To the editor: In studying in regards to the $880-million settlement by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to victims of clergy intercourse abuse — and studying that retired Archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahony was advised many years in the past about clergymen molesting youngsters however didn’t cease these horrors from persevering with and hid abuse from regulation enforcement — to say I’m disgusted could be a gross understatement.
That Mahony continues to be a priest is an abomination. The truth that he nonetheless holds the title of cardinal sickens me. In my view, it’s time for Pope Francis to take that title away from Mahony. And for the great of the Catholic Church, the person must be defrocked.
I’m 80 years outdated and have been a working towards Catholic my entire life.
Lindsay Soderlund, Glendale
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To the editor: Dare I say “hallelujah”? After many years of tolerating endemic intercourse abuse by their clergy, lately Catholic dioceses throughout the nation have lastly felt compelled to do penance for such unthinkable sins.
The most recent report of this lengthy enduring travesty features a singularly troubling account of 1 clergyman’s justification for his serial crimes. In response to your article, in 1991 George Neville Rucker met with a previous sufferer, whereupon he sought to excuse his abuse of her:
“Positing that an infallible God had made him a priest, Rucker assumed ‘all of this occurred as a part of God’s plan for [the victim’s] salvation.’”
Such expedient sanctimonious reasoning parallels how antiabortion zealots justify their opposition to terminating any being pregnant conceived by rape or incest: “It was all a part of God’s plan for this conception to yield a wholesome delivery.”
Pray inform, would possibly congregants who more and more abandon the Catholic religion be in search of a extra enlightened deity?
Glenda Martel, Los Angeles
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To the editor: No shock the Catholic Church is on the hook for an additional $880 million. What I dwell on is the flexibility to provide you with this staggering quantity. I assume it’s the worth of doing enterprise as typical.
Together with Christian nationalism marching us towards the precipice of Gilead, I can’t assist however do not forget that God is nice.
Greg Hilfman, Topanga
