'Not convincing"

LAT columnist Steve Lopez reads Cardinal Mahony's mea culpas on sexual abuse by priests and says they "aren't terribly convincing."

The report by the archdiocese offers the usual long-winded defenses, namely, that until the last 15 years or so, very little was known about molestation, the extent of the problem in the church and the best way to treat perpetrators and victims.

There's some truth in all of that, and a lot of hooey, too.

Mack Reed at LAVoice.org found yesterday's report thoroughly lacking as well. But he's more pissed off by his first visit the day before to Mahony's new downtown cathedral (what Lopez calls the Rog Mahal).

Maybe I wouldn't be so off my head with disgust at the too-little-too-lateness of Mahony's clinically cautious hand-washing if I had not just toured the plug-ugly cathedral he fought tooth and nail to build at an astronomical cost with millions that could have - should have - been spent directly on the people of the archdiocese.