LOS ANGELES (CA)
AFP
LOS ANGELES — The Catholic Church has an opportunity to begin to excise the “cancer” of sex abuse under its new pope, a US victim who just won a $1 million settlement and his lawyer said Thursday.
Michael Duran, who says he was raped repeatedly by a Californian priest in the mid-1980s, urged Pope Francis to defrock Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, one of those who chose the new pontiff, for allegedly covering up abuse.
He is one of four victims who received a combined $10 million from the Catholic archdiocese announced earlier this week, after the papal conclave started but before Wednesday’s historic election of a new pope.
“I think this is a great opportunity for the Catholic Church to make amends to all the victims, and really implement some real procedures and some structure in the hierarchy to protect children worldwide,” he told AFP.
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