Render Unto Rome_ The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church - Jason Berry [180]
Although the Supreme Court had refused to hear Mahony’s appeal on the so-called formation privilege, Hennigan had delayed the documents’ release by arranging for a retired judge to read the voluminous files and decide what should be disclosed. Survivors like Manny Vega wanted Mahony to stop hiding the files. The lawyers saw the cardinal scrambling for money.
“Mahony wanted to settle from day one, but the documents got in his way,” said Rubino. “He had a delicate balance between cooperating with carriers and not turning over files that would kill your defense. Insurance carriers kept threatening to pull.”
Near the end of 2006, Boucher got Hennigan and Mahony to agree on $660 million. “The church had a budget for the number of diocesan cases, and the ones with religious orders,” Boucher told me. “I think Hennigan was right that the carriers should have put up more. The handful of major religious orders had adequate resources to cover their obligations, but the archdiocese did not have a buy-in with them as yet … Mahony went to Rome to get approval.”
At the Congregation for the Clergy, he needed the approval under canon law to alienate church property at a level far greater than did Boston’s O’Malley, who faced an $85 million hole in 2003. Benedict had appointed a new prefect, Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, a Franciscan prelate from Brazil. In an interview with John Allen of National Catholic Reporter several months after the settlement was announced, Mahony said, “Of our total settlement, we’ve only needed to get permission to alienate $200 million … Cardinal Hummes particularly has been extremely helpful.” Mahony told Allen that he had met with Cardinal Franc Rodé, prefect of the congregation that governs religious life, in May 2007. Rodé, a Slovenian who had spent time in a World War II work camp, was one of the more reactionary figures in the Curia, hostile to Vatican II. Rodé ordered a 2010 Vatican investigation of American nuns, the questionnaire for which sought information on their financial holdings, which most of the sisters’ superiors ignored. Rodé was a great friend of Maciel’s and utterly loyal to Legionaries. Two weeks after the July 15, 2007, settlement was announced in Los Angeles, Cardinal Rodé took a vacation in sunny Cancun, Mexico, courtesy of the Legion, according to a Legionary priest. In the ornamental language on which cardinals thrive, Mahony told Allen that Rodé “gave us the key principle … He said the religious institutes must bear full responsibility for their members, and the dioceses for their members. He said that’s the only formula that’s going to work, and that’s the formula we’ve been following.”50
Of course, it was Mahony’s formula all along. Boucher continued: “He came back from Rome with the authority to settle the cases at the amounts we set, and to apply pressure on the religious orders. The orders had to come up with about $200 million. The Salesians were the worst offenders—the most callous, the least apologetic, the most repellent.” In early July, Boucher watched from across Hennigan’s office as Mahony worked the phones. “He was dialing for dollars with the religious orders.”
But for religious orders to pledge $200 million did not mean they could deliver cash on the barrel: property sales and aggregation of assets take time. In the meantime, the archdiocese had to write the check.
HOW MAHONY RAISED THE MONEY
The cardinal who five years earlier had opened a $190 million cathedral was scrambling for hundreds of millions to satisfy the abuse survivors’ claims. Having spent a fortune