LOS ANGELES (CA)
City Watch
Written by John MacMurray
RELIGION POWER POLITICS – Try this for a scenario: when Cardinal Roger Mahony leaves for Rome to elect the new Pope, he may not be coming back. Consider: the current Pope, Benedict XVI, recently announced his resignation, literally giving two weeks’ notice to leave a job that normally lasts a lifetime. He is the first Pope to resign since 1415. Advanced age was given as the reason, but the timing is interesting, coming as several very large Church scandals are breaking. These involve the Vatican Bank, again, and increasing numbers of reported sex abuse cases in Europe and the United States.
Cardinal Mahony, who retired as head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 2011, was recently stripped of his remaining administrative duties for the Archdiocese by his successor, Archbishop Jose Gomez. After reviewing the recently-opened and recently-published Church files detailing sex crimes by Cardinal Mahony’s priests against children, Gomez said he ”was disgusted by what was in the files”.
Cardinal Mahony, however, will be one of the 117 Cardinals meeting in Rome to elect the new Pope; he was also one of the Cardinals who elected Benedict XVI.
And remember that Vatican City is a sovereign city-state. So, he is safe from any prosecution or legal action if the Church wishes to help him.
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