My friends, do you wonder why people abandon the Church? Do you wonder why atheism is all the rage among the pierced and tattooed teens and college kids who work at Subway? Do you wonder why nobody takes the whole God thing too seriously any more?
Well, there are many reasons.
But one reason is this. It's because so few bishops do what Los Angeles Archbishop Gomez just did.
Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I’ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011. ... Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.Thus writes Archbishop Gomez, banning Cardinal Mahony, a "prince of the Church", from any public or administrative duties. Why? Because Mahony deliberately and with care and precision shielded child abusing priests from the law, shuffling them from parish to parish, and pawning them off on other dioceses. He let the predators have continued access to their prey - innocent children - as long as it did not cost the archdiocese any money or him personally any embarrassment. His reputation and the almighty dollar counted for more than the safety of children, for the effective treatment of priests, or for the service of justice.
Church documents recently released show that Mahony and his assistant, Fr. Curry
were aware children had been raped and otherwise assaulted and were attempting to keep authorities in the dark. They discussed giving the abusive priests out-of-state assignments and keeping them from seeing therapists who might have alerted law enforcement.Some prince.
Frank Weathers quotes Archbishop Gomez's whole statement here. Also, for a glimpse into the mobster mentality of Cardinal Mahony, one of the worst bishops in the history of the world (for this and other reasons), see this piece here.
As I wrote to some friends on Facebook ...
Abp. Gomez is doing the right thing - but it's nothing more than any good secular non-Christian man should do. There's nothing heroic about this virtue that Gomez is displaying; it's just doing what's right. Why creeps like Mahony could not even live up to basic decency by worldly standards much less the standards of Christ and His saints is beyond me.The power of witness is very strong - when we witness for Christ or when we witness for our own selfish, cowardly and despicable selves.
