February 5, 2013 Martin Mallon (Ireland) Martin's previous articles
The
most startling thing yet to happen, in the clerical child abuse scandal, is
Archbishop Gomez of San Francisco diocese stripping Cardinal Mahony of his
"administrative or public duties" in that diocese. Mahony used to be
the archbishop of said diocese but was replaced by Gomez.
The
censoring, in any form, of a cardinal by an archbishop is monumental. Why has it
happened and has it been approved by the
The
answer to the first part of this question appears to be obvious; due to a 2007
settlement the documents from the diocese on clerical child abuse as far back as
the 1940s had to be made public. Due to Mahony trying to prevent their release,
even though he agreed to the settlement, the documents have only been released
recently. These documents detailed “evil” acts that Mahony covered-up and he
protected the priests rather than the victims, apparently the normal modus
operandi of the institutional Catholic Church. With the evidence being made
public Gomez realised there would be an uproar and that something had to be
done.
The
something to be done was probably arrived at after consulting the Roman Curia,
and that answers the second part of the question, did the
However,
what is also clear is that Cardinal Mahony is being permitted to maintain his
dicastries, of which he holds three. So clearly the sanctioning by Gomez is part
of a damage limitation job by the
According
to Joshua McElwee in the NCR, Mahony, who became archbishop of
Gomez
wrote that:
I
find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in
these files is terribly sad and evil. 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.
My
predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his
failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care," he added.
"Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no
longer have any administrative or public duties.
Another
article from the NCR reveals more:
But
the “we didn’t know” defense quickly wears thin against the details
contained in the 12,000 pages of documents that were just released by the court
in Los Angeles, just as it wore thin against the truth revealed when documents
were released in other places like Philadelphia and Boston.
That’s
why Mahony spent so much time and money over nearly a decade attempting to keep
the documents sealed. It’s why, even after agreeing to release documents as
part of a 2007 settlement with 508 victims costing $660 million, he continued to
fight tooth and nail to keep the documents secret. It is why he and the
diocese’s lawyers tried a last ditch and ultimately failed attempt to get the
courts to redact the names of church officials from the documents so that it
would be difficult to tell who did what. The documents put the lie to the “we
didn’t know” defense.
As
the NCR editorial staff point out:
What
Mahony and others --
Cardinals Bernard Law, Justin Rigali, Edward Egan, Anthony Bevilacqua,
and a host of archbishops and bishops --
really didn’t understand was the degree to which their moral compasses
had been distorted by the strong magnetic pull of the clergy culture. In their
fierce allegiance to that exclusive club at all costs, in their willingness to
preserve the façade of holiness and the faithful’s high notion of ordination,
they lost sight of simple human decency and the most fundamental demands of the
gospel.
Most
tellingly, this article insists:
There
are no heroes in the
Read
the full article here
The
NCR editorial staff make the valid, and obvious to most but the
All
is not doom and gloom; however. The more the light of truth shines on the hidden
workings of the institutional church the sooner the church will change.
Another
glimmer of light was the
recent meeting in