LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Working and waiting in Rome for the start of the conclave to elect the next pope, Cardinal Mahony is also blogging and talking to reporters. In his latest interview with an Italian newspaper, Mahony explained that he did a number of things to protect children.

Specifically, Mahony told the publication Corriere Della Sera, "after 20 years, people are talking about abuse as if we had not done anything. However, since 2002, we have had our program Protecting the Children, in which we illustrate procedures and the guidelines of our zero-tolerance policy that allows no possibility, for example, of anyone found guilty of abuse of minors working for the diocese."

He also added, "Anyone who looks at the psychiatric and psychological literature then will see that I applied the professional approach suggested for all institutions. We tried to follow the best practices of the period. My rather painful mistake was to not apply the work of that committee to previous cases. I was more focused on new cases.[!] However, that was an error I completely rectified in 2002."

So, with this, Mahony is defending his record on child abuse, claiming that he followed improved practices late in his tenure.

Meanwhile, on his blog, Mahony continued to preach on the virtue of forgiveness, a popular subject in recent weeks. Speaking of a meditation he read, he adds, "today's Gospel calls us to forgive our brother and sister not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Certainly, that is a good formula for us to follow in our personal relationships. Unfortunately, all the forgiveness in the world does not undo a record tainted by the practice of moving pedophile priests from parish to parish where they could serially prey on new victims. Cardinal Mahony will continue to face legal troubles for his effort, or lack thereof, and his tenure will be forever disgraced by that fact, no matter how much we may forgive him and wish him well.

Sadly, none of this can do much to make those many child victims whole again, save for the grace of God.

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