L.A.'s Cardinal Mahony Caught in a Lie

The Catholic church is in big trouble with multiple allegations of child sexual abuse by priests. Some diocese, including San Diego, are contemplating bankruptcy to stave off the numerous lawsuits. A major problem has been the willingness of church leaders to shuffle the accused offenders around to other parishes, rather than take aggressive action to deal with the problem. Some have suggested the stonewalling goes all the way up to the Vatican.

L.A. Cardinal Roger Mahony has been under fire for some time for hiding the facts of priest abuse in his diocese, and now it appears he's been caught in a lie:

At least six months after Cardinal Roger M. Mahony told his superiors at the Vatican that a videotape provided proof of a priest's criminal misconduct with high school boys, the head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese told the public that the tape showed no sexual activity between Father Lynn Caffoe and the boys, according to court records.

Documents newly filed in the Caffoe civil case provide the first glimpse into confidential priest files that Mahony sought for four years to keep sealed in the midst of a sexual abuse scandal that engulfed the archdiocese. He eventually took the secrecy fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a letter to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before Ratzinger became pope in April 2005, Mahony said Caffoe had videotaped "partially naked" boys in a state of sexual arousal. The tape was "objective verification that criminal behavior did occur," Mahony wrote, according to papers filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court in a lawsuit by four plaintiffs who allege that Caffoe abused them.

In October 2005, in what Mahony told parishioners was the "fullest possible disclosure" about the scandal, he reported that a videotape had been discovered in 1992 in Caffoe's bedroom, depicting "improper behavior" with high school boys. But the cardinal said the boys were "fully clothed" and there was no sexual activity.

If he were in politics, he would have been run out of office long ago. However, the Catholic Church is pretty "forgiving" when it comes to abusers, and protecting the church at all costs is standard fare, even if it means exposing other innocent people to the priest molesters. The Los Angeles Diocese may find itself in the same position as San Diego if more lies like this are exposed.