Years of neglect revealed in Los Angeles Archdiocesan documents; Mahony must be prosecuted for his neglect

By KEVIN CANESSA Jr.

LOS ANGELES —

Roger Mahoney
Retired LA Archbishop

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese this week released a staggering 142 files of priests who were accused of some form of priestly sex abuse on minors. The archdiocese cooperated with the courts in the release.

What can be found in most of the reports reveals an unthinkable culture of lies and coverups. The man in charge, Roger Cardinal Mahony, reveals an utter disdain for having to deal with the accused priests — and in many cases, it appears Mahony wants to do everything within his grasps to ensure the police weren’t involved.

In many cases, the archbishop appears to think all it would take to get the victims to shut up was to “offer them counseling at no cost.” 

Overall, the documents reveal a man who was utterly clueless, a man who truly didn’t realize what a problem his archdiocese was faced with, a man who was extremely ill-equipped to deal with such a crisis — and a man who had absolutely no business running America’s largest Catholic archdiocese.

Since the documents were released, Mahony has been fully stripped of all public duties as archbishop emeritus.

But this is simply not enough.

We’re seeing 142 cases here. Many of Mahony’s actions are criminal in nature. And quite frankly, he must, at some point, be prosecuted for protecting priests, for just re-assigning priests and for permitting countless priests who were accused to go back into ministry elsewhere, rather than facing justice.

Aguilar-Rivera, who fled
to his native Mexico
after being accused
of sexual abuse.

Justice these kids (now adults) so dearly deserve.

Because these cases have finally been released to the public, it is our intention, over the coming months, to share stories about each of the 142 priests whose cases were released. 

We will take them, one by one, starting with the Rev. Nicholas Aguilar-Rivera, a Mexican native whose presence in the Los Angeles Archdiocese led to the abuse and innocence being taken from two youngsters. 

It’s going to take months to do this — but this is an undertaking I want to take on for the sake of the victims — the very people who deserved justice, but who were completely forgotten about by Mahony.

The series will begin in the coming days. Please check back for more.