[Vision2020] The Cardinal and the Truth

[Art Deco]

 [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>

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January 27, 2013
The Cardinal and the Truth

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<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-church-files-20130122,0,3114631.story>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.

It was the cardinal’s obligation under the primacy of secular law to
instantly notify authorities of any priest’s criminal behavior. Instead, he
invoked a nonexistent church privilege to hide miscreant clergy and shield
the church and his own reputation. Cardinal Mahony has repeatedly
apologized in recent years and insisted that the archdiocese was mending
its ways. A lawyer for the archdiocese insisted that the scandal and the
cardinal’s cover-up were “part of the past.” Not really. While statutes of
limitations on possible criminal charges may have run out, Cardinal Mahony
and his former aide could be deposed in civil suits. Monsignor Curry also
managed to advance up the hierarchical ladder and would seem to merit
instant removal from his current post as auxiliary bishop for Santa
Barbara.



-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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