In the fight for immigrants, Cardinal Roger Mahony works out of the spotlight and his successor in LA steps up
LOS ANGELES - Standing beneath the wooden panels of a church in the San Gabriel Valley, Cardinal Roger Mahony delivered a message that has over decades become a refrain.
"Immigrants are our brothers and sisters," he said, celebrating Mass in Spanish on a recent Sunday. The government may demonize them, but "they aren't our enemies."
He told parishioners of their responsibility to fight for reform. The pews erupted with applause.
A politically sophisticated clergyman whom Pope John Paul II nicknamed "Hollywood," Mahony was raised among California's immigrant farm workers. Named archbishop of Los Angeles in 1985, he became a powerful voice supporting those who were in the country illegally at a time when California was a pioneer in anti-immigrant measures.
Then came the fall, when he was relieved of public duties over his mishandling of clergy sex abuse of children. Once a shining star of the American church, his reputation suffered as a result of the devastating scandal, which led to the largest settlement by any archdiocese: $660 million.
"It became very difficult to look at him, to listen
