Mahony Regrets Transfer of Priest

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said Friday he erred when he transferred a priest accused of molesting children to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center about 14 years ago without telling hospital officials about the allegations.

In his first public comments on a sex abuse case involving the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Mahony said he never should have assigned Father Michael Wempe to Cedars-Sinai without informing hospital officials that he had removed Wempe from his parish and ordered him to a New Mexico treatment facility for evaluation and counseling.

After the treatment, Mahony said, he was told Wempe could be trusted to work as a priest if he were in a supervised job without access to children. Mahony said he was told Wempe could serve in a prison or a hospital.

When he assigned Wempe to Cedars-Sinai, Mahony said, he did not know it had a pediatric unit.

“I think that was a mistake on our part then to not simply tell them of his background,” Mahony told The Times. “That should have been done. I take responsibility for that.”

In retrospect, Mahony said, he should have forced Wempe to immediately resign after hearing of the abuse allegations. “Fourteen years [later] is so different,” said Mahony, who has headed the L.A. Archdiocese since 1985. “If that had been today, he would have been out of the priesthood.”

Mahony said he did not report Wempe’s abuse allegations to police at the time. He assigned Wempe to Cedars-Sinai, where he worked from 1988 until last month, when Mahony forced him to retire under his recent “zero tolerance” policy against maintaining abusers in the church.

Mahony said he recently gave Wempe’s name to the Los Angeles Police Department to review past allegations against him.

Wempe, 62, could not be reached for comment Friday. He had been living at a church parish attached to a school south of Hancock Park, according to a parish directory and interviews, but has since moved to Seal Beach.

Cedars-Sinai officials said they learned Friday about past allegations against Wempe. Grace Cheng, spokeswoman for Cedars-Sinai, said officials contacted the archdiocese earlier this week after inquiries from The Times. Representatives of the archdiocese met Friday with top officials of Cedars-Sinai.

“There were absolutely no complaints or claims or any issues of impropriety or misconduct” while Wempe was at the hospital, Cheng said.

Hospital officials described Wempe as well-liked. Mahony said he attended a luncheon in the chaplain’s honor a couple of years ago. A retirement party scheduled for this month was canceled at Wempe’s request, officials said.

“To the best of our knowledge . . . this particular priest was functioning very well and effectively,” Mahony said. “As far as we know, there was never a hint” of any impropriety at the hospital.

On Wednesday, two brothers, now grown, filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court alleging they had been sexually abused by Wempe from about 1976 to 1985. The suit also names the archdiocese, alleging that senior priests knew--or should have known--of Wempe’s misconduct but failed to intervene.

Brothers Say Transfers Didn’t Stop the Abuse

In an interview Friday with their attorney present, Mark and Lee Bashforth, who asked that their names be published, said the abuse began in a Ventura County parish and continued as Wempe was transferred to other area churches. Both men said they only recently remembered the abuse.

“I was 8 or 9 years old and I am staying in the rectory in his room overnight, where there is only one bed,” said Lee Bashforth, 32.

Archdiocese officials had not seen the lawsuit and would not comment Friday.

Mahony said he believed a therapist Wempe saw in 1987 reported the case to authorities, but the cardinal was not certain. A source with knowledge of the case said allegations about Wempe were reported to the archdiocese in 1987 or 1988.

The Los Angeles Archdiocese is among a number of Roman Catholic ministries enmeshed in the widening sex abuse scandal. Recent and decades-old accusations of abuse by priests and others affiliated with the church began drawing national attention after highly-publicized cases in Boston earlier this year.

The Times reported in March that six to 12 priests had been dismissed by Mahony in February for past sexual abuse of minors. Mahony, under growing pressure to reveal details about the cases, would say only that “a few” priests, almost all of them retired, were involved.

On Friday, Mahony continued to refuse to name priests accused of sexual abuse, repeating earlier statements that he has been asked by two victims not to divulge the priests’ names.

For the first time, however, Mahony clarified the number of known sex abuse cases. He said seven cases allegedly occurred before 1997, four in the last five years and another four were connected to priests who have since left the ministry and cannot be found. There were also a smaller group of allegedly abusive priests who are now dead, Mahony said.

In a 90-minute interview, conducted Friday afternoon in the residence receiving room of the new downtown cathedral, Mahony said the cases “gnaw” at him. He said he has trouble sleeping when he thinks about the victims.

“I keep reaffirming my own pledge to do everything in my power to make sure no one is harmed by the church,” Mahony said. “That’s what keeps me up at night: real sadness, sorrow, devastation.”

Priest Was Trusted Friend of the Family

Mark Bashforth said that Wempe, who was a trusted family friend, began molesting him when he was 12. Then Wempe turned his attentions to Lee, who was 8, the brothers claim. They allege they were molested on overnight trips and during other activities.

Lee Bashforth said he recalled the abuse, which he had suppressed from his memory, about a month ago, watching coverage of the growing sex scandal. He said he had allowed Wempe to help officiate at his wedding ceremony last year.

“Do you think I’d let him anywhere near my wedding, if I had remembered?” Lee said.

After recalling the abuse, Lee Bashforth said, he called Mark, 39, and they began to sob together on the telephone.

“Because it such a traumatic memory, the mind does not let you recall these things,” Mark Bashforth said. “[Wempe] gave a blessing in Lee’s wedding ceremony. He did that knowing what he had done to my brother. How could he carry on this charade?”

R. Richard Farnell, a Newport Beach attorney representing the brothers, said Wempe had a history of abuse that was ignored by the archdiocese.

“The church concealed the truth about this priest for decades, moving him from parish to parish, without any thought for the children,” Farnell said. “There are going to be other victims out there. A pedophile does not just do this once.”