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Subscribe to RSSRetired Cardinal Roger Mahony was stripped of duties Thursday. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
The archdiocese of Los Angeles apologized Thursday night and stripped retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of all public duties for allegedly covering up years of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
In a move that came hours after the release of personnel files detailing years of alleged abuse by Los Angeles priests, Archbishop José H. Gomez announced Thursday night that Thomas Curry, Mahony's longtime top aide, was also resigning as regional bishop of Santa Barbara.
The files indicated that Mahony and other top archdiocese officials maneuvered behind the scenes for years to protect molester priests.
Mahony will "no longer have any administrative or public duties," Gomez said in a statement.
NBC 4 of Los Angeles reported that as Mahony's vicar for clergy, Curry assigned priests and deacons and was responsible for promoting "spiritual and physical well-being" for all priests and deacons in the archdiocese.
Mahony was head of the Los Angeles archdiocese from 1985 to 2011, when Gomez succeeded him.
"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading," Gomez wrote in a letter to parishioners. "The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children."
NBC Los Angeles: An ex-Mahoney aide, Santa Barbara bishop resigns amid church abuse probe
"We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today," he wrote.
Gomez said the church would "immediately report every credible allegation of abuse" and promised to support victims of priests' abuse.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Emilie Elias ordered release of the personnel files a week after internal church records revealed striking evidence of a coordinated campaign to shield priests accused of abuse.
The new files are especially damaging because they include the names of the accused priests, which the archdiocese — the largest Catholic diocese in the U.S. — had fought to protect.
Release of the files is expected to end years of legal battles over whether to identify the priests, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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Well big deal. He doesn't have the face to do any of that anyway.
I might be more satisfied if he was not having any administrative or public duties from a prison cell.
Save the fetus abuse the child. How about the Cardinal Law of Boston who went to the Vatican to escape
Lol, yup, an organization that is anti-contraception, anti-abortion, and rapes children. Gotta admit, there IS a logical consistency here!
Too little too late. Odd how this comes out right AFTER the courts ordered files turned over.
If the "church" expects it's followers to believe the higher-ups were NOT aware of the shifting of pedofile priests, then they are also liars.
.....Matthew 7:18 - "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit."
When will the public stop letting this psudeo government get away with it's sins and DEMAND an answer from the top level about what really is going on...?
Here's an idea.....I would LOVE to see churchgoers around the globe boycott the donation basket for the month of APRIL 2013 (perfect for Easter) if the church refuses to open up about it's cover-up. If the vatican's "holier-than-thou" consciences refuse to do anything about this sinning, then maybe hitting them in their wallets might provoke some action!
I think a large part of the problem is total denial on the part of RCC members. I also believe that when a member is directly affected, the money talks.
Further, what about political contributions? Just maybe that also has helped to sweep the "dirty little secrets" under the rug, so to speak.
yetanotherfanatic, the idea of boycotting the donation basket is one of the best I've heard! The only thing I would do is extend your idea indefinitely - not just one month.
I would love to see an extended "indefinate" boycott of the offering basket donations, as most likely the vatican can sustain a hit of 30 days without measly contributions.
The sad part is, the common churchgoer would most likely feel their patriotic duty to god by offering their hard earned pay to support his pope (who is infallable) holds precedence over denying a patriarchal system riddled with sin, corruption and coverups - a pittance of pay.
The church has long since condoned "Let God be the Judge". Now I am understanding why they push that belief.
When will society be free of such horrific and tragic stories. No one except God will ever know the truth. With out question there has to be tens of thousands of victims we will never ever know about. Not every victim comes forward. And to think that some high up with in the Catholic Church have covered up so much of this for so long. I pray for all the victims known and unknown. Some how some way it has to stop.
really keeping it real - pray - the catholic church has been brianwashing its sheep pray actually does anything for thousands of years- so you condemn the church and follow it with pray - to freakin who, for what - so you feel good - the freakin church never stops praying - no one prays more then the priest ,nuns bishops, popes and sheep of the church........... and look where it has gotten them - your pray is fixing nothing and helping no one - put them all away and throw away the key - then and only then will the children be safe -
About time!
Stripped of all his duties-but left in office in the Vatican. Wow, what a harsh punishment boys and girls. How about he gets stripped of all his freedom, and sent to jail for the rest of his pathetic life, where other prisoners in jail, some of whom were no doubt sexually assaulted by priests, can dish out the only true justice this peice of filth, this criminal co-conspirator of pedophiles, deserves.
Nice you came up with your world view ,ethics,morality all without the frame of reference that is our culture.Glad you can dismiss the beliefs of 6= billion people-FY
Why has there not been execution of these pedophiles by their fellow clergy is beyond me.You have shat on the good name of the church[relatively] and ruined the cultural archetype,the kindly priest.KILL THEM and ATONE.We know that sexuality subverted is sexuality perverted.
I dont mean to be mean but why do so many white men do these things?
Now if they would quit promoting and aiding immigration into the United States they would really be doing the right thing. Dumping more immigrants into our already overpopulated country will break a system that is on the edge.
Did you notice they've gotten rid of the Irish mob and replaced it with the Hispanic?
That should tell you that the RCC knows which way the wind is blowing.
@smarty1.....that is not being mean. The white priests/bishops/cardinals are the ones we see in the news, associated with this type of thing. Take it back many hundreds of years. There became a belief in the Catholic Church that remaining unmarried, read "no sex", would make a person holier. This is based on a wrong interpretation of something that Jesus said. So, the Catholic Church made it a rule that their priests could not marry. All who would want to be a Catholic priest would remain celibate. What Jesus said was, that those who had the calling FROM GOD to remain celibate were blessed. But, enforcing this on the entire priesthood, of whom many WERE NOT CALLED BY GOD into that kind of sacrifice......well, you have these kinds of results. That there is/has been one priest who used the children sexually is terrible. Should never have been. Thankfully, most of the priests - as far as we know - have not hurt the children. That any do is regrettable, and that they are covered up for is shameful......before God, and in the society in which they are supposed to be a blessing. (That is why, in most other Christian denominations, the pastor can marry......very few unmarried pastors worldwide.) (I can give you more info, if you desire. Have to dig out and dust off a few Church History books. If you want to contact me for further info, my email: hikeinmts@hotmail.com.
hikeinmts
Plenty of married clergy/boy scout leaders/teachers have abused children. Your focus on married/non married is misplaced.
What mountains do you hike?
One question, What makes everyone think that the new bishop will not do the same thing. And whom selected the bishop as bishop. I belief it was the carnidal so they are buddies.
what in hell is the district attroney doing w/ this information? if that was my black ass i would be jailed. the government and religion, the most criminal organizations in the world. well, at least one of these criminals (gomez) is speaking w/ accountability.
wake up people, stop participating in religion, don't you get it, they are criminal organizations. god is not real, avoid the fairy tale.
Stripped of his duties here but gets to remain on staff at the Vatican? Wow, boys and girls, what a harsh, harsh punishment this co-conspirator of priest pedophiles will have to face. How about some real justice? How about stripping him of his freedom and tossing him into prison for the rest of his life, where he'll no doubt have to deal with some prisoners who were sexually assaulted as children? Possibly by priests. Betcha those guys would be more than happy to dole out some real justice for this scumbag.
Great,they ship his holy ass to a sovereign country(the vatican) and THEN say he was guilty.
Good luck getting him back here for any sort of trial.
For all you Catholics this is not meant as a personal attack on your personal religious views and I understand many of you are embarrassed by the way the hierarchy has handled this @!$%#.
OK, let me make sure I understand this. The punishment for enabling multiple pedophiles over many years to abuse children in one of the worst imaginable ways, is to strip the retired Cardinal of his public duties???? Really?!? Poor guy must be really suffering now. :-/ I'll believe they're serious about this when they start excommunicating these folks, and turn them over to the police for prosecution.