Numerous news outlets are reporting today that Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles told priests that he was assaulted by a man shouting angry statements about the sexual abuse of children.

The cardinal described being approached last July by an unidentified man outside Our Lady of Angels Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles, said the Rev. Michael Gutierrez, who was at the meeting.

“He went down there to drop something off at the mailbox when this guy approached him, saying some stuff,” said Father Gutierrez, pastor of St. Anne Catholic Church in Santa Monica. “Then, boom, the guy was on him.”

Mahony, who did not appeard to be badly hurt, did not report the incident to the police.

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