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The American cardinal, who was later accused of hiding cases of priestly sexual abuse and later stripped of several duties, is set to play an official role in the ritual surrounding Pope Francis' funeral.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahoney, a former archbishop of Los Angeles, will take part in the closure of the Pope's Cas at St. Peter's Cathedral on Friday evening, and will be at the burial at Santa Maria Magiaore's Pope Cathedral on Saturday, according to a Vatican announcement.
The Cardinals, who participated based on seniority, a spokesman for Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, said in a news briefing on Thursday.
The 89-year-old Cardinal Mahoney was Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 until he retired from the Roman Catholic Church in 2011. In 2013, internal church personnel files released as part of a civil lawsuit revealed that Mahoney Cardinal played a role in covering up cases of priestly sexual abuse.
The documents show that Mahoney Cardinal and others protect abusive priests from punishment and withhold evidence of sexual abuse from law enforcement. The documents show that California therapists were obliged to report evidence of child abuse to police, and the largest Archdiocese in the United States also sent priests who abused their children for treatment.
In 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $660 million to settle claims from more than 500 victims, the biggest settlement of the priest's sexual abuse of the time. Last year, the church agreed to pay an additional $880 million to resolve abuse claims from 1,353 people.
Advocates for victims of abuse attacked the decision to allow the Mahoney Cardinal to attend papal funerals.
“The Catholic Church chose to perform the last act of concealment by bringing Pope Francis' ceremonially close closer to the Mahoney Cardinal ceremonially close the cas of Pope Francis,” Peter, founder of the Survivors Network of Priest-abused People, said in a statement.
“To praise him in this way makes it clear. Nothing fundamentally changed under the pope of Francis,” he added.
As an archbishop, the Mahoney Cardinal is one of the most powerful men in the American Church and is known as a savvy politician.
When the church files were released, Cardinal Mahoney apologized to the victims and said they were naive about the effectiveness of “treatment” on the abusers and the impact of crime on those they hurt.
“When I think about all the storms that recently surrounded me and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, God's grace finally helped me understand,” he wrote on his personal blog after the file was released. “I am not called to serve Jesus with humility; rather, I am called to something deeper.
Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, the successor to the Mahony Cardinal, disciplined him. The Archdiocese said that the Mahoney Cardinal had been stripped of his official duties and would no longer speak publicly on behalf of the Church, but he was still allowed to celebrate the public.
A few weeks after he was disciplined, when Pope Benedict XVI resigned, the Mahony Cardinal travelled to Rome to participate in the election of the next Pope, rejecting calls from victim rights groups and rejecting himself from the election. The Conclave chose Francis, whose Pope pledged “zero tolerance” to church sexual abusers and took steps to address the issue.
In recent years, the Mahoney Cardinal has spoken about political issues. He condemned President Trump's plan for a massive deportation of undocumented immigrants and criticised his efforts within the church to deny communion with Catholic lawmakers who support the right to abortion.
Adrian Allacon, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said in an email Friday that Cardinal Mahoney was “in good condition at all times and will represent the Archdiocese of Los Angeles during the period of mourning of the Catholic community.”
“He is very involved in the general congregations, conferences, public masses and other events that Cardinal will be present this week and in the coming days,” he said.
The Mahoney Cardinal will not be able to participate in the election of Francis' successor. High-ranking corporations over the age of 80 are not eligible for voting.
