In the Crucible, Mahony Takes Control of Message

“I regret terribly what happened--but maybe without that or something like that we wouldn’t be here.”

“I wish I could undo some of the things in the past myself, [but] now it’s really a chance to look to the future--from today forward.”

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Vivendi Universal chief executive Jean-Marie Messier on the dismal performance of the company’s stock? Disney Chairman Michael Eisner on his poor ABC television ratings?

Neither. These are the words of Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, head of the largest Roman Catholic diocese in the country.

He is church leader and CEO, pastor and politician. And just as leaders of private corporations sometimes find themselves, he is involved in a crisis of damage control that tests his ability to simultaneously navigate the worlds of church doctrine and secular society.

The proliferating cases of sexual abuse by priests that were ignored or covered up by bishops and cardinals in past decades have put every American leader of the church on the defensive. Last week’s meeting of American cardinals and Vatican officials on the issue gave Mahony, 66, his greatest media exposure and a welcome change from a posture of defensiveness.

Several weeks ago, about 50 of Mahony’s private e-mails to his inner circle were leaked to the media, providing fuel for stories that questioned his sense of urgency about dealing with cases of priestly abuse.

The trip to Vatican City gave Mahony the opportunity to present himself as a reformer, and even his critics were impressed, if not convinced. Before he left for Rome, a week ago, he met with the media to outline his agenda for the extraordinary meetings with Pope John Paul II and other Vatican officials. He talked about the need to discuss such controversial issues as celibacy, the ordination of women and homosexuality in the church--carefully avoiding taking a stand in favor of any particular policy.

In Rome, he appeared on national news programs, morning and evening shows, conducted interviews with the national press and held a media briefing for the hometown press. His statements in favor of stronger procedures to fire errant priests were made in the tone of someone who recognized his organization had a problem and was determined to fix it. Unspoken was the fact that some of the reforms in Mahony’s own archdiocese were the result not of his doing, but rather of compliance with a 2001 court-approved settlement of a molestation lawsuit.

David Clohessy, national director of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, contends Mahony has “escaped the scrutiny that many of his colleagues have been under because he is very, very media savvy.”

A Temporary Reprieve for U.S. Cardinals

Clohessy said the cardinals who went to Rome avoided scrutiny only temporarily. “The sad truth is, they have to not only come back home but come back to Earth and deal with this enormous backlog of pain and denial and cover-up and unresolved issues around abusive priests.”

Indeed, upon his return to Los Angeles, Mahony was confronted with the arrest of a Pomona priest. Other sex-abuse cases against his clerics still are under investigation.

Several of the cardinals left Rome for a Mass and dinner for Catholic University of America in Philadelphia on Friday. But Mahony said he needed to return swiftly to Los Angeles, where he conducted a whirlwind series of interviews with the print and broadcast media and sent out letters about his trip to all the parishes in his three-county diocese--with copies of the pope’s statement attached.

Mahony, the youngest American cardinal, gets high marks for his handling of the crisis from some of his political allies in the city, who are themselves familiar with damage control.

“I think it’s an incredibly tough thing for a leader to handle,” said former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a friend of Mahony’s, a Catholic and a veteran of managing crises. “The press is all over you; any time you say anything, it opens the door to other stories. You have to be very careful. I think he’s been very much on top of this.”

Riordan said he breakfasted with Mahony days before his trip and was impressed that each time he offered a strategic consideration, Mahony said he had already thought of it.

Seeking Advice, Consulting PR Firm

When his e-mails were released in the press, Mahony refused to comment. Instead, his lawyers went to court to try to prevent The Times from publishing them. That effort failed. Friends and associates say he then consulted them, appearing to take advice from different sources on how to proceed. Two weeks ago he went to a major public relations firm, Weber Shandwick, to craft the message that would serve him in the weeks ahead.

He began speaking publicly. He clarified the number of abuse cases in his archdiocese--specifying, after six weeks of media inquiries, the actual number of priests he had dismissed because of past cases of sexual abuse. He talked about the policies he had put in place and the need for the church to move ahead. He said that he would expand his lay board on sexual misconduct to 15 members and that he had asked two prominent judges to serve on it. (Mahony is expected to announce their names this week after he meets with them.)

And he began every interview and discussion with comments about the victims and apologies to them. “My deepest apology to victims and their families for any abuse that occurred,” he began the Friday morning press conference with print reporters. (He did the television and radio broadcasts separately.)

“Job number one,” Mahony more than once told a Times reporter who accompanied him to Rome, “is the protection of children and youth.”

He understands the news cycle so well, he even suggested that the reporter divide the information he was providing in an interview into two stories--one for that day, and a separate story for the next day.

Mahony was initially vague on the details of cases that led to dismissal of priests. As growing awareness of abuse has led the media to new cases in recent weeks, he still on occasion says he does not recall the details of some cases.

He says he does not know how much the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which covers Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, has paid out in settlements with victims of abuse cases. He says he does not have a firm grasp of how many cases there have been over the years. He divides the cases--rather conveniently, critics suggest--into those that occurred prior to a change in the state law requiring clerics to report sexual abuse, and those that occurred after that time.

He is adamant, however, that he will not maintain abusers in his church.

“I have to be able to stand up in front of my people and say I can assure you that we have not one who has violated once,” Mahony said in an interview. “There simply isn’t any room for error.”

Before he left for the two days of Vatican meetings, Mahony set fairly low expectations, saying that the trip would help educate the officials there about the problem in the U.S. church, but that he didn’t expect to bring back new policies for his diocese.

The American cardinals completed the talks by issuing a statement that called for tougher policies but fell short of a “one-strike” approach, leaving that decision for a national conference of Catholic bishops in June.

Mahony returned to Los Angeles boasting that his archdiocese’s policies appeared to go further than those of other dioceses in the country.

“It turned out to be a good teaching moment,” Mahony said. “One of the things I feel good about is I didn’t come back with something we’re not doing. I feel very good about what we’ve been doing over the years.”

Cardinal Says Other Crises Were Worse

He says this is not the worst chapter in his life in the church. He points to his years in Fresno, where he served as the first chairman of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, dealing with growers and farm workers, as an even more contentious time. He uses quotations from the Bible liberally in his conversation. He reflects on the immediate roots of the abuse crisis: media revelations in Boston that one priest who had allegedly molested 130 boys was moved from parish to parish instead of being removed from the priesthood.

That, Mahony said, “was a supreme wake-up call. ‘Out of darkness comes light.’”

Bill Wardlaw, a lawyer and Democratic Party strategist who was Mahony’s attorney several years ago, said he believes Mahony was helped by the trip to Rome.

“He has shown he’s a leader,” Wardlaw said.

Anti-abuse crusader Clohessy and other critics grudgingly admire Mahony’s sophistication but are frustrated by the feeling that they’re unable to hold him accountable.

“There’s no assurance whatsoever that these policies are being followed,” Clohessy said. “Where are the checks and balances? It’s just like a private corporation. Absolutely.”