My Thoughts on the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Settlement
On the eve of a civil trial that would have exposed the Catholic Church in Los Angeles to more damage than a lawsuit, Cardinal Mahony settled with the victims of clergy abuse for $166 million. Essentially, Mahony knew it would be cheaper for him to pay $166 million rather than allow the public access to the sordid stories of priest abuse surely to be found in the priest personnel files. While the settlement includes turning over these files, Los Angeles may follow the Archdiocese of Portland's lead when they were forced to do the same thing. Prior to turning over the documents, officials in the Archdiocese of Portland so sanitized and purged the files, few vestiges of the truth were left for public view. The real story in this settlement is that Mahony bought his freedom with the faithful's money. He also was able to avoid the public relations nightmare his testimony at a public trial would bring. As always, the real heroes and heroines in this saga are the survivors who mustered the courage to come forward in what must have seemed to them as a David and Goliath scenario.