The Caffoe case is in the news again

An article (click on this post's title) in today's L.A. Times says that Cardinal Roger Mahony told the public in October 2005 that a videotape found in Fr. Lynn Caffoe's room in 1992 showed no [homo]sexual criminal activity with boys -- but that Cardinal Mahony had told the Vatican, at least six months before that, that the videotape did show such "criminal behavior."

The article says the Cardinal's lawyer, J. Michael Hennigan, sees no contradiction in the accounts, because at the time Cardinal Mahony spoke to the public, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was under court order not to disclose contents of Fr. Caffoe's personnel file.

Hennigan also says that he thinks Cardinal Mahony has not seen the videotape and that the tape is not in Fr. Caffoe's personnel file and might never have been there.

A lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by four accusers of Fr. Caffoe, 61, is set to begin in August.

Complaints were first lodged against Fr. Caffoe back in 1975. The Times says he left this area in 1994 and the plaintiff's lawyer says she has not been able to find him. Donald Steier is his lawyer.