“Sounds Good, Please Proceed!”

According to recently released church records, this is Cardinal Roger Mahony’s response to the sexual abuse response strategy concocted by one of Mahony’s priests as they strived to conceal the sexual abuse of one of the priests of the Archdiocese.

According to the NY Times, Cardinal Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 until his retirement in 2011, was the archbishop who “fought longer and more energetically” than any other bishop in hiding the sexual abuse crisis that has wreaked havoc on the Catholic Church.

The Times reports, “Sounds good — please proceed!” the cardinal, now retired, instructed in 1987 after the aide, Msgr. Thomas Curry, cautioned against therapy for one confessed predator — lest the therapist feel obliged to tell authorities and scandalize the archdiocese. The two discussed another   priest, Msgr. Peter Garcia, who admitted specializing in the rape of Latino immigrant children and threatened at least one boy with deportation if he complained. Cardinal Mahony ordered that he stay out of California after his release from a New Mexico treatment center out of fear that “we might very well have some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors.” Monsignor Curry worried that there might be 20 young people able to identify the priest in “first-degree felony” cases.”

Ten years ago I had a lengthy interview with two detectives from LA who were on Cardinal Mahony’s trail, and I told them what I knew. Based on what they had back then, and what NY Times writes about here, I am surprised the Cardinal has never been indicted.