Mahony Did Not Act When Told of Abuse
Re “Cardinal Mahony Kept Cleric’s Abuse Secret for 16 Years,” May 16: Father Michael Steven Baker went to Cardinal Roger Mahony in 1986 and confessed that he had been abusing minors. Msgr. Thomas Curry and the archdiocese’s lawyer, John P. McNicholas, were present at the meeting the next day with Baker and Mahony. McNicholas asked, “Should we phone the police?” and Mahony responded, “No, no, no.”
Years later, both Mahony and Curry cannot recall the meeting with Baker. This must be the selective amnesia that the hierarchy of the church has been afflicted with lately. Now the hierarchy is looking and acting like Sgt. Schultz of “Hogan’s Heroes”: “I see nothing. I know nothing.”
B. Anthony Secrist
Los Angeles
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Cardinal Mahony should be kicked out of the Catholic Church for what he has done. It’s disgusting and demoralizing, the cover-up he and the others have committed throughout the years.
The Catholic Church has been forever damaged by Mahony and the others with what has happened and may never recover.
Karen Husman
Pasadena
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