LOS ANGELES (CA)
ABC News
Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has made it clear he plans to attend the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope. A lot of people don’t like that one bit.
“It sends the wrong message,” said Ken Smolka, one of hundreds of people who were sexually abused by priests in America’s largest archdiocese. ”If Mahony helps choose the new pope, what it says is, ‘Nothing has changed.’”
Mahony is the latest Roman Catholic prelate to have his moral authority compromised because of his poor handling of the sexual abuse scandal during the 1980s and ’90s. But he is not the first.
The scandal in L.A. is similar to the scandal in Boston that eventually led Cardinal Bernard Law to resign as archbishop of Boston. One key difference is that, for years, Cardinal Mahony successfully fought the release of key personnel documents relating to his administration’s handling of abuse cases. Ultimately, a judge ordered their release.
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