Documents: L.A. church leaders tried to hide sex-abuse claims from police
Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including keeping them out of California to avoid prosecution, according to internal Catholic church records released Monday.
The archdiocese’s failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese’s chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation’s largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders’ own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.
In the confidential letters, filed this month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.
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It was an enormous mistake to allow homosexuals into the priesthood, and the Church should find and expel all of them.
Rebar on January 22, 2013 at 3:09 PM
This should not be surprising to anyone.
Mark1971 on January 22, 2013 at 3:17 PM
That is such a cop out and you know it. It’s downright pitiful.
Capitalist Hog on January 22, 2013 at 3:29 PM
Very sad indeed; make that CRIMINAL!
2L8 on January 22, 2013 at 3:31 PM
Priests take a vow of celibacy, period. I personally wouldn’t care if a priest was gay…as long as they keep their vows and remain celibate.
2L8 on January 22, 2013 at 3:33 PM
@ Rebar
Cardinal Mahony is not gay, is he? Church officials sought to prevent abuse-victims from every going to court. That is pure-evil.
Homosexuality is not pedophilia. There are gay pedophiles and heterosexual pedophiles. The Catholic Church protected pedophiles and pederasts to protect their image. They chose vanity over humanity. That’s evil.
The inability of many Catholics to accept or even face that fact is troubling…but understanding. How does one go on when those presumed holy are clearly destined for Hell?
Capitalist Hog on January 22, 2013 at 3:35 PM
Church officials sought to prevent abuse-victims from
every going to courtgetting help of any kind. They also protected abusers and ultimately put more kids in harm’s way by moving abusers from parish to parish.Standing by and watching defenseless kids be abuse is equally depraved as the experimentation performed by “doctors” at concentration camps.
There is no excuse. People defending this crap are defending evil.
Capitalist Hog on January 22, 2013 at 3:40 PM
But, of course, they should of course allow all heterosexual child abusers in the priesthood.
SC.Charlie on January 22, 2013 at 3:44 PM
If the hell that Archbishop Roger M. Mahony purports to believe in existed, that’s where he’d be bound.
Correct, although personally I think the vows of celibacy for Catholic priests (as well as not allowing female priests) is very harmful their church. But, hey, it’s their church.
Well said.
peski on January 22, 2013 at 3:51 PM
@ Rebar,
Listen you clown. You and your ilk are disgusting. Homosexuality or being gay has nothing to do with these pigs. Girls are raped and molested by HETEROSEXUAL men at a higher rate than with boys. Are heterosexuals inherently dangerous? Of course, not.
As a gay man with nieces and a nephew, I take the utmost offense at this ad hominem inflammatory link between being gay and being a pedophile. Many of you here seem to be believe this and it is gross. I have NEVER laid a FINGER on my nieces or nephew and would defend any child who has been abused. Especially since I was abused by my straight married former uncle.
nyclakerfan on January 22, 2013 at 3:54 PM
He likely is.
Homosexuals have been infiltrating the Church for a long time, and many have worked themselves up into the hierarchy, and are in positions to protect those under them.
Rebar on January 22, 2013 at 3:55 PM
Give it up, you have little to no proof except a YouTube video. Go to hell, you are a disgusting piece of crap.
nyclakerfan on January 22, 2013 at 3:56 PM
Homosexuals join the Church for the express purpose of gaining trusted access to boys. Period.
No one has the right to be a priest, and the Church needs to protect itself from these predators, who not only irreparably harm these boys, but the Church as a whole.
Rebar on January 22, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Can’t get any more pathetic.
lester on January 22, 2013 at 4:03 PM
You sure told me…with plenty of facts and evidence. Definitely not mere conjecture. ////
nyclakerfan on January 22, 2013 at 4:03 PM
Lester,
Every male priest is gay. They ALL are covering up for each other. Didn’t you know? I didn’t either.
nyclakerfan on January 22, 2013 at 4:06 PM
Fact: if there were no homosexual priests, these boys wouldn’t have been raped.
Rebar on January 22, 2013 at 4:08 PM
story after story after story about how priests are hidden and protected after they commit such crimes – why wouldn’t pedophiles and rapists gravitate towards such organizations that provide that kind of protection?
kastor on January 22, 2013 at 4:08 PM
You are a moron. Often times rape is not about sexual orientation. It is about the availability of those that are around you. Since male priests have more access to boys and without a outlet for sexual activity in marriage due to celibacy, they will go for easy targets. Sadly, it has been altar boys and others.
As I mentioned, my heterosexual uncle molested me. But to prove it wasn’t because he was secretly gay, he also molested my sister and my female cousin. I am done dealing with such a moron.
nyclakerfan on January 22, 2013 at 4:12 PM
you don’t have to be “homosexual” to rape someone. that’s a very ignorant statement. just look at the prison system…
nyclakerfan has it right:
kastor on January 22, 2013 at 4:18 PM
You call me a “moron”, yet you go on about “celebacy” as an excuse.
Celibacy isn’t something they spring on a person after becoming a priest, nor is the priesthood slavery – you can quit at any time. If the celibate life is too much to bear, don’t become a priest, or quit and resume a normal life.
Every homosexual who joined the priesthood and raped a boy, had the opportunity to quit and find a partner of legal age. That they didn’t, is a clear indication that they intended to prey on boys from the get go.
Rebar on January 22, 2013 at 4:20 PM
ftfy
kastor on January 22, 2013 at 4:24 PM
Mahony is a liberal, so this doesn’t surprise me. There were all kinds of irregular things going on that diocese when he was in charge. And yes, a lot of this has been about gay priests preying on adolescent boys (trying to initiate them into the gay culture).
Ward Cleaver on January 22, 2013 at 4:35 PM
That’s not true. I’ve known several guys that had been in relationships with women (and a couple of them had even been engaged at one point) who later decided to enter the seminary. And I’ve known one married priest (a former Episcopal priest) who turned out to be a serial sexual harasser of women. So married priests aren’t the answer, either.
Ward Cleaver on January 22, 2013 at 4:40 PM
If the victims need justice I think the massive amputation of the Churches credibility and trust is part of that. Did the Church ever get around to doing anything?
BL@KBIRD on January 22, 2013 at 6:15 PM