This story appears in the LA abuse cases feature series. View the full series.
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February 4, 2013
Robert Royal looks at the situation in Los Angeles and Cardinal Mahony's weak rebuttal to Archbishop Gomez's letter. It is splendid and you should read it in its entirety. The money quote, after detailing the spike in sexual molestation cases in the late 1950s: "This cuts across our usual assumptions that wealth and peace make virtue easier – but those are American and secular assumptions, not Catholic or philosophic ones." I would like to see Royal and Father Sirico debate that single sentence.