BishopAccountability.org
	To Begin Healing, Archdiocese Must Hold Back Nothing Inland Valley Daily Bulletin [California] October 15, 2005 In the Catholic sacrament of reconciliation, three conditions must be met for a confession to be valid: The penitent must be truly sorry, must hold back nothing and must be willing to do penance to rectify the situation. These three conditions would seem to be a good standard by which to evaluate Cardinal Roger Mahony's latest ''confession" – his release of records documenting the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' handling of priestly sexual-abuse cases over the course of decades. And by these standards, Mahony falls far short of what's needed to reconcile with the people wronged by the archdiocese's shameful protection of predator priests. Mahony says he is truly sorry, and charity says we should take him at his word. But he's done a poor job of expressing his contrition. This month the cardinal sent a letter to 1,200 archdiocesan priests apologizing for his handling of defrocked priest Michael Baker, who for years preyed on children while he was shuffled from parish to parish. But why apologize merely to priests and not directly to the families and other faithful scandalized and harmed by these actions? As for not holding anything back, here, too, the cardinal seems to come up short. The archdiocese only released the latest information after years of foot-dragging, and even now, the documents have been heavily edited. They exclude key information, like the names of the church officials directly responsible. The documents name 126 priests accused of sexual misconduct, 17 of whom served in Pomona, La Verne or Claremont. The 17 include three Pomona church pastors, two of them monsignors, and five teachers at Pomona Catholic High School or Damien High School. As a group, they served in the area as early as 1943 and as late as 1984, so no Inland Valley priest of the past 21 years is listed. Several former parishioners registered shock and disbelief at some of the names on the list. As one said, accusation is not conviction. Finally, there is the matter of penance, of making amends for past transgressions. No matter how much money the archdiocese ends up paying in settlement claims, it will never begin to properly atone for its failings until officials accept full responsibility and come clean with the public. These are preconditions of winning back the trust of a people whose faith in the clergy has been badly shaken. A valid confession isn't a public relations exercise for defusing controversy, it's about reconciliation. And in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, there will be no reconciliation until there's a lot more openness and candor.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.