This is why I continue to no longer support the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. I will never give them another dime of my money. The Catholic Church is the richest entity on the planet. They own more real estate than any other organization in the world. They own works of art worth billions. The hierarchy of the church knew for decades about the sexual abuse of children at the hands of pedophile priests. They covered it up. They allowed priests to be moved to other parishes and continue their deviant behavior. They allowed the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent children to be destroyed. They have used the statute of limitations to avoid prosecution. They have paid off families, while still keeping priests protected. The cover-ups continue. The Philadelphia Cardinal used church funds to pay the bail for a convicted priest a few weeks ago. That priest was responsible for re-assigning known pedophiles to other parishes. The Cardinal is also selling off all the Catholic owned nursing homes to raise cash for lawsuits. He is disgusting human being.
Parishes across the country are now using bankruptcy laws to avoid their financial responsibility for the actions of their Cardinals, Bishops and priests. I find it revolting and evil. The Catholic Church has the money to pay for their sins. But the hierarchy of the church wants to retain their wealth, exert power and control over their flock. The new pope has shown promise, but until he purges the Catholic church of all these evil Cardinals, Bishops, and priests, I will not be part of their church.
Catholic Diocese Of Stockton Files Bankruptcy; Priest Sexual-Abuse Scandal Blamed
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/15/2014 10:50 -0500
Between lack of cash flows, insurmountable liabilities, an untenable pension funding, even insider fraud, we thought we had seen all the various reasons for filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. And then along came the Catholic Diocese of Stockton which announced that it would join its host city and seek bankruptcy protection “in the wake of the church’s sexual-abuse scandal.” As WSJ reported, Bishop Stephen E. Blaire said in a news release Monday that the diocese would seek bankruptcy protection Wednesday, explaining that reorganization was the only option for dealing with mounting legal costs related to abuse by priests. The bishop said the diocese has spent $14 million in legal settlements and judgments over the past 20 years dealing with abuse allegations, and doesn’t have funds available to settle pending lawsuits or address future allegations. The punchline: “Very simply, we are in this situation because of those priests in our diocese who perpetrated grave, evil acts of child sexual abuse.”
In the Stockton diocesan bankruptcy, the parties will likely agree on a figure that the diocese would pay, in addition to potentially pulling in funds from insurers. However, the diocese says it holds “relatively little property and assets.” Other holdings, including schools, parishes and several parcels of land, are incorporated separately.
And so the Stockton Catholics became the 10th US Diocese after Milwaukee; San Diego; Spokane, Wash.; Davenport, Iowa; Portland, Ore.; Tucson, Ariz.; Fairbanks, Alaska; Wilmington, Del.; and Gallup, N.M. to file bankruptcy. In addition, the Christian Brothers Institute, which operates Catholic schools and orphanages, also filed because of sexual abuse liabilities.
The Chapter 11 filing would halt pending litigation against the diocese and likely would ultimately allow it to discharge liabilities stemming from sexual-abuse allegations by setting up a trust to compensate victims. The diocese said it hopes to arrive at a resolution with victims and insurers through the process.
Joelle Casteix, western regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called the bankruptcy “problematic on a lot of different levels,” noting that it would let the diocese avoid future civil cases.
However, while the local catholics’ financial woes may be put on temporary hold, their civil troubles are only starting:
Separately, a grand jury Monday indicted a former priest with the diocese, Michael Eugene Kelly, and a warrant for his arrest has been issued. Calaveras County authorities are seeking Mr. Kelly’s extradition from Ireland to face charges of three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child, and one count of oral copulation with a child. Mr. Kelly faces 14 years in prison if convicted.
Not surprisingly, the Catholic church which itself is embroiled in numerous financial scandals recently, was unable to come to the Diocese’s rescue even though it has already paid out an estimated $2.2 billion to cover settlements, therapy for victims, support for offenders, attorney fees and other costs, according to a report by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
And with this filing, we are fairly confident we have seen every possible bankruptcy filing reason.
This is my confusion when it comes to the pedophile scandals within the Catholic Church. Why is it primarily in the United States? I don’t recall reading about these types of crimes within the Church in other countries. I am not saying they have not happened or maybe they aren’t being reported.
Stephanie
It has happened all over the world. Ireland was ten times worse than the U.S.
Google Irish priest abuse scandal and see what you get.
Touche, was just wondering if it was exclusively United States. Then again, I am not surprised the MSM doesn’t report on the scandal in the rest of the world.Too much fact checking that would inconvenience them.
Everytime this issue comes up I have zero patience with whoever is standing in front of my sitting on the fence of ‘yeah, thats a tough one…’ or some bullshit. My immediate response is ‘I wonder how many little boys got raped by the same man they are told to trust today’…then I’ll follow with a graphic description of any sort to help them with their visualization. The graphic aspect is just such a part of the tale, it can’t be brushed off as many would do or want to with today’s bullshit pc frame of mind. But, for what its worth, I’m not Catholic, and growing up one of our 2 pastors was just such a monster. Unless I’m doing a fabulous job of memory suppression, I was unscathed – but fuck them fuckers anyway.
This is breaking news in Chicago today:
Priest Sex Abuse Documents Being Released from Archdiocese of Chicago
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local/chicago_news&id=9394067&rss=rss-wls-article-9394067
January 15, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Thousands of pages of documents were expected to go from the hands of the Archdiocese of Chicago to attorneys for sex abuse victims Wednesday.
The documents include complaints, personnel files and more and are expected to identify 30 former clergy members accused of abusing children and the church officials who help protect the accused. They are being released as part of a legal settlement.
“They own works of art worth billions.”
This is not really correct. The “works of art” are considered a “national treasure” but the Italian government and are, therefore, not salable. In fact, because it is essentially an asset with no potential value to the church, the entire collection is insured for one euro.
Not only is the catholic church the world’s largest slumlord, they’ve been ripping people off for 2000 years. Think of them as the first corporate government oligarchy.
Jesus Christ told the leaders of the church of his day, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” (John 8:44a, ESV)
There is no reason to think the church is any different today, and not since the compromise of paganism with Christianity to form a state religion in Rome, and the Council of Nicea in 318 AD.
Bunnies don’t lay eggs, and shepherds aren’t tending their flocks in the middle of December in Bethlehem. We’ll talk more about the day Jesus Christ died, or Jeebus, if you’re Stucky, this spring.
Game, set, match, Herr Stuck. If you’re a born again Christian, that’s news to me. You’re the original skeptic IMO. A tree is known by it’s fruit, Herr Stuck, and the only thing I see on you is shriveled and rotted.
“And he told them many things in parables, saying: A sower went out to sow.” (Matthew 13:3, ESV). Who are you in the parable?
The Catholic church has it’s share of problems in the past and present but there is no organization on the face of the earth that has done as much good for people all over the world.Just think of the hospitals ,orphanages ,schools and colleges it runs plus all the other charities.This world needs the Catholic church and I say that as a Presbyterian
I agree. I have a hard time listening to a priest that could be a molester preach about morality. Hard to support that.
South Park episode on rampant misconduct, can’t find it on Youtube.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/104226/rampant-misconduct
Simple. The CC covers up what the priests do to protect the churches wealth.
Not so different from say USG and Wallstreet.
This world needs the Catholic church -bb
I live in this world and do not need the Catholic church.
What humanity needs is something that does like the good work but without the pedophile protection it offers.
“The new pope has shown promise, but until he purges the Catholic church of all these evil Cardinals, Bishops, and priests, I will not be part of their church.”
—-Admin
While I agree completely with your rationale and harsh criticism of your church, I also agree with bb (gasp) in his assessment of the good work that the Catholic Church has done with hospitals, schools, charities, and the like. I’ve seen it firsthand and don’t want to see it go away. And like bb, I too am not a Catholic.
Reminds me of an irreverent tune…. let me see…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0Zqo-vOFM
If anyone is interested, or needs to feel sick a little (or a lot), check out the documentary “Conspiracy of Silence” on Youtube. But since most of the readers here are older and well informed, it may not be anything new.
WTF is new? A huge institution acts to protect itself and it’s people.
I was going to write, “Are you so naive to expect that anything different would occur?” but, not wanting to annoy you, I’ll pass over that and go on to something else.
Administrator, when have you ever been satisfied with supporting a large institution and it’s policies?
The U S government, the Catholic Church, the State of PA, the city of Philadelphia… any of those you’d give your vote for and money to? What about your employer and it’s policies? A closer question for personal reasons, but, job aside, are you a true believer?
Administrator, I suggest that you, I, and TBP readers should limit our love to institutions that are small enough that we can be personally involved in them. Larger groups, from county to country we should be wary of and demand constant accountability. And if they won’t provide it… that’s the situation I’ve thought a lot about but still don’t have an answer for.
“Administrator, I suggest that you, I, and TBP readers should limit our love to institutions that are small enough that we can be personally involved in them.”
—-Jackson
Bingo. I left my church LONG ago when it became involved in amorphous bullshit of giving money to the World Council of Churches, which at the time was donating money to brutal “national liberation” (read communist) revolutionaries. Jesus would not have approved.
But my wife and I donate generously to local charities, with time and money. Stuff we KNOW gets spent well on stuff we KNOW stays at home. Which includes activities associated with the Catholic Church.
Wherever that church went in the world, it happened.
Like the Pharisees, “They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ ” (Mt 23:6). But as much as they love money, I think they’re scared shitless (or should be) about going to prison for the rest of their lives. Whenever one of the child sexual abuse scandals is re-ignited, the media interviews some Catholic academic who says “the Church needs healing” or some other such bullshit. Bull fucking shit. What the Church needs is a bunch of bishops to spend the rest of their lives in prison. Go after them on RICO charges. Their paying financial settlements (out of parishioners’ donations) doesn’t hurt those bastards one iota. It’s like JP Morgan Chase paying a $3 billion fine for crimes, but no one going to prison. They don’t care. They need to understand that civil society doesn’t care about their stupid canon law and how many bishops’ dicks can fit on the head of a pin. They need to be criminally prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
The priest brother (Kevin McDonough) of Obama’s Chief of Staff (Denis McDonough) has been implicated in obscuring the history of credibly-named abusive priests. I can’t say Fr. McDonough did anything wrong, but it’s interesting that the media never mentions that his brother is Obama’s Chief of Staff. Covering for Obama.
For the record, Jesus also said of the Pharisees, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice.” (Mt 23:2-3)
Iska, thanks for the scripture. Of course, Jesus was speaking to his disciples, Jews, who were still under the Law of sin. Today, we operate under the Law of grace, and there’s this from the Church epistles,
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” (Romans 13:1, ESV)
The governing authorities are the church authorities, not secular government. Even so, I’m not a member of the Catholic Church. I’m a member a non-denominational, non-sectarian ministry and it is the leadership of the ministry in which I affiliate to whom I will subject myself.
If you’re a member of the Catholic Church, by all means, submit to the Pope, but test all things by scripture. I became disillusioned by denominationalism when I went to speak with an Episcopal minister whom had just delivered a sermon and I had some questions about it not being scripturally based. His response was, “Well, the Episcopal Church teaches it this way”. He was putting Church doctrine above God’s word. The Catholic church goes a step further, and puts the Pope above church doctrine, and above God’s word. This is patently wrong and blatantly ignorant. This is just one example of wrong doctrine in the church.
Stucky, on the other hand, would rather state his misconceptions about apparent inconsistencies and error in God’s Word, but that’s his wrong headed business.
The main disagreement I have with all mainstream denominations, is the doctrine of the Trinity. It’s my experience that 80% of all church goers don’t care about the doctrine, and since it’s taught as a “mystery”, few even profess to understand it. The other 20% are vocal and quite rabid about it. Let me tell you it’s a lie, that’s it’s not scripturally substantiated, and is a source of much of the weakness found in the church today.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6, ESV)
Ok, so if Jesus Christ is not God, which is what the Trinity purports, “God the father, God the son, God the holy spirit”, then who is he, and who is this “holy spirit”, a ghost?
Jesus is referred to as “the son of God” in the bible because God is his father. This is not a Star Wars reference. Jesus was also a prophet.
“For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21, ESV)
You want to argue with the prophet, that’s your business, but leave me out of it :<
Jesus is also referred to as the "the son of Man", because he was born of a woman.
No where in scripture, except a few places which can be shown as forgeries and deliberate mistranslations to support the theology of the translator, is Jesus Christ referred to as "God the son".
If it's not scripturally substantiated, what is it? It is the doctrine of man, about which we are warned,
"in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." (Matthew 15:9, ESV)
This, then, is the moral bankruptcy, not of the church, but of ourselves. There is a saving grace, however, and that is the truth of God's word. Not what man says, but what God says, and therein lies our salvation, salvation from the evil that is in the world, and the wrath that is to come. Salvation that is not from man, but from God, all hell notwithstanding.
God bless and Amen.