To the editor: In studying concerning 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 instructed a long time in the past about clergymen molesting kids however didn’t cease these horrors from persevering with and hid abuse from legislation enforcement — to say I’m disgusted could be a gross understatement.
That Mahony remains to be a priest is an abomination. The truth that he nonetheless holds the title of cardinal sickens me. For my part, it’s time for Pope Francis to take that title away from Mahony. And for the nice of the Catholic Church, the person needs to be defrocked.
I’m 80 years previous and have been a practising Catholic my entire life.
Lindsay Soderlund, Glendale
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To the editor: Dare I say “hallelujah”? After a long time of tolerating endemic intercourse abuse by their clergy, in recent times Catholic dioceses throughout the nation have lastly felt compelled to do penance for such unthinkable sins.
The newest 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 means of rape or incest: “It was all a part of God’s plan for this conception to yield a wholesome beginning.”
Pray inform, would possibly congregants who more and more abandon the Catholic religion be searching for 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 give you this staggering quantity. I assume it’s the value of doing enterprise as common.
Together with Christian nationalism marching us towards the precipice of Gilead, I can’t assist however keep in mind that God is nice.
Greg Hilfman, Topanga