L.A. cardinal's trip to Rome draws scrutiny

By Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson

(CBS News) NEW YORK - About 116 cardinals will vote for the new pope. Eleven are American -- including Cardinal Roger Mahony of California. But there are Catholics in both Los Angeles and Italy demanding Mahony stay away because of his role in shielding sexually abusive priests.

Cardinal Roger Mahony led the Los Angeles archdiocese, the largest in the United States for 25 years. He retired in 2011.

Calls increase for abuse-tainted cardinal to withdraw from vote for new pope
Should abuse-tainted cardinal be allowed to vote for new pope?

On Saturday, Mahony was deposed for a lawsuit filed by a 35-year-old man who claims he was the victim of sexual abuse in the 1980s. The suit alleges that church leaders allowed the accused priest to leave the United States to avoid prosecution. The priest remains a fugitive in Mexico.

Earlier this February, the Los Angeles archdiocese released more than 12,000 pages of files documenting a pattern in which Mahony and other church officials reassigned many accused priests away from California -- shielding them from law enforcement authorities in the 1980s.

As America's senior cardinal, Mahony will lead the U.S. delegation to Rome to participate in the election of the next pope. He has been actively tweeting about his upcoming trip:

"@Cardinal Mahony Just a few short hours before my departure for Rome. Will be tweeting often from Rome, except during the actual conclave itself. Prayers!"

That tweet however has been met by mostly negative responses:

"I pray you skip the conclave since you protect child rapists."

"Please stay home and leave the conclave to the faithful."

So far, Mahony has not responded to those critics on Twitter.

[KoreanTakeOut]

Send all them CHO MOES to Korea and wish them well.

[lovelygal900]

this is sad when something like that is not deal with properly. so they dont care of what going on and letting them get away with it. and they are suppose to man of God.shame double shame . i have lost respect for catholic church.

[cleric77]

Since, he is guilty of "covering up" priests, who are rapists, he should be disciplined by his fellow-bishops ASAP.

[Louis_Chez]

I don't see any reason why this guy shouldn't take part in the vote.

After all, he didn't Sandusky anyone!

[lovelygal900]

he covered up and he should not be there.

[SNAPJudy]

You would hope there is someone within the college of cardinals who could be a pope with integrity, who will start to take immediate actions to stop these sex crimes against innocent children.
Yet with that in mind, since all of these cardinals were promoted by popes we have our doubts, in fact some should have been fired, including Mahony.

So we hope that outside law enforcement will get more involved and investigate these crimes against humanity.
Until high ranking church officials spend some time behind bars, nothing will change within this archaic secretive institution. As long as they can still get away with it, they have no reason to stop.

Children are safest when child predators and those who enable and conceal their crimes are held responsible.
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511. [e-mail],
"SNAP (The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)