Cardinal Mahony's La Cosa Nostra

Cardinal Mahony's La Cosa Nostra "I have a 3 x 5 card for every victim I met with on the altar of my small chapel. I pray for them every single day," retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony said …More
Cardinal Mahony's La Cosa Nostra
"I have a 3 x 5 card for every victim I met with on the altar of my small chapel. I pray for them every single day," retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony said after the court-ordered release of personnel files detailing his elaborate efforts to hide abusers from the police. How comforted the victims must feel knowing their names appear on his 3 x 5 cards. How big of him to entrust the victims of his pedophile-shuffling to the efficacy of his prayers.
Such acts of chutzpah come naturally to the cardinal. At the height of the abuse scandal, even as he retained an army of lawyers and publicists to conceal his own complicity in it, he had the gall to join the media in calling for Boston Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation. Referring to Law, Cardinal Mahony piously told the press that "he would find it difficult to walk down an aisle in church if he had been guilty of gross negligence."
Meanwhile, Cardinal Mahony was unleashing his attack dogs on anyone …More
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Would you rather be led by a bishop who is openly gay and lives with his lover, or a bishop who preaches chastity for all — and celibacy for the clergy — but then covers up for gay priests who molest boys?" A false choice. I want bishop who does exactly what Christ would do -- no more, no less. I want him to be and appear ascetic -- no "Milwaukee tumor"; no golf-course tan; no alcohol-…More
Comments:

Would you rather be led by a bishop who is openly gay and lives with his lover, or a bishop who preaches chastity for all — and celibacy for the clergy — but then covers up for gay priests who molest boys?" A false choice. I want bishop who does exactly what Christ would do -- no more, no less. I want him to be and appear ascetic -- no "Milwaukee tumor"; no golf-course tan; no alcohol-based rosacea; no lisp; no "nuances"; no pink polo shirts; no lobster dinner parties. I want him to deny himself and to expect his brother priests to deny themselves as well. And I want him to enforce these expectations aggressively.
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These documents explain why Mahony in 2007 agreed to the largest Catholic Church settlement ($660 milion) in American history rather than go through the sustained exposure of a civil trial. He agreed to the settlement just days before he was scheduled to appear as the trial's first witness. As the Times notes, one of his alibis has been that in the 1990s therapists, not bishops, were required to report abuse. Now it is clear that he took steps to ensure that molesting priests didn't go to them unless the therapist doubled as a lawyer.

Keating was roundly criticized for likening Mahony's conduct to "La Cosa Nostra." But these documents confirm a level of devious maneuvering beyond even the dark satire of the Sopranos.

On Cardinal Mahony's 3 x 5 note cards, he says that "I also list in parenthesis the name of the clergy perpetrator lest I forget that real priests created this appalling harm in the lives of innocent people."

Noticeably absent from his cards is the name of the real cardinal who abetted that harm.