ST. PAUL, Minn. – Pope Benedict’s reign started at the height of sex scandals in the Catholic church. Eight years later, as he steps down, the issue still plagues him as much as it does the victims. “He didn’t finish his job,” Bob Schwiderski said Monday after he learned about the resignation. Schwiderski was an altar boy for St. John’s Catholic Church in Hector more than five decades ago. It was there he said he was sexually abused repeatedly by a priest. “I was 7-years-old the first time,” he said. The abuse continued until he was 11. He didn’t tell anyone until he was in his 30s and onl…
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Rome (CNN) — The spiritual leader of 1.2 billion Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI, surprised the world Monday by saying he will resign at the end of the month “because of advanced age.” It’s the first time a pope has stepped down in nearly 600 years. “Strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me,” said Benedict, 85, according to the Vatican. Read more: Who is Pope Benedict XVI? The news startled and shocked the Catholic world and …
Pressed to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to settle clergy sex abuse lawsuits, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony turned to one group of Catholics whose faith could not be shaken: the dead. Under his leadership in 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles quietly appropriated $115 million from a cemetery maintenance fund and used it to help pay a landmark settlement with molestation victims. The church did not inform relatives of the deceased that it had taken the money, which amounted to 88% of the fund. Families of those buried in church-owned cemeteries and interred in its mausoleums have …
Clergy Files Produced by Archdiocese of Los AngelesJanuary 31, 2013 Personnel Files of clergy who where subject of the 2007 global settlement have been publicly released and are listed below.
Twelve thousand pages of records are being released by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, documenting decades of child molestation and cover-ups. The documents revealed retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and his top aide’s efforts to conceal the molestations from authorities and shield priests accused of abuse. Cardinal Jose Gomez, in a rare public rebuke of a top church official, stripped his predecessor Mahony of all public and administrative duties. In 2007 the Los Angeles archdiocese reached a $660 million settlement in a civil suit brought by more than 500 victims of sexual abu…
IT is the autumn of 2003, and I am sitting with my wife and teenage son at a large table that is groaning with plates of Mexican food and soft drinks and wine. We’re celebrating my sister’s anniversary, and like most Mexican parties in Los Angeles, a member of a religious order is in attendance to share in the family’s joy. This time, it’s a nun whom I’ve known since I was a student at St. Thomas the Apostle grammar school. I am no longer Catholic, but I admire this tough, compassionate woman who dedicated herself to educating the children of my predominantly working-class Latino neighb…
The release of thousands of pages of church files showing how Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and other top Los Angeles Archdiocese officials dealt with priest molestation cases has generated outrage and anguish at parishes across Southern California. But for victims of abuse, there is also the pain of learning details of how top church leaders tried to cover up the scandal. Matt Severson says that as a boy, he was abused by Father Michael Baker. Severson was a plaintiff in the record civil settlement over church abuse a few years ago. The release of the files has him reliving what happened decades…
Joseph Pina remained employed by the L.A. school district for more than a decade despite warnings about his sexual history, according to interviews and records.
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A former priest allegedly named in the Los Angeles Archdiocese Catholic church sex abuse scandal may be employed by the Los Angeles Unified School District, CBS2 has learned. In documents released by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles last week, CBS2’s Louisa Hodge reports that 129 pages outline Joseph D. Piña’s alleged sexual abuse of a young girl years ago. After the alleged abuse came to light, Hodge reports that Piña was sent to a psychiatrist for evaluation in which he told one therapist he saw his sexual relationship as a “boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.” Foll…
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles released 12,000 pages of internal files last Thursday on priests accused of sexually abusing children, saying that it was finally abiding by a settlement it signed with victims six years ago to make the painful history public. But it now appears that the files the church released with much fanfare are incomplete and many are unaccounted for, according to the abuse victims’ lawyers. In addition, on many documents the names of church supervisors informed of abuse allegations were redacted by the archdiocese, in apparent violation of a judge’s o…
A trove of confidential church files detailing how the Los Angeles archdiocese dealt with priests accused of molestation must be released “as soon as possible” and include the names of Cardinal Roger Mahony and his aides, a judge ruled Thursday. In a written order, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Emilie H. Elias gave the church a Feb. 22 deadline to turn over about 30,000 pages of internal memos, psychiatric reports, Vatican correspondence and other documents. “Let’s just get it done,” Elias said in court Thursday. Her order brought to a close five and a half years of legal wranglin…
The archdiocese of Los Angeles learned in the late 1970s that one of its priests had sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy so violently that he was left bleeding and “in a state of shock.” The priest said he was too drunk to remember what happened and officials took no further action. But two decades later, word reached Cardinal Roger M. Mahony that the same priest was molesting again and improperly performing the sacrament of confession on his victim. The archdiocese sprang to action: It dispatched investigators, interviewed a raft of witnesses and discussed the harshest of all church penalti…
Earlier this month, a state judge ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to include the names of church leaders who mishandled sex-abuse claims when it finally releases scores of confidential priest files as part of a 2007 settlement. Yet despite that court order, the archdiocese has continued to act as if the rules don’t apply to it. This week, the church resubmitted a proposal that would have redacted the names of top church leaders from the documents and only provided the names of those officials in a generic cover sheet attached to the priest’s file. The church’s actions we…
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez announced Thursday that Cardinal Roger Mahony would have a reduced role in the church and that Santa Barbara Bishop Thomas J. Curry has stepped down from that job amid recent revelations over their handling of the priest abuse scandal in the 1980s. “Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. 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 Regiona…
SAN FRANCISCO – A California man is suing a regional Boy Scouts council, alleging he was sexually abused by his scout leader more than 30 years ago. Coast Guard veteran Mark Dietrich filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Solano County Superior Court claiming the scoutmaster of his Vacaville-based troop frequently molested him between 1978 and 1981. The suit claims that Boy Scouts officials at the local and regional level knew the scoutmaster had inappropriate contact with other boys. Deitrich’s lawyer, Irwin Zalkin, would not provide further details. Neither the Boy Scouts’ Golden Empire Cou…