Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez announced tonight that Cardinal Roger Mahony has been relieved of all public duties and that he has accepted the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, who served as Vicar for Clergy under the cardinal.
“Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties,” said Archbishop Gomez in a letter posted on the archdiocese’s website. “Auxiliary 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.”
The archbishop’s decision comes following the recent court-ordered release of archdiocesan documents that implicated Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Curry in a widespread coverup of sexual abuse on the part of priests.
“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” Archbishop Gomez said in the letter. “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.”
“I cannot undo the failings of the past that we find in these pages,” said the archbishop. “Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I’ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011.”
To read the archbishop’s full letter, click here.
Wow! Good for Archbishop Gomez!
But according to Can. 357 §2 of the Code, a cardinal isn’t subject to the governance of the local bishop. Gomez can make all the announcements he wants, and I suspect Mahony will graciously accept the archbishop’s discipline, but legally he doesn’t have to comply.
Abp Gomez has full authority of everything ‘Catholic’ within his own Archdiocese of LA.
Please re-read the Canon that you used. Cdl. Mahony is living WITHIN (not outside) Mahony’s own Diocese, and therefore your application/interpretation does not apply.
Please read my post below regarding Cdl. Mahony’s posts held at the Vatican. The Vatican can be the only one who removes him from these posts.
Impressive!!!
Cardinal Mahoney’s Chickens are finally coming home to roost. Its very sad. However I have to ask how much did Archbishop Gomez know before it all became public?
Good grief mchica. Do you even have to go there?
Cdl Mahony knew it all, as he is the one who signed off on the cover up, and also instigated the cover up. Did Cdl Mahony report to a “boss”? Let’s find that out too.
HOW IS IT THAT Cdl Mahony IS STILL CONSIDERED A PRIEST IN GOOD STANDING? “Updated at 9:44 p.m.: An archdiocese spokesman, Tod Tamberg, said that beyond cancelling his confirmation schedule, Mahony’s day-to-day life as a retired priest would be largely unchanged. He resides at a North Hollywood parish, and Tamberg said he would remain a “priest in good standing” and continue to celebrate Mass there.]” He should NOT be celebrating public Mass! It is scandal for him to celebrate Mass and distribute Our Lord to the faithful. I’m shocked and totally disgusted! Cardinal Mahony should lose his ranking of Cardinal! It is because of his rank that he was able to place disordered priests in positions and places where they could continue to harm the littlest of God’s lambs, so, he should lose his rank.
Concerning Pope Leo IX’s letter to St. Peter Damian: “Pope Leo IX took concerning the ultimate responsibility of the offending cleric’s bishop or religious superior. If the latter criticized or attacked this apostolic decree, he risked losing HIS rank! Prelates who fail to “attack vice, but deal lightly with it,” share the guilt and sentence of the one who dies in sin, the Pope declared. [68]”
Loriane, The priests you speak of are NOT “disordered” as if it were a medical condition. The Church uses the term “disordered inclination” as a philosophical and spiritual sense that the homosexual inclination is “not ordered to” to goods of the nuptial union with is the union between husband and wife, and procreation.
“Disordered inclination” is one of the terms used by the Church, but another is sodomite, and another is homosexual. And we should not forget the terms “unforgiveable sin” and “sin against the Holy Ghost”.
And as in most cases, you Skai misinterpret the meaning of these words. Additionally, you do not use these words appropriately. For instance, quote for all of us here the Church Magisterial document that uses the term “sodomite” during the last 50 years.
Mr. Tamberg was Cdl. Mahony’s hatchet man, fiercely (and, we now find, dishonestly) attacking anyone who dared criticize the cardinal.
Has Mr. Tamberg apologized? Has he kept the names of those victims on 3×5 cards?
And why in Heaven’s name does Tamberg still have “administrative duties” at the chancery? His “update” merely rubs salt into the wounds of the victims and the scandalized faithful — and it doesn’t help his new boss’s efforts to clear the air, either.
Very good point about Tod Tamberg. He has been Cardinal Mahony’s protector and media man for years! Maybe the two of them should go off to a monastery somewhere and never be heard from again.
That’s what they did with the bishop of Santa Rosa, whose name I don’t know…
Maybe you should model Christian love and forgiveness.
Praying that Tod Tamberg is on the short list for being relieved as media representative for the LA Archdiocese (or any diocese for that matter). He is ‘exhibit A’ for being part of the liberal left-leaning, bishops’ ‘handlers.’ By protecting evil-doers and their evil deeds, Tod has contributed much to the the damage and destruction of this diocese, along with scandalizing the faithful.
The next step should be for Mahony to be defrocked and face criminal prosecution.
I’m hoping and praying that there will be prayerful and peaceful urging of Archbishop Gomez by Los Angeles Catholics to have Cdl Mahony removed from any public ministry, celebration of Mass and to encourage the civil authorities to bring Cdl Mahony to justice.
The sodomites have infiltrated the Church. They are who Pope Paul VI was referring to when he lamented that “through a fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God”; and who Pope Benedict XVI was referring to when he lamented the “filth” in the Church.
The clarity of Abp Gomez’ denunciation of these two bishops looks like a green light for the D.A.
Book em Dano!!!!
Defrock and prosecute ……………….
At once!
Finally, a bishop (Cardinal Mahony) being called to account!!!
Am I dreaming???
They sure have been doing this to priests who were guilty (and, sadly, many who innocent but accused by some nut), but the bishops always get away scot free. Or are given some gorgeous basilica in Rome and a hefty income, like that Cardinal Lawless…
We should be consoled by the fact that Cardinal Mahony has a higher judge to answer to, who’s punishment is sever and eternal to those who do not do penance for their offences. I don’t think this is over for the Cardinal or the Bishop. They still may be flogged to your satisfaction!
No one is looking for flogging, JFK. Trying to cast aspersions upon the injured and outraged is an ancient trick, but we have all been to school, we know what your term implies, and we decline to accept your implication, thanks just the same. The criminal justic system is sufficiently soft and full of fissures in the United States to allow criminality to flourish, even in our churches, and I don’t expect full justice until Judgment Day for Cdl Mahony, Bp Curry, and anyone else who was complicit in this outrageous abuse of our children.
God Bless ArchBishop Gomez for doing the right thing within the Archdiocese of LA and the USA.
Cardinal Mahony still sits on three Vatican offices: the Congregation for Eastern Churches, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See.
He will normally keep those positions until the retirement age of 80.
When asked by Catholic News Service in Rome if Archbishop Gomez’s action to relieve Cardinal Mahony of administrative duties will affect his role with those offices, Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi responded only by stating that the “measure taken by the archbishop naturally regards his archdiocese and not other duties that Cardinal Mahony has received from the pope in the Roman Curia.”
It is time for all of us to write to the Vatican, and the US Papal Nuncio in DC.
We will see where the Vatican stands. Perhaps Cardinal Mahony will voluntarily resign from these posts?
Would anyone actually let him onto a plane? They should withold his passport so that he does not run away, like Cardinal Law, from Justice.
Too little, too late. At least he’s out of there, anyway. But the damage has already been done.
A nice gesture, although one might ask: why now? Has the Archbishop not looked at these files before? This aside, what is needed is an entire cleansing of this Archdiocese. The clergy should be re-educated into what it means to be Catholic and how best to teach it to others. Masses must all be focused on faithfully and carefully and reverently adhering to all rubrics; the TLM needs to be embraced and made fully part of all Cathecism, and each Sunday mass schedule in each parish. All sacraments must be made availabe in their traditional form. Seminaries must adhere to Veterum Sapientia. With the N.O., all elements that give scandal, or are out of the ordinary must be eliminated: no more dancers, weird music, and the like. All communion must be given on the tongue, and with communicants kneeling; wherever possible, Mass should be Ad Orientum. In this way, children and adults will begin to learn about their Faith (as will a number of clergy), and the need to conform to God’s will (and not just “to be nice” or that “all religions are the same”), or be prepared to face the consequences. Will Bishop Gomez do this? Not likely, but perhaps the Holy Ghost will intervene.
Just as Michael Rose wrote a book GOODBYE GOOD MEN, so should someone write a book entitled GOODBYE EVIL BISHOPS. There certainly have been more than enough of them around, especially since Vatican II. Ave Maria Purrissima!
Can anyone explain to me why Tod Tamberg — who was in the thick of the PR campaign to keep secret what has now been revealed — even now remains an “official spokesman” of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles?
Fr. Bob and Christopher, thank you for bringing up Mr. Tamberg. I agree with you both. I think that many of us realize that there are more individuals than just Mr. Tamberg who need to be removed from the chancery and other positions of power in the L.A. archdiocese. Let’s face it, the archdiocese was loaded with likeminded supporters of Cdl. Mahony. Our prayers should only be increasing at this point. Proud people never give up their power easily.
We should pray that people who are obedient to Church teaching will be identified and replace many of Cdl. Mahony’s appointments. These people are out there. Many of them were once active in their parishes and even the chancery, but were suppressed and marginalized by the progressive leaders educated by the Mahony regime. These individuals, who haven’t already fled the archdiocese, need to be sought out and encouraged to return to duty. Still others, who thought it pointless to get involved in the first place, need to step up as well. I know this will all take some time. I just pray that Archbishop Gomez will have the courage to make the necessary changes.
The Archbishop should do a systematic investigation and find out exactly who knew what in which place, parish or diocese, priest or lay person or religious and if anyone was involved, no matter the level of involvement, small or big, they need to go. The Diocese should totally rid itself of this cancer.
This in my opinion stems from St. John Carmallilo and some other seminaries, especially the north american college in Rome. Some very dubious characters come from that place in Rome, not all of them but lots of them. That is where the lare is. This is why these men were supposedly formed to become holy.
I have some extensive background information from the cardinal’s earlier efforts in Los Angeles. There is a very interesting video from 1997 where the Cardinal, Bishop Blaire, Bishop Zavala, Fr. Jim Schexnayder and Fr. Peter Liuzzi spoke in favor of gays and lesbians and their place in the Catholic Church. Of course that was before all the predator problems, and before Bishop Zavala was found to be “married”, and before Fr. Schexnayder and Fr. Liuzzi admitted that they were “gay”.
Keep in mind that the majority of the sex abuse cases with priests are those who are abusing young men, not children. That makes them pederasts.
So, this Catholic cardinal, two bishops, and two priests – in one video alone – were promoting sodomy by encouraging the gay lifestyle. How despicable!!
Marie, is the video on YouTube?
Tracy, I checked YouTube for this video. The copy I have is titled only “NACDLGM Conference 1997”. This group is the “National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries”, which was superseded in 2008 with the name “Catholic Association for Gay and Lesbian Ministry”. They are the same cast of dissident characters.
The video is not on YouTube. The producer was Rick Flynn. He is the same person who in 1992 produced “A Journey for Understanding: Gays and Lesbians in the Church”, a masterful pro-gay piece of propaganda starring Archbishop Mahony, Bishop Stephen Blaire, and some of the characters who participated in the desecration of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1989. You can Google “A Journey for Understanding” to read more about this (from the dissident point of view primarily) .
You can see a video that has to do with CALGM by going to YouTube and entering “CALGM” and looking for the “rainbow sash” (another dissident Catholic group). The video is produced by the “Gay Sash Movement” a group which is stating that they agree with CALGM’s “stand as stated on their web site that Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being.” It is a masterful piece of gobbeldygook that rivals the duplicity of “Always Our Children”, another Schexnayder production.
Reading Cardinal Mahony’s blog, I get the feeling he does not understand the magnitude of his crimes.
Its amazing such a man is actually a Cardinal. He does not know when to shut up.
sorry, wrong forum
Cardinal Mahony Writes
“When you (Archbp. Gomez) were formally received as our Archbishop on May 26, 2010, you began to become aware of all that had been done here over the years for the protection of children and youth. You became our official Archbishop on March 1, 2011 and you were personally involved with the Compliance Audit of 2012—again, in which we were deemed to be in full compliance.
Not once over these past years did you ever raise any questions about our policies, practices, or procedures in dealing with the problem of clergy sexual misconduct involving minors.
I have stated time and time again that I made mistakes, especially in the mid-1980s. I apologized for those mistakes, and committed myself to make certain that the Archdiocese was safe for everyone.”
He (Cardinal Mahony) is now trying to show how bad Archbishop Gomez is to deflect attention from himself.
This man needs to realize he cannot go on harming the Church like this.
I hope that this also means Mahony will now not be able to attend USCCB meetings to speak and vote. His aging and dying cabal of Modernist liberals still put up a fight with their many speeches and are an influential voting bloc.
This means Mahony cannot officiate at confirmation ceremonies, cannot say mass publicly and will not be going to as many power lunches in Beverly Hills, in a spacious sedan, complete with chauffeur… welp… them’s the breaks….
What Archbishop Gomez has done is outstanding, he should be commended. He realizes that with mahony running around the city, in a spacious sedan, going to power lunches in Beverly Hills and saying mass publicly, it will continue to make mahony a source of derision and shame… out of sight, eventually becomes out of mind… won’t have to see ol’ Rog on television anymore, with his arm around some big-wig benefactor from Hancock Park, basking in the glory of his “station”…
“Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties,”
Love the sound of it. Archbishop Gomez is strong man willing to go against a Cardinal of the Church. With the many Mahony liberal friends out there His Excellency José Gomez is telling us he does not mind putting his own red hat on the line for the good of the Church.
Without support of the Arcdicese’s lawyers Mahony and Curry might end in jail even after paying 660,000,000 for a settlement. The LA Times is not going to relent unless we could turn the discussion to the perversion of homosexuals preferring young boys.
God’s justice will be served in behalf of the victims, primarily those many young adolescents abused and the many who have become disgruntled and lost their catholic faith and perhaps their souls on account of so many pedophile priests scandals in these modern times. The modernists/liberals will do their utmost to include and denounce the pre-Vatican 2 days (1950s) as being equally or if not worse guilty of having pedophile priests; but I contend it is a lie to defend the decisions and changes invoked by Vatican 2 and to denounce Holy Mother the Church and Her clergy before the Vatican 2 Council convened. Yes, by far the greater numbers of abuses occurred during the 1960s through the early 2000s, (and still is going on today) mostly by priests ordained in the new holy orders, but some by a few priests ordained before Vatican 2 convened; however I would contend that most of these old priests fell into the sin of pedophelia after the 7 Holy Latin Sacraments were changed thus rendering the modern clergy with little to no sanctifying grace and consequently which many in the clergy could no longer be strong and remain holy. Pray for holiness and purity in the clergy, and a return to the 7 Holy Latin Sacraments.
No, Mbûkû Kanyau Mbithûka, you are right on target: Cardinal Mahony is in denial of his crimes.
He keeps blaming “the way things were done back then,” but transferring a child molester to a new, unsuspecting community is a bad idea, a crime, a sin, no matter what century you live in!!!
Yes, that is true if he did it, and there does seems to be evidence that it happened.
I do not know if it was a crime by law at that time, but I do know there was a moral responsibility to warn people in the next diocese that accusations had been made and to establish a no adult alone with a child policy in all dioceses. Some of the accusations were probably false, and that does complicate the matter and make it harder to discern, but it is better to err on the side of caution than to just keep moving such men around — Keep them away from children and teens until the facts are brought out.
I am certainly happy that Archbishop Gomez is looking into this horrible situation, and I pray that God give him excellent wisdom and discernment, but I will let him and those wiser than I about this situation decide Archbishop Mahony’s fate. Only those who have all the evidence really can determine what it should be.
Ever heard of the expression that men stick together? I wonder if that applies also from faith based situations?
I’m an absolutely stunned that Archbishop Gomez has done this.
I think every Catholic in California, and especially every reader of this blog, ought to offer a Rosary on the archbishop’s behalf and write a thank you letter to him. I never thought I would live to see the day that a California bishop would break the “old boys’ club” that has suffocated the Church here.
Yes, I will write Archbishop José Gómez in gratitude for this heartwarming change in direction for our huge Archdiocese.
Viva his excellency Archbishop Gomez!
My wife and I will pray for you daily… on your spiritual mission, guiding the archdiocese of Los Angeles…
Yet another excellent article thanks for the tips and great read.
When Archbishop Jose Gomez says he cannot undo the failing of the past obviously he is saying that he would if he could. I can suggest a critical failing of the past that could be undone to some degree by initiating a strong campaign to revive the pro-life activities of the Archdiocese and the surrounding areas. I believe Southern California still suffers from the actions of the Tidings! The voice of the oldest and largest Archdiocese in the country; they virtually announced to their readers and others that one could be pro-choice and still be a Catholic in good standing! On August 18, 1995, 20 long years ago, the Tidings ran a full front page color photo of Leon Panetta, the large headline read, A Catholic in the House; it was subtitled…
A Catholic in the House; it was subtitled Leon Panetta, The President’s Chief of Staff, Talks About Faith Issues! Panetta was extolled in three full pages as a Catholic in the White House, the story included his statement, “government ought to allow families the room to make that (abortion) decision.” Writers for Life at prolifedigest.com.
Why is Cardinal Roger Mahoney given a place of honor on the Archbishop’s LA Diocese web site?
https://www.la-archdiocese.org/cardinal/Pages/default.aspx
What does this say about Archbishop Gomez and his public statements, merely lip service ?