Archbishop Mahoney and L.A. Church Leaders sought to hide sex abuse cases from authorities

[Moonwalk]

From here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-church-files-20130122,0,3114631.story

Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including keeping them out of California to avoid prosecution, according to internal Catholic church records released Monday.

The archdiocese's failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.

I'm sure this is no big surprise to anyone. In one memo, said advisor writes to Mahoney about the problem of sending one pedophile priest to a therapist to help him with his problem: ""I see a difficulty here, in that if he were to mention his problem with child abuse it would put the therapist in the position of having to report him ... he cannot mention his past problem." Below this Mahoney's handwritten response: ""Sounds good —please proceed!!"

[Angry Dragon]

1. Prison for them

treat them like everyone else

[dhill926]

4. + infinity.....

[longship]

2. How is this not surprising to me? nt

R&K

[Moonwalk]

3. I know. That is the saddest, most infuriating thing of all, I think, that it's no surprise--

--that all this merely confirms what we already knew. I almost wondered if I ought to post this as the "latest news" as it's really not news at all.