The Shocking Ways California Catholic Church Officials Protected a Priest Who Molested 26 Kids

[marmar]

Ms. Magazine / By Stephanie Geske

The Shocking Ways California Catholic Church Officials Protected a Priest Who Molested 26 Kids
The priest preyed on immigrant children, threatening them with deportation.

January 28, 2013 |


Confidential letters between Los Angeles Catholic church officials that had been withheld for decades–despite long efforts by victims to obtain them and stonewalling by the Church–were released Monday after becoming part of a civil court case against a priest accused of molesting 26 Los Angeles children in the 1980s.

The notes from then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and Monsignor Thomas J. Curry, published by the Los Angeles Times, have provided even more insight as to how sexual- abuse accusations against priests have been covered up for years. The notes detail plans by the two men to keep police from discovering that children were being molested in Los Angeles parishes, with Curry suggesting the predator priestsnot see therapists who could then alert authorities; instead, he wanted to give priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal charges. Curry was the chief advisor to the Archbishop on sex-abuse cases at the time.

One priest discussed in the released files was Msgr. Peter Garcia, who tended to abuse undocumented children because he could keep them quiet by threatening to have them deported. He went to a treatment center for pedophile clergy in New Mexico, but left the priesthood in 1989 after returning to Los Angeles and refusing to take medication to contain his sexual urges toward children. Never prosecuted, he died in 2009.

Mahony’s own notes indicate that, while he was disturbed by the abuse and sent priests to treatment centers, he did little to investigate the priests or discover if there were additional victims. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/shocking-ways-california-catholic-church-officials-protected-priest-who-molested-26-kids

[lame54]

1. You mean - the "Used to be shocking" way

[hrmjustin]

2. 26 kids and these people protected him.

No moral authority at all!

[Angry Dragon]

3. off to prison with them