Cardinal Mahoney, Sex Abuse Scandal, and The Way of the Cross

Unfortunately, revelations about the actions of Cardinal Roger Mahoney and then-Msgr., now Auxiliary Bishop, Thomas Curry of Los Angeles when it came to priestly abusers don't really come as a surprise.  Excerpts:

...The breadth of Cardinal Mahony’s cover-up became shockingly clear last week with the release in court of archdiocese records detailing how he and a top aide concocted cynical strategies to keep police authorities in the dark and habitual offenders beyond the reach of criminal prosecution.

“Sounds good — please proceed!” the cardinal, now retired, instructed in 1987 after the aide, Msgr. Thomas Curry, cautioned against therapy for one confessed predator — lest the therapist feel obliged to tell authorities and scandalize the archdiocese. The two discussed another priest, Msgr. Peter Garcia, who admitted specializing in the rape of Latino immigrant children and threatened at least one boy with deportation if he complained. Cardinal Mahony ordered that he stay out of California after his release from a New Mexico treatment center out of fear that “we might very well have some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors.” Monsignor Curry worried that there might be 20 young people able to identify the priest in “first-degree felony” cases...

Although I think the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. might challenge the op-ed's term "the primacy of secular law," let it pass. The outrage expressed there was matched across the Catholic blogosphere in such pieces as John Zmirak's "I'd Like to Visit Cardinal Mahony in Prison" and Frank Weathers' concurrence.

This, however, came as an absolute shock.  Excerpts:

Ten days after an initial release from 30,000 [CI:  actually 12,000, apparently] pages of clergy sex-abuse files in the archdiocese of Los Angeles sparked widespread scorn and calls for the prosecution of now-retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and his then-vicar for clergy, now Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, amid assertions that the duo orchestrated a cover-up, in a letter to the 5 million-member church released tonight, Archbishop José Gomez announced that the embattled auxiliary would be relieved of his pastoral oversight of two of the LA church's three counties, while the iconic Mahony – the longest-reigning American cardinal named after Vatican II, whose quarter-century tenure saw his hometown church become the largest diocese in the nation's history – will, according to his successor, "no longer have any administrative or public duties."

"The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil," Gomez said. "There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed..."

It's a shock mostly because such blunt language about a predecessor from his successor is really, really rare. Especially when that predecessor is still alive and kicking.  Excerpts from Mahoney's response:

...I sought advice from several other Bishops across the country, including Cardinal John O’Connor of New York, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, and then Bishop Adam Maida of Green Bay. I consulted with our Episcopal Conference frequently...

When you were formally received as our Archbishop on May 26, 2010, you began to become aware of all that had been done here over the years for the protection of children and youth. You became our official Archbishop on March 1, 2011 and you were personally involved with the Compliance Audit of 2012—again, in which we were deemed to be in full compliance.

Not once over these past years did you ever raise any questions about our policies, practices, or procedures in dealing with the problem of clergy sexual misconduct involving minors...

In other words, "If I'm going down, I'm taking you and as many of my brother bishops as I can with me."  Which, really, lends a lot more credibility to a piece titled "Cardinal Mahony's La Cosa Nostra" than such a title would normally deserve.  Excerpts:

...At the height of the abuse scandal, even as he retained an army of lawyers and publicists to conceal his own complicity in it, he had the gall to join the media in calling for Boston Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation. Referring to Law, Cardinal Mahony piously told the press that "he would find it difficult to walk down an aisle in church if he had been guilty of gross negligence..."

Until the media furor of 2001, he had been planning on making a pedophile long known to him and residing in his living quarters, Father Carl Sutphin (with whom he had gone to seminary), associate pastor of the archdiocesan cathedral. "I can't believe a cardinal keeps a pedophile on staff," said one of Sutphin's victims.

Long before Leon Panetta joined the Obama administration as CIA director, he had scented out Cardinal Mahony's misdeeds. He "has done tremendous damage to his reputation and the archdiocese," said Panetta after his spell as a member of the National Review Board, a watchdog group formed in the wake of the scandal. Panetta recalled a meeting at which Cardinal Mahony turned up with "more lawyers in the room than I've ever seen."

After Cardinal Mahony helped orchestrate the ousting of former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating from the chairmanship of the National Review Board, Keating complained to the press that the cardinal had kneecapped him, likening his vicious behavior to that of "La Cosa Nostra..."

Reaction to Archbishop Gomez's action has been largely positive, though some people are disinclined to trust the bishops at all when it comes to the abuse crisis. An understandable reaction, but ultimately a self-defeating one--you'd never manage to sort the honest bishops from those covering up abuse.  Frank Weathers has a round-up.  Mahoney's defensive blog has not been received well (also here.)

And Mark Shea has a good explanation of how anyone can still be Catholic in the face of such news. Excerpts:

Reader Ghosty remarks:

We expect about one out of twelve bishops to murder God, so we’re not laboring under any illusions about the sinners in the Church, and never have been.

Not to mention 10/12 of our bishops running around cutting off people’s ears and fleeing into the night, with only one actually showing up for the crucifixion.

The whole point of this “salvation” thingie that Jesus is on about is that his followers need saving. We’re a sorry lot, the Church. Only the thing is, so is the rest of humanity, including the ones gloating about the egregious sins of Jesus’ followers. The Church is the Church, not because it’s full of awesome people who are so much better than the rest of mankind, but because the Holy Spirit has picked the most ridiculous and repellent people in order to make clear that he’s the one doing the saving of the world. not Jesus’ followers.

This seems more appropriate than ever. Excerpts:

From the Book of Lamentations. 3:27-32

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when he has laid it on him; let him put his mouth in the dust - there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults. For the Lord will not cast off for ever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

MEDITATION

What can the third fall of Jesus under the Cross say to us? We have considered the fall of man in general, and the falling of many Christians away from Christ and into a godless secularism. Should we not also think of how much Christ suffers in his own Church? How often is the holy sacrament of his Presence abused, how often must he enter empty and evil hearts! How often do we celebrate only ourselves, without even realizing that he is there! How often is his Word twisted and misused! What little faith is present behind so many theories, so many empty words! How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him! How much pride, how much self-complacency! What little respect we pay to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where he waits for us, ready to raise us up whenever we fall! All this is present in his Passion. His betrayal by his disciples, their unworthy reception of his Body and Blood, is certainly the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces his heart. We can only call to him from the depths of our hearts: Kyrie eleison – Lord, save us (cf. Mt 8: 25).

PRAYER

Lord, your Church often seems like a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side. In your field we see more weeds than wheat. The soiled garments and face of your Church throw us into confusion. Yet it is we ourselves who have soiled them! It is we who betray you time and time again, after all our lofty words and grand gestures. Have mercy on your Church; within her too, Adam continues to fall. When we fall, we drag you down to earth, and Satan laughs, for he hopes that you will not be able to rise from that fall; he hopes that being dragged down in the fall of your Church, you will remain prostrate and overpowered. But you will rise again. You stood up, you arose and you can also raise us up. Save and sanctify your Church. Save and sanctify us all.--Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Good Friday Way of the Cross, 2005