Cardinal Roger Mahony: Stop Condemning Me For Shielding Child Rapists

"I can't recall a time such as now when people tend to be so judgmental and even self-righteous, so quick to accuse, judge and condemn.  And often with scant real facts and information.  Because of news broadcasts now 24/7 there is little or no fact checking; no in-depth analysis; no context or history given.  Rather, everything gets reported as 'news' regardless of the basis for the item being reported--and passed on by countless other news outlets.

"We have ended up with a climate in which it's the norm to instantly pass judgement on one another, taking in and repeating gossip, sharing someone else's judgment as the truth, no regard for other people who may be harmed.  Whatever happened to the norm of giving others the benefit of a doubt until hard evidence proves otherwise?" - Cardinal Roger Mahony, complaining on his blog that people are super-mean to to him just because he shielded pedophiles from the police.

Oh, and guess where Mahony is today?

Catholic Vote Calls For Cardinal Mahony To Withdraw From Papal Conclave

Catholic Vote, where NOM's "cultural affairs director" Thomas Peters occasionally blogs, today posted a call for pedophile-shielding Cardinal Roger Mahony to withdraw from the coming papal conclave.  The post notes the "credible accusations" made against British Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who yesterday resigned, and urges Mahony to follow O'Brien's example. Tom Crowe writes:

I’ll not get into the moral balancing act of “which action is worse, inappropriate advances toward seminarians and other priests or shielding an abuser,” because neither is remotely acceptable, or even rationalize-able-because-of-the-times, conduct for a prelate. But if O’Brien so quickly and simply removes himself out of a desire to protect the Church from the taint of his involvement, why cannot Mahony see the virtue in that action also? To be sure, Mahony has the right to attend the conclave as a cardinal of the Church younger than 80 years old, and I have defended that right to others who think he ought not have that right. But having a right to do something and exercising that right are different things.

RELATED: NOM has three times cited O'Brien's campaign against same-sex marriage in Britain, but remains silent on the current scandal.

Cardinal Roger Mahony: Humiliate Me

Earlier this month Cardinal Roger Mahony was "relieved of his duties" for his role in covering up the still-widening molestation scandal that is shredding the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  Yesterday Mahoney announced on his blog that it's now clear to him that Jesus wants him to be humiliated.

Given all of the storms that have surrounded me and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles recently, God's grace finally helped me to understand: I am not being called to serve Jesus in humility. Rather, I am being called to something deeper--to be humiliated, disgraced, and rebuffed by many.

I was not ready for this challenge. Ash Wednesday changed all of that, and I see Lent 2013 as a special time to reflect deeply upon this special call by Jesus. To be honest with you, I have not reached the point where I can actually pray for more humiliation. I'm only at the stage of asking for the grace to endure the level of humiliation at the moment.

In the past several days, I have experienced many examples of being humiliated. In recent days, I have been confronted in various places by very unhappy people. I could understand the depth of their anger and outrage--at me, at the Church, at about injustices that swirl around us. Thanks to God's special grace, I simply stood there, asking God to bless and forgive them.

Note that Mahony only asks God to forgive his accusers and not himself.  Even though he's been stripped of his duties as a cardinal, Mahony remains a "priest in good standing" and is eligible to vote for Emperor Palpatine's successor. (Tipped by JMG reader George)