LOS ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents – BishopAccountability.org]
Posted by David Clohessy on January 23, 2013
Two groups that deal with clergy sex abuse are asking the top Catholic official in Los Angeles to demote one of his highest ranking staff members.
Leaders of BishopAccountability.org and of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing Archbishop José H. Gomez, urging him to discipline Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, who was implicated in newly-released church records about pedophile priests.
“It’s bad enough to deceive parents, parishioners and the public. It’s even worse to deceive police and prosecutors. Bishop Curry has done both,” said Joelle Casteix, SNAP Western Regional Director. “He should be fired, censured or demoted immediately.”
In memos from 1986 and 1987, between then-Msgr. Curry and Cardinal Roger Mahony, then the leader of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Curry offers suggestions on way to prevent and circumvent investigations by police of priests who had admitted abusing young boys. His tactics included avoiding therapists who might alert authorities and sending priests to assignments out of state.
“This is an opportunity for Archbishop Gomez to make a clean break with the failed policies of his predecessor, Cardinal Mahony,” said Terence McKiernan, President of BishopAccountability.org, a website that archives Catholic abuse documents. “The documents show that Auxiliary Bishop Curry’s management of the Wempe, Baker, and Peter Garcia cases was immoral and likely illegal. At a time when managerial malfeasance has been judged criminal in Philadelphia and Kansas City, Archbishop Gomez must do the accountable thing: remove Bishop Curry from his positions of power and make a full disclosure of the archdiocese’s previous obstructionist practices.”
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