Mahony Takes His Message to Airwaves

On a day when an alternative newspaper pictured him on its cover with a zipper locking his lips, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony settled in for a series of media interviews Thursday to get the word out that he is committed to taking direct action against sexual abuse.

It wasn’t unusual for Mahony to grant interviews. He’s viewed as one of the most media-savvy bishops in the Roman Catholic Church and sits on a pontifical council on social communications. Pope John Paul II once called him “Hollywood” for short.

But like other bishops buffeted by a sexual-abuse scandal that has shaken the church in America, Mahony initially faltered in responding. When The Times first disclosed that Mahony had fired or retired six to 12 priests who had been accused of sexual abuse in the past, the cardinal refused to comment.

Several weeks later, he conceded that “a few” priests had been let go. But he told The Times during an April 3 interview that the newspaper’s source was so off the mark “that I’m embarrassed for him and for you.”

Then Mahony’s private e-mails were leaked to the media, revealing that he had fired eight priests, forcing him to respond specifically. That was followed by a series of revelations involving priests in his own archdiocese and several missteps with law enforcement over the extent to which the church had cooperated in disclosing the names of accused priests.

And so on Thursday, in an attempt to address the issue on his own terms, Mahony invited nine television stations and two all-news radio stations to the new Cathedral Conference Center. Reporters lined up for 10 minutes apiece to hear the cardinal unveil what he described as a proactive plan to cut priestly abuse.

“Tod, are you the one keeping the clock?” Mahony asked his director of media relations, Tod Tamberg. Tamberg held up his stopwatch.

First up was Sylvia Lopez, anchor/reporter at KCAL-TV Channel 9. Waiting for the camera to roll, she asked Mahony whether he had spoken about sexual abuse before. He told her he had had a recent news conference, but felt that for a story like this, face-to-face interviews were more effective.

“A press conference just doesn’t work,” he said seconds before the videotape rolled. “You don’t get the clarity.”

Mahony’s decision to go to the media has been a defining characteristic of his priesthood, whether marching with the late farm labor organizer Cesar Chavez or dealing with child abuse. In the series of private e-mails he wrote and received that were leaked to the media, Mahony again showed himself to be keenly aware of public perceptions.

His approach sharply contrasted with that of Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, who not only avoided public appearances in his archdiocese, but secretly flew to Rome to determine whether he still had a job. He later said the Vatican asked him to remain.

Law has been under unrelenting pressure to quit since allegations that he and other bishops under him had knowingly transferred pedophile priests from parish to parish. One of them was sent to San Bernardino with a favorable recommendation from the Boston archdiocese.

Mahony stressed Thursday that he and the church were not only deeply sorry for those who have been victimized in the past by priests, but that he was taking specific and forward-looking steps to guard against it happening again.

He spoke of strengthening his 10-year-old sexual abuse advisory council to include more members of the laity, including a sexual abuse victim. He talked about putting “child safe” programs in every parish to protect youths from all kinds of threats, from Internet pornography and sexual predators to kidnappers and, yes, priests.

Mahony, his hands clasped on his lap, spent the afternoon sitting 5 feet from an identical chair in which a series of broadcast reporters took turns asking questions. (Print reporters were allowed to sit in and watch, but not to ask questions; Tamberg said newspapers had already had their turn.)

“We told [law enforcement] so many times, I think they’re getting tired of hearing from us,” Mahony told TV reporter Lopez.

He said the name of every priest suspected of sexually abusing minors had been turned over to authorities.

Not satisfied, Lopez followed up, pressing him about a demand from Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley for full disclosure. Mahony was unfazed. “I think if you actually talk to them now you’ll see they actually are working very closely with us,” he replied.

But Mahony continued to say he would not reveal those same names at the request of some victims.

A case in point, Mahony said, was the accusation by a Fresno woman that he had molested her more than 30 years ago. Fresno police later concluded that there was no evidence to back up the woman. The woman told reporters she had mental problems and had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Mahony came to her defense in interviews Thursday and justified his secrecy at the same time.

“The false allegation against myself is a good example of that because the media went to that poor lady’s front door. They put microphones and cameras in her face, and I have to say, ridiculed that poor lady. Victims said to me, ‘Please don’t let that happen to us.’”

Did he have regrets over how he and the church have handled the scandal? Lopez asked.

“Absolutely,” Mahony said without hesitating. “If I had known in 1986 or ’87 what I know in 2002, obviously we would have done things differently.” Then again, he said the church “relied very heavily” on the recommendations of psychologists and others. “Their recommendations today to us are far different,” he said.

Mary Grant, president of the Southern California chapter of the Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests, was not convinced of Mahony’s sincerity.

“Victims have been asking the cardinal to take actions like” the ones Mahony is proposing “for 10 years now,” she said. “Until now, he’s been able to slide by on his words. But now that his actions have been exposed, he’s trying to ... take action,” Grant said in a telephone interview.

At the end of two of the 11 interviews The Times was permitted to observe, Mahony thanked the TV reporters.

“Very good, Sylvia! You were excellent,” he told Lopez.

Fifteen minutes later he had a parting comment for Miriam Hernandez of KABC-TV Channel 7. “Very good! Thank you! Very professional!”

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Times staff writer William Lobdell contributed to this report