As you may know, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has released more information (in the absurdly-titled "Addendum to the People of God") on sexual abuse by priests. The Los Angeles Times quite rightly refers to the "vast scope" of the abuse in its report:
"Molestations have been alleged at roughly 100 parishes. But because the accused priests moved around the archdiocese on average every 4.5 years, the total number of parishes in which alleged abusers served is far larger - more than three-fourths of the 288 parishes, according to the study, which examined records back to 1950.
"The affected parishes were in neighborhoods of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties both rich and poor, suburban and urban, some predominantly white and others with African American or Latino majorities. The study does not support the contention made by some critics of the church that problem priests were dumped into poor, Latino and African American communities.
"Based on the allegations, the number of abusive priests peaked in 1983. More than 11% of the diocesan priests - those who worked directly for the archdiocese, rather than for religious orders - who were in ministry that year eventually were accused of abuse."
The Catholic blogger Diogenes has "bounced around" the file to come up with the case history of just one priest, Father Michael Baker:
"09/19/86: pursuant to Cardinal Mahony's invitation during a retreat for priests to talk with him about their problems, requests meeting with Cardinal.
"Typical file entry, right?
"12/22/86: Meets with Cardinal Mahony and Vicar for Clergy Curry to discuss his relationship with two boys from 1978 to 1985. "Well, the Cardinal sent him off to art therapy camp at Jemez Springs. The cure was miraculous, as evidenced by this roster of subsequent parish assignments." As Diogenes notes, Baker was in eight parishes in five years, with four different jobs in 1992. Baker was finally removed from the priesthood in 2000 "after it was known -- and impossible to hide -- that he had molested as many as 10 victims over the previous 20 years."
It would be interesting to know the mindset of the cardinal who allowed this to happen. We as Catholics believe in forgiveness, but that obviate temporal action. Why did nobody think to do the simplest thing possible: call the cops?
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