LOS ANGELES (CA)
Myrtle Beach Online
By MATT STEVENS, HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS AND LAURA J. NELSON – Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — Msgr. Robert J. Gallagher stood before parishioners at St. Charles Borromeo Church on Sunday, searching for the right words to reassure them after a tumultuous week that saw the release of previously secret personnel files on priests who molested children, the public rebuke of Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and the resignation of a Santa Barbara bishop.
“Everybody has to face sin and God’s grace in their own life,” Gallagher told members of the North Hollywood parish that Mahony has called home since he retired two years ago. “And we do it as a community when we try to bring things into the light.”
Mahony was not present as Gallagher acknowledged parishioners’ range of emotions since Thursday, when the files were released and Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez relieved the cardinal of all public duties and announced that Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry had stepped down.
“I’m sure some of you are still mightily angry, some confused, some would like to see something done differently,” Gallagher said. “The important thing for us to remember, I think, is that there have been victims … young people whose lives were ruined…. They need a sense that they are being invited back into God’s grace.”
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