Cardinal Roger M. Mahony acknowledged to Los Angeles Catholics in his 2004 "Report to the People of God" that he left five priests in ministry despite complaints that they had molested children.
But a Times analysis of church records released since then shows that he left 11 other priests in ministry for periods up to 13 years after parishioners raised concerns about inappropriate behavior with children.
Seven of these 11 cases were not detailed in the People of God report. The other four were mentioned incompletely; the report said they were removed when complaints were lodged but did not disclose that the Los Angeles Archdiocese had received earlier reports of misconduct.
The Times analyzed edited summaries of personnel records written and posted on a public website by the archdiocese in October. The summaries were first given to counsel for more than 500 plaintiffs suing the church over alleged sexual abuse by priests. The archdiocese and the plaintiffs are engaged in court-ordered mediation.
One of the 11 cases involves the late Msgr. Leland Boyer, whose publicly released file summary revealed that three allegations of child molestation had been lodged against him. One of his alleged victims, Jaime Romo, said archdiocesan officials had assured him in 2002 that he was Boyer's only accuser. Romo, in an interview, said he was enraged when he saw that Boyer's file summary included two other allegations of sexual misconduct, in 1981 and 1995.
"I would still like to believe, 'Oh, my gosh, somehow it was an oversight,' " said Romo, 46, a professor at the University of San Diego. "It is deeply saddening for me to know [that] so many situations were maintained that put people at risk."
Mahony has fought to keep from releasing full personnel files either to prosecutors or plaintiffs' lawyers in the civil cases. On Monday, however, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a California appellate court ruling requiring him to hand over to prosecutors the files of two priests who are under criminal investigation.
Legal experts have said the high court's refusal to hear Mahony's appeal increases the likelihood that the Los Angeles church may soon have to hand over many more confidential documents in the civil cases.
In a letter accompanying the 2004 People of God report, Mahony said the report provided the "fullest possible disclosure" of how the church responded to allegations of clerical sexual abuse in the decades before he arrived in 1985 and since.
