LOS ANGELES (CA)
Wall Street Journal
By ALEXANDRA BERZON
In 1992, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony ordered immediate administrative leave for a priest who was accused of molesting a boy in 1976, but officials supported the priest for years and apparently didn’t report the case to authorities, despite being told that the priest had confessed to sexual relations with boys, according to documents released Thursday night by the archdiocese.
The priest had been interviewed by church officials and initially denied the allegations, but officials wrote to Cardinal Mahony that they believed the accuser’s story.
“Administrative leave at once is indicated in this case—complainant’s allegations are too serious,” Cardinal Mahony wrote in December 1992. The priest, John Dawson, was sent to a series of treatment centers and later admitted to sexual relations with boys, according to treatment providers. Cardinal Mahony later said he would never be allowed back into ministry.
Mr. Dawson, who has been removed from the priesthood, lives in Albuquerque, but couldn’t be reached at two numbers listed as his in church documents, or at two other numbers.
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