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| "OK so they have a little problem -they are men of god" |
In 1986, Cardinal Mahony wrote to a New Mexico treatment center where one abusive priest, Msgr. Peter Garcia, had been sent.
Monsignor Peter Garcia
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“I believe that if Monsignor Garcia were to reappear here within the
archdiocese we might very well have some type of legal action filed in
both the criminal and civil sectors,” Cardinal Mahony wrote.
Monsignor Garcia admitted to abusing more than a dozen young boys, most
of them from families of illegal immigrants, since he was ordained in
1966, and in at least one case he threatened to have a boy he had
molested deported if he talked about it, according to documents filed in
court.
He was never criminally prosecuted, and has since died.
In a 1987 letter regarding the Rev. Michael Baker, who had also been
sent for treatment in New Mexico after admitting that he had abused
young boys, Msgr. Thomas J. Curry wrote to Cardinal Mahony that “he is
very aware that what he did comes within the scope of the criminal law in California.”
“ It would be decades before Father Baker was
convicted of sexually abusing children.
