May 16, 2001
 Cardinal Roger
Mahony "I
offer my sincere, personal apologies for my failure to take firm and
decisive action much earlier."
(AP)
|
(CBS) In recent weeks, Cardinal Roger Mahony has
insisted the Los Angeles Archdiocese does not protect abusive priests.
"We've been very forthcoming to law enforcement," he said on April 26.
"You see, I don't want in the church anyone who's abused a child, so the last
thing I want is to cover that up."
But Father Michael Baker told the Los
Angeles Times that in 1986, after he informed Cardinal Mahony that he had
molested children, he was at a meeting where an archdiocese lawyer asked the
cardinal, "Should we call the police now?"
Mahony's response: "No, no,
no."
In a letter sent to the Times on Thursday, that lawyer denies he
suggested calling police and says, "I have never met Michael Baker. I have never
attended a meeting with him."
Mahony admits he knew about Baker's
problems, but for the next 14 years assigned him to different parishes where he
had access to children.
Earlier this week, Mahony faxed a two-page
letter to 1,200 priests in his archdiocese, acknowledging that he mishandled
Baker's case.
"As your archbishop, I assume full responsibility for
allowing Baker to remain in any type of ministry during the 1990s," Mahony
wrote. "I offer my sincere, personal apologies for my failure to take firm and
decisive action much earlier."
When a lawyer for some of Baker's victims
wrote the archdiocese two years ago and told them Baker had confessed to her as
well, the church settled quickly.
"Cardinal Mahony did what any other
head of a big corporation does," said victims' attorney Lynne Cadigan. "He's
going to clean up, cover up and pay off."
Now more alleged victims are
coming forward, reports CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales.
"It seems
to me that the cardinal and the church are protecting its own," said alleged
victim Matt Severson.
Late Thursday, the Los Angeles County district
attorney told Cardinal Mahony to turn over all documents on abusive priests or
face a grand jury.
In other developments in the church sex abuse
scandal:
A Baltimore judge denied bail and ordered a psychological evaluation
Wednesday for a man accused of shooting a priest who he claimed fondled him as a
teen-ager. Dontee Stokes, 26, told police he shot the Rev. Maurice Blackwell
Monday after the priest refused to talk to him. Stokes was charged with
attempted murder, gun violations and assault.
A retired priest was indicted in Salem, Mass., on three counts of rape of a
child. Ronald Paquin, 59, has admitted molesting boys. He was indicted Wednesday
on charges he repeatedly sexually abused an altar boy, sometimes in a cemetery.
Paquin was being held on $100,000 cash bail pending his arraignment.
The Archdiocese of New York, in a departure from earlier policy, said
Wednesday it will report sexual abuse allegations directly to prosecutors,
without first conducting an internal review.
The Archdiocese of Louisville was sued Tuesday by five more people claiming
they were sexually abused as youths by priests and that the church concealed the
misconduct. The latest plaintiffs include four men and one woman. The filings
bring to 54 the total lawsuits against the archdiocese since April 19.
A judge ordered Tuesday that all but three pages of medical
records concerning retired Boston-area priest Rev. Paul Shanley be made public.
The records had been sought by the family of Gregory Ford, 24, who says in a
lawsuit that Shanley repeatedly raped him when he was a boy. Ford filed suit
against Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, accusing the cardinal of negligence in
failing to protect him from Shanley.
© MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
The Associated Press and
Reuters Limited contributed to this report.
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