CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and the Vatican engaged in a “conspiracy of silence” by transferring a priest from Italy to Los Angeles, where he molested three teenagers at a Koreatown church, a lawsuit alleges.
The complaint also accuses Roman Catholic officials, including Mahony, of “destroying and manipulating evidence” in the case of Father Fernando Lopez.
Lopez was convicted in 2005 of molesting the teenagers he met through parish functions from 2001 to 2004 while he was an associate pastor at St. Thomas the Apostle parish.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles archdiocese strongly denied the claims, saying officials had acted promptly, including notifying police, when the allegations about Lopez surfaced.
The lawsuit was filed April 30 in L.A.County Superior Court by one of the victims, identified in court papers as John V.G. Doe, who said that at age 14 he was molested repeatedly by Lopez.
L.A. Archdiocese spokesman Tod M. Tamberg said Lopez was removed from the ministry within two hours of officials learning about the abuse allegations.
Tamberg said the archdiocese conducted its own investigation at the parish, which turned up two additional victims. The spokesman said police were notified immediately of all three cases. “All along the way, we have done the correct thing,” Tamberg said.
-- Duke Helfand and Victoria Kim
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