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	Cardinal's Legacy Marred Daily Breeze February 20, 2010 http://www.dailybreeze.com/opinions/ci_14441290 CALIFORNIA -- On Saturday, Cardinal Roger Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, celebrates his 74th birthday, which will put him just one year away from the Catholic Church's mandatory retirement age of 75. Already, the Vatican is looking for a replacement. For better and for worse, an end of an era is at hand. While the most diverse city in the U.S., Los Angeles is also arguably its most Catholic. El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles - or "The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels," as it was named by Franciscan missionaries more than 200 years ago - has always had a large Catholic population, which has only increased in recent decades with the influx of Latino, mostly Catholic immigrants. Today, Los Angeles is the single largest Catholic diocese in the United States. Its archbishop looms large in the civic, cultural and spiritual life of the entire region; Mahony has done so ever since his appointment in 1985. During his tenure, Mahony has made a name for himself on many fronts. He has become a national spokesman for immigration reform. He has contributed to the gentrification of downtown by building the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. And, of course, he has presided locally over the ugliest chapter in the American church's history, the priest sex-abuse cases. Each of these areas has been marked by controversy. By focusing on immigration, Mahony took on one of the most divisive issues in American politics. When he built the cathedral, critics complained the money would have been better spent on the poor, and called the building an eyesore. And the abuse scandal has created much suffering. On the first two of these three fronts, Mahony handled himself - and the controversy - admirably. On immigration, he lent a compassionate voice to a debate too often marked by anger and vitriol. And as he argued from the beginning, the cathedral's construction never detracted from the good work of Catholic Charities, Catholic hospitals, and other church organizations throughout the region. Ultimately, however, these are not the issues that will define Cardinal Mahony's legacy. The scandal will, and here his record is less than admirable. While many of the abuses in the archdiocese preceded Mahony's arrival, the shuffling of many priests from church to church happened under his watch. Whether this was the result of gross na vet , a lack of concern for the victims, sheer incompetence, or some combination of all three is hard to gauge. Mahony has been less than forthcoming about these issues. That has been the biggest shortcoming in his leadership. He has never provided a full accounting of what went wrong. Nor has he meaningfully accepted responsibility for his part in it. Instead, he has signed on to $600 million in legal settlements, but money can never bandage the wound that this scandal has left on the faithful in Los Angeles and beyond. As Mahony goes off to his retirement, that responsibility will fall to his successor.
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