LOS ANGELES (CA)
The New York Times
Published: October 14, 2005
No one should be fooled by Cardinal Roger Mahony's latest attempt to sanitize the scandal of the pedophile priests who ravaged schoolchildren for decades in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Other prelates have cooperated with criminal prosecutors as the American church has reeled with disclosures that have led to the dismissals of more than 700 rogue priests in a three-year period. Cardinal Mahony continues to resist court orders for the disclosure of church personnel documents to criminal investigators.
The archdiocese has made absurd constitutional claims that the state should stand aside because the confidentiality between priest and bishop is paramount to the free exercise of religion. Polls show that worried parents and other laity hardly agree.
In the latest sham offering of candor, the cardinal has released a summary accounting of 126 accused molesters that mainly confirms the now well-known extent of the scourge; the archdiocese faces damage claims from more than 500 Catholics. The summary falls far short of the full accounting repeatedly promised by Cardinal Mahony. It is of no use to the prosecutors he continues to stonewall.