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.

Bebeto Matthews / AP

Nechemya Weberman, left, a religious counselor in New York City's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, was sentenced Tuesday to 103 years in prison, for molesting a girl who came to him with questions about her faith.

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish counselor in New York was sentenced to 103 years in prison Tuesday for repeatedly sexually abusing a girl who was his patient over three years, according to wire reports.

Nechemya Weberman, 54, was convicted last month of sustained sex abuse of a child and endangering the welfare of a child, among 59 counts, NBCNewYork.com reported in December. For decades, Weberman worked with families within Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of 250,000, which is the largest outside Israel, according to NBCNewYork.com. He was an unlicensed therapist, according to Reuters.

The female victim, who also belong to the Satmar Hasidic sect there, had been sent to Weberman with questions about her faith, and the girl testified that she was abused from age 12 to 15, The Associated Press reported.

At Tuesday's sentencing, the accuser, now 18, recounted the horrors of the abuse: "I clearly remember how I would look in the mirror," she said, according to the AP. "I saw a girl who didn't want to live in her own skin ... a girl whose innocence was shattered, ... a girl who couldn't sleep at night because the horrifying images of the recent gruesome invasions which had been done to her body kept replaying in her head."

While Weberman has not been charged in any other molestation case, the accuser noted she was also speaking for other victims who haven't come forward yet, the AP reported.

"This message should go out to all victims of sexual abuse: Your cries will be heard. Justice will be done. You should report," said Judge John Ingram, according to the AP.

After the sentencing, the victim's husband gave a similar message of support to victims of abusers, and he added that his wife "is relieved that the children in our community will be safe," Reuters reported.

Weberman's attorney George Farkas said appeal was planned. "We look forward to the man being exonerated," he said, according to Reuters. "We honestly and truly and fully believe this was a set-up."

According to Reuters, the Hasidic community has a history of addressing sexual abuse accusations internally, which critics say sometimes involves intimidating or ignoring victims. The victim's husband said they were still receiving threats from members of their community.

The Associated Press and Reuters, as well as NBCNewYork.com, contributed to this report.

Previous story: New York Hasidic counselor found guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing girl

The state of Pennsylvania took the field on behalf of battered Penn State on Wednesday, with Gov. Tom Corbett announcing a lawsuit against the NCAA over sanctions imposed on the university in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

"This was a criminal matter, not a violation of NCAA rules,” Corbett said at a press conference Wednesday to announce the lawsuit would be filed in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, Pa., later in the day. "The NCAA didn't have any business in imposing these sanctions."

The university agreed in July to the sanctions, which included a $60 million fine that would be used nationally to finance child abuse prevention grants. The sanctions also included a four-year bowl game ban for the university's marquee football program, reduced football scholarships and the forfeiture of 112 wins but didn't include a suspension of the football program, the so-called death penalty.

"Penn State does have a moral responsibility to the victims and to the community, and it has accepted that responsibility and is working with the victims in the civil courts," Corbett said, standing in front of a group of business owners on Penn State's campus in College Park. "Penn State should continue to work with the victims of sexual abuse and an effort towards prevention, so we can assure that tragedies like this never happen again. With that said, though, the NCAA shouldn't have sanctioned Penn State. I believe and our suit contends that the NCAA has no authority and operated outside of their own bylaws with these sanctions they brought."

State and congressional lawmakers from Pennsylvania have objected to using the Penn State fine to finance activities in other states. Penn State has already made the first $12 million payment, and an NCAA task force is deciding how it should be spent.

In a statement issued after Corbett's announcement, Donald M. Remy, NCAA executive vice president and general counsel, said the governor was belatedly interceding in a matter that was well on its way to being resolved.

"We are disappointed by the governor's action today," Remy said. "Not only does this forthcoming lawsuit appear to be without merit, it is an affront to all of the victims in this tragedy -- lives that were destroyed by the criminal actions of Jerry Sandusky. While the innocence that was stolen can never be restored, Penn State has accepted the consequences for its role and the role of its employees and is moving forward. Today's announcement by the governor is a setback to the university's efforts."

Penn State also issued a statement saying that it "is not a party to the lawsuit and has not been involved in its preparation or filing."

The NCAA has previously indicated that at least a quarter of the $60 million would be spent in Pennsylvania, but that continues to be a sore point with some Pennsylvania lawmakers.

Republican Rep. Charlie Dent called the NCAA's response "unacceptable and unsatisfactory" to a request from the state's House delegation that the whole $60 million be distributed to causes within the state.

Last week, state Sen. Jake Corman, a Republican whose district includes Penn State's main campus, said he plans to seek court action barring any of the first $12 million from being released to groups outside the state.

In announcing the news conference, Corbett, a Republican, did not indicate whether his office coordinated its legal strategy with state Attorney General-elect Kathleen Kane, who is scheduled to be sworn in Jan. 15.

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Kane, a Democrat, ran on a vow to investigate why it took state prosecutors nearly three years to charge Sandusky, an assistant under legendary football coach Joe Paterno. Corbett was the attorney general when that office took over the case in early 2009 and until he became governor in January 2011. 

Sandusky, 68, was convicted in June on charges he sexually abused 10 boys, some on Penn State's campus. He's serving a 30- to 60-year state prison term.

Eight young men testified against him, describing a range of abuse they said went from grooming and manipulation to fondling, oral sex and anal rape when they were boys.

Sandusky did not testify at his trial but has maintained his innocence, acknowledging he showered with boys but insisting he never molested them.

NBC News' Tom Winter and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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A year after a woman ran into a teacher she says molested her in the 1960s, he was arrested Friday afternoon, Fairfax County police said.

Detectives charged 73-year-old Christopher R. Kloman of McLean, Va., with three counts of indecent liberties and one count of abduction with intent to defile.

The investigation began in November 2011 after the woman saw Kloman teaching children at Washington Episcopal School, police said. She told the school he molested her 43 years earlier when she was a 12-year-old elementary school student of Kloman’s at Potomac School in McLean.

The investigation found three more female victims who were ages 12 to 14 when the alleged incidents took place in 1968 and 1969, police said.

Kloman taught at Potomac School from 1965 until 1994 and then at schools in Maryland, police said. Until the investigation began, he had been working as a substitute teacher in Maryland.

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Investigators believe there could be more victims, police said, but they have no evidence any incidents since the early 1980s.

Anyone with information about Kloman or the case should call police at 703-691-2131 or contact Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS/8477, www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org or by texting “TIP187” plus the tip to CRIMES/274637.

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Two women who say they were sexually abused in the 1990s by a teacher who later committed suicide have each filed a $15 million claim against a California school district and three former administrators.

The women, referred to as Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2 in court documents, contend the Moraga School District had received multiple complaints of inappropriate conduct by the teacher, Dan Witters, over the years but did little or nothing to stop it.

Witters, who taught at Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School, killed himself in 1996 shortly after the Jane Does came forward with allegations of sexual abuse, according to the Contra Costa Times. 

Witter never faced criminal charges and Moraga police stopped their investigation upon his death, according to the newspaper.

The tort claims filed last week follow an earlier claim filed in August by Kristen Cunnane, now a 30-year-old swim coach at UC Berkeley, against the same defendants. Cunnane alleges she was abused by Witters and another teacher two decades ago. Her claim was denied, and she filed a lawsuit Sept. 25 seeking unspecified damages, the Contra Costa Times reported.

According to the latest Jane Doe claims:

Claimant never suspected wrongdoing by Moraga School District until late May or early June 2012, when, for the first time, it was revealed to her that Moraga School District had received multiple complaints demonstrating that Witters was sexually abusing certain female students during the 1990-1994 timeframe and then had covered-up and concealed its knowledge after Witters killed himself in 1996. Claimant learned this information for the first time when she read an investigative news story in a local newspaper that detailed the District’s culpability. The news story was based on internal District documents that had never been previously released to the public and, in fact, had been previously concealed by the District.

After Witters committed suicide, the school district concealed and covered up its knowledge of past complaints, the claims allege.

“Claimant now knows that if District officials had simply done what the law required of them to do – report suspected child abuse and supervise their teacher appropriately – then Claimant would never have been abused or harmed by Witters,” the claims say.

Bruce Burns, superintendent of the Moraga School District, did not immediately return a telephone call for comment on Wednesday from NBC News.

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Updated at 6:45 pm ET -- More than 1,200 formerly secret Boy Scouts’ files detailing accusations of child sex abuse within the organization from 1965 to 1985 were published online Thursday by lawyers, one who said the documents revealed an unintentional but “de facto cover-up of abuse.”

The  documents, known as the “ineligible volunteer” files within the organization, were ordered released by the Oregon Supreme Court. Media organizations had sued for the release of the files, part of a 2010 case in which a Portland, Ore., jury decided that the Boy Scouts were negligent in allowing a former assistant Scoutmaster to associate with the organization's youth after he admitted molesting 17 boys.

“What we can read through the files, for us it represents the pain and the anguish of thousands of untold Scouts,” said attorney Paul Mones, who litigated the 2010 case on behalf of victims in Oregon with lawyer Kelly Clark. “While there are 1,247 files, we know that each Scout leader (accused of molestation) molested on the average more than one Scout.”

The attorneys called for Congress to audit the Boy Scouts, which is a congressionally chartered organization, to ensure that the group was following its current policy to protect children from abuse. Boy Scouts National President Wayne Perry said later Thursday the organization welcomed any additional examination by authorities.

Greg Wahl-Stephens / AP

Portland attorney Kelly Clark is shown Tuesday with some of the 14,500 pages of previously confidential documents created by the Boy Scouts of America concerning child sexual abuse within the organization.

The files, which can be accessed on www.kellyclarkattorney.com, represent reports of Scouts allegedly abused by more than 1,200 different Scoutmasters and other adult volunteers across the country.

People will see in the files "over and over again where there is a concern that this material not get out … this will make Scouting look bad,” Clark said. Alleged offenders were also being “given second chances,” he added.

“In too many of these individual situations what happened was a de facto cover-up. I don’t believe that anybody woke up and conspired and said, ‘How do we create a system that would cover up child abuse?’ But when they put the interest of the organization ahead of the safety of kids, pretty soon they were engaged in a de facto cover-up of abuse,” Clark said.

Child sex abuse survivor on release of Boy Scouts' files: This 'empowers us' 

A sampling of some of the files:

-- An assistant Scoutmaster in Texas in 1965 admitted to several acts of “perversion,” a Boy Scout executive wrote.

“ … of course we don’t know yet whether the parents of the boys involved” are “going to file charges or not. The Minister of the Church is doing his best to protect Boy Scouting and keep this incident as quiet as possible …,” the executive wrote.

The man tried a dozen years later to take up the same post in another troop but was rejected.

-- A Scoutmaster in Pennsylvania who admitted to “acts of perversion with several troop members” in 1972 was put on probation though he had submitted his resignation letter. It’s not clear from the documentation if he indeed maintained the post, but one Scout executive wrote about the situation a few months after the first report:

“If it is acceptable with you, I would like to let this case drop. [He] is undergoing professional treatment in an effort to stabilize his emotional stability. He recognizes that he has had a problem and he is personally taking steps to resolve this situation. The community involved is rather unique and one father has threatened legal action which could only injure the Boy Scouts of America. Therefore, I would suggest that we let it drop. My personal opinion in this particular case is, ‘if it don't stink, don't stir it.’"

The man was later allowed to become a Scoutmaster for another troop in 1976 on a probationary status. Two years later, a Scout’s mother filed a complaint saying the man had punched her son in the chest, causing him bruises. The Boy Scouts decided to keep him on a probationary status.

A Boy Scouts' director of field services wrote one year later: “We have had no negative reports on [his] service during this past year. Apparently his character and leadership requirements have been satisfactory.” But in another document, that appears to be dated 10 years later, a Scouting official wrote on stationery from the national office: “This guy is not still in Scouting is he?”

-- A Cub Scout leader in Alaska was said to be caught sleeping in the nude with boys on a camping trip and showing them pornography.

“The response from the national organization … says: ‘I will agree that sleeping nude and showing boys pornographic books indicated very poor judgment in dealing with Cub Scouts,'” said the attorney Clark, who was reading from a letter dated 1981 during a press conference. “'I do not know, however, that this is a serious enough offense to refuse registration anywhere he might try to register unless there are more instances.'”

The file shows that a Boy Scouts' council executive submitted information from the Air Force that the man had faced a court-martial in December 1981. He was convicted of wrongfully and willfully permitting and condoning two boys under the age of 16 to engage in sexually oriented activities.

Included in the file is a newspaper article from 1991 about a suspected child molester. Another council executive had sent it in, noting that he had contacted police who confirmed the suspect was the former Cub Scout leader.

“If we can provide the training we have available for our youth maybe we can give them the ability to recognize this guy wherever he may show up,” he wrote. “Since he seems to be running and has had a past involvement with Scouting, we need to be alert.”

Clark said of the files: “There is absolutely no indication that anybody at least at the national level of Scouting was being proactive to get this problem out in the open to get the help of law enforcement and act sort of proactively with it. You do see regular … examples of top Scout leadership or regional Scout leadership taking steps to try to keep this quiet, to keep it under wraps.”

In a number of the cases, the allegations were later substantiated by court proceedings, the attorneys said. However, in a great many cases no such substantiation ever occurred.

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A report released by the Boy Scouts in September said that 829 of the files from Jan. 1, 1965, to June 30, 1984, involved suspicions or confirmations of inappropriate sexual behavior with 1,622 youth. The report was done for the organization by Janet Warren, a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia.

Some of the findings included:

-- 486 of the men identified in the files as suspects were arrested at some time for a sex crime. It may have occurred before they got involved with Scouting, as a result of the incident noted in their file or after they left the organization.
--  In 531 of the cases, there was information indicating alleged inappropriate sexual behavior with multiple youths. 
--  In 252 of the cases, the available information indicated alleged inappropriate sexual behavior with only a single victim. 
-- 128 of the men in the files had their registration revoked within a year of signing up.
-- Police were involved in the investigation of 523 cases.

At the time, the Boy Scouts said in a letter that they would review their files created from 1965 to the present “and ensure that all good-faith suspicion of abuse has been reported to law enforcement.” They also said that there “have been instances where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong.”

Boy Scouts admit response to sex abuse was 'insufficient' 

On Thursday morning, the organization reiterated that in a statement and also noted: “Where those involved in Scouting failed to protect, or worse, inflicted harm on children, we extend our deepest and sincere apologies to victims and their families.”

“While it is difficult to understand or explain individuals’ actions from many decades ago, today Scouting is a leader among youth-serving organizations in preventing child abuse,” the statement added.

In an interview with NBCDFW.com, Perry said: "I would ask parents to look at the programs we have and then judge us versus, maybe not the past, but judge where we are today and certainly judge us against any other youth service organization in the world and they will see that your kids are very, very safe."

He also said later in a statement that the organization would be hosting a youth protection meeting in November with experts to share and discuss best practices.

The attorneys said the files also could inform future prevention of child sex abuse since the documents revealed how pedophiles operated and infiltrated youth groups -- knowledge “no other youth organization had at that time or since,” Mones said.

“The importance is what Scouts could have done with this information,” he said. “At the trial they said they had never looked at the files to examine them for any purpose to protect Scouts. Their one goal of taking Scout leaders out who had molested Scouts, yes … they did take Scouts out. However, the information that they gleaned, how these people used Scouting activities to bring Scouts into their midst, how these guys were not just bad leaders … these people were leading Scouts.”

“So our goal really is to look to the future through the past,” he added.

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For John Mark Buckland, 42, who was abused by a Scout leader at Travis Air Force Base in Vacaville, Calif., the release represented an empowering moment.

“It unveils all the secrecy, or at least a good portion of it, and the secrecy is the biggest demon there is when it comes to things like this, because it’s by being hidden that it basically just eats people away like a cancer,” Buckland, of Huntington, W. Va., told NBC News. 

“We’ve been powerless up to now. We’ve been at the whims of a multibillion-dollar organization that … has all the money to keep us under a desk in a box. And for now, they can’t do it anymore.”

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