LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Jerry Filteau | Feb. 1, 2013

In an action possibly without any precedent in church history, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez has barred his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, from any public ministry in Los Angeles.

“Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties” Gomez said in a Jan 31 letter.

He cited Mahony’s alleged failures to protect young people from sexually abusive priests – extensively documented in court filings in recent years – as grounds for the extraordinary decision, in church terms, to bar the cardinal from any future public activities in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011 and a cardinal since 1991, has long been one of the leading church figures in the United States, a leader in justice for farmworkers, immigrants…