E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThere still isn't a frontrunner to succeed Pope Benedict, and some are asking that California Cardinal Roger Mahony – who was criticized for his role in shielding abusive priests -- skip the conclave. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is also attending the conclave, was recently deposed regarding his role in dealing with abusive priests in Wisconsin. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
Los Angeles' retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was rebuked last month for his handling of the sex-abuse crisis, suggests he was "scapegoated" in a blog post ahead of two important dates: his Saturday deposition in a lawsuit alleging that the church hierarchy protected a priest accused of molesting children and his trip to Rome to help pick the next pope.
The high-profile "prince of the church" is at the center of an outcry over several scandal-tainted cardinals being allowed to help choose who will succeed Pope Benedict XVI at next month's conclave at the Vatican.
Ireland's Sean Brady, Belgium's Godfried Danneels and Philadelphia's Justin Rigali have all been pilloried in the Italian press over allegations they failed to protect children from pedophiles -- but it's Mahony who has drawn the most ire.
A group called Catholics United started a petition against his attendance at the conclave. And an Italian consumer group requested Rome prosecutors open a criminal investigation into Mahony if he travels to the Vatican, the news agency ANSA reported Friday.
Improbable as that is, it underscores the outrage in some quarters that cardinals whose reputations have been battered by cover-up allegations will have an equal say in who will next lead the world's 1.3 billion Catholics.
NBC News' Vatican expert, George Weigel, said he could not recall similar calls for abstention at other conclaves, but he noted that voting is an obligation under church law and that other "less-than-admirable" figures have attended for more than a millennium.
"If people are looking for a perfect, sinless electorate to choose religious leadership, they should look somewhere else," Weigel said.
Mahony, who retired as head of the L.A. Archdiocese last year, was stripped of his remaining diocesan duties last month over his handling of priest sex abuse cases. He has repeatedly apologized for past mistakes but isn't bowing to pressure to skip the historic moment. No criminal charges have been filed against him.
He's raising eyebrows and hackles, however, with a series of blog posts about the rebuke.
In one this week, Mahony said he had tried to live out "the acceptance of being scapegoated, pointing out the necessary connection between humiliation and redemption."
Vincenzo Pinto / AFP - Getty Images
After Pope Benedict XVI steps down next week, the cardinals will pick his successor. Some say not everyone deserves a vote.
"This scandal is putting us, the clergy and the church, where we belong -- with the excluded ones," he added. "Jesus was painted with the same brush as the two thieves crucified with him."
The Surviviors Network of those Abused by Priests slammed the language.
"It's hurtful and disingenuous for Mahony to claim he's been scapegoated," said director David Clohessy. "He's been a bishop for almost 40 years and the sole head of America's largest archdiocese for more than a quarter century. Few, if any, U.S. Catholic prelates have been more powerful than Mahony. So for him to somehow pretend to be a powerless pawn is pathetic."
Fueling the latest round of criticism of Mahony is last month's release of reams of confidential personnel files that, according to Reuters, showed Mahony and an aide, Thomas Curry, worked to send priests accused of abuse out of California to shield them from law enforcement scrutiny in the 1980s.
In a letter to the archdiocese about the documents and his dismissal, Mahony said that he had worked hard since 1989 to toughen guidelines for handling abuse and apologized for missteps before that.
"I have stated time and time again that I made mistakes, especially in the mid-1980s," he wrote. "I apologized for those mistakes, and committed myself to make certain that the Archdiocese was safe for everyone."
The document release -- part of a $660 million settlement with abuse victims struck in 2007-- has set the stage for this weekend's deposition by Mahony in a lawsuit by a 35-year-old man who says he was molested by a priest in the late 1980s.
The suit alleges that church officials effectively let the Rev. Nicholas Aguilar Rivera escape to Mexico after child sex-abuse complaints were made, the Associated Press reported. He remains a fugitive.
One 1988 memo made public last month revealed a top Mahony lieutenant confided that he told Rivera “it was likely the accusations would be reported to the police and that he was in a good deal of danger."
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Anthony De Marco, will have four hours to question Mahony about Rivera and 25 other priests, attempting to show a pattern of cover-up so he can try to collect punitive damages on behalf of his client.
Then, within days, Mahony will fly to Rome to join 116 other cardinals under the age of 80 who will meet twice a day in the Sistine Chapel to elect the next pontiff.
"Mahony’s bad luck is all of these documents were released right before the pope resigned and this is why people are going after him instead of other people," said Father Thomas Reese, author of "Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church."
He said there was virtually no chance Mahony would be pressured to stay away.
"The last one turned away from a conclave was in the time of the Napoleon," he said.
"If Mahony can't go, then there's a whole list of other cardinals who maybe can't go, and if you say these guys can't attend for this reason, then what about other reasons."
Even after sidelining him, the L.A. Archdiocese backed Mahony's voyage to Rome. In a statement, it portrayed Catholics United as a fringe group and its petition as pointless.
"Cardinal Mahony will travel to Rome to fulfill his sacred duty under church law to vote for the next pope,” it said.
Cardinal Roger Mahony was stripped of duties last month. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Leave a Comment:
Scapegoating: it's the American way!
I guess one in the position of cardinal in an organizational setting that has practically institutionalized pedophillia could describe himself as a scapegoat - ha ha ha ha... It's hillarious that anyone who would assume such authority in an authoritarian organization could come up with such a weak defense of any of his many "positions."
STOP crying Mahoney!!! You did N O T due your job and MANY younger boys suffered from it-----SHAME ON YOU
What would Jesus do at a time like this?
When the news first came out about the sexual abuse, why did the parents of small children keep putting their kids into a job in a church that was known to be questionable? I see kids in catholic churches today, so the practice has not stopped. There should be a law saying, a boy has to be at least 21 years old to fill these questionable jobs in churches. There has, and always will be, scape-goats in our society.
There should be a law banning the teaching of imaginary beings, gods, demons, hell, etc. to people under the age of 18. The "imaginary" beings have been used to control the hearts and minds of people for millenia. As a former psychiatric counselor, I have seen so many case of bi-polar and schizophrenia illness brought on by the rigid duality of good/evil, gods/demons etc. Emotional and mental molestation is just as serious (if not more) than genital molestation. And they ask why there is a culture of violence?
And the teachers? Who tragically have a far higher incidence of child molestation than priests? Somehow we ignore them. Could it be that the teachers' unions are huge supporters of Obama&Co?
got data? data talks and BULLS HIT walks
That's all you got numbskull? Bring Obama into this?! Go back to polishing your guns for the next 4 years. God lord...
It's not just Obama. Nearly all elected officials look the other way because the nature of the position has reduced them to being political prostitutes,i.e., vote whores. The churches have victimized more american citizens than 10,000 osama bin ladens. But elected officials don't dare go after them for fear of losing votes.
Pretty interesting that these cover ups draw such attention to the Church when it has been one of the most corrupt organizations on earth for centuries. I pride myself on having been awakened at the age of 13 to realize that this corporation was engaed in mind control, subjugation, and perfidy. I didn't think that I should be compelled to confess to a man who never had a woman, purportedly, my "sins" with a girl my age, especially since I didn't feel anything but good about the consignation.
But what confuses me is that so-called Catholics who practice birth control, have abortions, get divorced, etc., care about who is pope and what he has to say about anything. It's the office of a buffoon and those who follow him are equally clowns.
For centuries, Catholic parents appear to have accepted molestation of their children by priests. Even if they did complain, they agreed that if a pedophile priest was "sent away" to another parish that was acceptable. Its shocking that nothing was ever done about it. It seems Catholic parents didn't even see it as a crime.
I wonder if any parents ever went to the law instead of the Church what the law did about it? Pedophiles seemed to get away with so much for so long.
It is the victims themselves who have come forward accusing the priests of the crimes and not the parents who were duped into protecting the priests. The whole situation is sickening. All the higher clergy knew about it since they had the practice of "switching " the pedophiles around to different churches. Mahoney's denial is sickening.
What a joke. The faggot ought to kill himself! The whole church is full of sex predators,fags & child molestors. Who gives a @!$%# what they think! Send them all a vibrator and shut the @!$%# up!
For this so called man of God claiming he is a scapegoat is contemptable! This man is a coward and makes me ashamed to be a Catholic.
Throw mahony in L.A. County Jail where his peers will administer proper justice.
He obviously thinks he is above it all. BS... Not a Cardinal, but a con! GTF out of the church!
Better a scapegoat than an abused child.......a.....hole!!
This sociopath's arch diocese paid out 663 million dollars in a sex scandal class action lawsuit in 2007. Now this 5 years later. Roger Mahoney is the epitome of a wolf in sheep's clothing. A Rebuke!!! Please!!! That's a scolding. If that's all these pedophiles have to worry about, I'd say that's hardly a deterrent. These a holes belong in prison!!! Some how our society is comfortable letting these fake men of God off with a simple scolding. No one cares to see these guys prosecuted. Astonishing reflection of our failure as a society. If you think the LA arch diocese has 663 million in the bank you'd be mistaken. The only way to get that kind of coin is from Rome. Disgusting.
Resign then, we all know it isn't unheard of for catholics to abdicate their positions for unspecified reasons.
No, Your Eminence, you are not a scapegoat. Playing the victim in the light of your failure to protect the real victims is in bad taste, to say the least. Your words are not healing, on the contrary. They make this devoted Roman Catholic think that you are lucky not to be in prison. For once, count your blessings.
Wow! a lot of condemnation of sex in young people.If it ruins their lives why are some schools issuing condoms to school children.Presumably for safe sex.As long as one partner is not over 18 and not a priest it's ok.
Some want to allow homosexuals in the Boy Scouts.Why should one be upset if they have sex with a scoutmaster who is a day over 18 and want to sue and jail him.Consensual or non-consenual the act is wrong at any age.
The priest scandals should open up a debate on the sexuality of teens. Hasn't many a girl or boy who was legally seduced by a peer sufferd as much as those by priests?
God is the creative force in the Universe. The creative force in the Universe is God.
God created the Big Bang, and the Big Bang created the Universe.
Everything since the Big Bang is probability distribution.
Man is separated from God by the Big Bang, so "Godspeak" religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are
fundamentally dishonest.
Armageddon and Mutually Assured Destruction (a nuclear holocaust) are the same thing, but the Rapture is pure fantasy.
The US forced atomic and nuclear weapons on an unwilling World. Atomic and nuclear weapons are useful only in terms of the terror that they induce.
It is time for Global population control, but Godspeak religions know that political power comes from numbers, so the Christians and Muslims are increasing at a rate that the Earth cannot support. China got this one right in the 80s, which is the reason for their rapid economic expansion.
It is also time for the abolition of all atomic and nuclear weapons. The weapons, design documents, and test data all need to be destroyed. Atomic and nuclear weapons were designed and built by devils, and the people who deploy them are devils. They are also useless weapons. What good is a city that is nothing but a burning pile of radioactive rubble? No one can win a nuclear exchange.
It is time to move from an Armageddon based reality to a Utopia based reality.
The Roman Catholic Church is a house of cards, and the World is watching the house collapse.
Wow ...mahony claims he's a scapegoat.....
right
Pope says sorry for sins of church
Sweeping apology for attacks on Jews, women and minorities defies theologians' warnings
Rory Carroll in Rome
The Guardian,
Monday 13 March 2000
Saving one of his most audacious initiatives for the twilight of his papacy, John Paul II yesterday attempted to purify the soul of the Roman Catholic church by making a sweeping apology for 2,000 years of violence, persecution and blunders.
From the altar of St Peter's Basilica in Rome he led Catholicism into unchartered territory by seeking forgiveness for sins committed against Jews, heretics, women, Gypsies and native peoples.
Seeking forgiveness has been a leitmotif of his papacy since his election in 1978. He has apologised for the crusades, the massacre of French Protestants, the trial of Galileo and anti-semitism.
Wearing the purple vestments of lenten mourning, the Pope sought pardon for seven categories of sin: general sins; sins in the service of truth; sins against Christian unity; against the Jews; against respect for love, peace and cultures; against the dignity of women and minorities; and against human rights.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2000/mar/13/catholicism.religion
When it comes to rape of a child, why are the Cardinal (and his clerical colleagues) so very silent--but when it comes to rape of a woman, they come out 100% in 100% support of the rapist's right to determine whether the woman should bear the rapist's child?
You mean the priests are not supposed to have sex with women or children?
Wow.
Something seems skewed.
The good news is, as this darkness of religion comes to an end, those of us who are simple and meek, who truly love peace and love itself, will inherit a much cleaner, healthier, prosperous, and way more enlightened earth. But there is a lot more work to do, for all of us.
Only someone totally responsible for transferring and moving around priests who sexually abused children and adults would think he was a scapegoat. His delusions, however, do point to a bigger problem. The leaders of the Catholic Church have NEVER truly perceived or repented their guilt in this whole sordid affair. Until their leaders get it through their heads that SEX ABUSE is a horrible, moral wrong, the Church will never again thrive. This Cardinal should have had his title revoked. He is not a scapegoat. I do think the Pope was wrong not to revoke the title and a bigger wrong will be done if Mahoney is allowed to set foot in Rome.
If the Lord is his Shephard, than he be a Sheep, not a Goat.
Bah-Bahh black sheep.
The Catholic Church is a wholly discredited institution: it lost the moral high ground long before the Spanish Inquisition. How any intelligent thinking person with a rudimentary knowledge of history can be a Catholic staggers the imagination. The Catholic Church belongs in a museum... right next to the Holocaust Museum.
Christianity is a glorified blood sacrifice cult. Humanity needs to grow up, take responsibility for our own actions, and stop waiting for an imaginary being to save us.
Have a nice day. :)
Agree with almost all you've said. However, would NOT compare church to Holocaust (even in a museum setting). The horrors of the Holocaust are in an extremely dark void all by itself.
church and state will hold hands again folks...i wish it were not true..this is from a man who believes in Christ..me..the two are dangerous..the bible will be fulfilled...the tea party.are the false Prophets that will make it happen in the name of God
"This scandal is putting us, the clergy and the church, where we belong -- with the excluded ones," he added. "Jesus was painted with the same brush as the two thieves crucified with him."
The problem is that Mahony appears to compare himself with Jesus - it is the thieves he should be comparing himself with. ONLY he is much worse than a thieve.
Since its beginning as a powerful world force, the church has always been rife with scandal. What else is new? Organized religion has always been an extremely strong source for obtaining power, control, authority & amassing wealth while preying on the fears of the gullible general populace, the poor, the hurt, etc. The smaller the 'organization' is, the more honest. The larger the institution, the more corrupt.
That is a sweeping generalization. The RC church held together society in the dark ages after the fall of Rome when barbarians swept in from the east.Only the church and feudal lords could put together knights to stop it. Also a band of nuns in Paris decided to put together sick people under one roof and called it a hospital where they devoted their lives to caring for them. All you anti-religous lame brains will call this abuse.I never knew that there are so many histoy revisionists as on the topic.