Cardinal Mahony assaulted because of clergy scandal

The LA Daily News reported today that shortly after the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to a massive settlement with victims of pedophile priests that Cardinal Roger Mahony was beaten up outside Cathedral Our Lady of the Angels.

Mahony, 71, revealed the attack during an annual conference in October before hundreds of stunned priests, saying a man assaulted him because of the scandal, according to four priests who attended the conference.

News of the assault comes as the bulk of the church's $660 million settlement with victims began being paid out Monday, with more than $500 million in checks going out in the mail. The settlement with 508 alleged victims was approved by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge July 16.

The attack on Mahony occurred in July near Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles, and it took the cardinal about a month to heal, said the Rev. Sal Pilato, principal at Junipero Serra Catholic High School in Gardena. The cardinal was dropping off letters at a mailbox when he was assaulted, priests said.

"Somebody recognized him and attacked him," Pilato said Mahony told the gathering. "It was shocking because it was an act of violence and it was someone we know and respect."

Mahony declined to comment on the reports.

"Whatever conversation might have taken place between the priests and their bishop was a private conversation and not meant to be public," said Carolina Guevara, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
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Mahony told the priests that after his attacker recognized him, the man began shouting expletives and knocked him to the ground, said another priest who asked not be identified.

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It was not known whether Mahony's attacker was a victim.

Those at the October conference at Our Lady of the Angels said Mahony shared the story about the assault within the context of the sexual-abuse scandal. Priests described the confession as both deeply moving and, because of the violence, disturbing.

Mahony was telling the priests they all had a price to pay for the sexual abuses perpetrated by their brethren when he relayed the story of the assault as an example of the personal toll he's endured, several priests said.

I believe that Cardinal Mahony is sincerely sorry for the behavior some of his parish priests exhibited before and after he took charge of the archdiocese in 1985. I can even accept that church officials thought sending pedophiles to therapy instead of reporting them to police was in the best interest of everyone. But, considering Mahony's legacy, Father Joseph Shea's intimation that he took the attack like a sacrificial lamb -- "Like Jesus, we must offer our lives and even suffer for Christ, even for things we didn't do" -- is a bit sickening.

(Hat tip: Brent Hopkins)

Cardinal Mahony as the serpent and the mayor as Adam

I'm been writing of late about Cardinal Roger Mahony and the LA Archdiocese's massive settlement with 508 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse and about Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's philandering ways.

Well, the LA Daily News put the two together in this cover for the Sunday Viewpoint section. That's Mahony as the serpent and the mayor chasing his adulterous lover Mirthala Salinas through the "Garden of Telemundo." You obviously get the reference.

(Thanks, LAObserved)

LA Archdiocese to sell headquarters

Well, we knew this was coming. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said yesterday it needs to sell up to 50 properties, including its Wilshire headquarters to fund at least $250 million of that $660 million settlement with alleged sexual abuse victims (insurers and religious order pick up the rest). From the LA Times:

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and others have said the archdiocese, which drained its litigation reserve fund in payouts for a partial clergy-abuse settlement in December, will try to avoid harming "essential ministries" and does not plan to sell any parish or school properties.

Still, the archdiocese, the most populous in the country, "will have to be a much leaner operation than it is now," church attorney J. Michael Hennigan said.

Sounds a bit like the problems facing the news business, except, of course, for the sexual perversion.

Cardinal Mahony on Line 1

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has been eating some much-deserved crow since the Archdiocese of LA, which he heads, agreed Saturday to settle for $660 million with about 500 people who had accused Catholic Church priests of abusing them.

He offered this apology at Mass yesterday, and he just got done getting grilled by my former colleague Chris Weinkopf, the Catholic editor over the LA Daily News' editorial pages. Here are some the notes from their conversation (Weinkopf in bold, Mahony below):

I tried to stress the difference between "I'm sorry about what's happened to you" versus "I'm sorry for what I have done." Isn't there an important difference between the two?

That's true, but that's not what (victims are) looking for. They would love to meet the offender and hear him say that. They're looking for an apology from the Church.

On why he didn't call the police when he learned of abuses:

Unfortunately, in those times we just didn't do that as readily, we didn't understand the depth of the problem.... The McMartin trial was first time in the state of California that this whole issue came into the spotlight, into the light of day...

In those days we didn't think of it in those terms. We would send (offenders) to a licensed psychologist, psychiatrist, or therapist we knew and we told the police that if they discovered there really was an abuse that they would notify law enforcement....

Jesuits to pay $16 million for dirty hands

The Jesuit order has agreed to a payout of $16 million to the families of nine children allegedly molested by Father Mark Falvey, who died 31 years ago. Via the LA Times:

"One of his victims, an 8-year-old girl, tried to commit suicide," said the lawyer for the victims, Raymond P. Boucher.

"This guy brought a lifetime of misery to a group of young children. They'll never get over it," Boucher said.

Though the Archdiocese of L.A. was not involved in this settlement, the news two days after L.A.'s Cardinal Roger Mahony announced clergy-abuse lawsuits may force the largest Catholic archdiocese in the country to sell its headquarters and other buildings.

Sex abuse will spur archdiocese to sell headquarters

The LA Archdiocese will have to sell its headquarters and possibly other properties because of the growing costs of fighting and settling lawsuits for clergy abuse, Cardinal Roger Mahony said yesterday. Plaintiffs' attorneys said the doomsday announcement was a PR ploy intended at generating sympathy. Via the LA Times:

"The cardinal has instructed his attorneys to pull out every weapon to try to deny victims a single nickel," said plaintiffs attorney John Manly. He said the church has enough insurance coverage and other assets to settle the cases without unloading real estate. "The notion that the cardinal would have to sell buildings to pay settlements is just laughable," Manly said.

A Mahony spokesman declined to answer any questions about the prospective sales, and an attorney for the archdiocese did not respond to an interview request.

The church has land holdings in Southern California worth an estimated $4 billion, a Times analysis has found.

The 12-story Mid-Wilshire headquarters, donated by Thrifty Payless donated in 1995, is worth more than $40 million. (Some history of the archdiocese's payouts from my blog morgue.)