LOS ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on January 23, 2013
It’s factually and morally wrong to assume that criminal charges can’t be brought against current and former top LA archdiocesan officials, especially with tens of thousands of church records about to be released.
We aren’t police, prosecutors or even lawyers. But for 25 years, we’ve seen – in the words of Martin Luther King – “the long arc of history bend toward justice.” We’ve seen secular authorities become increasingly assertive and creative and successful in pursuing sophisticated criminals.
Remember one simple fact and one simple adage:
Al Capone was nailed on tax evasion.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
The irresponsible assumption that Mahony, Curry and others can’t be prosecuted rests on another irresponsible assumption: that their behavior has changed. Can we be more reckless than to assume that these men – who have repeatedly done serious wrong for decades and have entirely escaped penalties – have magically, completely, and voluntarily reformed?
All the policies and panels and procedures and promises made by church officials don’t change one simple truth – Archbishop Gomez and Bishop Curry and others still have the ability, right now, to do exactly as they’ve done for decades in child sex cases.
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