When ‘Clearing the Air’ Just Leaves Fog

I’ve never been in the public relations business, so Cardinal Roger Mahony can feel perfectly free to ignore the advice I have for him regarding the sex abuse scandal. But it seems to me the Los Angeles archdiocese is in desperate need of assistance.

In an effort to “clear the air,” Mahony met with a Los Angeles Times reporter this week, which was a very good idea on his part. But it seems to me that “clearing the air” entails answering some questions, and as reporter Larry B. Stammer pointed out in his story, the cardinal did not exactly knock the ball out of the park in this regard.

It would have been nice to finally find out how many priests Mahony dismissed recently, so we don’t have to keep referring to a number between six and 12. Heck, it would have been nice to at least have the span narrowed a little. I mean, Mahony could have said, “OK, it’s between seven and 11 priests, or between eight and 10.” Over the course of several weeks, taking little steps, he might have gradually worked his way to the truth.

But no. We got nothing out of him.

I’ve seen a memo that suggests the number is eight. If it’s true, what does the cardinal have to lose from sharing this with us? By not telling us the real number, we’re left with no choice but to wonder if maybe it’s even more than between six and 12.

Maybe it was between eight and 14. Or maybe the cardinal doesn’t even know himself, and is embarrassed to admit it.

Now here’s another question: Was it out of line for me to think that in clearing the air, the cardinal might actually explain what these six to 12 priests did, where they did it and to whom?

Can’t we at least get ballpark figures on the number of victims? Was it between six and 12, 12 and 24, or 24 and 48?

Again, nothing but stonewalling.

If you’re not going to answer basic questions, all you accomplish is to keep getting those very questions tossed back at you.

I know this to be true because just Thursday, I e-mailed the cardinal a few questions that have been gnawing at me.

To name just one, I still don’t understand how an undisclosed number of priests, some of whom the cardinal admits have been through the criminal justice system, only recently became a matter of concern.

I thought a zero-tolerance policy was just that, and then we find out that known sex offenders were hanging around doing who knows what?

The cardinal e-mailed me back to say he wasn’t answering any of my questions.

His prerogative, of course. But it’s just not good PR.

The cardinal did tell Stammer he’s concerned that releasing any names would invade the privacy of the victims, which sounds wonderfully compassionate and even makes perfect sense until you consider that we don’t publish the names of sex abuse victims unless they want us to.

So I don’t know what to think, except that maybe the archdiocese isn’t providing the names of these sex offenders for a reason other than all-around warmth and goodness.

Maybe the diocese is afraid that the priests who were still on the payroll had multiple victims, and that if the names were published, it would bring more lawsuits.

“Cardinal Egan released all the names in New York, and I’d like to see Mahony do the same thing,” Sue Griffith said Thursday as she prepared to leave her home in Long Beach and join in a demonstration outside archdiocese headquarters.

“As names get out there, victims are coming forward, and they’re the ones who have been suffering in silence and in pain, secrecy and shame.”

Griffith speaks from experience.

“I am the mother of the first victim of Father Ted Llanos to come forward in Long Beach. Because we were finally able to get his name out, 20 more victims came forward.

“Cardinal Mahony says his policy of taking care of the victims has been in place since 1988, but in our case the church used every legal technique available to keep it from going public.

“When I met with Cardinal Mahony, I told him: ‘You know, out of everyone in the church we’ve talked to about the molestation of our son, nobody was outraged, and you’re not either.’ He said, ‘I used to be outraged; now I’m just saddened.’”

With that, Griffith headed into Los Angeles to keep the heat on, a mother on a mission, asking nothing more than the truth.

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Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at steve.lopez@latimes.com.