Cardinal Mahony’s response to charges – Did not know the names of victims

The following comes from the end of a January 21 Los Angeles Times story detailing actions of Cardinal Roger Mahony to cover up priests’ sex abuse of minors.

In a 2010 deposition, Mahony acknowledged the archdiocese had never called police to report sexual abuse by a priest before 2000. He said church officials were unable to do so because they didn’t know the names of the children harmed.

“In my experience, you can only call the police when you’ve got victims you can talk to,” Mahony said.

When an attorney for an alleged victim suggested “the right thing to do” would have been to summon police immediately, Mahony replied, “Well, today it would. But back then that isn’t the way those matters were approached.”