Wonder of wonders, a bishop acting like a bishop

This is how the Church should have dealt with this scandal from the beginning (from Catholic Culture):

Archbishop Gomez relieves Cardinal Mahony of duties; Bishop Curry steps down 

Immediately complying with a judge’s order, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has released the personnel files of 87 clergy accused of sexual abuse and has posted the files online.

 Archbishop José Gomez, who has led the archdiocese since 2011, announced that he has relieved his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all administrative and public duties, and that Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, at one time Cardinal Mahony’s vicar for clergy, has resigned from his duties as a regional auxiliary bishop. 

#####

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” Archbishop Gomez said in a statement. “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 the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed.”

 “We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today,” Archbishop Gomez continued. “We need to pray for everyone who has ever been hurt by members of the Church. And we need to continue to support the long and painful process of healing their wounds and restoring the trust that was broken.” 

Archbishop Gomez added:

My predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as Vicar for Clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regional Bishop of Santa Barbara.

For decades bishops would deal with priests with proclivities for adolescent boys by transferring them to unsuspecting parishes (where their predations would quickly resume) and carry on as usual--often deplorably. This abrogation of their responsibilities has nearly destroyed the Catholic Church in the United States (for an excellent account how, read this) yet for the most part the bishops, even as wayward priests were finally jailed, got off scot-free. If the Church is to recover they too must be held accountable. Good for Archbishop Gomez.