LOS ANGELES (CA)
OpEd News
By Dave Lefcourt
OpEdNews Op Eds 2/4/2013
“Protect the Church at all costs”. That would represent the true official policy of the Catholic Church.
Unfortunately, the latest “news” coming out of the Archdiocese of Los Angele reveals something more familiar. On Thursday “12,000 pages of once-confidential personnel files of more than 100 priests accused of abuse” was posted on its web site after a Los Angeles judge ordered them released.
The archdiocese was given three weeks to make the documents public but chose to release them immediately,(one supposes as some “act of valor” considering it had previously stonewalled all efforts to release the files with 5 – years of legal wrangling). Too bad the Church hierarchy hadn’t taken immediate action when their priests molesting of children first became known, but that’s an old story.
In this latest revelation of church hierarchy “dirty laundry”, one of the documents came from the “Servants of the Paraclete”, a Catholic order in New Mexico tasked with rehabilitating abusers. They advised the L.A. Archdiocese, “PLEASE DESTROY THESE PAGES AND ANY OTHER MATERIAL YOU HAVE RECEIVED FROM US”, (written and emphasized in all CAPS). This was sent in a letter to Cardinal Roger Mahony in 1988 detailing “therapist’s reports about a prolific molester”. The letter ended with, “This is stated for your own and our legal protection”. Other released documents indicated Mahony ignored the New Mexico’s Orders advice. Yet those therapy memos were the most detailed in describing the behavior of priests who had been sent to this facility for “rehabilitation”. (Note: the “Servants of the Paraclete” facility has since been closed (date unknown) but according to lawyer for the Order he indicated in a 2011 civil court filing all treatment records had been destroyed).
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