Friday, February 18, 2011

Hiding Priests Is Awful, Now The Catholic Church Is Hiding Money

To be quite honest, I am not a fan of the Catholic Church. And I think I have good reason. Its leaders live in luxury, wearing their Prada loafers and designer gowns while many Catholics live in poverty. Many priests in the church have been accused of, and found guilty of, raping children, but the church would rather shuttle them around to save face rather than let the legal system do its job. The Pope actually believes condoms help to spread HIV.

Yeah, I have lots of reasons to dislike, and distrust, this particular faith.

Now, I have another, and his name is Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan.

Dolan likes to blame pedophile priests on The Gays. Well, that's interesting, for a church that hates homosexuals to say that they have homosexual priests who rape boys. It's also interesting because all statistics say that 9 out of 10 child rapists are heterosexual men, so, to blame The Gays is particularly disgusting.

And to add to that heap of disgusting is the notion that Archbishop Dolan, and other church officials, are being accused of moving $130 million off the church's books to avoid paying abuse claims.

Well, Prada slip-ons are expensive.

Now, Jeffrey R. Anderson, a lawyer for victims of sexual abuse by priests says he plans to seek depositions from Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan and those other church officials to find out where they hid the money. Anderson, who represents clients in 23 lawsuits against the Milwaukee Archdiocese, said $75 million disappeared from the church’s investments in 2005, and that an additional $55 million more, that had previously been unaccounted for, suddenly appeared in a cemetery trust in 2008, and that the archdiocese claimed the money in that fund was protected by state law and could not be used for payouts.

And oddly even, that first transfer of money, that $75 million, occurred just as the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that allowed abuse lawsuits to proceed despite a statute of limitations; the second transfer occurred around the time of a similar ruling in 2007.
Archbishop Dolan led the Archdiocese of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009, when the transfer of monies into untouchable accounts occurred. In 2009, Dolan was chosen to lead the Archdiocese of New York. 

And naturally, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, Joseph Zwilling, utterly denies Anderson’s assertion, saying, “The suggestion that anything was hidden is ridiculous. It is not true.” 

How ridiculous is it, to think that the Catholic Church hid monies to avoid paying out on abuse claims, when we know that the Catholic Church basically hid priests who were accused of raping children? I mean, this hiding of people and assets is what the church does.

But Anderson seems to have proof of the "lost" money. This past January, the Milwaukee Archdiocese filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as a means to settle lawsuits by victims of sexual abuse. As part of the process, the archdiocese filed an account of its assets and liabilities, and Anderson compared that filing with yearly financial statements and found discrepancies.

Discrepancies.

The Catholic Church will do anything to protect its image, tarnished as it may be; everything from moving pedophile priests from parish to parish where they can rape again and again, to denying monies to the very people who suffered the abuse. The church is not about helping, it's about money, and keeping the Pope in designer duds at all costs.

source

4 comments:

  1. The Catholic church has a lot to atone for; add this to the list.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had a friend years ago, in the 80's She was one of 13 kids. They belonged to to Catholic Church for YEARS!
    Her parents died within 6 months of each other.
    She could not have services at the Church because they were behind on their "contributions" sp? of the church
    So, this is the problem I have with this. You have been members for over 20 years. They hadn't made any contributions and they are REFUSED in Church.
    What is wrong with this picture!
    Money, money, money!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous1:22 PM

    Lulu: My mom died at the age of 33. I was 14 years old at the time.

    My father and I went to the church to arrange the mass. The priest, I'll never forget this fucker, Father David. He had these coke bottle glasses and he looked like an asshole.

    Well, Fr. David tells my father he didn't think he could have the mass at the church because my father didn't contribute enough.

    My father got out of his chair, walked around the desk, picked Fr. David up by his neck and hung him there and explained it was none of his fucking business how much he tithed to the church.

    The funeral was held at the church. Sometimes you just have to get a little rough with them. I remember Fr. David's eyes bugging out while my father was choking him.

    ReplyDelete

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