[Bret L]

((Personally I think Mahony ought to pull a "Crazy Irving" and shred
all the ****ing documents himself, on a weekend, then head to Italy
and retire to the Vatican, which as a Prince of the Church is his
right. He'd be as beyond prosecution as the innumerable loxers in
Isntreal who do the same exact thing. Bret.))

Easter 2010: My Return To The Catholic Church Stalls

By Joe Guzzardi

"Last Easter, I wrote about taking my first tentative steps toward
returning to the Roman Catholic flock from which I have been estranged
for nearly 50 years.

Readers mailed encouraging messages. One urged me to attend the
traditional Latin Mass offered at Pittsburgh’s St. Boniface Church, a
suggestion that I immediately followed up on.

I wasn’t surprised that being inside the church comforted me.
Catholicism played a central role throughout my formative years.

Although my father was a baptized Catholic, neither my mother nor her
children (my two sisters and myself) were. Eventually, she decided to
convert. We took the mandatory catechism classes, parish priest Father
Francis Osborne visited our home regularly and eventually we were
baptized.

Shortly thereafter I became an altar boy with dreams of becoming a
priest. When my parents were remarried in the Catholic Church, I
served at their Mass.

Throughout my early childhood and into high school, I attended Roman
Catholic schools, took more catechism and studied Latin.

In short, Catholicism was deeply ingrained into me and even during my
periods of deepest doubts about its validity I cannot easily dismiss
it.

Who knows how much further along I would be in my return—if it were
not for Roger Cardinal Mahony, one of the most blatant illegal alien,
Open-Borders advocates and an untried criminal for his role in
covering up his priest subordinates who sexually abused minor boys and
girls. Mahony’s record of deceit dates back to the early 1980s.

What brings Mahony back into the forefront is the Mass he offered at
the Capitol Hill March 21 illegal alien rally coyly named “March for
America”

There, along side of the Service Employees International Union, Janet
Murguia, Ali Noorani and U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, stood criminal
enabler Mahony advocating for the his lawbreaking friends.

Comprehensive immigration reform is, said Mahony, “right and true”—as
if he has any moral authority on immigration or any other subject.
[Immigration reform is right and just, By Cardinal Roger Mahony,
Washington Post, March 19, 2010]

In the opinion of many, including me, Mahony belongs in jail.

And, now that Mahony will turn the mandatory retirement age of 75 next
February, that’s just where he may be headed.

According to church protocol, when Cardinals reach 75, they are
required to submit their resignations to the Vatican. The Pope has the
option to permit the Cardinal to continue in his post, should he
choose to, or accept his resignation.

Vatican insiders speculate that Mahony has approved a coadjutor bishop
recently selected for him by the Holy See. This news and the new
Cardinal’s name will be, according to rumor, publicly announced
“soon.”

But retirement may not save Mahony from prosecution.

That will depend on whether Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley
makes good on his promise to continue to thoroughly investigate and
vigorously prosecute sexually abusive priests in the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles. Included are those who protected the priests including
Mahony.

For nearly a decade, Mahony has been defensive and defiant. He’s
steadfastly refused to respond to demands for the names of known
priest offenders and the internal church documents that identify them.

Years ago, Cooley promised Ron Russell of Los Angeles’ alternative
newspaper the New Times that “his office intends to go beyond merely
prosecuting a few priests accused of abusing children to pursue
criminal misconduct within the nation’s largest Roman Catholic
archdiocese ‘wherever it leads.’”

(If you wonder why Cooley spoke to the New Times and not the Los
Angeles Times, the answer is simple. The LA Times in the early stages
of the investigation never had an interest in exposing Mahony’s deceit—
presumably because it supports his political liberalism and efforts to
destroy Catholicism.)

When Russell asked Cooley if that means Mahony himself may conceivably
become the target of a criminal probe, the district attorney pointedly
replied: ”No one is above the law.’

"Cooley declined to speculate about how many current and former
priests within Mahony’s sprawling archdiocese—which includes Los
Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties—may ultimately be
charged. He pledged , however, to bring guilty clerics and those who
criminally protect them to justice “whether the number turns out to be
in the single digits, double digits, or triple digits.”



[D.A. Steve Cooley Says He'll Take His Investigation of Cardinal
Mahony's Pedo-Priests "Wherever it leads", By Ron Russell, New Times
L.A., July 11, 2002]

Added Cooley:

“We intend to be thorough and cautious. We want to make sure the
evidence we gather is not suppressed [in court].We’re only at the
beginning of a very long and detailed investigatory process.”

If the public wants an idea of how Cooley intends to prosecute those
for whom there is sufficient evidence, he pointed them to the case of
Father Richard Allen Henry who molested four boys from the same
family. Cooley convicted Henry convicted and sent him to prison for
eight years—the first priest so sentenced.

Despite agreeing in 2008 to a record-setting $660 million settlement
with more than 500 alleged victims of clergy abuse, no figure in the
Catholic Church’s worldwide involvement in the pedophilia scandal has
been more elusive than Mahony who has blocked numerous attempts by
prosecutors and plaintiffs' attorneys to gain access to internal
church documents. [Judge Approves $660 million Abuse Settlement,
Associated Press, March 7, 2008]

Even the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board criticized Mahony for
what it termed “resisting disclosure.”

Although the criminal process is slow, don’t discount Cooley.

Several years ago, while working with the district attorney’s staff, I
met Cooley. His prosecutors were engaged in what then seemed like the
impossible task of pressuring Mexican authorities to change a 2001
Mexican Supreme Court decision that barred the extradition of killers
facing life sentences in the United States.

Key to Cooley’s efforts was his department’s creation of the website
EscapingJustice.com that highlighted the outrageous refusal of Mexico
to cooperate by exposing the stories of victims whose killers fled to
that country.

In 2005, largely because of Cooley’s efforts, the Mexican Supreme
Court overturned the previous decision and allowed criminals facing
life terms to be extradited. Several murderers have since been
returned, including the killer of Sheriff’s Deputy David March.

During the week leading up to Easter Sunday, Mahony has now delivered
the ultimate insult to whoever remains among his faithful.

On his blog, Mahony posted his response to disapproval about how then-
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (and future pontiff Pope Benedict XVI), as
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF),
handled the case of Rev. Lawrence Murphy who sexually abused more than
200 students at a Milwaukee school for the deaf.

Reports claim that the priest was “protected” from laicization in the
1990s by the CDF. (Vatican Axed Trial for Priest Accused by Deaf Boys,
by Nicole Winfield, Boston Globe, March 25, 2010)

Wrote Mahony:

“Without the proactive and helpful assistance of Cardinal Ratzinger
and the Congregation over these years, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles
would never have been able to move forward aggressively to remove
priests from ministry who were proved to be guilty of the sexual abuse
of minors.”

[Cardinal Mahony praises Pope’s swift response to Los Angeles abuse
cases, Catholic News Agency, Mar 31, 2010]

Mahony, other Cardinals like New York’s retired Edward Egan, who was
once quoted as saying that 19 victims of sexual abuse is not “a
significant number”, and now possibly the Pope, all of whom claim to
take the moral high ground on immigration while turning their backs on
innocent sex abuse victims makes it tough for me to make a case for
returning to the church.

Despite it all, I remain open-minded—in large part because of readers
who urged me not to give up; and because of other Catholics that I
know are charitable, loving people.

What I need to spur me on is a sustained news cycle without Roman
Catholic advocacy for open borders—or more scandalous, stomach-
churning accounts about sexual acts perpetrated on children that are
so vile that my mind can barely grasp them.

Since it seems unlikely that I will get either, let alone both, my
inner struggle remains unresolved."

Joe Guzzardi [email him] is a California native who recently fled the
state because of over-immigration, over-population and a rapidly
deteriorating quality of life. He has moved to Pittsburgh, PA where
the air is clean and the growth rate stable. A long-time instructor in
English at the Lodi Adult School, Guzzardi has been writing a weekly
column since 1988. It currently appears in the Lodi News-Sentinel.

[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

On Apr 4, 6:24*pm, Bret L wrote:

I thought we'd all agreed that you're a verbose moron.

[GeoSynch]

Jilly pondered, got scalped, then retreated to her rathole:

I thought

Since when?

we'd all agreed

What do you mean "we," Kemosabe?

that you're a verbose moron.

And you're a morose vermin.

[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

On Apr 4, 7:39*pm, "GeoSynch" wrote:
Jilly pondered, got scalped, then retreated to her rathole:

I thought

Since

Yes, I agree. Since forever.

we'd all agreed

What do you mean "we," Kemosabe?

Thinking people. I wasn't talking to you.

that you're a verbose moron.

And you're a morose vermin.

I meant that thinking people had agreed.

That automatically excludes you.

You may now continue your toe-tapping, Senator Sugar.

[GeoSynch]

Jilly just loves being humiliated:

I thought

Since [when?]

Yes, I agree. Since forever.

SCORE! CHA-CHINGHH!! :-)

[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

On Apr 4, 7:58*pm, "GeoSynch" wrote:
Jilly just loves being humiliated:

I thought
Since [forever]
Yes, I agree. Since forever.

SCORE! CHA-CHINGHH!! :-)

Agreed.

We also agree that you're "too busy" to read anything but software
manuals and that you have therefore self-selected yourself into that
group of those whose learning activities have entirely ceased.