LOS ANGELES (CA)
KABC
Q McCray
LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The sex abuse scandal surrounding Catholic priests was addressed at all Roman Catholic churches in Los Angeles on Sunday.
A letter from Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, which was made public Thursday, was read during services at all L.A. churches. In the letter, Gomez expressed his sadness and disappointment about the scandal and the sex abuse files released this past week.
“These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious,” Gomez says in the letter. “I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed.”
In the letter, the archbishop announced that retired Cardinal Roger Mahony no longer had any administrative or public duties.
More than 12,000 pages of documents concerning 124 priests were released on Thursday, and another 14 cases were released earlier.
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