Washington DC--Disgraced Cardinal Mahony is being allowed to be at papal events at the White House

For immediate release: Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2015

Statement by Joelle Casteix, Southern California Director of SNAP,
Phone: 949-322-7434, Email: [email protected]

In a callous move that will rub  even more pain into the already-deep and still fresh wounds of tens of thousands of caring Catholics and suffering  victims, disgraced Cardinal Mahony is being allowed to be at papal events at the White House and Congress.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/09/22/controversial-la-cardinal-to-travel-with-pope-francis-for-dc-trip/

There are few members of the hierarchy who have a more well-deserved dishonorable reputation and well-documented record of wrongdoing as bad as Mahony. Secret sex abuse and cover-up documents and newspaper investigations exposed in 2013 showed Mahony's career-long, hands-on role in covering up abuse. The documents were so shocking, in fact, that Mahony was temporarily relieved of public duty and more than 10,000 Catholics signed a petition demanding he step down.

His attendance at White House and Congress is a slap in the face to the more than 500 LA victims who sought justice for crimes committed against them. It's a slap in the face to LA Catholics who are rightfully disgusted at Mahony's enabling of abuse.

President Obama and Congress should be investigating clergy sex crimes and cover ups, not letting a virtual criminal frolic among them.

As a society, we beg victims of sexual violence to overcome their fear, pain and shame and report these crimes so perpetrators can be stopped and others can be spared. But when we honor men who enable sexual violence, we send precisely the opposite message to victims: your suffering doesn't matter, the powerful will always prevail, and the bad guys usually win. Shame on every official - religious or secular - who is playing a role in this hurtful injustice.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact:

Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, [email protected]), Peter Isely (414-429-7259, [email protected]), Joelle Casteix (949-322-7434, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected])