{"id":2172,"date":"2013-02-01T06:05:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/"},"modified":"2013-02-01T06:05:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T06:05:00","slug":"la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"LA archbishop relieves Cardinal Mahony of duties, asks prayers for abuse victims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 31, 2013 \/ 11:05 pm (CNA<\/a>).- Los Angeles Archbishop Jos\u00e9 H. Gomez has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties after the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse decades ago.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe need to acknowledge that terrible failure today. We need to pray for everyone who has ever been hurt by members of the Church,\u201d the archbishop said in a Jan. 31 statement.<\/p>\n

\t\"And we need to continue to support the long and painful process of healing their wounds and restoring the trust that was broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tArchbishop Gomez noted that \u201ceffective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony\u201d \u2013 who served the archdiocese from 1985 to 2011 \u2013 \u201cthat he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe statement additionally announced that Bishop Thomas Curry of Santa Barbara has stepped down.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAuxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as Vicar for Clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regional Bishop of Santa Barbara.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cTo every victim of child sexual abuse by a member of our Church: I want to help you in your healing. I am profoundly sorry for these sins against you,\u201d the archbishop said.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe will continue, as we have for many years now, to immediately report every credible allegation of abuse to law enforcement authorities and to remove those credibly accused from ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tOn Jan. 21, the Los Angeles Times published a story saying that 25 years ago, in the late 1980s, archdiocesan officials tried to hide sex abuse cases from police. The paper's story is based on personnel files dating from 1986 and 1987 which were filed as evidence in pending litigation involving two former priests.<\/p>\n

\tMuch of what the L.A. Times discussed were memos between Cardinal Mahony, and then-Monsignor Curry, who was vicar of clergy at the time. Msgr. Curry was consecrated a bishop in 1994, and since that time had served as one of the auxiliary bishops of the Los Angeles archdiocese.<\/p>\n

\tIn his statement Thursday, Archbishop Gomez confirmed the release of files of priests who sexually abused children while they were serving in the Los Angeles archdiocese.<\/p>\n

\tMost of the documents have already been made public as part of the \u201cReport to the People of God\u201d created by the archdiocese in 2004. The documents include psychiatric records, investigative reports, letters of complaint, and private correspondence, many of which are now 20 years old.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThese files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious,\u201d Archbishop Gomez said.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil,\u201d he added, \u201cthere is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cReading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I\u2019ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\tArchbishop Gomez also announced that in the weeks ahead, \u201cI will address all of these matters in greater detail. Today is a time for prayer and reflection and deep compassion for the victims of child sexual abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe 2013 public release of the files of clergy who were subject of the 2007 global settlement, \u201cconcludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our Local Church,\u201d Archbishop Gomez explained upon the release of the personnel files.<\/p>\n

\tThe archdiocese is releasing 124 files with names. Of this number, 82 files have information on allegations of childhood sexual abuse and 42 files have no information on allegations of childhood sexual abuse. However, \u201cproffers\u201d \u2013\u00a0 which are summaries of personnel files that were determined by the Court to be complete and accurate \u2013 have been provided in those instances.<\/p>\n

\tThere are approximately 12,000 pages in the files being released, in compliance with the court orders. According to the archdiocese, \u201cmedia reports that there were 30,000 or more pages were inaccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe archdiocese has made the clergy files publicly available on its web site<\/a>, and noted that \u201csad and shameful as the past history of sexual abuse is, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles can point to more than a decade of modern child protection efforts that are among the most effective in the nation at preventing abuse and dealing with allegations of abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tEach one of the 287 parishes and schools has a Safeguard the Children Committee, and all adults who supervise children are required to undergo VIRTUS abuse prevention training, and must submit to background checks and screening.<\/p>\n

\tCatholic school students and children in religious education programs also undergo age-appropriate abuse prevention instruction.<\/p>\n

\tPriests, deacons, school faculty and administrators, and other staff members in parishes and schools are mandated reporters, and regularly receive training in how to report suspicions of child abuse or endangerment to civil authorities.<\/p>\n

\tAdditionally, the Archdiocese continues to reach out to victims of abuse and their families through our Office of Victims Assistance Ministry. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\tIn his Facebook page<\/a>, Archbishop Gomez wrote late on Thursday: \u201cFriends, today is a time for prayer and reflection and deep compassion for the victims of child sexual abuse. I entrust all of us and our children and families to the tender care and protection of our Blessed Mother Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of the Angels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 31, 2013 \/ 11:05 pm (CNA).- Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties after the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse decades ago.<\/p>\n

\t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nLA archbishop relieves Cardinal Mahony of duties, asks prayers for abuse victims<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 31, 2013 \/ 11:05 pm (CNA).- Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties after the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse decades ago. ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LA archbishop relieves Cardinal Mahony of duties, asks prayers for abuse victims\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 31, 2013 \/ 11:05 pm (CNA).- Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties after the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse decades ago. ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-01T06:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/\",\"name\":\"LA archbishop relieves Cardinal Mahony of duties, asks prayers for abuse victims\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-01T06:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-01T06:05:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 31, 2013 \/ 11:05 pm (CNA).- Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties after the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse decades ago. ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"LA archbishop relieves Cardinal Mahony of duties, asks prayers for abuse victims\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"LA archbishop relieves Cardinal Mahony of duties, asks prayers for abuse victims","description":"Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 31, 2013 \/ 11:05 pm (CNA).- Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties after the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse decades ago. ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"LA archbishop relieves Cardinal Mahony of duties, asks prayers for abuse victims","og_description":"Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 31, 2013 \/ 11:05 pm (CNA).- Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties after the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse decades ago. ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2013-02-01T06:05:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/","name":"LA archbishop relieves Cardinal Mahony of duties, asks prayers for abuse victims","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-02-01T06:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-02-01T06:05:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 31, 2013 \/ 11:05 pm (CNA).- Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties after the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse decades ago. ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/02\/la-archbishop-relieves-cardinal-mahony-of-duties-asks-prayers-for-abuse-victims\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LA archbishop relieves Cardinal Mahony of duties, asks prayers for abuse victims"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}