The Worthy Adversary

Mahony’s chickens come home to roost – with links to complete document files

Written by

Joelle Casteix

in

The complete library of documents can be viewed here.

Cardinal Mahony: Save your prayers for your own soul

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.”

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.”

Curry expressed similar concerns to Mahony about Father Michael Baker, who had admitted his abuse of young boys during a private 1986 meeting with the archbishop.

In a memo about Baker’s return to ministry, Curry wrote, “I see a difficulty here, in that if he were to mention his problem with child abuse it would put the therapist in the position of having to report him … he cannot mention his past problem.”

Mahony’s response to the memo was handwritten across the bottom of the page: “Sounds good —please proceed!!” Two decades would pass before authorities gathered enough information to convict Wempe of abusing boys.

From The Associated Press:

In one instance, a memo to Mahony discusses sending a cleric to a therapist who also is an attorney so any incriminating evidence is protected from authorities by lawyer-client privilege. In another instance, archdiocese officials paid a secret salary to a priest exiled to the Philippines after he and six other clerics were accused of having sex with a teen and impregnating her.

The documents described here and others were released in a current legal proceeding against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by a victim of Father Nicholas Aguilar Rivera. These are NOT part of the documents promised in the Archdiocese 2007 settlement with more than 500 victims of abuse. We are still waiting for those. Who knows what we will learn?

Mahony’s response: he prays.

“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”

How utterly insulting.

The complete library of documents can be viewed here.

 

Comments

3 responses to “Mahony’s chickens come home to roost – with links to complete document files”

  1. alex

    Dear Joelle, I heard your interview on Ian Masters radio show the other day. You have confirmed what I have always thought about the great cover-up the Catholic church continues with. Seems like not much has changed in the Catholic church since the days of the Borgeois Pope. So many horrible crimes against the innocent and all these priests should be in a cell, not “moving” parishes! If Mahoney was a man of character he would step down from his role since he has failed in the work the church professes to be right and just.

    My question becomes why would ANYONE want to be a Catholic today and why would ANYONE give the church a dime??????????

    Reply
  2. (Rev) James F Moran

    Mahony is the epitome of the arrogance of the church’s hierarchy. They STILL believe they are above the law and are not responsible — they speak words from their mouths that have no internal meaning to themselves. Mahony at one point was “mugged” outside the cathedral as he was walking to the mail box — he had the AUDACITY to say that he then knew what a victim felt! He has no heart. For ten years he’s been saying “I’m sorry” — but for those same 10 years he’s had lawyers fighting in court to cover his a$$. The big “settlement” was more than a settlement – it was a PAY OFF to vicitms to keep him from having to speak the TRUTH in a court of law.
    I am a priest AND a victim of clergy abuse – I CANNOT call myself a “survivor” as long as the hierarchy continue in their egotistical, arrogant and haughty attitude.

    Reply
  3. Kay Goodnow

    BRAVO, Joelle!

    Reply

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