US cardinal accused of covering up sex abuse scandal to take part in Pope Francis' funeral, draws criticism

Indian Express

25-04-2025

As preparations for Pope Francis' funeral move toward an end, the Vatican's decision to include Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has faced accusations of mishandling sexual abuse cases, in tomorrow's rites has attaracted criticism.
Mahony, the former Archbishop of Los Angeles, is among the most senior cardinal priests in the Church by length of service. However, at 89, he no longer holds voting rights in a papal conclave. Yet despite having been publicly sidelined by Church leadership more than a decade ago, he will take a prominent ceremonial role in the funeral proceedings. According to a Vatican spokesperson, Mahony was invited because he was the most senior cardinal priest available, as others in the line of precedence were either ill or unable to attend.
Accusations against Mahony
As a sign of the Church's ongoing tolerance for those who failed to protect children, Mohony's presence has sparked outrage among survivors of clergy abuse and those who support them. Mahony, who worked in Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011, has long been linked to the concealment of cases of sexual abuse. Internal Church documents from 2013 showed that he and his top aide had protected abusive priests from the police and permitted them to continue serving in the ministry.
The response was swift. Mahony's successor in Los Angeles, Archbishop José Gomez, announced in 2013 that Mahony would 'no longer have any administrative or public duties.' Rarely straightforward, the statement was later retracted by the archdiocese, which made it clear that Mahony was still a 'priest in good standing.'
Mahony retaliated defensively in a scathing letter to Gomez, asserting that he had established one of the strongest child protection systems in the Church and that the archbishop had never objected to his leadership during their shared years. 'I acknowledge my mistakes, especially in the mid-1980s,' he wrote, 'but I handed over an Archdiocese second to none in protecting children and youth.'
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles made the largest settlement in Church history in 2007 when it paid USD 660 million to 508 victims of clergy sexual abuse. More than 1,350 other survivors, many of whom had experienced abuse decades prior, received an additional USD 880 million in compensation last year. Mahony's handling of abuse cases during his previous position as Bishop of Stockton also drew criticism.
This is not the first time Mahony's involvement in a moment of papal transition has caused controversy. In 2013, in the days before the conclave that elected Francis, a petition circulated in Los Angeles calling on Mahony to refrain from participating, citing his role in covering up abuse. He attended anyway.
That decision, and now his role in Pope Francis' funeral, has revived frustration among survivor groups. Anne Barrett Doyle of Bishop Accountability, a leading watchdog organization, condemned Mahony's participation stating, 'shame on him for participating in the public rites for Pope Francis, and shame on the College of Cardinals for allowing him to do so.' David Clohessy, former executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), echoed her outrage saying, 'his presence sends a clear signal to complicit bishops that no matter their failures, they will still be protected and honoured.'
Pope Francis' work on addressing sexual abuse
Francis himself came into the papacy with a mandate shaped partly by the failures of his predecessors to fully confront the abuse scandal. By the time of his election in 2013, the crisis had spread across continents. Revelations had rocked Ireland, Germany, the United States, and Chile. Public trust in the institution was eroding. Victims and advocates were calling for structural change.
Yet in the early years of his pontificate, Francis appeared hesitant to address the issue directly. He rarely mentioned abuse in his first months as pope. When he finally did, he was quick to defend the Church's efforts, insisting in 2014 that 'no one else has done more' to root out the problem.
The pope's public defence of Chilean bishop Juan Barros, who was accused of concealing abuse by one of the country's most infamous predator priests, was a turning point in 2018. Francis accused critics of lacking evidence and dismissed the claims as 'slander.' The backlash spread quickly. Francis changed his position in response to international indignation, ordered an internal investigation, and finally expressed regret to survivors by acknowledging that he had 'been part of the problem.'
One of his most spectacular actions as pope was calling all Chilean bishops to the Vatican and asking them to resign.
It was an extraordinary acknowledgment of systemic failure within the Church's hierarchy. Several resignations were accepted, and survivors were invited to live with the pope at his residence, the Casa Santa Marta. One of those survivors, Juan Carlos Cruz, went on to become an advisor to the pope on abuse prevention.
Cruz later said of Francis, 'I think he has done more than any pope has ever done. But I think there is a lot more to be done. What frustrates me is people in the curia and bishops around the world who are not on the same page. What infuriates me is that survivors are walking this earth without justice.'
Francis identified the abuse crisis as a symptom of 'clericalism' – the concentration of power in the hands of unaccountable clergy. In 2019, he convened a global summit at the Vatican, where bishops from across the world heard directly from abuse survivors. He subsequently issued new protocols requiring Church leaders to report abuse and cover-ups. He lifted secrecy rules in abuse investigations and updated canon law to reflect that vulnerable adults can also be victims. Laypeople, too, could now be held accountable for abuse-related misconduct.
That same year, he acknowledged the abuse of nuns by priests, an issue long suppressed within the Church.
Yet even as he instituted reforms, barriers remained. Francis faced persistent resistance from within the Vatican bureaucracy. Some bishops opposed his changes or failed to implement them. Others accused him of acting too slowly. The lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of survivors, said, 'there hasn't been any transparency. Pope Francis said the right things, he meant the right thing, but the bureaucracy just shut him down.'
Mahony's role in tomorrow's funeral has become, for many, a stark illustration of that bureaucratic resistance. It sends a message that seniority and tradition still hold more weight than accountability.