Archbishop Gomez relieves Cardinal Mahony of duties; Bishop Curry steps down

Immediately complying with a judge’s order, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has released the personnel files of 87 clergy accused of sexual abuse and has posted the files online.

Archbishop José Gomez, who has led the archdiocese since 2011, announced that he has relieved his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all administrative and public duties, and that Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, at one time Cardinal Mahony’s vicar for clergy, has resigned from his duties as a regional auxiliary bishop.

Cardinal Mahony served as Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 until 2011. Until recently, Bishop Curry served as chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Catholic Education.

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” Archbishop Gomez said in a statement. “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.”

“We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today,” Archbishop Gomez continued. “We need to pray for everyone who has ever been hurt by members of the Church. And we need to continue to support the long and painful process of healing their wounds and restoring the trust that was broken.”

Twenty or more alleged incidents of abuse took place each year between 1956 and 1988; 30 or more alleged incidents of abuse took place each year between 1967 and 1984; and 40 or more alleged incidents of abuse took place each year between 1973 and 1981.

My predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as Vicar for Clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regional Bishop of Santa Barbara.

To every victim of child sexual abuse by a member of our Church: I want to help you in your healing. I am profoundly sorry for these sins against you.

To every Catholic in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, I want you to know: We will continue, as we have for many years now, to immediately report every credible allegation of abuse to law enforcement authorities and to remove those credibly accused from ministry. We will continue to work, every day, to make sure that our children are safe and loved and cared for in our parishes, schools and in every ministry in the Archdiocese.

In the weeks ahead, I will address all of these matters in greater detail. Today is a time for prayer and reflection and deep compassion for the victims of child sexual abuse. I entrust all of us and our children and families to the tender care and protection of our Blessed Mother Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of the Angels.

Agreed. This ALL OLD news. None of the cases are recent. Nearly all happened decades ago. It was also well known that Cardinal Mahony and other high ranking Church officials shuffled these pedophile priests around and failed to promptly report them to local law enforecement authorities as they should have done. WHAT IS NEWS HERE????

For those concerned about CURRENT cases of on-going child abuse, focus your attention on the PUBLIC school districts where is most pervalent, look no further than LAUSD! The Church has already paid its fine, removed the pedophile priests and implemented a strict regime to screen out child molesters. Even me, a church volunteer, had to complete and on a regular basis an intensive program on child abuse and being aware of its symptons.

The good news:

1. McPhony's reign of error is over as of 2011.

2. McPhony has now been stripped of any function in the archdiocese which he abused for 26 years.

3. McPhony will no longer be able to preside over his decades long game of musical perverts, moving the worst of his priest-abusers surreptitiously from parish to parish, to expend millions in lawyers' fees to resist every effort to call him and them to account.

4. McPhony will be subjected to quite heightened scrutiny by friends, foes and public officials so long as he draws breath. No one with three brain cells will trust him ever again.

THE BAD NEWS:

1. The Los Angeles Cathedral still far more resembles a pagan temple complete with "artwork" suggesting Aztec "gods" than anything recognizably Catholic. It should be de-consecrated and turned over to private business for use as a warehouse for storage. If sold, the proceeds should be used to pay off the $660 million in legal damages that arose from his miserable administration of the Los Angeles Archdiocese and protection of pervs. The late James Cardinal McIntyre, a militant Catholic and wonderfully effective former Los Angeles archbishop, must be rolling over in his grave.

2. His Excrescence Roger Cardinal McPhony is but 76 years old and, if the Vatican takes no action against him, he has nearly four years to go during which he will be eligible to enter and vote in any conclave to choose the next pope. B-XVI should demand a return of McPhony's red hat and his resignation from the College of Cardinals and, in the absence of McPhony's obedience and prompt co-operation, excommunicate McPhony.

3. McPhony published a letter to Archbishop Gomes on McPhony's blog today 1) whining that his education as a graduate student in sociology (what else?) did not "prepare" him to deal with the priest/perv crisis. Apparently there were no classes on how to call the police to report child rape or why it is a good idea to avoid covering up for many ordained rapists of children and obstructing justice on their behalf. And 2) implicitly criticizing Archbishop Gomes for acting against McPhony, proving that McPhony should be silenced by Archbishop Gomes or by B-XVI, whoever has jurisdiction over the miscreant.

4. In our sad age, it is no longer legally possible to subject him to a serious inquiry and follow up by burning him at the stake.

O tempora! O mores!

I was at the first Parish Michael Baker the worst offender was at.
My mother was in charge of the prayer community there which was at St. Paul of the Cross La Mirada, CA.
My mother noticed that Baker was staring at the breasts of women and was being fresh with his hands.
This priest looked like a line backer version of young Elvis at the time and spoke with GREAT Spirituality.
IMO had Baker not been a pervert he would have probably become a high ranking official himself.
Anyway my mother wrote two letters and in two meetings with Mahony she told him the problems already going on with father Michael Baker. And that was before he started to molest all those kids.

Regarding treatment of perverts in those old days, there used to be a belief that psychologist could cure people like that. So the priests would be sent to psychologists who said they were cured, then the priests would say they were sorry and would do no more harm, and then they went and molested again.

The Catholic Church never put a call out for homosexual pedophiles to become priests in the church. These homosexual pedophiles took advantage of the Priesthood.

A lose lose situation for all.

My mother had to leave the St Paul parish. The later molesting priest was being protected by the church community and Mahony.

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