Judging Mahony

Re “The Teflon cardinal,” Opinion, July 22

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony should be forced from his position. He has let Catholic parishioners down, covered for and protected sexual deviates and criminals and fought exposing all this exceptionally dirty behavior for years and years. How can anyone have any respect or willingness to deal with him? I think we know why Latino groups overlook his misbegotten actions and behavior -- they have a vested interest in having and using him as an ally and protector for illegal immigrants.

Joe Doremire

Fountain Hills, Ariz.

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Now that I know of Mahony’s family’s involvement in running a poultry business that was raided by border agents, my eyes are opened as never before. Now I understand why he’s a staunch defender of illegal immigration. He cannot forget, it seems, how border patrolmen once treated immigrants “as if they were dirt.” This coming from the man who turned a blind eye to priests treating kids the same way.

John Primavera

San Diego

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How is Mahony’s case different from that of Cardinal Bernard Law’s in Boston? There, the outrage that Law had harbored and protected child-molesting priests was so massive that hundreds of loyal Catholics took to the streets outside the cathedral where Law was saying Sunday Mass. Good priests who had not molested children signed a petition requesting that Law be removed. The clergy and the laity took action and it worked -- Law resigned.

Why is it that no such action has been taken in Los Angeles? Do we love our children less than they do in Boston? Are the clergy in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that afraid of Mahony, or do they condone the sexual abuse of children by their brother priests? What does it take to get Los Angeles Catholics angry about such horrific crimes?

Victoria Martin

Long Beach

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Mahony is certainly to be commended for his efforts on behalf of Latinos in California. My concern is not so much with Mahony but with the whole Catholic hierarchy. It is obvious that the bishops neglecting to deal with abusive priests and allowing thousands of children to be abused over many years shows enormous lack of judgment. If they have shown such poor judgment in one area of their ministry, how am I to have confidence in their moral judgment in other areas? As a lifelong Catholic, I love the church, but I am very wary of our hierarchy’s moral leadership and judgment.

Ralph Sariego

Woodland Hills