Two decades go when he was bishop of Stockton, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony ordered two priests accused of child molestation to leave the country, according to a transcript of a deposition he gave last month.
Mahony gave the deposition in lawsuits filed by people who claim they were molested by several priests, including a third one whom he transferred when he was bishop of Stockton.
Mahony said the two instances when he told priests to leave the country had slipped his memory.
"I had forgotten about those incidents," he testified in a Nov. 23 deposition in lawsuits alleging the Roman Catholic Church was negligent in failing to protect children from predatory priests. The transcript was made public Thursday.
The cardinal told a jury six years ago that the only priest accused of molestation during his time in Stockton was Oliver Francis O'Grady, who was later convicted of molesting two brothers, imprisoned and defrocked. He is now in Ireland.
In the 1998 trial, Mahony testified that he was inexperienced in dealing with abuse allegations when he transferred O'Grady, who continued to molest at his new assignment. The jury awarded two brothers $30 million in the trial, the only lawsuit out of hundreds pending in which Mahony has testified.
Mahony supervised O'Grady from 1980 to 1985. He is a witness, not a defendant, in the latest lawsuits alleging the Stockton Diocese failed to protect children from O'Grady. The priest, a defendant in the cases, has denied the allegations in court papers.
Lawyers for victims say the deposition, which was taken in a secret location, helps establish what Mahony knew about child sexual abuse by priests before he became archbishop of Los Angeles in September 1985.
The cardinal has not given sworn testimony in any of the more than 500 pending claims against the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Lawyers for all sides are trying to reach a financial settlement that would resolve all claims without a trial.
O'Grady has been accused of molesting at least eight victims.
In the deposition, Mahony was asked if he recalled being approached in 1981 by a teenager and his mother who accused a Stockton priest of molestation.
"I have absolutely no recollection of that," Mahony testified.
The same accuser said on CNN Thursday night that he had moved to Stockton from the Philippines at age 16 and that O'Grady had helped him learn English. He said the priest also fondled him.
