L.A. Now Live: Discuss Roger Mahony's legacy, clergy abuse

Join Times reporters Ashley Powers and Victoria Kim for an L.A. Now Live chat at 9 a.m. Thursday to discuss their series on Cardinal Roger Mahony and his role in the Catholic Church's child abuse sex scandal.

Powers, Kim and reporter Harriet Ryan examined Mahony's role and actions in a two-day series of stories.

They wrote:

In the child sex abuse scandal that has shaken the Catholic Church, Mahony is a singular figure.

He became the leader of America's largest archdiocese at the very moment the church was being forced to confront clergy molestation. Because he was just 49 when he took office, he was in power for the entire arc of the abuse crisis. Long after peers had retired or died, Mahony was around to face the public's wrath. Because of the unique way abuse lawsuits played out in California, his files on molesters became public while in most other corners of the church, they remain under lock and key.

The archdiocese's confidential personnel files, released this year as part of a massive settlement of civil lawsuits, provide the most detailed accounting yet of how clergy abuse was handled in a U.S. diocese. Along with sworn testimony by Mahony and his advisors and interviews with church officials, victims' families and others, the nearly 23,000 pages maintained by the archdiocese and various religious orders suggest a man who was troubled over abuse but more worried about scandal — and how it might derail the agenda he had for himself and his church.

Readers can submit questions live during the chat or by tweeting @lanow.

<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=0eaa329c90">L.A. Now Live: A chat with the Times newsroom</a>