LOS ANGELES (CA)
Vatican Insider
Archbishop has come out in support of Cardinal Mahony’s participation in the conclave to elect the next pope, thereby rejecting widespread demands from organizations representing victims of abuse by priests that this not happen
Gerard O’Connell
Rome
In a highly significant move and in the midst of a ferocious controversy in the USA, the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose H. Gomez, has publicly expressed his support for Cardinal Roger Mahony’s participation in the conclave that will elect the next Pope.
He did so in a letter to the priests of the LA archdiocese on February 15, in the midst of a heated debate in the USA and elsewhere in which organizations representing victims of abuse by priests demanded that Cardinal Mahony not participate in the conclave because of his alleged role in the cover up of 129 cases of abuse in the LA archdiocese where he was archbishop for many years.
In his letter, Archbishop Gomez invited the LA priests to join him in extending their “prayers and warm wishes for Cardinal Roger Mahony as he prepares to travel to Rome to exercise his sacred duty as Cardinal Elector of our next Pope.”
As a cardinal, he said, “Cardinal Mahony has all of the prerogatives and privileges of his standing as a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church”.
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