A cardinal's shameless struggle for survival

The Boston Globe Boston.com

By Jason Berry | July 18, 2007

NEW ORLEANS

THE RECORD $660 million settlement that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay victims of clergy sex abuse marks the denouement of a strange legal drama. The litigation turned into a survival struggle for Cardinal Roger Mahony.

Mahony waged an expensive fight, which he lost at every rung of the ladder, to prevent release of clergy personnel files. The documents have still not been released. In 2002, church lawyers blocked the Los Angeles district attorney's subpoenas for files of priests targeted for criminal investigation.

As the clock ticked on statutes of limitations, several cases died. Meanwhile, as civil cases mounted, release of the disputed clergy personnel files became a core issue for survivors, who wanted the truth revealed. What is Mahony hiding?

Mahony's personal judgment has long been suspect.

Consider Father Carl Sutphin, who shared living quarters with Mahony in two cathedrals over seven years until a 2002 Los Angeles police investigation of charges that Sutphin molested two sets of brothers. Only then did the cardinal force his retirement. In 1991, Mahony had sidelined Sutphin, a classmate of his in seminary, when a Phoenix man informed the cardinal that the priest had abused him and his twin brother years earlier. Sutphin went to St. Luke Institute in Suitland, Md., for treatment after which he became chaplain in a retirement home. At the time of his suspension, Sutphin was a resident with Mahony at Our Lady of Angels Cathedral. Consider also Monsignor Richard A. Loomis, who was for several years Mahony's vicar of clergy, responsible for the investigation of sexual abuse allegations. After Loomis was sued civilly as an abuser himself, Mahony stood by Loomis -- until a second victim came forward. One could go on, and on, with accounts of the cardinal's support of predators and callous disregard for victims.

That pattern of governance was central to the litigation.

Mahony has made public apologies, while hiding behind the argument that therapists advised him to reassign repeat offenders. How many children must a priest abuse before a cardinal deems him morally unfit? The cold print in the priests' files is Mahony's nightmare.

Mahony's lawyers used a First Amendment ruse, arguing that constitutional freedom of religion cloaked a bishop's paper trail with pedophile priests. Stiff-arming judges, plaintiff attorneys, prosecutors, and abuse survivors, Mahony was buying time to protect himself, hoping media coverage would die down.

The news behind the news now centers on Pope Benedict XVI, who used uncommonly strong language as a cardinal about priest perpetrators, saying that "filth" had crept into the clergy.In contrast, Pope John Paul II lavished praise on the notorious Father Marcial Maciel -- founder of the Legionaries of Christ, and one of the worst clergy perpetrators -- even after Maciel stood charged in a Vatican court. In May 2006, Pope Benedict banished Maciel from ministry.

As Catholics, we have no power to remove a bishop who violates the trust. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as archbishop of Boston after a sex abuse scandal only after a group of brave priests publicly called for his departure. Even then, the Vatican rewarded Law by appointing him pastor of a basilica in Rome.

The Los Angeles scandal has dragged on several years. Mahony's misconduct summons memory of Nixon in the bowels of Watergate. By any logic of decency, Roger Mahony should stop apologizing, and take responsibility for his personal disgrace by resigning. He is unfit to be archbishop of anywhere.

Yesterday, Father Peter Lombardi, a Jesuit spokesman for the Vatican, said that the church had "decided to commit itself in every way to avoid a repetition of such wickedness" and now had a "a policy of prevention and creation of an ever more secure atmosphere for children and young people in all aspects of (its) pastoral programs."

There can be no such policy until those who tolerate sexual crimes are themselves removed. By any logic of Catholic ethics, Roger Mahony should go.

If Pope Benedict XVI is serious about the church's so-called policy of prevention, he should remove Mahony immediately -- without a cushy post in Rome. Mahony's ouster is years overdue.

Jason Berry is author of "Lead Us Not Into Temptation" and coauthor of "Vows of Silence," an investigation of the Maciel case, and the subject of a forthcoming documentary film. © Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

Sex abuse 'not just church problem'

Last Updated: 17/07/2007 13:22

The Irish Times Ireland.com

Sexual abuse of children is not just a Catholic Church problem, and other institutions should take steps to deal with such "wickedness" in their ranks, the Vatican said today.

The Vatican's chief spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, also said the record $660 million (€480 million) settlement between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and victims of sexual abuse was an attempt to "close a painful chapter and look forward".

"The church is above all clearly pained by the suffering of the victims and their families, by the deep wounds caused by the grave and inexcusable behaviour of some of its members," Fr Lombardi said. "It has decided to commit itself in every way to avoid a repetition of such wickedness," he said.

Fr Lombardi said other organised religions and institutions should also deal with paedophilia as publicly as the Catholic Church has been forced to by various scandals.

"The problem of the abuse of childhood and its adequate protection certainly does not regard only the [Catholic] church, but also many other institutions and it is right that these take the necessary decisions as well," he said.

Fr Lombardi said the church was aware of its educational responsibilities to youth and intended to be "a protagonist in the struggle against paedophilia", which he said was on the rise worldwide.

Pope Benedict, who was elected in 2005, has taken a tougher stand on sexual abuse in the church than his predecessor.

Last year he disciplined Rev Marcial Maciel Degollado, the 86-year-old founder of the conservative Legionaries of Christ, who had been accused of sexually abusing boys decades ago.