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Cardinal Roger Mahony removed from public life by LA Archbishop Gomez

Action taken in response to ‘evil’ Church attempts to police investigations

PATRICK COUNIHAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, February 1, 2013, 7:05 AM

Updated Friday, February 1, 2013, 11:20 AM

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Cardinal Roger Mahony has been retired from public life following sexual abuse cover up

Photo by Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

A Catholic Archbishop has described the efforts of the American church to thwart police investigations into clerical sex abuse as ‘terribly sad and evil’ – after he banned Cardinal Roger M. Mahony from public life.

The Los Angeles Times has revealed that new documents show that Cardinal Mahony has been removed from all public office by his successor Archbishop José H. Gomez.

Cardinal Mahony was leader of America’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese when Archbishop Gomez took initial action two years ago as the church complied with a court order to release thousands of pages of internal documents that show how the cardinal shielded priests who sexually abused children.

The report says that the documents, released as part of a record $660 million settlement in 2007 with the victims of abuse, are the ‘strongest evidence so far’ that top officials for years purposely tried to conceal abuse from law enforcement officials.

The newly released papers date from the 1940s to the present and offer new proof that the Catholic Church continued to maneuver against law enforcement even after the extent of the abuse crisis emerged.

The paper reports that Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, the vicar for clergy and one of the cardinal’s top deputies and his adviser on sexual abuse, also stepped down as the regional bishop for Santa Barbara, Calif.

Church leaders had fought for years to keep the documents secret according to the LA Times and argued that the names of top church officials should be kept private.

Curry recommended in a series of letters in the 1980s how the American church could stop police from investigating priests who admitted that they had abused children.

He suggested priests stop seeing therapists who would be required to alert law enforcement about the abuse.

Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Curry have publicly apologized in the past but claimed they were naïve at the time about the effectiveness of treatment for abusers and the impact on victims.

Archbishop Gomez, in a letter released on Thursday, has admitted that the files are ‘brutal and painful reading’.

He wrote: “The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil.

“There 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. We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today.”

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See more: Irish American , Sexual Abuse in Ireland , Irish Catholic Church , Irish Catholic Priest

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Ranger | Feb 15, 2013, 10:49 PM EST

Very well, Jacersagain, go your way in peace. I have shared with you the truth, but what I will not share with you is my identity, there is a reason you do not hear of priests placed in privileged positions who share such knowledge and escaping with their life, I was fortunate protected in a miraculous way. I do not know my fate, but I have already accepted it in God, I pray for the strength to endure. I have prayed for you and your family. What I have shared with you is essentially nothing for at your level you could not comprehend or accept the darkest details. I have no fear because God will deal with the church, they have been tested and found to be lacking in faith and charity. You may hold your opinions as you feel for no one can change another’s feelings. But judged me in several years when I know the Church like all its other false apparitions will attempt to raise another wonder worker convincing him as they did to Padre Pio when he was more innocent and gullible that he needs to act out this role in order to save Christ‘s church for the world is being lost. If it doesn’t occur you can ridicule me as a false prophet. Then you can say that demons outsmarted me, or more the truth that God had spoken to me and my wife. May you be dedicated to your beliefs by attending mass in heartfelt prayer on Sundays and holy days of obligations and as a good catholic go to confession regularly at least monthly although indirectly the church recommends it every two weeks which was my practice growing up with a father who was a staunch believer. We prayed the rosary regularly after dinner and many other devotions. Go in God’s peace.

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Ranger | Feb 15, 2013, 10:49 PM EST

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jacersagain | Feb 15, 2013, 02:17 PM EST

Ranger – thanks for last posts but I have difficulty with them (as I’ve had with your earlier ones). Despite what you say, I am not convinced that you have been what you claim to have been - i.e. a monk with duties “high-up in the Vatican” who has now abandoned the Catholic Faith, saying there was never a person called Jesus Christ despite the historical evidence, both written and non-written, and all the on-going proofs of The Risen Christ, Alive in the Holy Eucharist in our world today. There is something in the composition of your posts that suggests “Ranger” is not all what he claims to be and may in fact be someone positing himself as a once-was "high-up" Vatican monk just for the “heck” of it, attempting, on false premises (a trait of S8tan’s), with quiet, sweet “respectful” language to spread doubt amongst Faithful Catholics posting here on Irish Central with your own posts. Sorry, Ranger, but it doesn’t work with me. Next time I’m in front of the Holy Tabernacle or at Benediction or simply paying a visit to any of the many Expositions of Holy Eucharist in any of the RC chapels in my locality, I won’t fail to think of you and your family. If, however, you really are what you claim to be then may I say “May your God go with you”. This jacers is “over and out” for Ranger.

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Ranger | Feb 14, 2013, 08:34 AM EST

Final note to Jacersagain, I was not hoping to break the cultic brainwashing in this dialogue, I simply wanted to see how entrenched modern Catholics are regarding their religion since most do not practice and do not adhere to all the doctrine. I work hard in the world now to support my family, but I still maintain a civil tongue and continue my daily prayer to God. You have helped understand the levels of control still working in the church to maintain its existence. In a few years, 2016 the church will raise up another fake saint like Padre Pio who will be a so called wonder worker. The church must do this every so often in order to survive.

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Ranger | Feb 14, 2013, 08:24 AM EST

Jacersagain, i was a monk where prayer was my main reason for being and I eventually became a priest working at high levels in the church, how else would I know that many bishops do not believe in Christ or even in God? In fact, the current pope knows very well how the church was formed and he knows that the Christ figure is a myth. Certain Vatican insiders are familiar with each other beliefs and activities behind closed doors. You can be star struck by what the pope writes or what he says, but look to his actions which proclaim boldly what he truly believes. NO pope would dare get off the cross and refuse to complete his mission unless he has no faith. It is an act of abandonment and a refusal to follow Christ’s radical attachment to God’s will. There are many ungodly reasons why the pope is doing this, but many will just accept his reasons as sacrificial and charitable for they do not detect what he is really like, he is a very bad man. I know many monks and priests and most do not believe in the Eucharist, not only from what they have said, but more clearly by their actions. The church is extremely corrupt and I am more aware of the workings of the church more so than most priests that ever lived, the faithful would be flabbergasted if they know what really goes on since its inception. I was also a professor of Sacred Scripture and the real facts and history are hid from seminaries.

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Ranger | Feb 13, 2013, 08:42 PM EST

I was a monk and priest working at high levels in the church, how else would I know that many bishops do not believe in Christ or even in God? In fact, the current pope knows very well how the church was formed and he knows that the Christ figure is a myth. Certain Vatican insiders are familiar with each other beliefs and activities behind closed doors. You can be star struck by what the pope writes or what he says, but look to his actions which proclaim boldly what he truly believes. NO pope would dare get off the cross and refuse to complete his mission unless he has no faith. It is an act of abandonment and a refusal to follow Christ’s radical attachment to God’s will. There are many ungodly reasons why the pope is doing this, but many will just accept his reasons as the truth for they do not detect what he is really like, he is a very bad man. I know many monks and priests and most do not believe in the Eucharist, not only from what they have said, but more clearly by their actions. The church is extremely corrupt and I am more aware of the workings of the church more so than most priests, the faithful would be flabbergasted if they know what really goes on. I was also a professor of Sacred Scripture and the real facts and history are hid from seminaries. I was not hoping to break the cultic brainwashing in this dialogue, I simply wanted to see how entrenched modern Catholics are regarding their religion since most do not practice and do not adhere to all the doctrine. I work hard in the world now, but I still maintain a civil tongue and continue my daily prayer to God.

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jacersagain | Feb 12, 2013, 06:22 PM EST

(…more for Ranger) One evening, while in prayer before the Holy Eucharist, I too realised my time had come to leave the Exposition of the Eucharist, to get out there in the world, help spread the Good News of Christ's Love and Compassion for all and hopefully help to recall those who, like me, once left the Church. As our present Pope Benedict said, “We are all sinners… open to Christ’s Love and Compassion as sinners” – i.e. as people who, having heard the Word, reject the very existence of Christ and His call to “Follow Me”. >>> I’d love to write more but instead may I suggest you quietly visit a nun or monk or priest or bishop, even a retired bishop or even our retiring Pope in his new home to discuss your views and doubts (just knock and the door will be opened, seek and you will find; ask and you’ll be given the keys to the Heart of Jesus...). After all, I’m merely a man of the street and can’t help you much on ICentral pages, which is why, sometimes, my derisive language is of that of the streets that St. Paul knew, with apologies if, in its Truth, it offended you or anyone else. Indeed, I agree with your “All Praise to Him...” - it’s no wonder we say in front of the Holy Tabernacle, even if in a moment we are just passing a Church, “All Praise and all Thanksgiving be every moment Thine”.

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jacersagain | Feb 12, 2013, 06:13 PM EST

Ranger - I know the doubt you have, it's common amongst practising Catholics to be assailed by it; I and many others were and are still too. You know how that staring at a wall for long enough will drive anyone near mad? Well, methinks that's what happened to you in front of the still "wall" of the Holy Tabernacle of the Holy Eucharist, except that I suspect you had the shield of S*tan placed between you and the Holy Eucharist so as not to see the beauty in the Eucharist any longer, at least for now. Don’t worry about that… I too was almost blinded by rotation of prayers, spending many hours before the Holy Eucharist but not, like you, during my childhood or teenage years. I'm a lay person, was never a member of a monastery or priesthood, was an ordinary bloke who became Catholic-church married husband and father, now a widower with three sons. By my own choice, I attended Holy Sacrament Expositions as an adult and a parent by then but not because I was a parent – just by my own free choice and desire. (More…)

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jacersagain | Feb 12, 2013, 06:09 PM EST

Ranger - I know the doubt you have, it's common amongst practising Catholics to be assailed by it; I and many others like you were and still are. You know how that staring at a wall for long enough will drive anyone near mad? Well, methinks that's what happened to you in front of the wall of the Holy Tabernacle of the Holy Eucharist, except that I suspect you had the shield of Satan placed between you and the Holy Eucharist not to see the beauty in the Eucharist any longer, at least for now. Don’t worry about that Ranger… I too was almost blinded by rotation of prayers, spending many hours before the Holy Eucharist but not, like you, during my childhood. I'm a lay person, was never a member of a monastery or priesthood, was a Catholic-church married husband, now a widower with three young sons. By my own choice, I attended Holy Sacrament Expositions as an adult and a parent by then - but not because I was a parent – just by free choice and desire. (More…)

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Ranger | Feb 11, 2013, 06:28 PM EST

Jacersagain, I was extremely dedicated to the Eucharist spending hours and years praying before the Eucharist more so than all my peers. It was there that God let me know that He is not present as I was taught. It took me some time to wrestle with such revelation, but then everything fell together and made such perfect sense. That is when I began to research in a more objective way not drinking in the Church propaganda. The evidence proving Jesus is not a real person is so vast it cannot be refuted. Many know this in the church. I was so dedicated to the sacraments since a child and I thank God for letting me know the truth. All Praise to Him forever!!!

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jacersagain | Feb 09, 2013, 07:59 PM EST

Pls pardon me double post! Pls?

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jacersagain | Feb 09, 2013, 07:56 PM EST

No Ranger... you've got it wrong again, with you failing to acknoledge mthe proofs I and others give you, though I acknowledge your truthful statement about God alone. If you want to make an issue of whether Jesus, the human Son of God, was a real person, or why his followers' and His Apostles' tombs are out there in the real world to be found today, or why Christians are still to be found in our world today desite all the attacks being made on them today, just as in the early days of Christianity 2000 yrs ago, as will happen in the future, or why I believe in Jesus at all, take your argument to the hearts of Christianity in Russia, China, Turkey, Australia, Italy, Egypt, India, Philippines, Mexico, Cuba, Jerusalem and lots of other places. Most of all, perhaps more sensibly and at no cost, take your argument to the sanctuary of the sanctity of the Holy Eucharist, living in a Tabernacle quite close to you. Bother your barmying ass to get there and seat it before Christ The King. He will welcome your butt being in His Presence, alone.

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jacersagain | Feb 09, 2013, 07:50 PM EST

No Ranger... you've got it wrong again, though I acknowledge your truthful statement about God. If you want to make an issue of whether Jesus, the human Son of God, was a real person, or why his followers' and His Apostles' tombs are out there in the real world to be found today, or why Christians are still to be found in our world today desite all the attacks being made on them today, just as in the early days of Christianity 2000 yrs ago, as will happen in the future, or why I believe in Jesus at all, take your argument to the hearts of Christianity in Russia, China, Australia, Italy, Egypt, India, Philippines, Mexico, Cuba, Jerusalem and lots of other places. Most of all, perhaps more sensibly and at no cost, take your argument to the sanctuary of the sanctity of the Holy Eucharist, living in a Tabernacle quite close to you. Bother your barmying ass to get there and seat it before Christ The King. He will welcome you.

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Ranger | Feb 06, 2013, 06:10 PM EST

Jacersagain,you will not make your points any more important or clever by insults and derision. By your vulgar attitude I would bet that you do not attend the sacraments regularly if at all. Your defense has little or nothing to do whether Jesus Christ was an historical person. God alone heals and He pays no attention to whether a person is duped or misinformed He looks to the heart

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EphraimKibbey | Feb 04, 2013, 11:04 PM EST

Thanks McNamara31, I just finished watching "Mea Maxima Culpa Silence in the House of God" on HBO and all I can say is WOW! I learned so much and it was so well done. It looks like it is on one of several HBO channels the rest of the evening and morning and then repeats at 1:30 PM on the 7th. To think that the Vatican has been hiding this at least as far back as the records of the Inquisition is astounding. Maybe the Crimes Against Humanity charges against the Pope will finally bring some results and the publicity will definitely send warnings into the third world countries where the code of silence has yet to be broken.

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