The archdiocese that was under the administration of Cardinal Mahony in Los Angeles has settled for 10 million dollars with four victims of sexual abuse at the hand of priests in the diocese this week. The priests had been shielded by Carinal Mahony from prosecution and from any punishment from the Vatican.
The four men, who will receive the compensation, were victims in four cases that spanned 24 years, from 1974 to 2000.
A trial had been set for next month. In settling for the 10 million, the diocese has avoided any prosecution or further punitive damages that could have been awarded by the court.
In two of the cases, the men alleged that the abusing priest, Michael Baker, spent nearly a quarter of a century in the church, and was left to go on with his criminal conduct without any reprisal or admonition from senior church officials.
Mahony has since retired, in 2011, and his successor has tried to ameliorate the somber pall that has fallen over the diocese, by denouncing the fact that Mahony had worked in secret to shield this and other priests from prosecution, allegedly to save the church from further scandal.
The priest involved in the case has never been prosecuted, due to a woefully short statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases which allows many perpetrators to go free.
Mahony is currently in the conclave with other cardinals, deciding who the next pope will be. That has angered many who see this as a further affront from the church, that a cardinal so flawed and so deeply involved in the church sex scandals can still be a sitting cardinal, empowered with the selection of the next pontiff.
Authorities have prosecuted Baker but he has served no time. The prosecutors believe that he had abused as many as 20 children during his quarter century long priesthood.
The same archdiocese has settled before. In 2007 alone, 500 suits were settled for a total amount of 660 million dollars.
Source: Voice of America 3.13.13
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