May 18, 2007

With Friends Like Cardinal Mahony, The Senate's Amnesty Sell-Out Need No Enemies

If the behavior of Los Angeles' Roger Cardinal Mahony hasn’t outraged you sufficiently by this time—and that’s all but impossible to imagine—then I’ll present you with two new opportunities to get your blood boiling.

First, on March 6^th, the sanctimonious Cardinal, after billing and cooing with equally pro-open borders U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, received the 2007 Public Service Award from the National Council of La Raza.

Other honorees at the La Raza Capital Awards ceremony: Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Congressman Luis Gutierrez. See if you can figure out what all three of the honorees have in common.

During his acceptance speech, Mahony referred to 2007 as “the year” that “comprehensive legislation must be passed.” And this “must” happen before the August Congressional recess.

Irritatingly, Mahony referred to La Raza and himself as “we” throughout his address.

See and hear Mahony here or here.

Where, I wonder, does this man get his gall? I’m shocked at the nerve of Mahony who, because of his aiding and abetting Father Oliver O’Grady in the California pedophilia scandal, should be behind bars and not mingling with powerful U.S. Senators.

For your second chance to see how low Mahony can go, rent a copy of the recently released DVD, Deliver Us From Evil. Watch Mahony squirm during his taped depositions in 1997 and 2004.

Although Mahony suggests that he barely knew O’Grady and denied having any knowledge that he was a serial child molester, the priest has a different version of his relationship with the Cardinal. According to O’Grady, Mahony was “very supportive and very compassionate.”

This is an understatement. In fact, far from barely knowing O’Grady, Mahony issued carte blanche to him to continue raping young children.

The two first met when Mahony was the Bishop of Stockton, CA. and O’Grady a parish priest at St. Anne’s Church in neighboring Lodi. Diocese officials, upon learning of O’Grady’s history of child molestation (including an infant nine months old), took their instructions from Mahony and promised to remove him from contact with children.

Instead, with Mahony’s consent, they sent O’Grady to St. Andrew’s in nearby San Andreas where he continued his pattern of sexual assault on children. [Film Details Priest’s Legacy of Abuse, By Abbe Smith, Union Democrat, October 27, 2006]

Mahony, however, claimed that he did not know the details of the earlier allegations of sexual battery and insisted that he had no other reason to believe that other incidents had occurred. Consequently, Mahony appointed O'Grady as the parochial administrator of St. Andrew's.

But before assigning him, Mahony referred O’Grady to a psychiatrist, John Morris.

Morris, in a written report that ultimately landed in O’Grady’s personnel file, concluded:

"Father O'Grady reveals a severe defect in maturation, not only in the matter of sex, but more importantly in the matter of social relationships... Perhaps Oliver is not truly called to the priesthood." [$30 Million Awarded Men Molested By Family Priest | 3 bishops accused of Stockton coverup, By Don Lattin San Francisco Chronicle July 17, 1998]

As I watched Deliver Us From Evil, and especially the parts that dealt with Mahony’s depositions, I wondered what kind of man puts his own self-interests ahead of the lives of young children. Mahony, in an unsuccessful effort to cover his tracks, repeatedly moved O’Grady around to various parishes in Northern California.

No one was ever warned that a sexual deviant was coming to the neighborhood. And, unchecked, O’Grady continued to prey on the innocent.

So today Mahony, once the great protector of a multiple child molester, is now a leading figure in the quest for open-borders, amnesty and guest worker programs. And he has followers who look to him for guidance. U.S. Senators and Congressmen bow to him.

How can it be?

I think that, to understand this contradiction at least partially, you have to have been raised Roman Catholic – as I was.

I went to Catholic schools where I was taught from an early age that the Church’s authority is absolute. I was taught that to challenge the Church is to doom one’s self to an afterlife in the flames of hell. [Peter Brimelow writes: VDARE.COM's many Catholic supporters will want to complain to Joe directly.]

Whether Mahony is speaking about matters of God or federal immigration policy, there are many who will take his word as that of an ultimate authority.

That Mahony chose to visit Leahy, Kennedy and Pelosi on his trip to Washington is not a coincidence. Since all three are Roman Catholics, Mahony no doubt felt that he was on safe ground.

But what Mahony has given short shrift to in his grand strategy for amnesty is America’s tenacity in its resistance to his scheme.

As I file this column, the Senate leaders and the Bush White House have agreed on an amnesty bill. A vote is expected next week.

But its future, especially in the House, is uncertain. Even some of the most optimistic amnesty supporters are hedging their bets.

Despite the conventional wisdom, I have always felt that the prospects for a 2007 amnesty were slim. Amnesty legislation will be too risky for all but the most electorally-entrenched politicians.

Simply put, the amnesty/guest worker program is already bad policy and bad politics.

But with friends like Cardinal Mahony, it needs no enemies.

Joe Guzzardi [e-mail him] is the Editor of VDARE.COM Letters to the Editor. In addition, he is an English teacher at the Lodi Adult School and has been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM.