California, clergy sexual abuse, Roman Catholic, Cardinal Mahony, Los Angeles Archdiocese, cover-up, predator priest, sex offender
Why Are The Names Of Sex Offender Priests Being Redacted From Cardinal Mahoney’s Deposition Transcript?
By MICHELE BETTI | b&a opinions
Why are the names of sex offender predator priests being redacted from the deposition transcript of Archbishop Roger Mahony? Such action given the documented collusion of those in authority in protecting and covering up for sexually abusive clerics is troubling. Mahoney, Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles provided deposition testimony under oath a few weeks ago. Several priests who were accused and convicted of child molestation have their names redacted from the transcript. An excerpt from the transcript reads as follows:
Q: Okay, 1985 or ’86 he [sex offender priest name redacted] was arrested and charged with child molestation, does that sound right?
A: Somewhere in that time frame?
Q: Does it help refresh your recollection if I represent to you he was accused of putting his hands and touching the genitals of high school seminarians while they were in bed at Our Lady Queen of Angels Seminary?
A: Yes.
Q: So he was accused of touching and did go to jail?
A: I don’t recall.
Bishops in Connecticut, Florida, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania have done everything possible to keep Child Victims Acts addressing child abuse legislation from being passed. Bishops have adamantly opposed any legislation that would change statutes of limitations that prevent child victims from seeking redress shortly after they turn 18.
It has been eight years since the U.S. Catholic church was rocked to its foundations by revelations of clergy sex abuse in the Boston archdiocese. And five years since a Philadelphia grand jury released a report documenting in explicit detail decades of abuse by clergy and cover up by the Philadelphia archdiocese.
Still church leaders continue to protect the molesters. And church leaders continue to place blame on the messengers rather than on themselves. The system has become so corrupted that it puts the protection of individual sexual predators along with an institution’s reputation before the protection of its most vulnerable flock – the children.
Copyright 2010, b&a opinions.
