They lied as bad as any thug or ex-con I've ever come across - Det. Gary Lyon
Rodger Mahony, the former Cardinal of the archdiocese of Los Angeles, now lives in the rectory of a parish in North Hollywood. He should be in prison. Mahony systematically designed victims of clergy sex abuse justice by deliberately hindering police investigations. He also protected priests that he knew were continuing to abuse children. Why? Because he was meant for bigger things. Because he was meant for an important biography. Because he was destined for greatness.
That a priest could molest a child would no longer have surprised Mahony. Less than a month after he started work in L.A., the first letter regarding an abuser priest landed on his desk. Two days later, he was dealing with the case of a second molester priest.
Baker was the ninth.
For decades, such allegations had made their way to the archdiocese's headquarters. But for the most part, the men who wore the miter before Mahony did little in response. Letters from irate parents gathered dust in file cabinets. Priests were quietly transferred.
Mahony knew the larger church was just starting to confront clergy abuse. In 1985, after a molester priest caused a scandal in Louisiana, U.S. bishops held a closed-door session on abuse at their annual conference.
Read more: For Rodger Mahony, clergy abuse cases were a threat to agenda by Harriet Ryan, Ashley Power and Victoria Kim
The Los Angeles archdiocese is the largest in America. Mahony focused his energy on hiding abuses and defusing potential scandals. History will remember his as an enabler who protected pedophiles.
