L.A. church leaders sought to hide sex abuse cases from authorities

[bemildred]

Source: LAT

Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement, according to internal Catholic church records released Monday.

The archdiocese's failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.

In the confidential letters, filed this month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.

One such case that has previously received little attention is that of Msgr. Peter Garcia, who admitted preying for decades on undocumented children in predominantly Spanish-speaking parishes. After Garcia's discharge from a New Mexico treatment center for pedophile clergy, Mahony ordered him to stay away from California "for the foreseeable future" in order to avoid legal accountability, the files show. "I believe that if Monsignor Garcia were to reappear here within the archdiocese we might very well have some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors," the archbishop wrote to the treatment center's director in July 1986.



Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-church-files-20130122,0,3114631.story

[Angry Dragon]

1. They should be in prison

[Scuba]

9. +1

[SomeGuyInEagan]

2. Prison time, heavy fines and loss of tax-exempt status.

Nothing less.

[randome]

3. Why is this LBN?

Sad to know this is the norm.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. while their crimes are not new,

the extent of the deliberate and criminal cover-up continues to be. Every time we get new info, new proof, new evidence of this criminal conspiracy, the better off we are. Because it shows us just how corrupt these bastards were, are and will be.

[AngryOldDem]

8. I asked this in the other thread that got locked.

Given that these decades-old cases are coming to light almost every day, can the Church be prosecuted under RICO statutes? Seems to me that this is a pretty clear-cut case of systemic, organized criminal activity. This is the same MO that a lot of dioceses used to cover up pedophile priests.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. Eric Holder won't even prosecute torture, much less massive

contractor fraud in IraqNam. it is too much to ask him to enforce the law against a criminal cabal like the catholic church.

[Deep13]

5. They tried to hide it? No way! nt

[SouthernDonkey]

6. Watched a great documentary

On Netflix about the pedophile priest Oliver O'Grady. "Deliver us from Evil". Roger Mahony (as well as the rest of the heirarchy of the Catholic Church) was also involved with protecting this pedophile priest for many, many years. They moved him all over California before finally sending him back to Europe, where he remains to this day. Never prosecuted for the atrocities he inflicted upon hundreds of innocent children. I urge you to watch this movie as well. They should prosecute every one of these guys and hold them all accountable. It makes me really wish there were only a hell, so these guys could spend their eternities roasting in it.

Here's a link to an L.A Times story about O'Grady.


[link:http://articles.latimes.com/2007/feb/17/entertainment/et-deliver17|

[Socal31]

7. "Looking the other way", is one thing, legally.

Although still disgusting.

However, actively planning a cover-up has a word in the English language already: Conspiracy. And generally the punishment is at the same level as the actual perpetrator.

When will we get brave enough politicians to remove the tax-exempt status of ANY "church"???

[olegramps]

11. The Catholic Church has only one objective: Protect their money at any cost.

Virtually every Catholic Church in the country has files that contain admissions of sexual child abuse. Their refusal to release these files and seek out those who have been abused only reveals the absolute corruption that dominates the church. They care less about the well being of those who have been abused and only admit their culpability when they are dragged into court and sued by the victims. Meanwhile thousands of abused victims continue to suffer in silence or as the church hopes that they take their misery to their grave to never be exposed. If indeed the Catholic Church had any regard for all the victims, they would take a proactive position and seek out anyone who could have been abused rather to go to extreme measures to shroud the abuse in secrecy.

This is one of the major reasons that I refuse to attend any Catholic Church function and have cut off any donations. It only came to light after the death of two of my closest family relatives that they had both been abused by the same priest and that the pastor had been notified by their mother. She remained silent until their death because of the boys concern about it being made public. One suffered from depression and committed suicide and the other died in a tragic accident. How many suffer in silence?

[bemildred]

12. Yep, I think we need to take them down a peg. This is egregious. nt