“As many as a dozen Southern California priests who were
involved in past sexual abuse cases have been directed by Cardinal
Roger M. Mahony to retire or otherwise leave their ministries,”
reports
the “Los Angeles Times.”
Mahony had to have known about these pedophiles for years. Why
his sudden attack of conscience? Probably because, like every other
corrupt bishop in America, Mahony sees the posse closing in. His
back — or whatever it is he calls a spine — has hit the wall.
Mahony’s hasty dumping of pedophiles reveals the dishonorable
modus operandi of some in the American episcopate: Protect
pedophiles until you feel politically and legally unprotected
yourself, then cut and run.
Had the Boston scandal not occurred, would Mahony and others be
cutting these pedophiles priests loose? No. They only do so now
because they can no longer get away with harboring them.
Such unprincipled, self-serving decision-making illustrates the
extent to which the America Catholic church rots from the head
down. The pedophilia problem did not happen in a doctrinal and
disciplinary vacuum; it happened in large part because the American
bishops knowingly permitted a libertine and dysfunctional culture
into the church. In the name of “tolerance” and “liberal progress,”
bishops ordained men with checkered sexual histories — and then
used relativistic theology and psychology to justify their
atrocious judgment. Only now, as lawsuits and bad press
inconvenience them, do they pull the plug on their
irresponsibility.
Mahony has advanced this permissive culture deep into the Los
Angeles archdiocese. Among other things, he has given an openly
homosexual priest an official platform from which to soft-pedal
sexual sin, hired legions of critics of traditional Catholic moral
teachings, and allowed St. John’s, the seminary for his
archdiocese, to act as a conveyor belt of scandal, heresy, and
radicalism in the church.
Mahony’s protection of pedophiles predates his arrival in Los
Angeles. The “Los Angeles Times” failed to note in Monday’s story
that Mahony allowed a pedophile to serve a parish in Stockton,
California, in the 1980s. (Mahony served as bishop of Stockton
before assuming the leadership of the Los Angeles archdiocese.)
Mahony’s negligence (along with the negligence of two other
bishops) cost the Stockton archdiocese $30 million after two
brothers sued the pedophile priest, Father Oliver O’Grady. Deposed
in this case, Mahony claimed ignorance of the numerous charges
against O’Grady, but admitted he had sent him to a psychiatrist
before reassigning him. Mahony said he felt “professional
counselors and psychiatrists were capable of helping these people.”
This prince of the church just passed the buck to the diocese’s
psychiatrists: “If there’s a suspicion or a problem, we refer it to
competent professionals to assist in making a decision. If the
competent professionals do not raise any flags or concerns, then we
rely on their judgment.”
Mahony, since that admission, has sought to avoid such
embarrassing and revealing depositions. In a recent molestation
case, involving a priest nicknamed “Father Hollywood” who had
received his training at St. John’s Seminary, Mahony settled out of
court the day before his scheduled deposition.
Mahony slithered out of another deposition earlier this year
when the Diocese of Tucson settled a molestation case that involved
an Arizona priest accused of, among other acts, molesting children
at Mahony’s seminary. The victims in that case said they had been
abused at St. John’s Seminary after a visit to its “Come and See
Program,” a day with the ironically accurate purpose of giving
young boys a sense of the modern priesthood.
Will Mahony’s opportunistic dismissal of pedophiles this week
save his skin again? Maybe not. Some obvious questions could trip
him up, such as: How could a bishop who stated in 1988 that he
would “never deal with a problem of sexual abuse on the part of a
priest or deacon by simply moving him to another ministerial
assignment” just now be releasing as many as 12 pedophiles? What
did he know? When did he know it? And why didn’t he inform the
authorities?
Expect Mahony, if he even bothers to answer these questions
(usually a publicity hog, he has made himself scarce to reporters
in recent days), to hide behind lawyers and “doctors” again.
But Mahony must be held accountable. This much is clear: If the
Pope wishes to restore credibility to the church in America, he
must demand the resignation of derelict churchmen like Mahony. On
their watch, the American church became a playground for
pedophilia.
The new “zero tolerance” policy for pedophile priests must also
extend to the bishops who hid them.
