Parishioners Hear From Archbishop Jose Gomez Through Statement
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Catholics in Los Angeles will hear an apology from Archbishop Jose Gomez as they attend mass on Sunday morning.
At St. Charles Catholic Church in the 10800 block of Moorpark, the official apology previously posted on the Archdiocese of Los Angeles website is being read during masses throughout the day.
The apology comes on the heels of recent revelations of top leaders of the church allegedly covering up decades of suspected sexual abuse by priests.
Archbishop Gomez wrote in part, "I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had a duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed."
The revelations found in documents released by Gomez on Thursday outline hundreds of cases of alleged abuse by priests dating back to the 1950s and clergy personnel files.
The Archbishop last week also relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony from all public and administrative duties for his alleged role in protecting clergy involved in suspected sex abuse cases from prosecution in the 1980s and later.
"There are many people who have done many bad things and we forgive them so somehow in your heart, you have to feel mostly for the children that we abused and then try and feel a little sadness for the person who was afflicted with whatever they had wrong with them that caused them to do that," one parishioner told CBS2's Joy Benedict.
RELATED STORY: Mahony Discusses Pedophile-Priest Scandal On His Personal Blog
