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L.A. Now Live: Discuss Roger Mahony’s legacy, clergy abuse

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President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton attend a Catholic Palm Sunday service in Los Angeles with Cardinal Roger Mahony in 1995.   (Luke Prazza / AFP/Getty Images)
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Cardinal Roger Mahoney greets youths who were about to perform the Passion Play for Good Friday at St. Julie Billiart Catholic Church in Newbury Park.   (Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)
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Cardinal Roger Mahony reads a letter from the Bishops of California during Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.   (Ann Johansson / Associated Press)
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Cardinal Roger Mahony, center, celebrates a special Mass commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.   (George Wilhelm / Los Angeles Times)
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Cardinal Roger Mahony is interviewed at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. He was asked about reports of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
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Antonio Villaraigosa, second from right, sings with his then-wife Corina, second from left, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, and Cardinal Roger Mahony at Villaraigosa’s mayoral inauguration ceremony on July 1, 2005.   (Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)
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Cardinal Roger Mahony celebrates a special Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles to celebrate the ordination of Pope Benedict XVI.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Cardinal Roger Mahony makes his way to the altar at the start of a Mass he presided over at the Basilica SS Quattro Coronati in Rome.   (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Cardinal Roger Mahony walks through the cloister at the Basilica SS Quattro Coronati in Rome after presiding over Mass.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Cardinal Roger Mahony leads Mass for the health of Pope John Paul II at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.  (David McNew / Getty Images)
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Cardinal Roger Mahony, left, sits next to attorney J. Michael Hennigan at a settlement hearing to resolve abuse claims against the Catholic Church.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Cardinal Roger Mahony, left, walks with his successor, San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez, right, after a news conference at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Gomez was appointed to take over the Archdiocese of Los Angeles when Mahony retired.   (Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
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Join Times reporters Ashley Powers and Victoria Kim for an L.A. Now Live chat at 9 a.m. Thursday to discuss their series on Cardinal Roger Mahony and his role in the Catholic Church’s child abuse sex scandal.

FULL STORY: Clergy abuse cases were a threat to agenda

Powers, Kim and reporter Harriet Ryan examined Mahony’s role and actions in a two-day series of stories.

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They wrote:

In the child sex abuse scandal that has shaken the Catholic Church, Mahony is a singular figure.

He became the leader of America’s largest archdiocese at the very moment the church was being forced to confront clergy molestation. Because he was just 49 when he took office, he was in power for the entire arc of the abuse crisis. Long after peers had retired or died, Mahony was around to face the public’s wrath. Because of the unique way abuse lawsuits played out in California, his files on molesters became public while in most other corners of the church, they remain under lock and key.

The archdiocese’s confidential personnel files, released this year as part of a massive settlement of civil lawsuits, provide the most detailed accounting yet of how clergy abuse was handled in a U.S. diocese. Along with sworn testimony by Mahony and his advisors and interviews with church officials, victims’ families and others, the nearly 23,000 pages maintained by the archdiocese and various religious orders suggest a man who was troubled over abuse but more worried about scandal — and how it might derail the agenda he had for himself and his church.

Readers can submit questions live during the chat or by tweeting @lanow.

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