special to Channel 3000
Published On: Jan 28 2013
Just keep this in mind before you read further: Retired Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony will be one of the Roman Catholic prelates who chooses the next pope should Pope Benedict XVI die before 2016.
Why is that important? Because, according to documents released during the past couple of weeks, Cardinal Mahony actively conspired with his chief adviser on sexual abuse to hide diocesan priests from criminal prosecution.
The fact that Los Angeles was a hotbed of predator priests is not news. The archdiocese has already committed $616 million – more than a half-billion dollars! – to compensate victims of that abuse. But church officials tried strenuously to keep their records of child abuse secret and, at the least, to have names of church officials dealing with the offending priests blacked out from public view.
Now we know why.
The records show that the cardinal and his chief adviser on sexual abuse, one Monsignor Thomas Curry, were well aware of what their priests were doing and that those activities were illegal.
They didn't just ignore the abuse; they sent the offending priests for psychiatric treatment at an out-of-state center – but they did make sure that any therapy done was not done in California, where the therapist would be mandated by law to report the crime.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
RealClearReligion
RealClearReligion
By George Neumayr
"I have a 3 x 5 card for every victim I met with on the altar of my small chapel. I pray for them every single day," retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony said after the court-ordered release of personnel files detailing his elaborate efforts to hide abusers from the police. How comforted the victims must feel knowing their names appear on his 3 x 5 cards. How big of him to entrust the victims of his pedophile-shuffling to the efficacy of his prayers.
Such acts of chutzpah come naturally to the cardinal. At the height of the abuse scandal, even as he retained an army of lawyers and publicists to conceal his own complicity in it, he had the gall to join the media in calling for Boston Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation. Referring to Law, Cardinal Mahony piously told the press that "he would find it difficult to walk down an aisle in church if he had been guilty of gross negligence."
Such acts of chutzpah come naturally to the cardinal. At the height of the abuse scandal, even as he retained an army of lawyers and publicists to conceal his own complicity in it, he had the gall to join the media in calling for Boston Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation. Referring to Law, Cardinal Mahony piously told the press that "he would find it difficult to walk down an aisle in church if he had been guilty of gross negligence."
Meanwhile, Cardinal Mahony was unleashing his attack dogs on anyone who probed his staggering negligence. Until the media furor of 2001, he had been planning on making a pedophile long known to him and residing in his living quarters, Father Carl Sutphin (with whom he had gone to seminary), associate pastor of the archdiocesan cathedral. "I can't believe a cardinal keeps a pedophile on staff," said one of Sutphin's victims.
Long before Leon Panetta joined the Obama administration as CIA director, he had scented out Cardinal Mahony's misdeeds. He "has done tremendous damage to his reputation and the archdiocese," said Panetta after his spell as a member of the National Review Board, a watchdog group formed in the wake of the scandal. Panetta recalled a meeting at which Cardinal Mahony turned up with "more lawyers in the room than I've ever seen."
Long before Leon Panetta joined the Obama administration as CIA director, he had scented out Cardinal Mahony's misdeeds. He "has done tremendous damage to his reputation and the archdiocese," said Panetta after his spell as a member of the National Review Board, a watchdog group formed in the wake of the scandal. Panetta recalled a meeting at which Cardinal Mahony turned up with "more lawyers in the room than I've ever seen."
Press-Telegram
The New York Times
Get Religion
As strange as it sounds, the goal of this post is to praise The Los Angeles Times for a page-one story focusing on a single case history linked to the decades of sexual abuse of children and teens by Catholic priests.
At the center of the story are two brothers, Damian and Bob Eckert and the priest, Father Robert Van Handel, who led the community boys choir in which they sang while growing up in Santa Barbara, Calif. Damian was 9 or 10 when he joined and Bob was about 8.
But the key to this remarkable story, other than the painful memories of Damian Eckert, is a once confidential document. This quotable source surfaced in the legal proceedings linked to the wave of sexual-abuse cases in California, including the Van Handel cases and others linked to the now-closed St. Anthony’s Seminary in Santa Barbara.
Los Angeles Times
January 26, 2013
"The Catholic Church is your home and I am your pastor," Mahony said.
But even as cheers of "Rogelio! Rogelio!" rained down from the upper decks, Mahony was covering up the sexual abuse of some of the most vulnerable in the church, including in his beloved Latino community, church records show.
Pasadena Star-News
gvtribune.com
Posted: 01/26/2013
The Record
Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony said again this week how sorry he is.
Mahony and top advisor 'plotted to conceal child molestation by priests'
LOS ANGELES (CA)LA Observed
By Kevin Roderick | January 21, 2013
Documents ordered released from the sexual abuse files of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles are starting to get out. Today's LA Times lede is a grabber: "Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including keeping them out of California to avoid prosecution..."
The archdiocese's failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.
In the confidential letters, filed this month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.
Los Angeles priest raped immigrant boys
CALIFORNIACalCoast News
[Monsignor Peter Garcia 1984 - via DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
[Monsignor Peter Garcia 1987]
[exhibit 54]
A Los Angeles priest used bondage and targeted illegal immigrants in his decades long practice of raping Southern California boys, Catholic church records released Monday show.
Confidential letters filed as evidence in a civil case against Father Nicholas Aguilar Rivera reveal that church leaders protected Monsignor Peter Garcia and several other priests who sexually abused boys.
Garcia threatened to have one boy deported if he came forward to law enforcement with sexual abuse allegations. A monsignor documented the case in a letter to an archbishop.
“The priest took him to the jail and instructed him to either behave or else he would end up either in jail of back in Mexico,” the letter reads. “He was supposedly told if you talk, I have lawyer friends and I will surely have you deported.”
The Shocking Ways California Catholic Church Officials Protected a Priest Who
LOS ANGELES (CA)
AlterNet
January 28, 2013
Confidential letters between Los Angeles Catholic church officials that had been withheld for decades–despite long efforts by victims to obtain them and stonewalling by the Church–were released Monday after becoming part of a civil court case against a priest accused of molesting 26 Los Angeles children in the 1980s.
The notes from then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and Monsignor Thomas J. Curry, published by the Los Angeles Times, have provided even more insight as to how sexual- abuse accusations against priests have been covered up for years. The notes detail plans by the two men to keep police from discovering that children were being molested in Los Angeles parishes, with Curry suggesting the predator priestsnot see therapists who could then alert authorities; instead, he wanted to give priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal charges. Curry was the chief advisor to the Archbishop on sex-abuse cases at the time.
One priest discussed in the released files was Msgr. Peter Garcia, who tended to abuse undocumented children because he could keep them quiet by threatening to have them deported. He went to a treatment center for pedophile clergy in New Mexico, but left the priesthood in 1989 after returning to Los Angeles and refusing to take medication to contain his sexual urges toward children. Never prosecuted, he died in 2009.
AlterNet
January 28, 2013
Confidential letters between Los Angeles Catholic church officials that had been withheld for decades–despite long efforts by victims to obtain them and stonewalling by the Church–were released Monday after becoming part of a civil court case against a priest accused of molesting 26 Los Angeles children in the 1980s.
The notes from then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and Monsignor Thomas J. Curry, published by the Los Angeles Times, have provided even more insight as to how sexual- abuse accusations against priests have been covered up for years. The notes detail plans by the two men to keep police from discovering that children were being molested in Los Angeles parishes, with Curry suggesting the predator priestsnot see therapists who could then alert authorities; instead, he wanted to give priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal charges. Curry was the chief advisor to the Archbishop on sex-abuse cases at the time.
One priest discussed in the released files was Msgr. Peter Garcia, who tended to abuse undocumented children because he could keep them quiet by threatening to have them deported. He went to a treatment center for pedophile clergy in New Mexico, but left the priesthood in 1989 after returning to Los Angeles and refusing to take medication to contain his sexual urges toward children. Never prosecuted, he died in 2009.
Ex-priest in Ariz. prison named in LA abuse case
ARIZONAThe Arizona Republic
[Lovell file - BishopAccountability.org]
[Documents Selected and Highlighted on the AbusedInSoCal.com Website - Lovell 1985]
By Michael Clancy
The Republic | azcentral.com
Thu Jan 24, 2013
A former Diocese of Phoenix priest imprisoned in Arizona is one of 14 priests whose files were released this week in a Los Angeles court case involving sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Lawrence Lovell is serving a 14-year sentence for abusing children in Yavapai and Maricopa counties. He is imprisoned at the Central Arizona Correctional Facility in Florence.
His file included a letter from his superior in the Claretian religious order, a report of his history in the Los Angeles area, a list of actions taken against him, and a letter from a parent accusing Lovell of molesting his children.
What it does not include is Lovell’s full clerical history, including assignments in Prescott and Phoenix.
Los Angeles: Church documents about hiding child abuse uncovered
LOS ANGELES (CA)Southwest Riverside News Network
By City News Service, on January 21, 2013
Former Archbishop Roger Mahony and a top adviser discussed ways to prevent law enforcement from learning about molestations of children by clergy more than a decade before the abuses became public knowledge, according to internal Catholic church records released today.
Communications penned in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas Curry, then the archdiocese’s chief adviser on sex abuse cases, document efforts by the diocese to keep law enforcement in the dark, the Los Angeles Times reported on its website.
In the confidential letters filed in connection with a civil court case — and obtained by The Times — Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys.
Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent the clergymen from seeing therapists who might alert authorities.
Los Angeles Cardinal Hid Abuse, Files Show
LOS ANGELES (CA)The New York Times
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
By IAN LOVETT
Published: January 21, 2013
LOS ANGELES — The retired archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, and other high-ranking clergymen in the archdiocese worked quietly to keep evidence of child molesting away from law enforcement officials and shield abusive priests from criminal prosecution more than a decade before the scandal became public, according to confidential church records.
The documents, filed in court as part of lawsuit against the archdiocese and posted online by The Los Angeles Times on Monday, offer the clearest glimpse yet of how the archdiocese dealt with abusive priests in the decades before the scandal broke, including Cardinal Mahony’s personal involvement in covering up their crimes.
Rather than defrocking priests and contacting the police, the archdiocese sent priests who had molested children to out-of-state treatment facilities, in large part because therapists in California were legally obligated to report any evidence of child abuse to the police, the files make clear.
In 1986, Cardinal Mahony wrote to a New Mexico treatment center where one abusive priest, Msgr. Peter Garcia, had been sent.
“I believe that if Monsignor Garcia were to reappear here within the archdiocese we might very well have some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors,” Cardinal Mahony wrote.
New documents detail abuse cover-up in L.A.
LOS ANGELES (CA)dotCommonweal
January 21, 2013, 9:28 pm
Posted by Paul Moses
Newly released documents detailing how far church leaders in Los Angeles went to conceal clergy sexual abuse in the late 1980s help fill in the story of the scandal and how it developed at the highest level of the nation’s largest diocese. As reported in the Los Angeles Times:
Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement, according to internal Catholic church records released Monday.
The archdiocese’s failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese’s chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation’s largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders’ own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.
The documents also show that in addition to hiding cases from police, an effort was made to avoid having predatory priests get counseling within the state because the California therapists would need to report the abuse to authorities. These scenes from internal records of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles offer further evidence that a coverup was orchestrated at high levels of the church. There is no sense that Mahony and his vicar were misled by therapists. They knew the abusive priests’ conduct was criminal. They may not have known the full scope of the sexual abuse that existed, but they knew it was a gigantic problem and sought to keep it secret.
Release of priests' personnel files called step closer to truth
CALIFORNIARedlands Daily Facts
By Dana Bartholomew, Barbara Jones and Brenda Gazzar, Staff Writers
dailynews.com
Posted: 01/21/2013
Nearly a decade ago, Manuel Vega held a weeklong sidewalk vigil downtown in the hope of persuading the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to come clean about sexual abuse by its priests.
With Monday's court-ordered release of hundreds of pages of unredacted personnel files, Vega feels that his prayers - and those of other clerical abuse victims - are finally being answered.
"Overall, I think it's a win-win," said Vega, a 46-year-old former policeman who lives in Oxnard and who testified more than a decade ago in the early days of the abuse scandal that eventually shattered the church.
"I think this should serve as a model for the release of other (unredacted) files by the archdiocese," said Vega, a former altar boy whose lawsuit claimed he was abused by Father Fidencio Silva at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Oxnard.
Los Angeles Catholic officials shielded pedophile priests: report
LOS ANGELES (CA)South Bend Tribune
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
Reuters
12:36 a.m. EST, January 22, 2013
(Reuters) - Two Catholic Church officials in California plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement as late as 1987, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday, citing newly released internal Church records.
The records show that Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony, who is now retired, and his top adviser on child sex abuse cases, Monsignor Thomas Curry, worked with other Church officials in 1987 to send priests accused of abuse out of state to avoid prosecution, the newspaper said.
Mahony and Curry also tried to keep pedophile priests from confessing to therapists who would be obligated to report the crimes, the newspaper said, citing the records, which were released on Los Angeles Times' website.
Curry even suggested in 1987 they send a pedophile priest to "a lawyer who is also a psychiatrist" to put the priest's "reports under the protection of privilege," the Times reported.
Cardinal Mahony: “I remained naïve…I am sorry”
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Catholic World Report
January 22, 2013
By Catherine Harmon
In the wake of the release of confidential documents showing how leaders of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles conspired to keep priests who sexually abused children out of jail, Cardinal Roger Mahony—archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles—has apologized for his role in “the archdiocese’s long struggle with the sexual abuse of minors.” Mahony claims he was “naïve” about the impact of abuse upon the priests’ young victims.
That archdiocesan leaders failed to report to the police priests who admitted abusing children was already known; Mahony admitted as much in a 2010 deposition. The documents posted yesterday on the L.A. Times website, which are part of the on-going civil case against the archdiocese, demonstrate a coordinated effort on the part of archdiocesan officials—specifically Cardinal Mahony and his then-vicar of clergy Thomas J. Curry (now an auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese)—to keep abusive priests away from law enforcement. From the Times report:
The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.
In the confidential letters, filed this month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.
Los Angeles cardinal apologizes to abuse victims as lawsuit files become public
LOS ANGELES (CA)National Catholic Reporter
[links to the documents - Anthony DeMarco, Jeff Anderson & Associates]
by Catholic News Service | Jan. 22, 2013
Los Angeles --
As the Archdiocese of Los Angeles released church records on clergy sexual abuse, Cardinal Roger Mahony again apologized to abuse victims, saying he was naive about its impact on their lives.
The cardinal, who retired as archbishop of Los Angeles in 2011, also said in a statement Monday that he prays for victims of abuse by priests daily as he celebrates Mass in his private chapel.
"It remains my daily and fervent prayer that God's grace will flood the heart and soul of each victim, and that their life journey continues forward with ever greater healing," he said, explaining that on his altar he keeps cards with the names of each of the 90 victims he met with from 2006 to 2008.
"As I thumb through those cards I often pause as I am reminded of each personal story and the anguish that accompanies that life story," Mahony said.
Vatican Terror on Galileo, priests and the poor, women and children
UNITED STATESPope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
Updated January 23, 2013
8 SUGGESTIONS on how to publicly defy and stop Benedict XVI excommunication of Fr. Flannery
Italian Galileo & Irish Tony Flannery: parallel victims of Vatican Last Tsar Benedict XVI Tyranny
In the 17th Century, Galileo offered the Pope and the Vatican Inquisition to look at the telescope “a thousand times” but they refused. By using merely their naked eyes to look at the planets, they doggedly insisted that ‘the Earth is the center of the universe and that the Sun revolved around the Earth’ - based on the Bible alone, and they shamed and condemned Galileo for his scientific beliefs. The rest is history.
Vatican Billions: its history, sources, and assets today worldwide.
UNITED STATESPope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
BOYCOTT the Vatican Museum and boycott ALL donations to the Vatican Catholic Church Reign of Terror
Vatican Assets in England and in the United States of America
Vatican assets in London
- premises of Bulgari, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street
- headquarters of the wealthy investment bank Altium Capital, on the corner of St James's Square
- Pall Mall
Doug McIntyre...
LOS ANGELES (CA)LA Daily Nes
Doug McIntyre: Facts blow holes in Cardinal Roger Mahony's accounts
By Doug McIntyre, Columnistdailynews.com
Posted: 01/22/2013
He has index cards, says the Holy Man. And on those index cards are names. He prays in his chapel nightly for the names on those index cards.
They're the names of children molested - even raped - by priests in his charge.
"I was naive" about abuse, says the Holy Man. "I'm sorry," he says.
Which is not what he says in internal church documents, 30,000 unredacted pages worth, finally brought into the light of day after years of foot-dragging, stonewalling and legal maneuvering.
The Holy Man is the former head of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony.
In these documents we find the Smoking Cassock proving Mahony complicit in the cover-up of the worst crime short of murder, child molestation.
"This is all intolerable and unacceptable to me," Mahony wrote in 1991.
Yet he continued to tolerate it. He continued to accept it.
In Los Angeles, Cardinal Apologizes For Covering Up Sex Abuse
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Philly Post
Joel Mathis
In a scene no doubt hauntingly familiar to many Philadelphians, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles on Monday apologized for mishandling sex abuse allegations that emerged in the archdiocese between 1986 and 1997. Newly released documents from that era show Mahony and other officials made a “concerted effort” to keep police from finding out children had been abused by priests.
Mahony released a statement, which read in part:
Various steps toward safeguarding all children in the Church began here in 1987 and progressed year by year as we learned more about those who abused and the ineffectiveness of so-called “treatments” at the time. Nonetheless, even as we began to confront the problem, I remained naïve myself about the full and lasting impact these horrible acts would have on the lives of those who were abused by men who were supposed to be their spiritual guides. That fuller awareness came for me when I began visiting personally with victims. During 2006, 2007 and 2008, I held personal visits with some 90 such victims. (HOGWASH)
STATEMENT FROM CARDINAL ROGER M. MAHONY REGARDING SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINORS BY CLERGY (OUR COMMENTS ARE IN BRACKETS)
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony
Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles
Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles
January 21, 2013
With the upcoming release of priests’ personnel files in the Archdiocese’s long struggle with the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, my thoughts and prayers turn toward the victims of this sinful abuse.
Various steps toward safeguarding all children in the Church began here in 1987 and progressed year by year as we learned more about those who abused and the ineffectiveness of so-called “treatments” at the time. Nonetheless, even as we began to confront the problem, I remained naïve myself about the full and lasting impact these horrible acts would have on the lives of those who were abused by men who were supposed to be their spiritual guides. That fuller awareness came for me when I began visiting personally with victims. During 2006, 2007 and 2008, I held personal visits with some 90 such victims.
Those visits were heart-wrenching experiences for me as I listened to the victims describe how they had their childhood and innocence stolen from them by clergy and by the Church. At times we cried together, we prayed together, we spent quiet moments in remembrance (QUIET MOMENTS? HOGWASH) of their dreadful experience; at times the victims vented their pent up anger and frustration against me and the Church. (HOGWASH AND BULLSHIT. These are all concocted up in wishful thinking!)
Toward the end of our visits I would offer the victims my personal apology—and took full responsibility—for my own failure to protect fully the children and youth entrusted into my care. I apologized for all of us in the Church for the years when ignorance, bad decisions and moral failings resulted in the unintended consequences of more being done to protect the Church—and even the clergy perpetrators—than was done to protect our children.
I have a 3 x 5 card for every victim I met with on the altar of my small chapel. I pray for them every single day. (BOLLOCKS! BALONEY! With carbon dating, they were freshly written to save face! 3 X 5 cards is the style of Opus Dei. ) As I thumb through those cards I often pause as I am reminded of each personal story and the anguish that accompanies that life story (BULLSHIT! LIAR! LIAR!).
================================================
Cardinal Mahony should be jailed longer than this Rabbi in New York
103-year sentence is what Weberman had coming
NEW YORKNew York Post
Justice arrived surely and sternly for child sex abuser Nechemya Weberman, thanks to an effective prosecution by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.
Give him and his office credit — without forgetting that it has taken far too long for victims of sex crimes in the borough’s Hasidic community to have their prosecutor fully in their corner.
Let this welcome change be a permanent one.
Weberman, 54, was sentenced Tuesday to 103 years in prison for repeatedly preying upon a young girl, starting when she was just 12.
She fell into his power when her school told her parents to send her to Weberman for counseling. At their sessions, he forced her to perform oral sex and reenact scenes from pornographic videos.
The predator and the prosecutor
NEW YORKNew York Post
There’s no understating the importance of the 103-year prison sentence imposed this week on Nechemya Weberman. A respected member of the Satmar Hasidic community, Weberman will probably die in prison now that Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Ingram threw the book at him after his conviction for sexually abusing a child he was “counseling.”
His fate is richly deserved.
The conviction wouldn’t have come without the courage of the victim, now a teenager, who defied the politically connected Orthodox sect to testify.
It was also a big win for Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes, who finally brought a sex-abuse case against a member of the insular Satmar community. Of course, only the harsh glare of the press spotlight — shone by The Post, among others — got Hynes to act.
The DA says this case marks “a sea change.” We sure hope so.
Nechemya Weberman's 103-Year Sentence Is Clumsy Slap at Ultra-Orthodox Jews
NEW YORKThe Jewish Daily Forward
By Batya Ungar-Sargon
Published January 24, 2013.
When is a long prison sentence too long?
That’s the question many inside and outside the ultra-Orthodox community are asking this week after a judge dealt Nechemya Weberman a 103-year term behind bars for abusing a young girl.
“The abuse of a child cannot be swept under the rug or dealt with by insular groups believing only they know what is best for their community,” Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said at a press conference following Weberman’s sentencing.
The prosecutor’s statement closely echoed his thoughts in a written statement published in the New York Daily News on January 19, in which Hynes compared the Hasidim to organized crime groups. He proudly trumpeted the Weberman sentencing as a way to “send a message” to the community as a whole.
“I compare it to the Mafia, but at least in Mafia cases we can offer victims witness protection. That does not work in these insular communities,” Hynes wrote. “I hope the verdict and sentence sends a very clear and unmistakable message to people in certain parts of the Orthodox community.”
103-year sentence is what Weberman had coming
NEW YORKNew York Post
Justice arrived surely and sternly for child sex abuser Nechemya Weberman, thanks to an effective prosecution by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.
Give him and his office credit — without forgetting that it has taken far too long for victims of sex crimes in the borough’s Hasidic community to have their prosecutor fully in their corner.
Let this welcome change be a permanent one.
Weberman, 54, was sentenced Tuesday to 103 years in prison for repeatedly preying upon a young girl, starting when she was just 12.
She fell into his power when her school told her parents to send her to Weberman for counseling. At their sessions, he forced her to perform oral sex and reenact scenes from pornographic videos.
The predator and the prosecutor
NEW YORKNew York Post
There’s no understating the importance of the 103-year prison sentence imposed this week on Nechemya Weberman. A respected member of the Satmar Hasidic community, Weberman will probably die in prison now that Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Ingram threw the book at him after his conviction for sexually abusing a child he was “counseling.”
His fate is richly deserved.
The conviction wouldn’t have come without the courage of the victim, now a teenager, who defied the politically connected Orthodox sect to testify.
It was also a big win for Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes, who finally brought a sex-abuse case against a member of the insular Satmar community. Of course, only the harsh glare of the press spotlight — shone by The Post, among others — got Hynes to act.
The DA says this case marks “a sea change.” We sure hope so.
===================================================================
News update of January 31, 2013
The Los Angeles Archdiocese can't seem to play by the rules
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
By Sandra Hernandez
January 31, 2013, 4:47 p.m.
Earlier this month, a state judge ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to include the names of church leaders who mishandled sex-abuse claims when it finally releases scores of confidential priest files as part of a 2007 settlement.
Yet despite that court order, the archdiocese has continued to act as if the rules don’t apply to it. This week, the church resubmitted a proposal that would have redacted the names of top church leaders from the documents and only provided the names of those officials in a generic cover sheet attached to the priest’s file. The church’s actions were nothing short of an attempt to delay justice and conceal the truth from the victims and the public.
I can’t say the church’s request came as a surprise. The archdiocese has spent years in court fighting to keep those records under wraps. And last week, we learned why.
As The Times' Victoria Kim and Harriet Ryan reported, confidential letters and memos, filed in a civil court case, reveal Cardinal Roger M. Mahony’s role in plotting to shield pedophile priests from coming to the attention of police or prosecutors. The letters document how Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, his top advisor on sex-abuse cases, discussed strategies to keep pedophile priests out of state.
Judge orders LA archdiocese ...
LOS ANGELES (CA)Judge orders LA archdiocese to release 30K pages of priest files without blacked-out names
By Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A judge on Thursday ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to turn over 30,000 pages from the confidential files of priests accused of child molestation without blacking out the names of top church officials who were responsible for key decisions in how to handle the sexually abusive priests.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Emilie Elias ordered the nation’s largest archdiocese to turn over the files to attorneys for alleged victims no later than Feb. 22.
The archdiocese had planned to black out the names of members of the church hierarchy who were responsible for the molesting priests in the documents and instead provide a cover sheet for each priest’s file, listing the names of top officials who handled that case. The church reversed course Wednesday after The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and plaintiff attorneys objected in court.
The archdiocese had also planned to black out handwritten comments on the files inked by recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and provide those in typewritten form instead.
A record-breaking $660 million settlement in 2007 with more than 500 alleged victims paved the way for the ultimate disclosure of the tens of thousands of pages, but the archdiocese and individual priests fought to keep them secret for more than five years. The AP and the Los Angeles Times intervened in court in January because the 4.3 million-person archdiocese intended to release the files with the names of top officials, including Mahony’s, blacked out.
Judge orders church to release full priest abuse records
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
A trove of confidential church files detailing how the Los Angeles archdiocese dealt with priests accused of molestation must be released “as soon as possible” and include the names of Cardinal Roger Mahony and his aides, a judge ruled Thursday.
In a written order, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Emilie H. Elias gave the church a Feb. 22 deadline to turn over about 30,000 pages of internal memos, psychiatric reports,
“Let’s just get it done,” Elias said in court Thursday.
Her order brought to a close five and a half years of legal wrangling and delays and set the stage for a raft of new and almost certainly embarrassing revelations about the church’s handling of pedophile priests. A small portion of the files were made public in a civil case last week and showed that in the 1980s Mahony and a top aide discussed methods for concealing abuse from police, including giving molesters out-of-state assignments.
DOCUMENT: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files
The files Elias ordered released are the final piece of a landmark 2007 settlement between the archdiocese and about 500 people who said clergy abused them. As part of that $660-million settlement, the archdiocese agreed to hand over the personnel files of accused abusers. Victims said the files would provide accountability for church leaders who let pedophiles remain in the ministry; law enforcement officials said the records would be important investigative tools.
But the release was delayed for years by appeals and the painstaking process of reading and redacting 89 files, some hundreds of pages long. A private mediator in 2011 ordered the church to black out the names of victims and archdiocese employees not accused of abuse, saying he wanted to avoid “guilt by association.”
LA archdiocese files coming out without redactions
LOS ANGELES (CA)ABC 6
Posted: Jan 31, 2013
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A judge has ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to turn over 30,000 pages from the confidential files of priests accused of sex abuse without blacking out the names of top church officials who were responsible for handling their cases.
Judge Emilie Elias on Thursday ordered the nation's largest archdiocese to release the files by Feb. 22.
A record-breaking $660 million settlement with more than 500 victims in 2007 set the stage for the release of the files, but the archdiocese and individual priests fought for five years to keep them secret.
Judge to Issue Order on Release of LA Archdiocese Personnel Files
LOS ANGELES (CA)NBC
By Patrick Healy and Jonathan Lloyd
Thursday, Jan 31, 2013
A judge is expected to issue an order Thursday afternoon governing the release of personnel files that include the names of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles leaders who handled priest abuse cases.
Attorneys and the judge concluded a conference call Thursday morning in which they discussed how the 30,000 pages of confidential personnel files will be released. The archdiocese is expected to be given 30 days to comply, but officials might have the documents ready in as soon as one week.
The files will be provided to attorneys for clergy abuse victims.
Attorneys for the archdiocese said Wednesday they will not pursue a plan that would have blacked out church leaders' names when the files are released, according to the Associated Press. The move is a reversal of the archdiocese's plan to redact the names, citing privacy rights of priests and others.
News updates February 1, 2013
The LA Document Disclosure and Hierarch Resignations
LOS ANGELES (CA)Jeff Anderson & Associates
Jeffrey R. Anderson
While better late than never as the saying goes, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles today continued to preserve its own reputation at all costs. Simultaneous to releasing 12,000 damning documents that illustrate decades of concealment, cover up and deliberate, reckless disregard for the safety of children in the Archdiocese, the Archdiocese made public the resignation of Bishop Curry and Cardinal Mahony from any public ministry. After fighting in court against the release of these documents for over six years, it is incredibly disingenuous of the Archdiocese to now make news of the resignation of these two officials. The resignations are an empty gesture, a hollow attempt to right decades of horrific wrongs by these two hierarchs and many others.
In the end, survivors have triumphed. What is finally made public this evening by court order, as a provision of the 2007 settlement, is a long time coming for the survivors, their families and those survivors who have yet to come forward. 12,000 documents, encompassing the secret files on all of the credibly accused priests within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, these documents expose the truth; they unveil a concerted conspiracy to deny, minimize and conceal, to preserve the reputation of the Archdiocese over the safety of children at all costs. Although today the Archdiocese's shameless attempts to save face have not changed, what has changed is the scope of public knowledge regarding the appalling practices of this Archdiocese in the handling of dangerous predators among its ranks. The released files lay bare the festering flesh of this Archdiocese for all the world to critique, a momentous day for survivors indeed.In the end, survivors have triumphed. What is finally made public this evening by court order, as a provision of the 2007 settlement, is a long time coming for the survivors, their families and those survivors who have yet to come forward. 12,000 documents, encompassing the secret files on all of the credibly accused priests within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, these documents expose the truth; they unveil a concerted conspiracy to deny, minimize and conceal, to preserve the reputation of the Archdiocese over the safety of children at all costs. Although today the Archdiocese's shameless attempts to save face have not changed, what has changed is the scope of public knowledge regarding the appalling practices of this Archdiocese in the handling of dangerous predators among its ranks. The released files lay bare the festering flesh of this Archdiocese for all the world to critique, a momentous day for survivors indeed.
CA - SNAP responds to punishments for Bishop Curry and Cardinal Mahony
LOS ANGELES (CA)Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on February 01, 2013
Bishop Thomas Curry stepping down is a small, belated step in the right direction, though it's obviously only being done because the horrific extent of his complicity is about to become publicly known. He should have been fired long ago.
Several bishops across the globe have stepped down when their reckless, callous and deceitful actions in clergy sex cases has become known. It should happen far more often. But it would be much more powerful if the Pope and other high ranking church officials would actually force their corrupt colleagues out.
Hand-slapping Mahony is a nearly meaningless gesture. When he had real power, and abused it horribly, he should have been demoted or disciplined by the church hierarchy, in
Statement by Los Angeles SNAP leader Esther Hatfield of Huntington Beach CA
The posting of this information by
But that will be a desperate and laughable ruse.
In truth, LA church officials – including Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop Jose Gomez, Bishop Thomas Curry and others - have relentlessly and expensively and successfully fought for years to keep these horrific secrets secret.
It's ludicrous for Mahony, Gomez and Curry to claim to be "forthcoming" with records they've successfully kept hidden for decades, using millions of dollars from generous parishioners to pay high prices lawyers to obstruct disclosures.
UPDATE: More than 100 LA Catholic clergy files released following sex abuse suit; Mahony pulled from duties (PDF)
LOS ANGELES (CA)KPCC
Frank Stoltze with KPCC wire services and KPCC staff
UPDATE 6:31 a.m.: The following is a sampling of the reaction to the release Thursday evening of thousands of pages of personnel files of priests accused of child molestation, and of Archbishop Jose Gomez's decision to strip Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his duties:
•Los Angeles archdiocese: The files' release "concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our local church."
•Archbishop Jose Gomez: "I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children."
•Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit and senior fellow at the
•Terry McKiernan, founder of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks the release of priest files nationally: The reprimand is a "purely symbolic punishment that they hope will satisfy at least some people in the archdiocese. I don't think that many savvy observers of this will be deceived."
•David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP): "Hand-slapping Cardinal Roger Mahony is a nearly meaningless gesture. When he had real power, and abused it horribly, he should have been demoted or disciplined by the church hierarchy, in
CA - Victims beg Catholics “Read abuse files”
LOS ANGELES (CA)Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[the Los Angeles files]
Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 01, 2013
■Victims beg Catholics “Read abuse files”
■And they urge ex-church staff: “Help fill in gaps”
■Group believes archdiocese records are incomplete
■SNAP: “Now’s the time for witnesses & whistleblowers to step up”
■Mahony’s restriction & Curry’s resignation are “weak,” victims say
What:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will react to the moves by two top Los Angeles officials (Archbishop Gomez & Bishop Curry).
They will also urge:
-- victims, witnesses, police, prosecutors, church employees and lay Catholics to step forward with information about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups that is NOT in the newly-disclosed files,
-- parishoners and the public to read the files carefully and discuss them with friends, family and fellow church-goers, and
-- law enforcement authorities to “double down” on efforts to prosecute high-ranking Catholic supervisors who ignored, enabled and concealed the “heinous crimes” of 252 LA-area predator priests.
When:
Friday, February 1 at 11 am
Where:
Outside of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple (at Hill),
LA Catholic Archdiocese releases names of sex abusers among priests
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Voice of
On Thursday, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles released personnel files of over a hundred clergy members involved in the 2007 settlement of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by priests.
Archbishop Jose Gomez said that former Archbishop Roger Mahony would "no longer have any administrative or public duties." In the wake of the scandal, Mahony's ex- top adviser on sexual abuse issues, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, stepped down as regional bishop of
The clergy files include the names of priests, culminating years of legal debate over whether names should be redacted from the paperwork.
“The 2013 public release of the files of clergy who were subject of the 2007 global settlement concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our local church,” the church statement said.
US Archbishop Releases Abuse Records, Raps Cardinal
LOS ANGELES (CA)Michael Thurston | February 01, 2013
The archbishop of
Archbishop Jose Gomez said retired Cardinal Roger Mahony will "no longer have any administrative or public duties," while Mahony's former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, Thomas Curry, has stepped down as a regional bishop.
"These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious," he wrote, releasing the personnel files online after prolonged wrangling over whether the names should be blanked out. ...
But the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a victims group, dismissed Curry's resignation as a "small, belated step in the right direction" and said "hand-slapping Mahony is a nearly meaningless gesture."
"The lesson here for Catholic staff is clear: if you successfully conceal your wrongdoing, you can keep your job. If, however, you fail, there's an extraordinarily slim chance you might experience some slight consequences," SNAP director David Clohessy said in a statement.
Jonathan Dobrer: Cardinal Roger Mahony helped sell out Catholic Church's soul
LOS ANGELES (CA)Daily News
By Jonathan Dobrer
dailynews.com
Posted: 01/31/2013
Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony apologizes for realizing only late in the game that molestation was going on, or having any idea of its scope, or believing that is was really traumatic. Really?
The only plausible excuse he has for any part of the cover up is possibly a mistaken view on the efficacy of therapy for pedophiles. In the 1980s, some might have thought it could work. They were quickly disabused of that notion but allowed children to continue to be abused.
Mahony's statements of remorse for his sins of omission ring hollow, since he worked day and night until his retirement to keep the records sealed and prevent the victims and their families from knowing what was reported, who got sent to rehab, and how many were reassigned. He worked virtually till the day that the records and correspondence were released to keep the documents secret, then just highly redacted. All this was done to "protect" the identity of the victims, he claimed. Not credible. None of it.
How about a little spin to go with your files?
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Worthy Adversary
[the Los Angeles files]
Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 31, 2013
Moments after a judge ordered a final halt to decades of secrecy by top LA archdiocesan officials, Archbishop Jose Gomez’ lawyer made this outlandish claim:
Michael Hennigan said that after what he called an inevitable “media blitz” over the file release, he hoped the focus would shift to the church’s current well-regarded program for preventing abuse.
“You’ve written almost nothing about what has happened in the last 10 years,” he told reporters outside court. “The church is at the front edge of how to deal with these issues.”
CA - SNAP's Letter to California victims
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on February 01, 2013
Dear California SNAP member;
As you've likely heard, thousands of pages of long-secret church records about child molesting clerics and their corrupt colleagues are finally surfacing in Los Angeles
Make no mistake about it - this is a huge victory for innocent kids and wounded adults. And you deserve the credit!
Maybe you aren't one of the 500 LA survivors who sought justice in court. Maybe you weren't abused by an LA area priest, nun, seminarian, bishop, brother or other church employee. Maybe you aren't a victim (but a loved one or a caring parishioner). None of this matters.
What matters is that progress is being made. This accomplishment is due to you and to every single person in California
We thank you and we congratulate you.
Cardinal Mahoney Bearing Witness
UNITED STATESWaiting for Godot to Leave
My friends, do you wonder why people abandon the Church? Do you wonder why atheism is all the rage among the pierced and tattooed teens and college kids who work at Subway? Do you wonder why nobody takes the whole God thing too seriously any more?
Well, there are many reasons.
But one reason is this. It's because so few bishops do what
Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I’ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011. ... Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.
Thus writes Archbishop Gomez, banning Cardinal Mahoney, a "prince of the Church", from any public or administrative duties. Why? Because Mahoney deliberately and with care and precision shielded child abusing priests from the law, shuffling them from parish to parish, and pawning them off on other dioceses. He let the predators have continued access to their prey - innocent children - as long as it did not cost the archdiocese any money or him personally any embarrassment. His reputation and the almighty dollar counted for more than the safety of children, for the effective treatment of priests, or for the service of justice.
A lost warrior for the undocumented?
LOS ANGELES (CA)Religion News Service
Michael J. O'Loughlin | Jan 31, 2013
There was once a time when Catholic Cardinals in the
But now, with startling revelations coming out of LA about Mahony’s attempts to protect known pedophile priests in his archdiocese while seemingly ignoring the victims, some are questioning his ability to fight for the undocumented. From the
On a Sunday night at Dodger Stadium in 1986, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony celebrated Mass in flawless Spanish. In an era when immigrants in
Victim group not satisfied with action on Mahony
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Miami
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- A clergy abuse victim group is not satisfied with actions taken by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles
Archbishop Jose Gomez late Thursday announced that his predecessor, Mahony, will no longer have any administrative or public duties.
Standing Friday in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, a regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called that "window dressing."
Joelle Casteix (KAS-tihks) says the move is only symbolic, and Mahony is still a powerful man in Rome and Los Angeles
Action against Cardinal Mahony: Readers aren't impressed
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles
By Paul Thornton
February 1, 2013
February 1, 2013
It didn't take too long for Friday's front-page story that Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez had relieved his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, of his public duties for readers to start filling up the morning mailbag. And it wasn't with letters praising Gomez for taking decisive action; to the contrary, the reaction has varied between "it's about time" and "too little, too late."
Letters written in response to the article will likely run in Sunday's paper, and they can also be viewed at latimes.com/letters. Here's what we have so far (and some of these submissions may make it onto Sunday's page).
Charles Fox ofHuntington Beach
Letters written in response to the article will likely run in Sunday's paper, and they can also be viewed at latimes.com/letters. Here's what we have so far (and some of these submissions may make it onto Sunday's page).
Charles Fox of
"Let me see if I've got this right: Gomez became L.A.
These are media dancing to the Opus Dei Vatican Deceits.
Zenit of course belongs to the Vatican Pied Piper Empire.
Notice that in their titles or in their first paragraphs, these news articles immediately quote Archbishop Gomez so as to praise him right at the onset.
Anytime a writer praises the Opus Dei, they kowtow to the Vatican Mammon Beast and contribute to the Vatican Evils of the Vatican Billions, read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html
Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles Releases Clergy Abuse Files
LOS ANGELES (CA)Zenit
[the Los Angeles files]
Junno De Jesús Arocho Esteves
LOS ANGELES, February 1, 2013 (Zenit.org).
Archbishop Jose Gomez of
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed," the Archbishop stated.
Stressing the need to acknowledge the "terrible failure", Archbishop Gomez stated the need to pray for the victims of abuse and to support them in their healing while "restoring the trust that was broken."
Cardinal Roger Mahoney, Archbishop Emeritus of
+Gomez Breaks the Omerta
LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter
National Catholic Reporter
by Michael Sean Winters | Feb. 1, 2013
“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” wrote Archbishop Jose Gomez in a letter to the clergy and faithful of Los Angeles
“If in hindsight we also discover that mistakes may have been made as regards prompt removal of priests and assistance to victims, I am deeply sorry,” wrote Cardinal Edward Egan in a letter to the clergy and faith of the Archdiocese of New York in the spring of 2002. You will note how far the pronoun “I” is from the word “mistakes” and how the use of the passive voice adds further distance from the horror.
Archbishop Gomez’s voice is the voice of moral authority. Cardinal Egan’s voice was the voice of moral complicity, the voice of the dodger. Gomez did more than speak. He informed Cardinal Roger Mahony that he was relieved of all administrative and public duties within the archdiocese and he removed auxiliary bishop Thomas Curry as episcopal vicar forSanta Barbara
The news fromLos Angeles Vienna
“If in hindsight we also discover that mistakes may have been made as regards prompt removal of priests and assistance to victims, I am deeply sorry,” wrote Cardinal Edward Egan in a letter to the clergy and faith of the Archdiocese of New York in the spring of 2002. You will note how far the pronoun “I” is from the word “mistakes” and how the use of the passive voice adds further distance from the horror.
Archbishop Gomez’s voice is the voice of moral authority. Cardinal Egan’s voice was the voice of moral complicity, the voice of the dodger. Gomez did more than speak. He informed Cardinal Roger Mahony that he was relieved of all administrative and public duties within the archdiocese and he removed auxiliary bishop Thomas Curry as episcopal vicar for
The news from
Mahony defends legacy on church abuse in blog
LOS ANGELES (CA)
KTAR
KTAR
[HISTORICAL EVOLUTION of DEALING with the SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINORS - Cardinal Mahony Blogs LA]
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The public rebuke of retired Cardinal Roger Mahony for failing to take swift action against abusive priests adds tarnish to a career already overshadowed by the church sex abuse scandal but does little to change his role in the larger church.
Mahony can still act as a priest, keep his rank as cardinal and remain on a criticalVatican panel that elects the next pope.
While Archbishop Jose Gomez's decision to strip Mahony of his administrative and public duties was unprecedented in the American Roman Catholic Church, it was another attempt by the church to accept responsibility for the abuse scandal that has engulfed it.
Victims were quick to point out that Mahony's new, paired-down local standing was in stark contrast to his continued position among the prelates at theVatican
The decision "is little more than window dressing. Cardinal Mahony is still a very powerful prelate," Joelle Casteix, the Western regional director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said at a Friday news conference outside theLos Angeles Rome and still a very powerful man in Los Angeles
Mahony can still act as a priest, keep his rank as cardinal and remain on a critical
While Archbishop Jose Gomez's decision to strip Mahony of his administrative and public duties was unprecedented in the American Roman Catholic Church, it was another attempt by the church to accept responsibility for the abuse scandal that has engulfed it.
Victims were quick to point out that Mahony's new, paired-down local standing was in stark contrast to his continued position among the prelates at the
The decision "is little more than window dressing. Cardinal Mahony is still a very powerful prelate," Joelle Casteix, the Western regional director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said at a Friday news conference outside the
At North Hollywood parish that Cardinal Roger Mahony calls home, Catholics react to his rebuke over sex abuse scandal
By Dana Bartholomew and Barbara Jones, Staff Writers
dailynews.com
Posted: 02/01/2013
dailynews.com
Posted: 02/01/2013
NORTH HOLLYWOOD
So parishioners at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church expressed both pain and hope early Friday after retired Cardinal Roger Mahony was publicly rebuked by his successor.
"It's OK, so far. It's all good," said Josephine Leong, 67, of Studio City , after a 7:30 a.m. Mass at the North Hollywood parish. "He's retired anyway, so it doesn't matter.
"I hope everything will be healed by the grace of God."
The release last week of personnel files from the Los Angeles Archdiocese had already revealed that Mahony and a top aide had conspired decades ago to shield 14 pedophile priests from the law.
HISTORICAL EVOLUTION of DEALING with the SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINORS
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA
Friends in Christ,
This morning I sent this letter to Archbishop Jose H. Gomez giving the history and context of what we have been through since the mid-1980s. There is nothing confidential in my letter. I have been encouraged by others to publish it, so I am do so on my personal Blog. I hope you find it useful.
+ + + + +
This morning I sent this letter to Archbishop Jose H. Gomez giving the history and context of what we have been through since the mid-1980s. There is nothing confidential in my letter. I have been encouraged by others to publish it, so I am do so on my personal Blog. I hope you find it useful.
+ + + + +
February 1, 2013
Dear Archbishop Gomez:
In this letter I wish to outline briefly how the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and I responded to the evolving scandal of clergy sexual misconduct, especially involving minors.
Nothing in my own background or education equipped me to deal with this grave problem. In two years [1962—1964] spent in graduate school earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work, no textbook and no lecture ever referred to the sexual abuse of children. While there was some information dealing with child neglect, sexual abuse was never discussed.
Shortly after I was installed on September 5, 1985 I took steps to create an Office of the Vicar for the Clergy so that all our efforts in helping our priests could be located in one place. In the summer of 1986 I invited an attorney-friend fromStockton to address our priests during our annual retreat at St. John’s
Nothing in my own background or education equipped me to deal with this grave problem. In two years [1962—1964] spent in graduate school earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work, no textbook and no lecture ever referred to the sexual abuse of children. While there was some information dealing with child neglect, sexual abuse was never discussed.
Shortly after I was installed on September 5, 1985 I took steps to create an Office of the Vicar for the Clergy so that all our efforts in helping our priests could be located in one place. In the summer of 1986 I invited an attorney-friend from
During these intervening years a small number of cases did arise. I sought advice from several other Bishops across the country, including Cardinal John O’Connor of New York , Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago , and then Bishop Adam Maida of Green Bay
Mahony responds to ban: 'Not once' did successor raise questions
LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter
National Catholic Reporter
by Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 1, 2013 NCR Today
Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired archbishop of Los Angeles
Writing an open letter to Archbishop Jose Gomez, the archdiocese's current leader, Mahony states that during his leadership the archdiocese became "second to none in protecting children and youth."
"When you were formally received as our Archbishop on May 26, 2010, you began to become aware of all that had been done here over the years for the protection of children and youth," Mahony writes to Gomez in the letter, which Mahony has made available on his personal blog.
"You became our official Archbishop on March 1, 2011 and you were personally involved with the Compliance Audit of 2012—again, in which we were deemed to be in full compliance," Mahony continues.
Writing an open letter to Archbishop Jose Gomez, the archdiocese's current leader, Mahony states that during his leadership the archdiocese became "second to none in protecting children and youth."
"When you were formally received as our Archbishop on May 26, 2010, you began to become aware of all that had been done here over the years for the protection of children and youth," Mahony writes to Gomez in the letter, which Mahony has made available on his personal blog.
"You became our official Archbishop on March 1, 2011 and you were personally involved with the Compliance Audit of 2012—again, in which we were deemed to be in full compliance," Mahony continues.
Cardinal Mahony's removal not enough, church critics say
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles
February 1, 2013
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez's decision to relieve Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of all public duties over his mishandling of clergy sex abuse of children decades ago does not go far enough, some abuse victim advocates said Friday.
David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the massive volume of files on abuse that the archdiocese released Thursday evening "reveals the horrors in black and white that victims have known for so long.”
David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the massive volume of files on abuse that the archdiocese released Thursday evening "reveals the horrors in black and white that victims have known for so long.”
But Clohessy and other church critics said they believe Gomez's action does not go far enough, noting Mahony remains a cardinal in good standing in the church.
“Cardinal Mahony remains a man of power within the church despite all that he has done,” Clohessy said.
“Cardinal Mahony remains a man of power within the church despite all that he has done,” Clohessy said.
Lawyer who fought for documents' release says discipline a good first step
LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter
National Catholic Reporter
by Tom Roberts | Feb. 1, 2013
Friday's announcement that a retired Los Angeles cardinal and an auxiliary bishop have been disciplined because of their roles in covering up priests' sexual abuse of children is a step in the right direction, says a lawyer long involved in representing victims -- but, he adds, the discipline is only a step, not an ending.
Attorney Tony DeMarco said Friday the discipline was forced by the court-ordered release of documents that detailed the conduct of church leaders, and a careful reading of those documents will show that some leaders who put children at risk "are still in place."
The release of approximately 12,000 pages of documents detailing the sexual abuse of children by priests and cover-up by archdiocesan officials was a long-fought victory for DeMarco, who pursued release of the documents, which the archdiocese fought to keep sealed for 10 years. He has represented more than 400 victims of abuse, some of whom were part ofLos Angeles
An agreement by the archdiocese to release the documents was part of a 2007 settlement of 508 cases for $660 million. But immediately, the archdiocese took legal steps to block the release, a process that was complicated and delayed when a retired judge who was hired to review the documents recused himself from the process.
Attorney Tony DeMarco said Friday the discipline was forced by the court-ordered release of documents that detailed the conduct of church leaders, and a careful reading of those documents will show that some leaders who put children at risk "are still in place."
The release of approximately 12,000 pages of documents detailing the sexual abuse of children by priests and cover-up by archdiocesan officials was a long-fought victory for DeMarco, who pursued release of the documents, which the archdiocese fought to keep sealed for 10 years. He has represented more than 400 victims of abuse, some of whom were part of
An agreement by the archdiocese to release the documents was part of a 2007 settlement of 508 cases for $660 million. But immediately, the archdiocese took legal steps to block the release, a process that was complicated and delayed when a retired judge who was hired to review the documents recused himself from the process.
Clergy Files Produced by Archdiocese of Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (CA)Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Personnel Files of clergy who where subject of the 2007 global settlement have been publicly released and are listed below. We ask that you read the introduction page before exploring content below.
Frequently Asked Questions/Clergy Personnel Files:
1. Which files are being disclosed?
The files concern those priests named in the litigation that settled in 2007. Pursuant to the settlement agreement between victims and the Archdiocese, retired Federal Judge Dickran Tevrizian ordered files released subject to certain rules designed to protect the privacy of certain individuals, including the redaction of the names of victims, third parties and church hierarchy.
Judge Emilie Elias then adopted the Judge Tevrizian order with certain modifications. Specifically, she ordered that the names of the church hierarchy generally be disclosed in the files. The Archdiocese accepted her ruling, and has restored the names of church hierarchy in the documents being released. ...
Clergy Personnel Files
•Abercombie, Leonard
•Aguilar-Rivera, Nicolas
•Alzugaray, Joseph
•Arzube, Juan
•Baker, Michael
•Barmasse, Kevin
•Boyer, Leland
•Brennan, John
•Buckley, Michael
•Buckman, Franklin
•Caffoe, Lynn
•Carey, Cleve
•Carriere, David
•Carroll, Michael
•Casey, Edward
•Casey, John
•Castro, Willebaldo
•Chandler, David
•Coffield, John
•Cosgrove, John
•Coughlin, Richard
•Cronin, Sean
•Cruces, Angel
•Daley, Wallace
•Dawson, John
•Deady, John
•DeJonghe, Harold
•Devaney, James
•Diesta, Arwyn
•Doherty, John
•Dolan, James
•Duggan, Albert
•English, Thomas
•Farabaugh, Clint
•Farmer, Donald
•Farris, John
•Faue, Matthias
•Feeney, John
•Fernando, Walter
•Fessard, Gerald
•Fitzpatrick, James
•Ford, James
•Gallagher, George
•Garcia, Cristobal
•Garcia, Peter
•Garcia, Richard
•Ginty, Denis
•Granadino, David
•Grill, Philip
•Grimes, James
•Gunst, George
•Hackett, John
•Hagenbach, Clinton
•Hanley, Bernard
•Haran, Michael
•Hartman, Richard
•Henry, Richard
•Hernandez, Stephen
•Hovath, Bertrand
•Hunt, Michael
•Hurley, Daniel
•Jaramillo, Luis
•Kearney, Christopher
•Kelly, Matthew
•Knoernschild, John
•Kohnke, John
•Lapierre, David
•Lindner, Jerold
•Llanos, Theodore
•Loomis, Richard
•Lopez, Joseph
•Lovell, Lawrence
•MacSweeney, Eugene
•Marshall, Thomas
•Martinez, Ruben
•Mateo, Leonard
•McAsey, Joseph
•McCarthy, Kevin
•McElhatton, Thomas
•Miani, Titian
•Miller, George
•Monte, Alfred
•Nocita, Michael
•O'Carroll, Charles
•O'Connor, Donal
•Orellana-Mendoza, Samuel
•Pecharich, Michael
•Perez, Henry
•Pina, Joseph
•Plesetz, Gerald
•Ramos, Eleutario
•Reilly, Terrence
•Rodriguez, Carlos
•Roemer, Donald
•Roper, William
•Rowe, Dorian
•Rozo, Efrain
•Rucker, George
•Ruhl, John
•Ryan, Joseph
•Salazar, John
•Salinas, Gabriel
•Sanchez, Manuel
•Santillan, John
•Savino, Dominic
•Scott, George
•Sharpe, Joseph
•Sheahan, John
•Shimmaly, Edward
•Silva-Flores, Fidencio
•Stalkamp, Louis
•Sutphin, Carl
•Tamayo, Santiago
•Tepe, Raymond
•Terra, Michael
•Ugarte, Jose
•Van Liefde, Christopher
•Vetter, Henry
•Villa Gomez, Nemoria
•Weitz, Wilfrid
•Wempe, Michael
•Ziemann, Patrick
•z-I
•z-II
•z-III
•z-IV
•z-V
•z-VI
Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony Relieved of Duties Amid Child Abuse Probe
LOS ANGELES (CA)[with video]
(CNS) Posted Thursday, January 31, 2013–7:17 PM
After a years-long legal battle, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles today released personnel files of more than 100 clergy members as part of a 2007 settlement of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by priests.
In conjunction with the release, Archbishop Jose Gomez announced that former Archbishop Roger Mahony will “no longer have any administrative or public duties,” and Mahony’s former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, has stepped down as regional bishop of
The clergy files include the names of priests, culminating years of legal wrangling over whether names should be redacted from the paperwork.
“The 2013 public release of the files of clergy who were subject of the 2007 global settlement concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our local church,” according to a diocese statement announcing the release of the files. “In the 2004 Report to the People of God and elsewhere, the archdiocese acknowledged and apologized for failing to treat victims of abuse with compassion, as well as for employing what we now know to be inadequate standards for treatment and supervision of priests who were found to have abused children and young people.”
LA archbishop moves against Mahony
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Tablet (
1 February 2013
Archbishop Jose Gomez of
Archbishop Gomez took the action in response to the recent release of archdiocesan documents pertaining to abuse by priests in the 1980s, showing that then-Archbishop Mahony and Mgr Curry tried to keep information from the police and move perpetrators out of the state beyond the reach of law enforcement officials.
LA abuse scandal: cardinal banished
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Australian
[the Los Angeles files]
AFP
February 02, 2013
THE Archbishop of Los Angeles stripped his predecessor of all church duties last night as he released files on more than 100 clerics, as required under a 2007 lawsuit deal over alleged sex abuse.
Archbishop Jose Gomez said retired cardinal Roger Mahony would "no longer have any administrative or public duties", while Cardinal Mahony's former top adviser on sex abuse issues, Thomas Curry, had stepped down as a regional bishop.
"These files document abuses that happened decades ago, but that does not make them less serious," Archbishop Gomez wrote, releasing the personnel files online after prolonged wrangling over whether the names should be blanked out.
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed. We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today."
Retired L.A. Cardinal Relieved of Duties as Files Are Released
LOS ANGELES (CA)Wall Street Journal
By TAMARA AUDI and ERICA E. PHILLIPS
The Catholic Archbishop of
Cardinal Mahony was a well-known figure in
Shortly after announcing the decision regarding Cardinal Mahony, the church unexpectedly released thousands of pages of documents about more than 100 priests believed to have abused children. The document release is part of a $660 million civil settlement reached with more than 500 plaintiffs in 2007.
In a statement, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez called the files "brutal and painful reading."
Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony Stripped of Duties
LOS ANGELES (CA)CBS 47
[with video]
Reported by: Lemor Abrams
Email: LemorAbrams@cbsfresno.com
A bombshell from the Catholic Church.
Retired cardinal Roger Mahony is relieved of his remaining duties with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
It comes as the Church releases 12,000 documents from files on priests accused of sexual abuse.
Records show Mahony worked for years to conceal molestation by the clergy from law enforcement.
Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez released a statement late Thursday.
He says in part:
"My predecessor, Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties."
LA Catholic archdiocese releases priest abuse files
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Times (United Kingdom)
Lucinda Beaman
The former head of the
US Catholic archbishop fires cardinal for role in shielding child molestors
LOS ANGELES (CA)Press TV (
A US Catholic archbishop has stripped a top cardinal, who led a Los Angeles Archdiocese before him, of all church duties for his role in concealing child sexual abuse offenses by Catholic priests from authorities.
Archbishop Jose Gomez announced in a Thursday statement by the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese that he had removed his predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties.
Former top advisor to 76-year-old Mahony on child sexual abuse cases in the church, Thomas Curry, 70, who colluded with him in hiding child molestation offenses by Catholic priests, has reportedly quit his current position as a bishop in the
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil," Gomez proclaimed in a statement issued by the largest Catholic archdiocese in the
Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony relieved of public duties
LOS ANGELES (CA)By Susan Abram and Barbara Jones, Staff Writersdailynews.com
Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has stood at the center of the Los Angeles Archdiocese clergy sex abuse scandal after mounting evidence showed he shielded pedophile priests from law enforcement, has been relieved of all public duties, Archbishop Jose Gomez announced late Thursday.
Gomez's unexpected announcement came as the archdiocese, under court order, released some 12,000 documents from the internal personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse.
"Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties," Gomez said in a written statement.
He also said auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, who served as Mahony's vicar of clergy and his point person on sex abuse cases, has stepped down as regional bishop of
"I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility," Gomez said.
US archbishop releases abuse records, strips cardinal
LOS ANGELES (CA)Indian Express
The archbishop of
Archbishop Jose Gomez said retired Cardinal Roger Mahony will "no longer have any administrative or public duties," while Mahony's former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, Thomas Curry, has stepped down as a regional bishop.
"These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious," he wrote, releasing the personnel files online after prolonged wrangling over whether the names should be blanked out.
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children.
Files may reveal what the Catholic Church in Los Angeles knew about sex abuse
LOS ANGELES (CA)CNN
By Ben Brumfield, CNN
updated 7:12 AM EST, Fri February 1, 2013
(CNN) -- A
There were many -- 192 priests and bishops were named in litigation, the archdiocese said.
"The cases span decades," Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in a statement Thursday. Some go back to the 1930s.
"But that does not make them less serious. I find these files to be brutal and painful reading," he said.
RETIRED CARDINAL RELIEVED OF CHURCH DUTIES
LOS ANGELES (CA)U-T San Diego
By Gillian Flaccus Associated Press
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez announced Thursday night he has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties and a former top aide to Mahony has stepped down from his post, on the same night the church released thousands of pages of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse.
“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” Gomez said in a statement, referring to the newly released files made public by the church Thursday night 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.”
Gomez announced he has “informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”
Mahony, who retired in 2011 after more than a quarter-century at the helm of the archdiocese, has publicly apologized for mistakes he made in dealing with priests who molested children.
Catholic cardinal stripped of duties as LA diocese child abuse files released
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Guardian (
Reuters in
guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 February 2013
The Catholic archdiocese of
Archbishop Jose Gomez said he had stripped his predecessor, the retired cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties. "I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil," Gomez said in a statement released by the
"There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed," he said.
Mahony's former top aide, Thomas Curry, also stepped down as bishop of
The 12,000 pages of files were made public more than a week after church records relating to 14 priests were unsealed as part of a separate civil suit, showing that church officials plotted to conceal the abuse from law enforcement agencies as late as 1987.
In 'Extraordinary' Move, Cardinal Relieved of Duties
LOS ANGELES (CA)Newser
By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff
Posted Feb 1, 2013
(Newser) – The former archbishop of
LA Cardinal Mahony 'stripped of duties' over sex abuse
LOS ANGELES (CA)BBC News
A retired
Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, 76, has apologised for his "failure", Archbishop Jose Gomez said on Thursday.
The
Cardinal Mahony retired in 2011, having run the archdiocese for 25 years.
In 2007
Cardinal Mahony has publicly apologised for mistakes he made handling the clerical sex abuse issue.
'They failed'
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading," Archbishop Gomez said in a statement. "The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil.
Leading U.S. cardinal punished for role in abuse scandal
LOS ANGELES (CA)Coshocton Tribune
by Cathy Lynn Grossman,
One of the most powerful Catholic leaders in the
Just hours after a court-ordered massive release of priest personnel files revealed the extent of Mahony's role in covering up for known sexual predators, Archbishop José Gómez announced Thursday night that he has relieved Mahony of his remaining duties.
A former top aide to Mahony also stepped down from his current post.
This is the first time since the massive abuse scandal exploded in 2002 hen there were direct repercussions for top church officials. In December 2002, Cardinal Bernard Law resigned his post as archbishop of
LA Catholic Archdiocese releases child abuse files
LOS ANGELES (CA)RTE News (Ireland)
The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, after years of legal battles, has released files on priests accused of molesting children.
Archbishop Jose Gomez said he had stripped his predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties.
He also removed a top clergyman who had been linked to efforts to conceal the abuse.
Cardinal Mahony's former top aide, Thomas Curry, stepped down as bishop of
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil," Archbishop Gomez said in a statement.
Cardinal Roger M Mahony removed from public life by LA Archbishop Gomez
LOS ANGELES (CA)IrishCentral
By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Friday, February 1, 2013, 7:05 AM
A Catholic Archbishop has described the efforts of the American church to thwart police investigations into clerical sex abuse as ‘terribly sad and evil’ – after he banned Cardinal Roger M. Mahony from public life.
The Los Angeles Times has revealed that new documents show that Cardinal Mahony has been removed from all public office by his successor Archbishop José H. Gomez.
Cardinal Mahony was leader of
LA Cardinal Mahony barred from public ministry
LOS ANGELES (CA)National Catholic Reporter
by Jerry Filteau | Feb. 1, 2013
In an action possibly without any precedent in church history, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez has barred his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, from any public ministry in
“Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties” Gomez said in a Jan 31 letter.
He cited Mahony’s alleged failures to protect young people from sexually abusive priests – extensively documented in court filings in recent years – as grounds for the extraordinary decision, in church terms, to bar the cardinal from any future public activities in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
Mahony, archbishop of
Church law gives cardinals extraordinary authority even beyond their own dioceses, with Canon 357 of the Code of Canon Law saying that “in those matters which pertain to their own person, cardinals living outside of
LA archbishop relieves retired cardinal of duties
LOS ANGELES (CA)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
"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."
Declaración sobre los archivos de personal de sacerdotes
LOS ANGELES (CA)Arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles
Monseñor José H. Gomez
Arzobispo de Los Ángeles
Los Angeles, 31 de enero de 2013
Hermanos y Hermanas en Cristo,
Esta semana estamos haciendo públicos los archivos de los sacerdotes que abusaron sexualmente a niños mientras servían en
Estos archivos contienen documentación sobre abusos que sucedieron hace varias décadas. Pero eso no los hace menos graves.
La lectura de esos archivos es brutal y dolorosa. El comportamiento que se describe ahí es tristísimo y terriblemente malo. No hay excusas ni explicaciones posibles sobre lo que pasó a esos niños. Los sacerdotes involucrados tenían el deber de ser sus padres espirituales, y fallaron.
Hoy, necesitamos admitir esas terribles faltas. Tenemos que rezar por todos aquellos que alguna vez han sido heridos por miembros de
No puedo deshacer los errores del pasado que se encuentran en esas páginas. Leer esos archivos, reflexionar sobre las heridas causadas, ha sido la experiencia más triste que he tenido desde que asumí la responsabilidad de ser su Arzobispo en el 2011.
Statement on the Release of Clergy Files
LOS ANGELES (CA)Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles
[en espanol]
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of
My brothers and sisters in Christ,
This week we are releasing the files of priests who sexually abused children while they were serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious.
I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed.
We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today. We need to pray for everyone who has ever been hurt by members of the Church. And we need to continue to support the long and painful process of healing their wounds and restoring the trust that was broken.
I cannot undo the failings of the past that we find in these pages. Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I’ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011.
My predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as Vicar for Clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regional Bishop of
To every victim of child sexual abuse by a member of our Church: I want to help you in your healing. I am profoundly sorry for these sins against you.
To every Catholic in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, I want you to know: We will continue, as we have for many years now, to immediately report every credible allegation of abuse to law enforcement authorities and to remove those credibly accused from ministry. We will continue to work, every day, to make sure that our children are safe and loved and cared for in our parishes, schools and in every ministry in the Archdiocese.
Cardinal Mahony relieved of duties over handling of abuse
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
By Harriet Ryan and Victoria Kim,
February 1, 2013
In a move unprecedented in the American Catholic Church, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez announced Thursday that he had relieved his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, of all public duties over his mishandling of clergy sex abuse of children decades ago.
Gomez also said that Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry, who worked with Mahony to conceal abusers from police in the 1980s, had resigned his post as a regional bishop in
The announcement came as the church posted on its website tens of thousands of pages of previously secret personnel files for 122 priests accused of molesting children.
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil," Gomez wrote in a letter addressed to "My brothers and sisters in Christ."
The release of the records and the rebuke of the two central figures in L.A.'s molestation scandal signaled a clear desire by Gomez to define the sexual abuse crisis as a problem of a different era — and a different archbishop.
These above are the media tentacles of Octopus Dei
========================================================
News Updates for February 6, 2013
Priest abuse files: LAPD checking for criminal activity
LOS ANGELES (CA)
KABC
[with video]
Amy Powell
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- With last week's release of thousands of church documents on clergy abuse, the LAPD is stepping in. Investigators say new legal charges are possible.
Detectives are focusing on the cases of about a dozen previously investigated priests and are auditing those past cases to see if anything was missed. They are also going over files of all the 122 priests made public last week by a court order.
"Most of these files have already had investigations done, and we weren't able to get a prosecution or we couldn't get to anything in terms of statue, so we're going to go back, kind of re-audit everything that we've done before," said LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith.
Authorities want to know if any crimes, such as failure to report child abuse, occurred.
KABC
[with video]
Amy Powell
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- With last week's release of thousands of church documents on clergy abuse, the LAPD is stepping in. Investigators say new legal charges are possible.
Detectives are focusing on the cases of about a dozen previously investigated priests and are auditing those past cases to see if anything was missed. They are also going over files of all the 122 priests made public last week by a court order.
"Most of these files have already had investigations done, and we weren't able to get a prosecution or we couldn't get to anything in terms of statue, so we're going to go back, kind of re-audit everything that we've done before," said LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith.
Authorities want to know if any crimes, such as failure to report child abuse, occurred.
CA - SNAP Letter to Los Angeles District Attorneys
CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on February 06, 2013
Dear Mr. Birotte and Ms. Lacey;
We are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Our mission is to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and expose the truth.
We are urging you both to convene new grand juries to investigate possible criminal charges against current and former LA Catholic officials for committing perjury, obstructing justice, destroying evidence, and similar offenses.
We’re aware that the LAPD has announced it is combing through the files, and we have confidence in the police.
But we believe a grand jury is a better approach, in part because of its subpoena powers. We also feel that if a grand jury is empanelled, other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers (including some with information about more recent wrongdoing by church officials) may voluntarily step forward.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on February 06, 2013
Dear Mr. Birotte and Ms. Lacey;
We are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Our mission is to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and expose the truth.
We are urging you both to convene new grand juries to investigate possible criminal charges against current and former LA Catholic officials for committing perjury, obstructing justice, destroying evidence, and similar offenses.
We’re aware that the LAPD has announced it is combing through the files, and we have confidence in the police.
But we believe a grand jury is a better approach, in part because of its subpoena powers. We also feel that if a grand jury is empanelled, other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers (including some with information about more recent wrongdoing by church officials) may voluntarily step forward.
CALIFORNIA
The Monterey County Herald
Posted: 02/05/2013
The horror, the sordidness of the awful abuse of children by figures of spiritual authority is not much assuaged by current Archbishop Jose Gomez relieving Cardinal Mahony of "all public duties" after mounting evidence showed he shielded pedophile priests from law enforcement.
So Mahony won't be overseeing the Sacrament of Confirmation at Our Lady of the Angels any time soon. But he is not only still a priest who can perform Mass— he is still one of the 120 cardinals who form the leadership of a church with more than 1.1 billion adherents worldwide.
Given what we now know about Mahony's active efforts to protect known and suspected sexual abusers in clerical collars, this removal of him from public life is not only not enough — it's no punishment at all.
The Monterey County Herald
Posted: 02/05/2013
The horror, the sordidness of the awful abuse of children by figures of spiritual authority is not much assuaged by current Archbishop Jose Gomez relieving Cardinal Mahony of "all public duties" after mounting evidence showed he shielded pedophile priests from law enforcement.
So Mahony won't be overseeing the Sacrament of Confirmation at Our Lady of the Angels any time soon. But he is not only still a priest who can perform Mass— he is still one of the 120 cardinals who form the leadership of a church with more than 1.1 billion adherents worldwide.
Given what we now know about Mahony's active efforts to protect known and suspected sexual abusers in clerical collars, this removal of him from public life is not only not enough — it's no punishment at all.
Amid molestation scandal, archdiocese mulls $200-million fund-raiser
LOS ANGELES (CA)In the midst of renewed public outrage over its handling of the priest molestation cases, the Los Angeles Archdiocese is considering a $200-million fund-raising campaign.
The archdiocese has hired a
The archdiocese is $80 million in debt, according to a recent church financial report. In 2007, the archdiocese agreed to a record $600-million settlement with more than 500 alleged victims of priest abuse.
The consultants conducting the six-month study are interviewing every pastor in the archdiocese, as well as lay leaders.
A spokesman for the church said initial feedback has been “very positive.” The funds used would “be put into various endowments earmarked to support the pastoral priorities of the archdiocese, as well as for the general repair and upkeep of our parish churches and schools,” spokesman Tod Tamberg said in a statement.
LA Archdiocese looks at $200 million fundraising campaign while dealing with priest abuse scandal
LOS ANGELES (CA)KPCC
Mike Roe |
The Los Angeles Archdiocese, amidst dealing with the latest in the ongoing fallout of how it handle priest molestation cases, is looking at a possible $200 million fundraising campaign, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The company Guidance in Giving out of
The study is set to take six months and includes interviews with all of the archdiocese’s pastors, plus lay leaders, the Times reports. A church spokesman said that early feedback was “very positive,” according to the Times.
Those involved in the Los Angeles cover-up should be held accountable
LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter
by Mario T. García | Feb. 6, 2013
This is my first blog of the new year because of other deadlines as well as the start of the winter quarter at UC Santa Barbara, where I teach Chicano studies, and this is always a hectic time. I thought my first entry this year would be on the second inauguration of President Barack Obama, and I have to say that I was very moved by his inspiring speech aimed at bringing about needed reforms on immigration, gun control, the environment, and dealing with the growing gap between the rich and middle classes and the poor. I am very hopeful that progress along these lines will occur, though Republicans seem to remain intransigent on many if these issues. Obama will have to be more forceful in his second term to push his agenda, but it will also require those of us who believe in that agenda to pressure from below for these reforms.
But I also want to write in my first blog of 2013 about the recent and startling revelations of the priest sexual abuse cases in southern California, where I live. A little more than a week ago, a court order forced the Los Angeles archdiocese to reveal all of its previously unreleased records on these cases, including the information as to how church officials dealt with them.
The church has stonewalled for a number of years in doing so, arguing that it would serve no purpose and only refuel the controversy. In fact, as these released records reveal, the intent was shamelessly to protect not only the abusing priests, but also Cardinal Roger Mahony and his top aides on this matter. One of his top aides -- in fact, his major aide in these cover-ups and accessory to the crimes committed -- was Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry of Santa Barbara.
National Catholic Reporter
by Mario T. García | Feb. 6, 2013
This is my first blog of the new year because of other deadlines as well as the start of the winter quarter at UC Santa Barbara, where I teach Chicano studies, and this is always a hectic time. I thought my first entry this year would be on the second inauguration of President Barack Obama, and I have to say that I was very moved by his inspiring speech aimed at bringing about needed reforms on immigration, gun control, the environment, and dealing with the growing gap between the rich and middle classes and the poor. I am very hopeful that progress along these lines will occur, though Republicans seem to remain intransigent on many if these issues. Obama will have to be more forceful in his second term to push his agenda, but it will also require those of us who believe in that agenda to pressure from below for these reforms.
But I also want to write in my first blog of 2013 about the recent and startling revelations of the priest sexual abuse cases in southern California, where I live. A little more than a week ago, a court order forced the Los Angeles archdiocese to reveal all of its previously unreleased records on these cases, including the information as to how church officials dealt with them.
The church has stonewalled for a number of years in doing so, arguing that it would serve no purpose and only refuel the controversy. In fact, as these released records reveal, the intent was shamelessly to protect not only the abusing priests, but also Cardinal Roger Mahony and his top aides on this matter. One of his top aides -- in fact, his major aide in these cover-ups and accessory to the crimes committed -- was Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry of Santa Barbara.
Detectives investigating ex-priest's conduct with girl, then 16
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
[Joseph Pina - Los Angeles archdiocese]
Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives have launched an investigation of an ex-priest and L.A. school district employee about a sexual relationship he allegedly had with a 16-year-old in the late 1980s, The Times has learned.
The inquiry into the actions of Joseph Pina, 66, may be the first to result from the recent release by the Los Angeles Archdiocese of documents laying out the church’s handling of clergy accused of sexual misconduct.
Pina started working for the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2002, performing community outreach for its school-construction program. The job brought him into frequent contact with families, but no reports of problems in that role have emerged. The construction program is winding down and Pina was working only occasionally in recent months. L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy said he ordered Pina’s dismissal as a result of the recent revelations about his past.
The Los Angeles Police Department also is reviewing church files, looking for new cases or more information about old ones.
Los Angeles Times
[Joseph Pina - Los Angeles archdiocese]
Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives have launched an investigation of an ex-priest and L.A. school district employee about a sexual relationship he allegedly had with a 16-year-old in the late 1980s, The Times has learned.
The inquiry into the actions of Joseph Pina, 66, may be the first to result from the recent release by the Los Angeles Archdiocese of documents laying out the church’s handling of clergy accused of sexual misconduct.
Pina started working for the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2002, performing community outreach for its school-construction program. The job brought him into frequent contact with families, but no reports of problems in that role have emerged. The construction program is winding down and Pina was working only occasionally in recent months. L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy said he ordered Pina’s dismissal as a result of the recent revelations about his past.
The Los Angeles Police Department also is reviewing church files, looking for new cases or more information about old ones.
Archdiocese adds LA clergy docs after complaints
LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS 12
February 06, 2013
By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles says it will release more documents from clergy abuse files amid complaints that the 12,000 pages released last week are missing critical pages and contained excessive redactions.
The archdiocese acknowledged it had erred in keeping some documents sealed after The Associated Press inquired about them on Wednesday.
The documents from the file of former priest Michael Baker span a 14 year-period -- from 1986 to 2000 -- and provide insight into how Cardinal Roger Mahony and other church leaders dealt with him.
The AP obtained a complete copy of the Baker file last month that contains the documents that are left out of the archdiocese release.
CBS 12
February 06, 2013
By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles says it will release more documents from clergy abuse files amid complaints that the 12,000 pages released last week are missing critical pages and contained excessive redactions.
The archdiocese acknowledged it had erred in keeping some documents sealed after The Associated Press inquired about them on Wednesday.
The documents from the file of former priest Michael Baker span a 14 year-period -- from 1986 to 2000 -- and provide insight into how Cardinal Roger Mahony and other church leaders dealt with him.
The AP obtained a complete copy of the Baker file last month that contains the documents that are left out of the archdiocese release.
===========================================================
NEWS UPDATES for FEBRUARY 14, 2013
During an ongoing investigations/trials in Australia in recent days... a priest has testified that from the Vatican on down the line, that it was known and accepted for priests to have sex with children & men. He stated that under the Vatican's rules: a priest having sex with women was the only way to breach rules of celibacy, that sex with children victims & other men does not breach the oath.
The Vatican's rule that kids (& men) were a free-for-all and this mindset undoubtedly resulted the entire church's hostile treatment of priest's victims since in their 'rules' priests were not doing anything wrong.
Opus Dei response to Priestly Sex Scandal in 2002 and they are still saying the same things today.... http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/04/opus-dei-response-to-priestly-sex.html
Opus Dei origin of "the Great" John Paul II. Opus Dei tentacles in USA Chile Nicaragua Philippines Cuba
Navarro-Valls in New York Times interview: A psychiatrist with a penchant for media manipulation. Two open letters sent to Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/04/navarro-valls-in-new-york-times.html
Reasons why Opus Dei covered-up the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army for decades: Words of Opus Dei Joaquin Navarro-Valls http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/2010/04/reasons-why-opus-dei-covered-up-john.html
Opus Dei female symbol for John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/2010/04/opus-dei-female-symbol-for-john-paul-ii.html
Why John Paul II is Opus Dei's Patron Saint: analysis of conference at Holy Cross Pontifical University Rome
John Paul II, Patron of Pederasts and Opus Dei – analysis of Joaquin Navarro-Valls’ reasons for JP2 beatification at Opus Dei conference in Rome http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/04/john-paul-ii-patron-of-pederasts-and.html
Holy Heist! John Paul II WYD had no role with Arab youths who liberated Egypt Vatican Swiss Banks http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/02/holy-heist-john-paul-ii-wyd-had-no-role.html
Saint? John Paul II slept in peace at the Vatican knowing that Fr. Marcial Maciel plus thousands of pedophile priests were raping thousands of boys http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/02/saint-john-paul-ii-slept-in-peace-at.html
John Paul II the Pope Sun (see the Danish cartoonist depiction of him as the Pope Sun http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_archive.html
John L.Allen Jr.Pied Piper of John Paul II deceives Catholics with his essay Fast-Track Saint in Newsweek -- with Vatican lunacy & Satanic timeline http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/
The Nazis of Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church of Benedict XVI they both burn human beings in Auschwitz and in Hell http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2011/02/nazis-of-hitler-and-roman-catholic.html
Opus Dei Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts and Rapists : Prayer to Saint John Paul II = Opus Dei Pope #1.... Benedict XVI is Opus Dei Pope #2 http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/2011/04/john-paul-ii-saint-of-pedophiles-and.html
The Opus Dei fabricates “The Age of Benedict XVI” in Rome
Popenesia in Christmas Message: Vatican Last Tsar Benedict XVI does not 'practise what he preach’ and he’s suffering from Vaticanesia (papal amnesia) http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/popenesia-in-christmas-message-vatican.html
Theology and John Paul II are heartless and together they made Father Marcial Maciel and pedophile priests thrive, read our related article here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/05/theology-and-john-paul-ii-are-heartless.html
Nazis and the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army were both an inherently evil all-male elite hierarchy born from the Devil's bowels - read our article here http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2011/01/nazis-and-john-paul-ii-pedophiles.html
John Paul smelled Devil`s Bowels as roses for 27 years as he deified Father Marcial Maciel and deified Cardinal Bernard Law - read our article here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/04/john-paul-smelled-devils-bowels-as.html.
Opus Dei orchestrated John Paul II's trip to El Salvador
Christ did not wear red shoes like the Pope http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2007/08/benedict-xvi-vicar-of-christ-and-jon.html
Oprah did more good than John Paul II for 25 years. Oprah gave truth and exposed evil while John Paul II hid them in his 2 evil papal Achilles Heels http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/05/oprah-did-more-good-than-john-paul-ii.html
Catholics can emulate Jews [who hunted down Nazi officers] by hunting down pedophile priests’ officers Benedict XVI & Bishops into the World Court
The Catholic Church is worse than communism where there is no ‘freedom of speech’ - read our related article here about Vatican Temple Police http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2011/05/temple-police-australian-is-part-of.html and Vatican Terror on Galileo, priests and the poor, women and children
Priests are the WIZARDS of HOST – BLACK MAGIC magicians of the flesh of God! read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/oc-diocese-buys-crystal-cathedral-as.htm
NCAA & Penn State more moral than Vatican
Pope’s Christmas speech of 2012 , our analysis here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/popenesia-in-christmas-message-vatican.html
Opus Dei Criminal Bishop Finn attacks National Catholic Reporter as he desperately cling to power as a tyrannical ruler http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/criminal-bishop-finn-attacks-national.html
Diamond bride Mother Angelica’s EWTN acquires Fr. Marcial Maciel’s National Catholic Register: same God and Mammon, same hypocrisy http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/01/diamond-bride-mother-angelicas-ewtn.html
Heil Satanas JP2 Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts Rapists-Priests! John Paul II is the same yesterday and today-- he cannot protect children http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/05/heil-satanas-jp2-patron-saint-of.html
Vatican Deceptions cannot convert others to become Christians, after all, the Vatican Billions are an intrinsic part of the machinery of wars, read here about the history and assets of the Vatican Billions http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html
UNITED STATESCatholic League
Bill Donohue comments on an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times:
The decision to publish the op-ed by Daniel A. Olivas was malicious. Here’s why.
Olivas says he once knew a Latino priest in southernCalifornia
There is almost no sexual abuse being committed by priests in theU.S.
The decision to publish the op-ed by Daniel A. Olivas was malicious. Here’s why.
Olivas says he once knew a Latino priest in southern
There is almost no sexual abuse being committed by priests in the
Bill Donohue, President of Catholic League, Claims New York Times Makes "Malicious" Attack on OC's Worst Pedo-Priest
By Gustavo Arellano
The ink hadn't even dried (or whatever the digital equivalent of that dead-tree era metaphor is) on author Daniel A. Olivas' moving New York Times op-ed piece on OC's worst-ever pedophile priest, Eleuterio Ramos, before Bill Donohue, the president of the long-irrelevant Catholic League, began complaining.
See, Donohue is the type of guy who believes anyone who brings up the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal is anti-Catholic because those molesting priests were homosexual, they molested long ago, and everyone else does it, so why concentrate on priests? It's a strategy he tried on me, leading to a smackdown that was as easy for me to do as dig up OC pioneers who were Klan members.
Yesterday, Donohue sent out a commentary to his donors railing against Olivas and the Times, charging them with being "malicious." Laughably, it has as many holes in it as the arguments to make Junipero Serra a saint.
Donohue tries to gloss over Ramos' career to his nonagenarian followers by saying he "was suspended from ministry in the 1990s," implying that church officials briskly took away Ramos' priestly faculties upon finding out his pederast ways. As usual, Donohue didn't even bother with a quick Google search: Weekly readers know that Ramos never lost his priestly faculties, and was only removed from active parish life after a civil suit forced Diocese of Orange officials to fish him back up from the Tijuana parish where they had deposited him after molesting another boy--and this after 15 years of shuffling him from parish to parish after every molestation. But why bother Donohue with details?
The Priest That Preyed
The New York Times
[Eleutario Ramos -
By DANIEL A. OLIVAS
Published:
IT is the autumn of 2003, and I am sitting with my wife and teenage son at a large table that is groaning with plates of Mexican food and soft drinks and wine. We’re celebrating my sister’s anniversary, and like most Mexican parties in
This time, it’s a nun whom I’ve known since I was a student at
Immediately, I know whom she’s talking about, and I begin to perspire.
The title story of the book, called “Assumption,” describes a fictionalized priest, Father González, who served a parish in a neighborhood not unlike the one I grew up in. The priest in the story is known for being “cool” and spending time with some of the more troubled boys at the nearby grammar school. The boys talk about how he has invited them to visit his room, drink wine, listen to Sly Stone and look at dirty magazines. These visits, of course, lead to the boys’ molesting. In the story, the priest gets caught and, in disgrace, hangs himself.
In real life, shame did not bring an end to the abuse. The priest I based the story on, the priest the sister recognized, was the Rev. Eleuterio Ramos. My parish knew him as Father Al, the hip young priest who spoke out for immigrant and Chicano rights, railed against the Vietnam War, could drink with the best of them and dedicated his spare time to mentoring the most troubled boys at
Eleuterio Ramos Makes the Op/Ed Pages of the New York Times
By Gustavo Arellano
Thu.,
In 2003, Daniel A. Olivas released Assumption and Other Stories, a well-received collection of pieces based on his life growing up and living in
Today, in a dramatic op/ed piece for the New York Times, Olivas reveals who the inspiration for the pedo-priest was: none other than Eleuterio Ramos, the most prolific pedophile priest in the history of the Diocese of Orange, and Olivas' childhood priest in East Los Angeles at St. Thomas the Apostle.
"My parish knew him as Father Al, the hip young priest who spoke out for immigrant and Chicano rights, railed against the Vietnam War, could drink with the best of them and dedicated his spare time to mentoring the most troubled boys at St. Thomas," Olivas writes.
A time for holiness
LOS ANGELES (CA)The Tidings
Written by Archbishop José H. Gomez
There have been challenging days for our local Church here in
I have been talking and reflecting with Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Curry, along with our other Auxiliary Bishops about the events of last week. We are committed to moving forward in our ministries with hope and confidence in God’s grace.
We need to keep praying for those who are hurting. We need to ask again for forgiveness for the sins of the past and for our own failings. And we need to match our prayers for grace with concrete actions of healing and renewal.
And recent events should inform our prayer, penance and charity in this season of Lent, which begins next week with Ash Wednesday.
All of us need the grace of a new conversion. This is what Lent is for.
And the Oscar goes to" "The Sting LA Style"
LOS ANGELES (CA)OpEd News
By Vinnie Nauheimer
Accepting the Oscar for "The Sting LA Style" are Roger Cardinal Mahony and Archbishop Jose Gomez for their stellar performances in a remake of "The Sting." Produced, directed, and orchestrated by the
Anyone believing the sincerity of the this "made for public consumption" feud should reach into their Tinker Bell pouches and throw some pixie dust on themselves so they can remain in La La Land. Are we really supposed to believe that Gomez was unaware of the extent of Mahony's malfeasance? No more than that insulting excuse that Mahony made when he proffered, "nothing in my training prepared me for priests raping children." If true, we ought to put both their faces on the Naivete Awards! Mahony for not knowing that the rape, sodomization, and molestation of children was a heinous, immoral, and criminal act. Gomez, who obviously doesn't read, deserves his award in honor of his empty protestations that he knew nothing of how bad things were under Mahony. Really, did this man live under a rock for the past 10 years? As Mahony said, "Gomez never complained about me before." These pernicious lines were written by the
A Convenient Morality
UNITED STATESThe New York Times
By FRANK BRUNI
Published: February 4, 2013
Last week, the Obama administration proposed a further tweak to its rules about insurance coverage of contraception, trying to quiet religious organizations’ complaints that the edict tramples on their beliefs. Roman Catholic officials have been especially vociferous. Their moral conviction, they insist, cannot be slave to secular convention.
Except, that is, when it works to their advantage. When it profits them. And this two-tracked approach was illustrated by another recent news story, one that flickered onto and then off the public’s radar more quickly than it should have, and deserves a closer look.
The news story brought to light a wrongful-death suit by a widower, Jeremy Stodghill, in regard to his wife and the twin 28-week-old fetuses inside her when she died in a Catholic hospital, St. Thomas More, in
The hospital’s lawyers argued that the woman’s death couldn’t have been prevented. As to whether proper medical attention might have yielded the delivery of two healthy baby boys, lawyers argued that the question was ultimately irrelevant, because wrongful death can apply only to people and, legally speaking, fetuses aren’t human lives. ...
We’ve been getting a fresh and galling peek into that with the court-compelled release of documents from the Los Angeles Archdiocese, which engaged in a pattern of willful blindness and outright cover-up so egregious that the current archbishop, José Gomez, took the shocking step last week of publicly reprimanding his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony.
The documents show that Mahony and his lieutenants repeatedly failed to report allegations to law enforcement officials and urged accused priests to leave or stay out of the state, lest they face prosecution. They decided, in short, that the church’s representatives and reputation mattered more than justice: that the church could hold itself above laws that governed everybody else.
Protect The Church At All Costs
LOS ANGELES (CA)OpEd News
By Dave Lefcourt
OpEdNews Op Eds
"Protect the Church at all costs". That would represent the true official policy of the Catholic Church.
Unfortunately, the latest "news" coming out of the Archdiocese of Los Angele reveals something more familiar. On Thursday "12,000 pages of once-confidential personnel files of more than 100 priests accused of abuse" was posted on its web site after a
The archdiocese was given three weeks to make the documents public but chose to release them immediately,(one supposes as some "act of valor" considering it had previously stonewalled all efforts to release the files with 5 - years of legal wrangling). Too bad the Church hierarchy hadn't taken immediate action when their priests molesting of children first became known, but that's an old story.
In this latest revelation of church hierarchy "dirty laundry", one of the documents came from the "Servants of the Paraclete", a Catholic order in
Los Angeles' Archbishop Gomez wins the Renault Shocked, Shocked Award
LOS ANGELES (CA)National Catholic Reporter
by Eugene Cullen Kennedy |
Archbishop Jose Gomez has earned and retired the Shocked, Shocked Award based on the response of Captain Louis Renault, played by Claude Rains in the movie "Casablanca," who, when pressed for his reasons for closing down Rick's Café, says indignantly as he is handed his winnings for the night, that he is "shocked, shocked," to learn that gambling has been going on there.
Gomez uses Renault's tones in a letter relieving his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of his administrative and public duties, professing to be shocked, shocked, to learn from the court-ordered release of files on priests that sex abuse has been going on in the archdiocese of
He finds these files, he claims, "to be brutal and painful reading. ... The behavior described ... is terribly sad and evil." He writes further of Mahony's "failure to fully protect young people."
This is the same Mahony he praised when, on succeeding him in March 2011, said, "I am very grateful ... to serve the Church with a mentor and leader like Cardinal Mahony."
Without a tracking system, church sex-abuse suspects could be a danger to children
LOS ANGELES (CA)LA Daily News
By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer
dailynews.com
Posted:
Half of them are dead, a handful are in prison, a few have continued in the ministry.
And the rest of the former priests -- those accused in Los Angeles Archdiocese files of sexually abusing altar boys, parishioners' kids and schoolchildren -- could be just about anywhere.
Because of efforts by Cardinal Roger Mahony and his top aides to shield scores of suspect priests from prosecution, many have been free to leave the church and start new lives without anyone else knowing about their past.
Although the priests are aging -- the youngest is nearing 60, and most are in their 70s and 80s -- victims and their advocates worry about the inability of the system to track these alleged abusers and to notify the public.
"The frightening prospect is that the gentle man next door, who is so friendly and engaging with children, might well turn out to be somebody who has a sickness and disease that makes him a danger to children," said attorney Raymond Boucher, who helped secure a $660 million settlement in 2007 against the archdiocese in the sex-abuse scandal.
CA - Archbishop Gomez is behaving just like Mahony
LOS ANGELES (CA)Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God - BishopAccountability.org]
Posted by Barbara Dorris on
Archbishop Gomez is behaving exactly like Cardinal Mahony - posturing as a reforming but acting like an enabler. Once again, parishioners and the public learn about potentially dangerous clerics thanks to outside sources.
Earlier this week the organization Bishop Accountability discovered a document naming two dozen clergy predators who have never been publicly named.
Frankly, Gomez's explanation defies common sense and archdiocesan history. In almost every instance, LA Catholic officials have disclosed information about predator priests only when forced or pushed to do so by external pressures or sources.
Every day Gomez has hidden – and keeps hiding – information about child molesters is a day child molesters are able to keep molesting.
Gomez took over the LA archdiocese on
The Opus Dei and Benedict XVI’s “silent clean-up" operation
Vatican Insider (An Opus Dei VATICAN PIED PIPER media arm of
Rafael García de la Serrana Villalobos’ appointment as vice director of the Department of Technical Services for the Governorate of Vatican City State, is a step in this direction
Andrès Beltramo Alvarez
His appointment went practically unnoticed but is proof of the great trust Benedict XVI has in the Opus Dei as part of his strategy to silently clean up the Roman Curia in the aftermath of the Vatileaks scandal. The
Last 26 January, the priest was appointed vice director of the Department of Technical Services for the Governorate of the world’s smallest State. And he was not chosen by chance. Only yesterday he was head of logistics at the Opus Dei headquarters in
The not-quite-50-year-old priest was ordained presbyter on
He came to the
===++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++==
NEWS UPDATES FOR FEBRUARY 20, 2013
Mahony To Be Deposed About Handling Of Alleged Sex Abuse Case
February 15, 2013 3:15 PM
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/02/15/mahony-to-be-deposed-about-handling-of-alleged-sex-abuse-case/
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Cardinal Roger Mahony will be deposed this month as part of a clergy abuse lawsuit set for trial in April.According to the Associated Press, Aguilar Rivera was a visiting Mexican priest in 1987 suspected of molesting 26 children during his nine-month stay.
The AP report says Aguilar Rivera fled to Mexico a year later after parents
complained and remains a fugitive with warrants out for his arrest in both the U.S. and Mexico.The cardinal’s deposition is slated for Feb. 23, days before he is expected to travel
to Rome to help select the next pope.====
Cardinal Roger Mahony to be deposed in church abuse suit
Posted: 02/15/2013 09:31:34 PM PST
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_22600955/cardinal-roger-mahony-be-deposed-church-abuse-suit
Cardinal Roger Mahony, the former Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, will be questioned under oath next week as part of a clergy abuse lawsuit just days before he flies to Rome to help select the next pope, attorneys said Friday.
The recently retired head of the nation's largest archdiocese will be deposed Feb. 23 about how he handled a visiting Mexican priest who police believe molested 26 children in the Los Angeles archdiocese during a nine-month stay in 1987. The Rev. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera fled to Mexico in 1988 after parents complained. He has since been defrocked but remains a fugitive, with warrants for his arrest in both the U.S. and Mexico.
The agreement was brokered behind closed doors Friday by a Los Angeles judge. Michael Hennigan, an archdiocese attorney, confirmed the parties agreed to a four-hour deposition with no limitations on the line of questioning.
Mahony has been deposed in civil clergy abuse lawsuits multiple times over the years. Next week's deposition, however, would be the first since the archdiocese released thousands of pages under court order from the confidential personnel files of more than 120 priests accused of sex abuse.
The files show that Mahony and other top archdiocese officials maneuvered behind the scenes to shield accused priests and protect the church from a growing scandal while keeping parishioners in the dark.
The depostion agreement allows attorneys to question Mahony before he leaves for Rome, said Anthony De Marco, who represents a 35-year-old man who alleges he was abused by Aguilar Rivera.
Church officials warned the priest that parents had complained about abuse but then waited two days to call police - allowing him to flee to Mexico, court papers allege. One memo in Aguilar Rivera's confidential file shows that Mahony later ordered church officials not to turn over a list of altar boys to police who were investigating.
"We cannot give such a list for no cause whatsoever," Mahony added in a handwritten note on a memo from Jan. 26, 1988.
De Marco hopes to get much more out of this deposition of the cardinal than he did in 2007, when he questioned Mahony but had strict limits about what he could ask.
At the time, he said, he only had about 40 pages of the priest's 158-page confidential file.
Since then, he has seen nearly 540 pages related to the Aguilar Rivera case, he said in court filings.
"It's a vastly different examination when you have their contemporaneous notes, which we have now," De Marco said outside court Friday. "In that case, we have a whole lot more that we know and we don't have limitations on scope, so we should learn a whole lot more."
The archdiocese agreed to a record-breaking $660 million settlement in 2007 with more than 500 plaintiffs that included a promise to work to release the confidential files of priests accused of sexual abuse. Attorneys for individual accused priests, however, fought the disclosure for more than five years.
The deposition agreement allows De Marco to question Mahony about up to 25 additional priests named in clergy abuse cases, he said.
Hennigan, the archdiocese attorney, declined to comment further.
Arrogance, Mahony style
CALIFORNIAThe Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 15, 2013
On his blog yesterday, Cardinal Roger Mahony discussed how he has been “called to humiliation.”
Given all of the storms that have surrounded me and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles recently, God’s grace finally helped me to understand: I am not being called to serve Jesus in humility. Rather, I am being called to something deeper–to be humiliated, disgraced, and rebuffed by many.
Then, he has the arrogance to say:
In the past several days, I have experienced many examples of being humiliated. In recent days, I have been confronted in various places by very unhappy people. I could understand the depth of their anger and outrage–at me, at the Church, at about injustices that swirl around us.
Thanks to God’s special grace, I simply stood there, asking God to bless and forgive them. [emphasis mine]
Mahony is a man with no soul.
CA - Two top church officials question Mahony’s conclave trip
CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by Barbara Blaine on February 20, 2013
Two high ranking Catholic officials say Cardinal Roger Mahony must decide whether to avoid the papal conclave, and one of them admits that higher church authorities could ask him to stay home.
Yesterday, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis of Italy told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that Mahony “could be advised not to take part only through a private intervention by someone with great authority.”
And the Vatican’s former point man on abuse, Maltese Bishop Charles Scicluna, voiced similar opinions in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter, saying Mahony “will decide in conscience what to do.”
Yet, given Mahony’s actions in Los Angeles and the multitudes of crimes he abetted - and in some cases may have committed - we hardly think that’s a good outcome. His church superiors should insist that Mahony stay home, and his church colleagues should publicly prod Mahony to stay home.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by Barbara Blaine on February 20, 2013
Two high ranking Catholic officials say Cardinal Roger Mahony must decide whether to avoid the papal conclave, and one of them admits that higher church authorities could ask him to stay home.
Yesterday, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis of Italy told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that Mahony “could be advised not to take part only through a private intervention by someone with great authority.”
And the Vatican’s former point man on abuse, Maltese Bishop Charles Scicluna, voiced similar opinions in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter, saying Mahony “will decide in conscience what to do.”
Yet, given Mahony’s actions in Los Angeles and the multitudes of crimes he abetted - and in some cases may have committed - we hardly think that’s a good outcome. His church superiors should insist that Mahony stay home, and his church colleagues should publicly prod Mahony to stay home.
CA - Archbishop Gomez is behaving just like Mahony
LOS ANGELES (CA)Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God - BishopAccountability.org]
Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 14, 2013
Archbishop Gomez is behaving exactly like Cardinal Mahony - posturing as a reforming but acting like an enabler. Once again, parishioners and the public learn about potentially dangerous clerics thanks to outside sources.
Earlier this week the organization Bishop Accountability discovered a document naming two dozen clergy predators who have never been publicly named.
Frankly, Gomez's explanation defies common sense and archdiocesan history. In almost every instance, LA Catholic officials have disclosed information about predator priests only when forced or pushed to do so by external pressures or sources.
Every day Gomez has hidden – and keeps hiding – information about child molesters is a day child molesters are able to keep molesting.
Gomez took over the LA archdiocese on March 1, 2011. So he's had 716 days to educate himself and warn others about hundreds of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. Many of those clerics still work and walk free among unsuspecting families, friends and colleagues. On his first day in office, Gomez should have been poring over abuse files. Within weeks, he should have fully and frankly revealed everything that archdiocesan staff knew about these predators.
Why Little Will Happen to Mahony
UNITED STATESLeon J. Podles: Dialogue
I once asked a patristics scholar how Jerome, the translator of the Bible into Latin, ever got canonized. He was a nasty, cruel man. The scholar replied that in those days Saint meant “someone important in the Church.” And not only in those days.
John Paul grievously mishandled the cases of sexual abuse in the Church. Priests and at least one cardinal (Schoenborn) pleaded with him to do something, and he refused. Children committed suicide because of abuse that John Paul’s failures and willful blindness allowed to continue. And now he is Blessed John Paul and soon will be Saint John Paul.
Why?
Poland.
Poland is the last Catholic country in Europe and what John Paul did to help bring down Communism eclipses for the Poles everything else he did or failed to do.
Little will happen to Cardinal Mahony.
Archbishop Gomez’ Actions in LA
LOS ANGELES (CA)Leon J. Podles: Dialogue
Several people here and elsewhere have criticized Archbishop Gomez, He has been in charge of the Los Angles archdiocese for two years - why did he wait until now to do anything, as Mahony himself asked.
My guess is that events passed something like this:
When Gomez began archbishop, it took him a while to assimilate what had happened. He had enormous new duties as archbishop, the paper trail ran to tens of thousands of pages, and the leftover staff from Mahony’s years was not in a hurry to point out how compromising the documents were.
When Gomez realized what had happened, he knew he had to do two things: release the documents and rebuke Mahony.
They had to be done simultaneously.
A vote for pope, an insult to abuse victims
UNITED STATESBoston Globe
By Joan Vennochi
Globe Columnist
February 17, 2013
THE CATHOLIC Church can’t get to a bright, new future until it finally breaks with the ugliness of the past.
One way to make such a break would be to keep Cardinal Roger Mahony from participating in the next election to determine a new pope.
If past is prologue, as Shakespeare wrote, keeping Mahony away from the upcoming conclave seems unlikely. Church leaders, from the pope down, never understood the depth of outrage over the long-running clergy sexual abuse scandal. Apology, not accountability, was supposed to quiet the rebellious.
But the scenario involving Mahony — the retired archbishop of Los Angeles — has its own distinction. Two weeks ago, Mahony was relieved of all public duties by current Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez. What The New York Times called “an extraordinary moment in Catholic Church history” occurred after long-sought documents revealed that Mahony actively worked to protect priests who were abusing children from police, rather than protect victims from their abusers.
Disgraced US prelate could be asked to skip conclave: cardinal
UNITED STATESGlobalPost
Agence France-Presse
February 19, 2013
US cardinal Roger Mahony, retired from church duties as part of a paedophilia scandal, cannot be banned from the conclave to elect a new pope, but could be advised to stay away, a fellow cardinal and canon law expert said in an interview on Tuesday.
"The common practise is to use persuasion. There is no more that can be done. Cardinal Mahony has the right and duty to take part," Velasio De Paolis, one of the 117 cardinal electors due to participate, told La Repubblica daily.
"This is a troubling situation but the rules must be followed," he said.
"He could be advised not to take part only through a private intervention by someone with great authority," the cardinal said, adding that ultimately "it will be up to his conscience to decide whether to take part or not".
2 dozen priests and clergy added to Los Angeles sex abuse list
LOS ANGELES (CA)Digital Journal
[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God - BishopAccountability.org]
By Brett Wilkins
Feb 14, 2013
Los Angeles - The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added two dozen priests and other clergymen to the list of individuals suspected of raping or sexually assaulting children in what was already a major part of a massive worldwide Catholic sex abuse scandal.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the 24 names were disclosed in a report posted on the archdiocese's website last month along with 12,000 pages of internal records detailing how the church dealt with abuse claims. BishopAccountability.org, a non-profit group that researches and archives documents related to clergy sex abuse, originally uncovered the list and published the names of the suspected offenders.
The Catholic Church readily admits that the allegations against the 24 men are "credible." But the archdiocese will not release any further information about the accusations against them, including how many accusers there are, when the alleged sex abuse occurred or the parishes where the alleged abusers worked.
Terry McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org told the Times that the disclosure of such information is "essential."
"It is essential for everyone to know the nature of the allegations against these priests and brothers, because some of them may still pose a danger to children in Los Angeles, elsewhere in the United States, and in other countries," he said.
Archdiocese of L.A. releases new names of priests, brothers accused of sex abuse
LOS ANGELES (CA)San Bernardino Sun
By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer
dailynews.com
Posted: 02/13/2013
[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God - BishopAccountability.org]
[FINAL ADDENDUM
To view the final addendum to the 2004 Report to the People of God, click here.]
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added the names of two dozen priests and brothers to its list of clergy accused of sexually abusing children.
In a two-page "final addendum" to its 2004 Report to the People of God, which was the church's response to the growing sex-abuse scandal, the archdiocese said the newly released names included those found during a follow-up review of its files. Some also were named in a lawsuit against the archdiocese, which resulted in a 2007 settlement of $660 million to more than 500 victims.
As part of the settlement, the archdiocese recently released some 12,000 documents detailing allegations of molestation against children, some going back decades. The files also revealed a cover-up of the abuse by Cardinal Roger Mahony, which led to an unprecedented public rebuke of the retired archbishop by his successor.
The list was posted on the archdiocese website at the same time the files were released, although no mention was made of it. The list of 49 names includes two dozen who were not previously known to be accused, according to BishopAccountability.org, which has been tracking sex-abuse in the Catholic Church and discovered the addendum.
Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God
LOS ANGELES (CA)BishopAccountability.org
BishopAccountability.org discovered this document on the website of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It lists 49 "names of clergy from a follow up review of Archdiocesan files, and names of clergy involved in Clergy I litigation which were not previously posted." The list includes 24 names of accused priests not previously known.
In a letter to Archbishop Gomez, this organization urged him to make public the allegations against the priests and brothers, as well as their career histories. Such information has been provided by the archdiocese when they released lists of names in the past. We also expressed concern that this list, which has apparently existed since October 2008, has not been made public in a proper way, and that children have been put at risk as a result.
The PDF properties of the document show that it was created and presumably posted on January 31, 2013. No announcement was made by the archdiocese of the document's publication, although it is clearly related to the archdiocese's release on the same day of clergy files, under the nonmonetary terms of the 2007 settlement. Archbishop Gomez did not mention the release of the Final Addendum in his January 31, 2013 letter.
This release of names is momentous. Perhaps only when Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore released his list on September 25, 2002, have so many names of accused priests come into the public domain by a bishop's actions. On several occasions, bishops have been compelled to release names by survivors' nonmonetary conditions in a bankruptcy proceeding (e.g., Bishop Kettler in Fairbanks) or by a grand jury report (Cardinal Rigali, who removed 21 priests in Philadelphia), but Archbishop Gomez' release of 24 new names is a remarkable and disturbing development.
The release of the names was first reported in L.A. Archdiocese Adds Priests' Names to Abuse List, by Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times (2/13/13).
L.A. Archdiocese adds priests' names to abuse list
LOS ANGELES (CA)Los Angeles Times
By Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times
February 13, 2013
[addendum to the list of clergy and brothers accused of abuse - BishopAccountability.org]
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added two dozen priests and brothers to its list of clergy accused of child molestation.
Though the church deems the allegations against the men credible, the archdiocese has declined to release information about the complaints, including the number of accusers, the dates of the alleged abuse and the parishes where the men worked.
The names were disclosed in a two-page report posted on the archdiocese's website last month alongside 12,000 pages of internal records related to its handling of abuse claims.
The document was discovered recently by BishopAccountability.org, a nonprofit that researches and archives records of the Catholic abuse scandal.
The group's president, who stumbled upon the document during a recent Google search, criticized the inconspicuous way the men were named and the lack of information provided about their cases.
"The terrible mess in the Catholic church happened because information was hidden and controlled, and that attitude is very clearly wrong," said Terry McKiernan.
LA Archdiocese Discloses Another OC Pedo-Priest In its Latest Document Dump
CALIFORNIAOrange County Weekly
By Gustavo Arellano
Thu., Feb. 14 2013
Last month, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles released thousands of pages of documents pertaining to its long, proud history of protecting pedophile priests. Yesterday, Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, which archives documents pertaining to the Catholic Church's sex-abuse scandal going back to the 1950s, discovered that LA Archbishop Jose H. Gomez had also sneaked in a list of 49 priests accused of child rape, including 24 previously never publicly acknowledged. Sneaky!
Orange County has been well-documented in this document dump, given parishes here were under the domain of the archdiocese until 1976, so it's no surprise that an OC priest would be among those listed for the first time.
We're going to have to hop onto the wayback machine for this one, but the pedo-priest's name is William Hollinger, and he served at Our Lady of Fatima in San Clemente from 1966 through 1969. You gotta remember that in those days, San Clemente was the end of the Earth in Southern California, and that Hollinger's assignment report had him bouncing from parish to parish most of his life (including two stints in the Long Beach area), so Hollinger accused mostly likely translates as Hollinger a monster.
BishopAccountability.org has yet to go through the assignments of all these new pedo-priests, so I wouldn't be surprised if more OCers pop up. "In a letter to Archbishop Gomez, this organization urged him to make public the allegations against the priests and brothers, as well as their career histories," McKiernan wrote. Such information has been provided by the archdiocese when they released lists of names in the past. We also expressed concern that this list, which has apparently existed since October 2008, has not been made public in a proper way, and that children have been put at risk as a result."
February 19, 2014
Sexual
Abuse Survivors Settle with Los Angeles Archdiocese
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Jeff Anderson & Associates
Media Advisory
February 18, 2014
Archdiocese used therapy scam to defraud victims of civil rights; Cardinal, Bishop thwarted police, helped criminal priest escape US
What: At a news conference Wednesday sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys, Anthony DeMarco and Jeff Anderson will:
· Announce a landmark, $13m settlement on behalf of 17 survivors who were sexually abused by five different perpetrators in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, including Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera.
· Discuss how the Archdiocese paid for survivor’s therapy but did not inform survivors of their legal rights to sue, as required by law.
· Demonstrate and discuss how an international conspiracy between Cardinal Roger Mahony and a Mexican bishop allowed a child-raping priest to be dumped in LA’s Spanish-speaking neighborhoods and how Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Thomas Curry defrauded survivors by misleading the police in the case of Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera.
· Play excerpts from Cardinal Mahony’s video deposition taken in 2013 where he claims he and his deputies “did nothing wrong” in handling cases of child sexual abuse. Copies of the sworn testimony excerpts will be available for press.
WHEN: Wednesday February 19, 2014 at 11:00 AM PST
WHERE: Westin Bonaventure Hotel – Palos Verde Room
404 S. Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071
WHO: Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Anthony DeMarco along with several sexual abuse survivors, including survivors abused by the five perpetrators named in this settlement.
· Documents and additional information will be posted to our website www.abusedinsocal.com under “Case Resources.”
· Spanish speaking interpreters will be available.
Contact: Anthony DeMarco: Office: 626.844.7700 Cell: 310.927.9277
Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.227.9990 Cell: 612.817.8665
Sexual
Abuse Survivors Settle with Los Angeles Archdiocese
LOS ANGELES (CA)Jeff Anderson & Associates
Media Advisory
February 18, 2014
Archdiocese used therapy scam to defraud victims of civil rights; Cardinal, Bishop thwarted police, helped criminal priest escape US
What: At a news conference Wednesday sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys, Anthony DeMarco and Jeff Anderson will:
· Announce a landmark, $13m settlement on behalf of 17 survivors who were sexually abused by five different perpetrators in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, including Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera.
· Discuss how the Archdiocese paid for survivor’s therapy but did not inform survivors of their legal rights to sue, as required by law.
· Demonstrate and discuss how an international conspiracy between Cardinal Roger Mahony and a Mexican bishop allowed a child-raping priest to be dumped in LA’s Spanish-speaking neighborhoods and how Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Thomas Curry defrauded survivors by misleading the police in the case of Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera.
· Play excerpts from Cardinal Mahony’s video deposition taken in 2013 where he claims he and his deputies “did nothing wrong” in handling cases of child sexual abuse. Copies of the sworn testimony excerpts will be available for press.
WHEN: Wednesday February 19, 2014 at 11:00 AM PST
WHERE: Westin Bonaventure Hotel – Palos Verde Room
404 S. Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071
WHO: Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Anthony DeMarco along with several sexual abuse survivors, including survivors abused by the five perpetrators named in this settlement.
· Documents and additional information will be posted to our website www.abusedinsocal.com under “Case Resources.”
· Spanish speaking interpreters will be available.
Contact: Anthony DeMarco: Office: 626.844.7700 Cell: 310.927.9277
Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.227.9990 Cell: 612.817.8665
LOS
ANGELES (CA)
Star Tribune
Star Tribune
Article
by: GILLIAN FLACCUS , Associated Press Updated: February 18, 2014
LOS
ANGELES — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will pay $13 million to
17 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse.
Attorneys
for the plaintiffs announced Tuesday that the nation's largest diocese moved to
settle 11 cases involving a visiting Mexican priest named Nicolas Aguilar Rivera
rather than go to trial.
The
settlement also involves six other lawsuits involving four other accused
clergy.
Cardinal
Roger Mahony would have been called to testify in the cases involving Aguilar
Rivera.
Aguilar
Rivera fled Los Angeles to Mexico in 1988 to avoid prosecution.
LOS
ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For
immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014
Statement
by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of
those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )
More
clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuits against the scandal-ridden Los Angeles
Catholic diocese will be disclosed tomorrow.
Our
hearts ache for each one of these brave victims and for millions of LA
parishioners who continue to be deceived and betrayed by a corrupt Catholic
hierarchy.
We are
convinced that Archbishop Jose Gomez agreed to these settlements because he
dreaded the devastating disclosures of church complicity that would have
happened had any of these gone to trial. In each of these cases, we firmly
believe that several Catholic officials knew of or suspected these clerics'
crimes long ago and kept them hidden for years, leaving unsuspecting families
and vulnerable children at risk of tremendous harm.
Few cases
more clearly show the recklessness, callousness and deceptiveness of top
Catholic officials than the Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera case. LA Cardinal Roger
Mahony and Mexico Cardinal Norberto Rivera both acted selfishly and deceitful
throughout that case.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
By
Victoria Kim
February 18, 2014
February 18, 2014
The Los
Angeles Archdiocese has reached a $13-million settlement with 17 alleged
victims of clergy sex abuse, including those who say they were molested as
children by a visiting Mexican cleric, attorneys announced Tuesday.
The
settlement was reached on the eve of a trial last Friday over alleged abuses by
Nicholas Aguilar-Rivera, a priest who police believe molested more than
two-dozen boys during a nine-month stay at two Los Angeles parishes in 1987.
Aguilar-Rivera fled to Mexico in the days before police were notified and was
never criminally prosecuted.
Attorneys
for 11 men claimed in court papers that Archbishop Roger Mahony and his top
aide, Monsignor Thomas Curry, were responsible for allowing the priest to flee,
alleging that church leaders had “actively thwarted” and “misled” LAPD
investigators at the time.
The sum
covers approximately $1 million each for those alleged victims, as well as
money for six others who say they were molested by other priests, according to
attorney Anthony De Marco.
Vatican Terror on Galileo, priests and the poor, women and children
UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
Updated January 23, 2013
8 SUGGESTIONS on how to publicly defy and stop Benedict XVI excommunication of Fr. Flannery
Italian Galileo & Irish Tony Flannery: parallel victims of Vatican Last Tsar Benedict XVI Tyranny
In the 17th Century, Galileo offered the Pope and the Vatican Inquisition to look at the telescope “a thousand times” but they refused. By using merely their naked eyes to look at the planets, they doggedly insisted that ‘the Earth is the center of the universe and that the Sun revolved around the Earth’ - based on the Bible alone, and they shamed and condemned Galileo for his scientific beliefs. The rest is history.
Vatican Billions: its history, sources, and assets today worldwide.
UNITED STATESPope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
BOYCOTT the Vatican Museum and boycott ALL donations to the Vatican Catholic Church Reign of Terror
Vatican Assets in England and in the United States of America
Vatican assets in London
- premises of Bulgari, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street
- headquarters of the wealthy investment bank Altium Capital, on the corner of St James's Square
- Pall Mall
Criminal Bishop Finn attacks National Catholic Reporter as he desperately cling to power as a tyrannical ruler
UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
Opus Dei Bishop Finn is a convicted criminal and he should be excommunicated immediately. Bishop Finn is the shame and scandal of the Vatican Catholic Church in the USA and he is the evil Achilles Heel of Benedict XVI, his fellow criminal whose crimes against humanity are pending at The Hague.
BOYCOTT Oratory of
Vatican Billions: its history, sources, and assets today worldwide. BOYCOTT the
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
Opus Dei Bishop Finn is a convicted criminal and he should be excommunicated immediately. Bishop Finn is the shame and scandal of the Vatican Catholic Church in the USA and he is the evil Achilles Heel of Benedict XVI, his fellow criminal whose crimes against humanity are pending at The Hague.
No comments:
Post a Comment