CARDINAL MAHONY SPEAKS 'IT'S SINFUL, IT'S WRONG AND I APOLOGIZE' FOCUS SHIFTS TO FATE OF MAHONY.

Byline: TONY CASTRO

Staff Writer

With the historic $660 million settlement Monday ending the clergy sexual-abuse scandal against the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese, attention turned to the future of the central figure in the case -- a man who never molested children nor was charged with a crime.

But Cardinal Roger Mahony may forever be linked to the scandal, which he tried to cover up by first transferring known molesters from parish to parish, then fighting prosecutors -- all the way to the Supreme Court -- to keep church records of the abuse a secret.

For several years, Los Angeles businessman Armando Soto Mayor has kept a watchful eye over the church's pedophile-priest revelations for deep personal reasons. He was an altar boy and considered becoming a priest. Now, the man whose family has been part of the Catholic Church for centuries refuses to have his 1-year-old son baptized.

"A person who abuses a child is sick," he said. "However, the man who covers it up is a criminal. ... That's why I believe that Cardinal Mahony is the worst thing that could have happened to the Catholic Church.

"Cardinal Mahony's legacy? He has no legacy."

It's a question that, with the litigation finally over, is now up for debate in ongoing assessments of Mahony's administration as the fourth archbishop of Los Angeles -- a period of record growth in the country's largest archdiocese but also an era marked by one of the ugliest chapters in the church's long history.

With the scandal now a stain on his record, is there time for the 71-year-old cardinal to carve out a new legacy and does he have time to silence his critics? Or, perhaps the more pressing question is, should he resign?

"Absolutely, he should -- there are 660 million reasons he should be resigning," said Steven Sanchez of Glendale, one of the 508 molestation and abuse victims.

Lasting impact

Similar sentiments were echoed among victims and their families outside Los Angeles Superior Court after a hearing formalizing the archdiocese's settlement, the largest of its kind in the country.

Ray Boucher, a lawyer for most of the plaintiffs, said the long, painful ordeal and the staggering settlement have left a lasting impact on the cardinal and the church.

"To the cardinal and the Catholic Church: You have changed," Boucher said. "You have forever changed."

The attorney for the archdiocese, Michael Hennigan, offered similar sentiments.

"These cases have forever reformed the Archdiocese of Los Angeles," he said, noting that Mahony made several trips to Rome in recent weeks to get the Vatican's support for the settlement. "It will never be the same."

For his part, Mahony appears to be hoping his apology issued at a Sunday news conference serves as enough of a mea culpa, saying the long legal battle had forced him to "reach the bottom."

"I didn't know what to do next," he said. "Everything I did, someone thought was wrong. When you're empty, the only way up is God."

Mahony's office did not respond to a request for an interview for this story.But in a 2005 interview with the Catholic newspaper The Tidings, he said:

"I don't believe in legacies at all. I don't see anything in the Gospels that speaks about legacies, except everlasting life."

But these are not good times for Mahony, said Philadelphia-based blogger and author Rocco Palmo, who writes for The Tablet, the international Catholic weekly published in London.

"It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone if the disproportionately loud set of Mahony critics within the church sought to seize upon the story to attain their long-sought goal of nothing less than his scalp," Palmo said.

Trust erodes

Church-watching critics say the scandal has eroded the church's authority generally and trust in Mahony specifically.

Now, with many church observers asking for anonymity to protect their relationship with the archdiocese, which has 4.3 million members, Mahony faces an altogether different crisis: repairing his reputation among the church faithful by righting the wrongs of the past and carving out a new authority.

"Cardinal Mahony needs to focus on issues in which his leadership can be the champion of the people -- immigration rights and the support of the labor movement," said one source close to the archdiocese. "He has always been a champion of the living-wage movement, and he can be a moral-leadership force for labor and for immigrants, both significant parts of the archdiocese's constituency."

Ultimately, Mahony -- who became archbishop in 1985 and cardinal in 1991 -- is in a much better position to weather the sex-abuse scandal than Cardinal Bernard F. Law, who was forced to resign in 2002 as the archbishop of Boston, Palmo said.

"It is different for Mahony," he said. "He has finalized a settlement. He has taken steps to make amends. He's the bete noir of the Catholic right, but the perception is that, for all his sins in this issue, he has not been hurt the way Cardinal Law was.

"What you're hearing -- victims and others calling for his resignation -- is something coming in the emotion of the moment."

Meanwhile, with the civil case now settled, it appears a criminal case isn't out of the question. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley issued a statement Monday afternoon making that clear.

"Today's massive civil settlement highlights the institutional moral failure of the archdiocese to supervise predatory priests who operated for years under its jurisdiction," he said.

Regarding confidential documents that could be released as a result of Monday's settlement, Cooley said, "If these documents reveal evidence of criminal activity on behalf of individual priests or anyone else, we will pursue them.

"The book is not closed on our investigation."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

tony.castro(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Cardinal Roger Mahony may forever be linked to the clergy sex-abuse scandal.

Associated Press

(2) Cardinal Roger Mahony, top, and L.A. Archdiocese attorney Michael Hennigan await approval of the settlement.

Al Seib/Associated Press