Wempe verdict "an indictment of Mahony"
Jurors in Los Angeles on Wednesday convicted retired Father Michael Wempe of one count of homosexual abuse of a minor in the mid-1990's. They deadlocked on the four other counts. An additional trial is possible.
"This is less an indictment of Wempe than of Mahony," said Richard Farnell, according to the Los Angeles Times. Farnell represents six of the 13 victims whom Wempe has admitted homosexually abusing, plus Jayson B., the accuser in the just-concluded trial.
"[Mahony] obviously did not do the right thing," Farnell said. "He covered up for his own selfish benefit.... He knew Wempe was a pedophile and instead of doing the right thing, which called for law enforcement to be contacted, Mahony put him out there and failed to warn parishioners."
Cardinal Mahony assigned Wempe to the chaplain's office at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after sending him for "psychiatric treatment" in New Mexico.
After the verdict, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called on Wempe to "disclose to the police, prosecutors and the public what he knows about Cardinal Roger Mahony and [C]hurch officials' cover-ups of sex crimes..."
We can expect more sex crimes convictions of molester priests whom Cardinal Mahony knowingly reassigned. Next month, the Cardinal must travel to Rome for the new consistory that Pope Benedict XVI has called. For the sake of the Church, he should apologize to the Vicar of Christ and submit his resignation as Archbishop of Los Angeles.
"This is less an indictment of Wempe than of Mahony," said Richard Farnell, according to the Los Angeles Times. Farnell represents six of the 13 victims whom Wempe has admitted homosexually abusing, plus Jayson B., the accuser in the just-concluded trial.
"[Mahony] obviously did not do the right thing," Farnell said. "He covered up for his own selfish benefit.... He knew Wempe was a pedophile and instead of doing the right thing, which called for law enforcement to be contacted, Mahony put him out there and failed to warn parishioners."
Cardinal Mahony assigned Wempe to the chaplain's office at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after sending him for "psychiatric treatment" in New Mexico.
After the verdict, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called on Wempe to "disclose to the police, prosecutors and the public what he knows about Cardinal Roger Mahony and [C]hurch officials' cover-ups of sex crimes..."
We can expect more sex crimes convictions of molester priests whom Cardinal Mahony knowingly reassigned. Next month, the Cardinal must travel to Rome for the new consistory that Pope Benedict XVI has called. For the sake of the Church, he should apologize to the Vicar of Christ and submit his resignation as Archbishop of Los Angeles.
posted by Quintero at 9:45 PM
6 Comments:
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For a long time I've been trying to understand this: Fr. Michael Baker told Cardinal Mahony he had molested some children.
If you knew for a fact that someone had molested children and you knew that you and the molester were likely the only adults with that knowledge, what would you do?
Ignore the children altogether, not give a thought to addressing their hurts and needs, not give a thought to their families' right to know about the abuse so that their families might protect and help them????
Who would ignore the innocent victims like that? Who would?
Would a shepherd, a "prince" of the Catholic Church totally ignore the children, not seek them out to help them and their families at all? Would a shepherd ignore the smallest and most innocent of his
sheep and instead go comfort the wolf????
I didn't use to think so.
Who would do that?? And what man of integrity, shepherd of the church, "prince" of the church, having made such a vastly consequential and offensive error, would not stand up in a true act of honor, courage and character, to offer his resignation?
What man would not?
Dear Kathryn,
You have said a mouthful. Thank you for your moral clarity, and thank you for writing. Please keep coming back!
Kathryn, you have raised some excellent questions.
As to the cardinal's resignation, I'm afraid they'll have to drag him kicking and screaming from his office in the chancery when the time comes. I can't imagine him standing up and doing the honorable thing.
By the way, he turned 70 yesterday (February 27), so we now have 5 LONG years to wait for the healing to begin in Los Angeles.
Cardinal Mahony seems to have a very difficult time grasping the notion that civil law applies to him as well. Personnel records are not confessions; there is a difference between legal and illegal migrants.
It is time for our elected leaders to stop treating this man as though he was above the law. He has neither a civil or ecclesiastical leg to stand on in his defense. Only his ego allows him to think otherwise.
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