The Catholic Church Molestation Cover-Up Scandal continues to worsen, as more and more facts come out. Though this story touches on a number of areas (starting with Baltimore), it’s the goings-on in Los Angeles that I find most disturbing, since … well, damn, I was once a parishioner in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. I’ve met (in a crowd) Cardinal Mahony. And until recently, he’s come across as one of the guys leading the charge to clear up this mess.
And yet …
Yesterday, possibly in response to an impending article in the Los Angeles Times, Mahony sent out a formal apology to the 1,200 priests in his archdiocese for his mishandling of the case of one pedophile priest. ““As your archbishop, I assume full responsibility for allowing Baker to remain in any type of ministry during the 1990s. I offer my sincere, personal apologies for my failure to take firm and decisive action much earlier.”
Well, that’s nice to know, possibly even gutsy (since it might open the Church to further law suits). On the other hand, why is he apologizing only to the priests about this? Doesn’t he realize that this only plays into the image of the Church as a closed club, mishandling things behind closed doors?
Further, there’s other information that Mahony refuses to turn over to the District Attorney, including the names of up to a dozen priests dismissed from the archdiocese in February because of alledged abuse.
Let me make it clear. We’re not talking about the confidentiality of the confessional here. But if you take public action with that as an excuse, the DA has every right to get all the details, so that criminal charges can be appropriately filed.
This isn’t going away, Your Eminence.
   “Jesus wept.”
      — John 11:35