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U.S. cardinals walk to board a bus from the Pontifical North American College to attend the Mass for the election of the Roman pontiff in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican March 12. Pictured from left are Cardinals Roger M. Mahony, retired archbishop of Los Angeles, Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Timothy M. Dolan of New York, Edwin F. O'Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and Sean P. O'Malley of Boston. (CNS/Paul Haring) (March 14, 2013) See FRANCIS-USCARDINALS March 14, 2013.
Cardinals Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, Daniel DiNardo of Houston, Edward Egan of New York, Francis George of Chicago and Sean O’Malley of Boston are the worst cardinals whose “secrecy and deceit” have been most egregious, according to SNAP.
Mahony allegedly kept quiet when a diocesan employee was under investigation for child sex abuse and allowed an admitted child molesting cleric live in his diocese despite the cleric being wanted on charges in Canada, according to SNAP.
Los Angeles Archdiocese media relations director Tod Tamberg said Mahony “is clearly among the best bishops in the country at effectively dealing with abusive behavior and reaching out to victims. Tamberg said “SNAP’s leadership does not speak for the majority of victims or Catholics in Los Angeles, who know and appreciate Cardinal Mahony’s excellent leadership in helping the church and victims to recover from the abuse scandal.”
Cardinal DiNardo suspended a priest accused of sexual abuse but kept his action and the sex abuse allegations against Fr. Stephen Horn secret for two months while he was named and promoted to cardinal, according to SNAP. When then-Bishop DiNardo served in Iowa, he similarly mishandled allegations of sex abuse against a priest, only disclosing them long afterwards, according to SNAP.
A spokeswoman for DiNardo said that once the allegations of sexual abuse came to the attention of Cardinal DiNardo, Fr. Horn was immediately removed from ministry and other contact with parishioners. “A professional inquiry followed, taking the amount of time the professionals involved deemed necessary to do their work properly. That time went from November 2007 to January 2008, a period which we, at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, consider to be entirely appropriate,” she said.
Cardinal Egan allowed a Catholic high school principal to stay on the job for five months after being accused by a priest of “serious misconduct,” according to SNAP.
Cardinal George was slow to suspend a priest in his diocese who was questioned by police about abuse allegations in August 2005. The priest, Fr. Daniel McCormack, pleaded guilty to five charges of sexual abuse of children and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Cardinal O’Malley’s diocese has been slow to completely implement one of the provisions in the U.S. bishops’ child sex abuse prevention policy: training children how to avoid or stop being victimized, according to SNAP. SNAP said O’Malley moved very slowly against a Catholic hospital official who ultimately resigned in the face of multiple allegations of sexually harassing employees.
Egan, George and O’Malley could not immediately be reached for comment.
