2001 - The Detroit Archdiocese closes multiple schools, cuts medical services, and ignores the plight of orphans and widows. Instead, it spends $75 MILLION dollars of Detroit Parishioner dollars to build a cultural center. In Washington, DC. Dedicated to John Paul the 2th. Who made Bishop Maida a Cardinal before he retired in 2009. Because the Cultural Center was an utter failure, it was sold to the Knights of Columbus for $23 Million a few years later. (No surprise. There is no culture in Washington, except what you find in yogurt bars, a religious center can be successful only if it can blackmail its members, and most pols give lip service to religion. Except at election time.)
2010 - Ten years after new rules were passed in the Irish Catholic Church, the Church in Ireland admitted that it still concealed the sexual abuse of children by priests as recently as 2009,, and the Vatican was complicit in the cover-up. Documents proving the cover-up and concealment were eventually made public in 2011.
2011 - The Church admitted to more crimes, cover-ups, and the transfer of pedophile priests in Austria, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Switzerland. Hundreds of priests were shown to be serial rapists, affecting the lives of tens of thousands of victims (and their families).
"Yes, there’s a connection between Irish and alcoholism, and, yes, there’s a connection between homosexuality and sexual abuse of minors...They can’t keep their hands off the boys, don’t you get it?”
- Bill Donohue, president of the vicious Catholic League, blaming the global child abuse scandal on gays and excusing any church misconduct.
"Neither I nor anyone in the Church would ever tolerate hatred of or prejudice towards any of the Lord's children."
- Cardinal Timothy Dolan, explaining his hatred of gays, his attacks on nuns who dare care for the poor, his attacks on President Obama and Obamacare, and single-minded goal to drive the Church forward to the 13th Century.
FROM THE CHURCH OF INEFFABLE STUPIDITY:
While that sick bastard Donohue is juicy enough of a topic to support many diarrheas, let's pass on that wafer and stick to the basics.
Exhibit One. Take Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York. P l e a s e !
Here's a little background on what a Cardinal actually is, within the Catholic Church hierarchy: There are Deacons, Priests, Bishops, ArchBishops, and finally the princes of the vatican, Cardinals. If a cardinal is not named secretly (which is done surprisingly often), then a Cardinal can vote on who is the next pope.
There are three classes of Cardinal: Cardinal Deacon, Cardinal Priest, and Cardinal Bishop. The latter is the oldest, wisest, and typically in charge of a country or the largest urban collection of catholic sheeple. As of today, Dolan is a Cardinal Priest.
During his few years as Bishop in St. Louis, through 2002, he hid only a dozen cases of priest pedophilia. Because of his talent at ass-kissing, lying through his teeth, and silence, he was promoted to Bishop of Milwaukee. It was here that he thrived on crime and misdemeanors, until 2009, when he was promoted again, this time as Cardinal of NY, NY, the largest collection of sheeple in the country.
After years of delay, lies, and deceit by the Archdiocese lawyers, the plaintiffs in a series of Pedophilia cases were finally able to depose Timothy Dolan in February, 2013, just before he flew to the Vatican to vote on a new pope. The questioning was all related to the child abuse scandals plaguing Milwaukee.
Some of the highlights of his testimony center on these few facts:
"I never tried to transfer funds to hide the assets from the victims of child abuse."
Documents released this week prove that Dolan sought permission and received it, to transfer $57,000,000 in donations and assets to a little, ancient, Milwaukee cemetery's maintenance fund, effectively keeping it out of the hands of Milwaukee's many child abuse victims. Estimates for upkeep and maintenance of this tiny cemetery range from $500 to $1000 a month, meaning that this transfer guarantees funding for the cemetery upkeep for more than 47,000 years. Excluding interest. Dolan called it a perpetual care fund. No kidding.
"I never tried to transfer pedophile priests to other jurisdictions."
Documents released this week prove that Dolan not only sought and received permission to transfer pedophile priests, he did so without ever warning the dioceses to whom he was sending his criminally abusive priests. One of his priests was transfered 11 times in 34 years, raping kids at every location.
"I never tried to pay off offending priests in order to protect the Church's reputation."
Documents released this week prove that Dolan repeatedly paid off priests, usually $10,000 to start, then another large sum after they left the priesthood, provided them long term, monthly payments for health, dental and other insurance coverages, and swore them to secrecy about the Archdiocese' own culpability in the scandal.
It is safe to say that the Catholic Church brought on its own problems. First, they turned a blind eye to repeated, constant, even serial abuse of children by its priests. Over many decades. Second, they repeatedly lied and took questionable, even unethical legal stances in an effort to keep all proceedings secret or out of the public eye. There are many sources who claim they can prove perjury by church witnesses. Third, they tried to hide a huge amount of money, in an effort to keep those moneys out of the hands of their victims. (Except when they paid off dirty priests from the same stash of cash) Fourth, they lied about being bankrupt after they shifted the funds.
Is it any wonder that a bankruptcy court ordered them to turn over all these documents?
What is most stunning about these documents is solely about Cardinal Dolan. He is a liar, he is a cheat, and he is willing to say or do anything to fuck over the kids that his priests previously fucked. And he is a Prince of the Vatican? That says a lot about the entire organization.
I'd ask Dolan if he had any shame, but it is painfully obvious what the answer is.