Background on New Archbishop of Los Angeles, Gomez

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With Jose Gomez, the Pope is promoting a bishop with a troubling record of recent secrecy and risk regarding child safety. If the Pope is trying to convince us he's "tough" on abuse, he's shooting himself in the foot by elevating Gomez.

Just last year, Gomez kept silent about two clerics whose religious supervisors deemed 'credibly accused' of sexually abusing teenagers. One of those clerics now apparently works in Rome.

One is Brother Richard Suttle of the Claretian Missionaries, who Gomez is letting live and study in San Antonio. "He sexually abused a teen in the early 1980s in Arizona, according to a public notice from the Phoenix diocese," wrote the Express-News last year.

The other, Father Charles H. Miller of the Society of Mary "worked at St. Mary's University for more than two decades and was let go in 2007 after his religious order found a claim that he sexually abused a teen in 1980 to be credible. Last year (2008) he was moved to Rome," the Express News wrote in 2009. Evidently Miller still works for the Marianists there.

In both cases, Gomez let religious orders quietly transfer credibly accused clerics into the San Antonio diocese in recent years. Neither Gomez nor the religious orders apparently warned parishioners or the public.

Then there's Fr. Larry Hernandez. His religious order suspended his faculties in early 2008 because of credible abuse allegations. Gomez kept it quiet until March 2009.

Furthermore, Gomez hails from the Denver archdiocese which has and continues to distinguish itself by its particularly harsh legal maneuvers against clergy sex abuse victims.

We're very saddened and disappointed by this choice.

Statement by SNAP
April 6, 2010