Look, I might be wrong but lets look at the saints, the majority of the woman saints were married and they did alot for the church, In this generation, they are looking at woman that were not married and making them saints, and that's absurd, there is no comparising. The nuns were married woman whom took on the purpose of helping the needy. And I don't see nothing wrong with that.

that's his "punishment"?? he is accessory to numerous crimes... hundreds of children's sexual abuse, and his punishment is no official duty? for an old man?? now GOMEZ is accessory to a crime... lack of justice. It would be wonderful example to the US and the WORLD if this Cardinal would be arrested and tried and imprisoned. This is not the middle ages where the church gets away with murder and all other crime because they are "above the law" put his ass on trial!!! if convicted by a jury, put his ass in prison and let the prisoners put their *&*^ up his ASS like his priests did to all the children he helped abuse!!

Ladies and gentlemen: I know why you are angry and you have every right to be! But please learn some history! The Church's membership is made up of human beings, humans who sometimes abuse power when they have too much of it. This is true of any large organization of people, including the United States, especially the military. Talk about abuse of power, and the people abused are all ADULTS, not children! Think that they don't suffer just as much just because they're adults? You know the answer... The Founding Fathers believed in the importance of religion, especially in its relation to freedom; they just didn't want a state religion, knowing the history of European warfare as they did. The first Europeans on the shores of the Eastern seaboard were not just seeking freedom of religion--they were seeking freedom only for their own denominations! Anyone else, like Jews and Catholics, were persecuted--the celebration of Christmas (literally, Christ's Mass), was against the law in the colonies. That is why Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday (literally, holy day). Read about the great saints of the Church, right up to this century! They weren't turned away from their faith by evil--they knew that we are a fallen race and they wanted to do something positive about it even when they were persecuted as well. That takes real courage, just like Christ! They didn't give up, throw in the towel and leave. How are things going to change that way? In addition, people are outraged that any religious person does evil because people know that religion is based upon GOODNESS (EVERY religion). Don't leave! Help people to become good! This doesn't mean that they are not to be punished, they should be and they know they should be too, in their hearts. Tell me, are any of us perfect?

Brian Buckley is telling it right, AJUSTPERSON, and you in the first paragraph say it, they abuse their power and they should be punished for it like BRIAN BUCKLEY said, and inturn that would help Bishop Gomez to do something good for the church, its people, Bottom line, its the pueblo, is the people, its not about being more famous or more popular than the next guy,, its about the well being of the people, the church. And yes, mass, what good would mass be if when you are giving mass you order people to be killed, you order people to be sladder like pigs get sladdered in the farm. What good would it be when you are baptizing a child of a man whom gave an order that at the same time his son was beig baptized people would be killed, a tradition among the maffia leaders. Using baptism as a time of killing.

Well, filthy language when posting is ok? I know you're angry--so am I. I just read that some people applaud the murder of a Texas prosecutor shot down in cold blood! So much for what certain people think is evil. And Hitler was in a class all by himself. In the Divine Comedy, Dante wrote that the souls of people (like Hitler) are already in Hell and that their bodies are inhabited by demons...the reason their acts are so outrageously evil that it couldn't have been committed by a simple human being.

OK haters, listen to this. First, those responsible for crimes must absolutely be held accountable--no exceptions. that said, the Catholic church is not an end in itself--it is a system of teachings, traditions and beliefs that date back to the time of Christ. As a Catholic, THAT is what I believe. The catechism is a beautiful document that does NOT condone or encourage, corruption, money laundering, pedophilia, or any of the other things you naysayers think Catholics stand for--try reading it before criticizing what you THINK our church stands for. The Catholic church, like all institutions, is made up of PEOPLE, and people make mistakes. When mistakes are crimes, they should be punished. My church has fallen short here in a very big way, but that is NOT a legitimate reason to paint ALL the members of the church as willing co-conspirarators. It's easy for armchair moralists to single out Catholics as a monolithic group for criticism because our universal beliefs mark us as a unified group. The hundreds of Protestant splinter denominations are not so easy to pin down as a a cohesive group since none of them can actually agree on what the bible actually says, (even though they claim this is the ONLY thing that should matter to Christians) but I guarantee that Protestant houses of worship are equally deserving of criticism, especially the megachurches--sinners and evil are everywhere.

For all the ex-Catholics who left the church over the abuse scandal or other issues--are your beliefs so wishy washy that you would abandon everything you stand for because of the mistakes of a few individuals? We worship God, not the church itself--as stated plainly in the church's own catechism. Did you really know what you were giving up? Perhaps you were never truly a Catholic in the first place. This exactly how evil works--by introducing doubt and despair which cause good people to abandon their beliefs

For pedrora's question: Several comments of approval for the murder of the Texas prosecutor were left on the CBS News website comments section.

Tax them.

Gomez said the church would "immediately report every credible allegation of abuse" and promised to support victims of priests' abuse.

Yup, every *credible* allegation. Children are not generally believed; it is only when multiple victims speak up that they become *credible.* (and not always). Like the story yesterday when the boy told his parents about sexual abuse and the parents had a *talk* with the priest and the child was STILL allowed to spend the night with the priest! Parents, stop leaving your sons (majority of victims are boys) and daughters too, alone with any priest for any reason! Who in their right mind would think it appropriate or safe for a young boy to be spending the night with a priest? (because this article is about priests and not uncles, cousins, teachers, etc.)

"immediately report every credible allegation of abuse"

No, you report every allegation of abuse and allow appropriate legal authorities to determine its credibility. That statement was a great big hint that the church intends to pass judgement on such allegations before reporting them and that is part of the reason criminal priests were able to use the Catholic Church as their personal hunting grounds for decades.

FINALLY! As a survivor of priest abuse, I am beyond joy this morning.

Cardinal Mahony has been given a pass for far too long because he was friendly to certain liberal causes. The media looked the other way for a long time until it could not any longer. Now, the chickens have come home to roost, so to speak.

For those of us who track all this and demand accountability, we know that Archbishop Gomez is one of the good guys and he is cleaning out the garbage. Seeing Bishop Curry go down too is icing on the cake. This man means business, and since his appointment by Pope Benedict (who is too, though he is always falsely accuse of shielding and covering-up by irresponsible media like the Huffies, Der Spiegel and the NYTimes, articles that are now completely debunked) he has been ready to do this. No more covering up, no more moving priests around, no more ignoring us survivors.

Now it is up to the LA County DA to look further into this. Statutes of Limitations will most likely prevent Mahony from going to prison, though. But if anything can be done, then Archbishop (soon to be Cardinal, hands down) Gomez will give them what they need.

As for the "secret files", they are going to be placed on the Archdiocese's website for all to see.

For those who want Mahony excommunicated - remember that in the Catholic Church no one is ever "kicked out" - for the Church is about repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation to the genuinely penitent. The point of an excommunication, in fact, is that the person be completely reconciled to the Church after repenting for the wrong they have done. That is the point of Christ's message, is it not? What you want is a permanent suspension that will stick for good. And please, PLEASE, Vatican - don't bring him to Rome and place him in charge of a Basilica - what was done with Cardinal Law was a disaster (idiots!).

Again, this survivor is very happy. I may even go to Mass today to give thanks. My parish pastor is too one of the "good guys" who fights against priest abuse (as is my diocesan bishop). The Catholic Church is cleaning up, and the future is getting a bit better each day.

Finally - Thank you, Pope Benedict for taking the heat and doing the right things like putting Gomez in LA. We who have survived are grateful.

I was trying to be passive about this topic which is a good one. My ways of showing abuse is not just the priest doing it, its both the parents that abuses their children and the priest, that adds doble problems to society. With all of this happening whom would want to have a family, I sure would not. My way of showing abuse is about the teenage woman that get rape by their step dads, the dads and even younger females that it happens to. Its not grose, its inhumane to do it. Its sickining to know that females are being rape and no one, including the mom does not say a thing. I know of this one guy in whittier that he raped a relative while she was staying at their home and the parents send her back to mexico no question asked. I know this one particular family whose dad had skilled a boy using his car mexico, left mexico, came to the united states and the churche allowed it. His excuse of departing mexico was that he was afraid the people would kill him, I would to.

So Gomez claims he is going to report every "credible" allegation of abuse. Who decides if an allegation is credible, him? This clown needs to be TOLD in no uncertain terms that he will report EVERY allegation of abuse, and failure to do so even once will land him in jail so fast it will make his head spin.

2 points... He retired before any action was taken AND you will note nowhere does it say he was expelled from the church. So they still allow Satan among them. What happened to the bible instruction of," putting the evil person from the congregation""?

He still gets to be employed with his full pension???

Ther 's some tough punishment.

benedictineacc, if you remember correct, the group the mason where excommunicated from the church, and if I remember correct, there has been a pope that has been excommunicated from the church.

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Vatican has launched a crackdown on the umbrella group that represents most of America's 55,000 Catholic nuns, saying that the group was not speaking out strongly enough against gay marriage, abortion and women’s ordination.
Rome also chided the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) for sponsoring conferences that featured “a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”
The Vatican’s disciplinary action against the LCWR was announced on Wednesday (April 18), one day before Pope Benedict XVI marked seven years as pontiff.

In many ways, the Vatican's actions against the LCWR encapsulated the kind of hard line that many expected Benedict -- the Vatican's former doctrinal czar -- to take when he was elected in 2005.
“The current doctrinal and pastoral situation of the LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern, also given the influence the LCWR exercises on religious congregations in other parts of the world,” said the eight-page statement issued by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Benedict led for a quarter century before his election.

The directive, which follows a two-year investigation by Rome, also comes as the Vatican appeared ready to welcome a controversial right-wing splinter group of Catholic traditionalists back into the fold, possibly by giving the group a special status so that they can continue to espouse their old-line rites and beliefs.

This is a list of some of the more notable people excommunicated by the Catholic Church. It includes only excommunications acknowledged or imposed by a decree of the Pope or a bishop in communion with him. Automatic excommunications are not included here if not confirmed by a bishop.

• Bishops in China who joined the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and ordained bishops without papal approval.^{[citation needed]}
• John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro in 1962^{[citation needed]}
• Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Bishops Antonio de Castro Meyer, Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta for the Ecône Consecrations without papal mandate. Formally declared to have incurred latae sententiae excommunication by Cardinal Bernardin Gantin on July 1, 1988.^[15][16] The excommunications of the latter four were lifted in 2009.^{[citation needed]}
• Father Romolo Murri, a leader of the Italian Catholic Democrats, for giving speeches against Papal policy^[17]
• Juan Perón, in 1955, after he signed a decree ordering the expulsion of Argentine bishops Manuel Tato and Ramón Novoa^[18][19]
• All Catholics who participated in the creation of an independent church in the Philippines, in 1902^[20]
• Alfred Loisy, a French cleric associated with modernism.^{[citation needed]}
• Leonard Feeney, a U.S. Jesuit priest who defended the strict interpretation of the Roman Catholic doctrine "outside the Church there is no salvation", arguing that baptism of blood and baptism of desire are unavailing.^{[citation needed]} Feeney was later fully reconciled to the Church before his death.^{[citation needed]}
• All Catholics who participated in the trial of Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac, which included most of the jury members. ^[21]
• Feliksa Kozłowska and the Mariavite movement in December 1906 by St Pius X^{[citation needed]}
• Plaquemines Parish President Leander Perez, Jackson G. Ricau (secretary of the Citizens Council of South Louisiana) and Mrs. B.J. Gaillot, Jr., president of Save Our Nation, Inc., on April 16, 1962 by Archbishop Joseph Rummel of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. They were excommunicated for aggressively opposing the racial integration of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese starting in the 1963-64 school year. Perez and Ricau were later reinstated into the Church following public retractions.^[22]
• John Duryea, popular priest at Stanford University and in Palo Alto, California, in 1976

here's a little latin for the church to chew on "hic tamen vivit! cur?"

Excommunication
Takes place when a Pope, by action or inaction, gravely offends God and does not publicly repent. Some offenses require permanent rejection of office and separation from the clerical state.

1. Pope John XXIII: It has been reported that Cardinal Angelo Roncalli was a member of the "Order of Rosicrucians", a Masonic order. Although legally elected as pope he did not hold any moral authority. To the present date, 31 August 2011, it is accepted that subsequent popes have also been affiliated with freemasonry.
2. Pope Paul VI: Perhaps his two greatest crimes are "Humanae Vitae" (which opens the door for Natural Family Planning and goes against the initial command of God to "be fertile and multiply" – Genesis 1:28) and authorizing and the commissioning of the "Novus Order" Mass replete with errors and heresy along with its two revisions.
3. Pope John Paul I: Like his predecessor and the two subsequent popes he used the satanic crozier designed under the authority of John XXIII.
4. Pope John Paul II: Popes are subject to Automatic Excommunication
5. Pope Benedict XVI: As with his predecessors he does nothing about removing bishops and other homosexual priests from the priesthood. As such he is an accomplice in their depravity and if not personally guilty of this very grave offense, ignoring the initial command of God given in the Garden of Eden, he will still suffer eternal damnation following death if not publicly repentant before death.
   The "Novus Ordo" damage has now been done. Accordingly Benedict XVI is now willing to allow the usage of the original Latin (Tridentine) Mass as it contains many errors brought into the current Mass. The new mass does return to some Scriptural concepts. Note also the following web page: Sin of Omission

First of all I must use Christ's words, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." I am not defending actions of the Church or what it has done in the past, but asking each of you who has passed judgement in your comments or in your hearts, to think about what the words of Jesus means. Folks these days, especially in the US, are so quick to judge, so quick to place blame without looking to the state of their OWN house. Yes, the Christian churches (yes all of them) have not always been pillars of morality, and people tend to hold a grudges for a long time, centuries even. It is a time for healing and forgiveness, not vicious attacks. I'm sure your Christian God, Jesus, would agree. Remember, he supposedly came to heal sinners not congratulate the self-righteous!!