To the editor: In reading about the $880-million settlement by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to victims of clergy sex abuse — and learning that retired Archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahony was told decades ago about priests molesting children but did not stop these horrors from continuing and concealed abuse from law enforcement — to say I am disgusted would be a gross understatement.
That Mahony is still a priest is an abomination. The fact that he still holds the title of cardinal sickens me. In my opinion, it is time for Pope Francis to take that title away from Mahony. And for the good of the Catholic Church, the man should be defrocked.
I am 80 years old and have been a practicing Catholic my whole life.
Lindsay Soderlund, Glendale
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To the editor: Dare I say “hallelujah”? After decades of tolerating endemic sex abuse by their clergy, in recent years Catholic dioceses across the country have finally felt compelled to do penance for such unthinkable sins.
The latest report of this long enduring travesty includes a singularly troubling account of one clergyman’s justification for his serial crimes. According to your article, in 1991 George Neville Rucker met with a prior victim, whereupon he sought to excuse his abuse of her:
“Positing that an infallible God had made him a priest, Rucker assumed ‘all of this happened as part of God’s plan for [the victim’s] salvation.’”
Such expedient sanctimonious reasoning parallels how antiabortion zealots justify their opposition to terminating any pregnancy conceived through rape or incest: “It was all part of God’s plan for this conception to yield a healthy birth.”
Pray tell, might congregants who increasingly abandon the Catholic faith be seeking a more enlightened deity?
Glenda Martel, Los Angeles
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To the editor: No surprise the Catholic Church is on the hook for another $880 million. What I dwell on is the ability to come up with this staggering amount. I guess it’s the price of doing business as usual.
Along with Christian nationalism marching us toward the precipice of Gilead, I can’t help but remember that God is great.
Greg Hilfman, Topanga
