Cardinal Mahony's shady financial dealings

This story doesn't need much in the way of commentary.

LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES-Pressed to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to settle clergy sex abuse lawsuits, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony turned to one group of Catholics whose faith could not be shaken: the dead.

Under his leadership in 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles quietly appropriated $115 million from a cemetery maintenance fund and used it to help pay a landmark settlement with molestation victims.

The church did not inform relatives of the deceased that it had taken the money, which amounted to 88 percent of the fund. Families of those buried in church-owned cemeteries and interred in its mausoleums have contributed to a dedicated account for the perpetual care of graves, crypts and grounds since the 1890s.

Mahony and other church officials also did not mention the cemetery fund in numerous public statements about how the archdiocese planned to cover the $660-million abuse settlement.

Does that sound really shady, or what? But Jeez, a Cardinal was in charge. So it has to be aboveboard, right?

In 19 presentations to parish groups about the archdiocese's need for contributions that winter, the cardinal and his aides laid out what they done so far to pay the settlement, including selling real estate and liquidating $117 million in investments. But they did not reveal that the cemetery fund accounted for nearly all the investments liquidated.

That's quite a church they've got there. And they still think they have the right to tell people what is moral and what is not. This is a disgusting church. It has rot in its very soul. (Not that there's such a thing as a soul, of course.)

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/02/10/182552/cardinal-mahony-used-cemetery.html#storylink=cpy

David Atkins chimes in

I wrote a post the other day about the evil of Islamists destroying one-of-a-kind history and science documents and relics. Today, David Atkins chimes in on digby's site.

There is something deeply barbaric about casually, intentionally destroying humanity's heritage. Something terrifying, and something new to this world in the modern era. Something more inherently barbaric than run-of-the-mill murder or even mass murder.

Religion, at least of the Islamist variety, is the sworn enemy of mankind.

The Roman Catholic church is a cesspool

I'll let PZ tell you about it. I'm too nauseous, myself. Ugh.

PZ today

As usual, PZ knocks it out of the park. Go read It's Time to Abort the Catholic Church. And he ends the post with my favorite admonition to Roman Catholics: why the hell are you still members of this sick and evil church?

What I heard

I heard that in Hell, they take your iPad away. It's that severe. Ooooo, that god is so evil!

It's quiet. Too quiet.

After seeing Cardinal Timmy Dolan every day for months and months, doing a new, awful thing each time he emerged from the shadows, he's gone missing! I'll bet you didn't even notice his absence. You probably just felt better and didn't know why.

So what's Timmy been doing all this while? Has he realized the error of his ways? Is he in some bunker, trying to think of loving, godly things? Is he mending his ways as we speak?

Of course not. He's dreaming up some new, spectacularly wrong-headed initiative. He's clunking heads with other bent creatures in the brotherhood of bishops, trying to come up with something that'll put him over the top and ensure that his legacy of hatred lasts for centuries.

His reign is very much like the Bush years. After Bush did something really, really wrong, you didn't think, "Oh, he's probably taking lessons to ensure that he doesn't make that mistake again." No. You thought, "What stupid, colossally evil thing will he do next?" And you held your breath. That's the way it is with Timmy.

I wonder what he's doing now. Wait, I'm getting a psychic image. He's bending over something. I think it's a little...yes, it's a little boy! OMD.

You just don't know what to say

The Vatican has brought in the Fox News correspondent in Rome to help improve its communications strategy as it tries to cope with one of its most serious scandals in decades, The Associated Press learned Saturday.

Is that perfect, or what? The AP article ends with something that seems to be a slap in the Vatican's face:

The Vatican has been bedeviled by communications blunders ever since Pope Benedict XVI's 2005 election, and is currently dealing with a scandal over leaked documents. 

They have to be making fun of him, right? This comes right after a Vatican spokesman said all their problems were the work of the devil. Gotta be a jibe. Gotta.

Timmy Dolan pays huge bonus to abusive priests

It's a wonderful story. Dolan pays off pedophile priests, lies about it and then won't talk about it. He's quite the Cardinal, isn't he? Makes you wonder about those rumors that he'll be the popey guy one day. It must be true. He's showing all the right colors.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York authorized payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests as an incentive for them to agree to dismissal from the priesthood when he was the archbishop of Milwaukee. .

Questioned at the time about the news that one particularly notorious pedophile cleric had been given a “payoff” to leave the priesthood, Cardinal Dolan, then the archbishop, responded that such an inference was “false, preposterous and unjust.”

But a document unearthed during bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and made public by victims’ advocates reveals that the archdiocese did make such payments to multiple accused priests to encourage them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to remove them from the payroll.

That's the paying and the lying. Here's the hiding:

Cardinal Dolan, who is president of the national bishops’ conference and fast becoming the nation’s most high-profile Roman Catholic cleric, did not respond to several requests for comment. 

He's always ready to show us the true nature of Catholic morality. He attacks gays, attacks women, attacks nuns -- and then turns around and pays a bonus to priests who rape kids. Thanks, Cardinal Timmy! Now we really know how to get to heaven!

Bill Donohue's hail to the penis

Bill Donohue. Ugh.

You know that blowhard, Bill Donohue, of the Catholic League? He's the dimwit who says bigoted, stupid things on behalf of Roman Catholicism. He serves the role of unofficial far-right spokesman for the church. This guy is a twit extraordinaire. He's also big on making Catholics look like victims, no matter the truth of the situation. There's nothing so low that Billy won't reach for it. Personally, I figure the reason he's so vicious is that he's a closet case. Anyway, you know the guy, I'm sure.

So Christine Quinn, the Speaker of NY's City Council, is getting married to her longtime partner this weekend. And because she's marrying a woman, the dimwitted Donohue couldn't keep his trap shut:

Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League, wished Quinn and her partner the best, but said he will never recognize their marriage.

"The people who go know they are not witnessing a wedding," he said. "I will be at a bar [on Saturday] watching the Preakness. The horses are a lot more fun - and it's real." 

So this marriage isn't "real" enough for Billy. And no one who attends will be "witnessing a wedding". I think I know why Billy chose these words for his remarks. This is a big shout-out to the penis. After all, if there's no penis involved, how could a marriage be "real"? I've heard him make slights about two men marrying, but his words didn't have this particular, dismissive tinge. Methinks Billy is upset by the very existence of lesbians. (He's probably equally horrified by the existence of women. Just saying.)

Donohue is the mental equivalent of an emotionally damaged 10-year-old boy rampaging in a schoolyard. Poor little, dimwitted Billy. He never grew up. What a sad lump he is. But at least he makes the church look awful. There's always that.

Vatican more disgusting than ever

Apparently, the Vatican is even more appalling than we thought. Andrew Sullivan has the story today, and it's guaranteed to turn your stomach.

The Roman Catholic church is evil. Write that down.

"Vatican insider" says popey guy not too evil

"Praise me!"

We start with this:

DUBLIN (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has been "relentless and consistent" in seeking to oust child abusers from the priesthood worldwide, the pontiff's new American envoy to Ireland said Sunday in his first homily here.

Indeed. And who is this fool who praises the evil popey guy? A NY Times article provides the answer:

Archbishop Charles Brown, a 52-year-old Manhattan native and veteran Vatican insider, was making his first public address since officially taking up his post as Irish papal nuncio three days ago . . .

Brown noted his own 17-year work as an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the powerful Vatican body that enforces church policies — including the removal of pedophiles from the priesthood. Benedict, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, oversaw the body from 1981 until his promotion to pope in 2005.

Ah, so you're the fellow who assisted the popey guy in his efforts to transfer pedophile priests and hide their crimes. As Cenk says, "Of course! Of course!"

What a filthy church this is. I almost vomited while watching the excessive coverage of glutton Timmy Dolan picking up his shiny red hat this weekend. They told him to become the fierce Catholic face of anti-gay hatred, and he came through in spades. You get a red hat for that. Congrats, Timmy. You stink to high heaven and they've rewarded you for it. As I often note: that's quite a church you've got there.

Catholic bishops ooze with filth

God: "The bishops are intrinsically evil."

You already know the story about Obama, contraception and the evil Catholic bishops. Here's something from today's NY Times:

The bishops said the plan offered insufficient protection for their institutions: “In the case where the employee and insurer agree to add the objectionable coverage, that coverage is still provided as a part of the objecting employer’s plan, financed in the same way as the rest of the coverage offered by the objecting employer. This, too, raises serious moral concerns."

"PS, we rape children."

Okay, I added the last part but it belongs there, no? How can these oozing sores of catholicism pretend to speak about morality? They lost that right long ago. But at least some Catholic organizations see what's really going on. Here's another quote from the article:

James Salt, executive director of Catholics United, a liberal advocacy group that is organizing support for the Obama administration, said, “The bishops’ blanket opposition appears to serve the interests of a political agenda, not the needs of the American people.”

That's the truth: Roman Catholicism = GOP = NOM = filth. Wake up and see the church for what it is. It's a boil on the face of humanity and it needs to be excised.

We should thank the popey guy, not revile him

Levada/HuffPo image

In one of the emptiest gestures yet, the Vatican held a closed-door meeting in Rome, allegedly as a way to move forward in the church's golden era of child abuse, but really to hide it away and plaster praise on the worst offenders.

Here's an excerpt from the story:

ROME (AP) — A top American cardinal on Monday defended Pope Benedict's handling of sexual abuse cases by clergy, saying he should be praised not criticized, as advocates for abuse victims demanded that the Vatican release its secret files on pedophile priests. 

Indeed. And who said this? Why, it was a "top American cardinal", Cardinal Levada, the very man who preceded the popey guy in the position of "head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church office ensuring doctrinal purity and, in recent decades, also shaping the Holy See's policies on handling abuse cases involving clergy."

So Levada oversaw the early days of the pedophile scandal, and then handed the reins to the popey guy, who put whipped cream and a cherry on top. These two men are the walking piles of moral decay who allowed the child abuse scandal to continue, the very men who protected the pedophile priests while ensuring that children remained in danger.

And what was Levada's function at this grand meeting? He was the symposium's keynote opening speaker. Here's more of his nonsense:

Levada lamented that the pope "has had to suffer attacks by the media over these past years in various parts of the world when he should receive the gratitude of us all, in the Church and outside it." 

Oh, the poor popey guy. My heart bleeds. By the way, the church's next move will be to create 22 new cardinals. Among them is archbishop Timothy Dolan, the evil man in charge of persecuting gay people for the church, and another evil twit. Here's a takeout from the story that describes this gem of a priest:

Next week, Benedict will raise 22 churchmen to the rank of cardinal, including a former bishop of Savona, Italy, who abuse victims allege failed to act for years on accusations of pedophile cases in that diocese. Monsignor Domenico Calcagno currently heads a Vatican office. 

Sweet. The church is a criminal organization and it is crowning new mafia dons. Anyone who remains a catholic in light of all the church has done, is morally bankrupt.

Popey guy transfers whistleblower to the sticks

Evil popey guy.

So the number 2 administrator at the castle of gold called the Vatican, blew the whistle on corruption by the popey guy. And it ended up "cost[ing] the Holy See millions of euros in terms of higher contract prices."

(I don't know about you but I go all goosebumps when they refer to themselves as the "Holy See"!)

So I guess this means the popey guy can't give all the contracts to the cute guys anymore. You know how he loves those sweaty workmen. And getting found out cost him big bucks. So what does he do? He transfers the guy to that pit of Hell they call "Washington". Not sure if it's D.C. or that other one. Either way, he won't be wearing jewels and drinking from gold coffee cups anymore. He is no longer a member of the Official Popey Guy Club. That must hurt!

There is no morality at the Vatican. And jeebus is just a fairytale. That's why these sorts of things happen in the church every single day. Raping kids, protecting pedophiles, funneling money wherever the hell they want, attacking gays all around the world -- that's just an honest day's work at the Vatican. Nice religion they've got there.

Piggish Timmy Dolan tries to control others, again

Tut, tut. Let me control you!

Today on NY1, I found this story:

Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan is blasting the Obama administration's decision that requires many church-affiliated institutions to cover free birth control for their employees.

(Snip)

Dolan, who heads up the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the government has never forced individuals and organizations to buy something that violates their conscience.

See, here's the thing, Timmy. You're the employer, not the person wanting to use a contraceptive. And you're not "buying" it, you're reimbursing the person for a medical expense. It doesn't matter whether your conscience is "violated" because you're not the person who uses the contraceptive. See how that works: you/them. Different, see?

It is the decision of the employee whether he or she wishes to use contraceptives. It's the employee's choice, not yours. So your conscience doesn't enter into this in any way.

I hope I've managed to clarify this matter for you. Your tendency to want to control others (women, gays, etc.) is piggish, immoral and authoritarian. See? Don't worry. You can thank me later. Oh, and you're going to love Xmas Carol. I wish I could watch your facial expressions as you read it. Try to record video of yourself as you enjoy the book, and then put it on YouTube. Okay? Thanks, Timmy!

Can you believe this evil twit?

True evil smiles as it harms.

Oblivious to his church's immorality, newly minted red-hat cardinal Timothy Dolan spoke about sex at mass yesterday:

Dolan linked “sexual immorality” with society’s ills — violence, sex crimes, disease and broken families — and called on priests to do a better job of encouraging the sexually virtuous.

“The church has at times in the past, sadly, come across as as some naysaying, puritanical nag, always giving a big ‘No, no, no’ to one of life’s greatest joys,” he said.

Actually, Timmy, the church comes across as a wide-open field of child rapists, not puritanical nags.

When smiling Timmy Dolan speaks, he thinks there is no real world out there. He has this odd idea that he's always in the vatican, where everything is dripping with gold and there is absolutely no discussion of pedophile priests. 

But see, the rest of us live in the real world. To us, Dolan's words are cheap and meaningless. We know, Timmy. We know that many thousands of your priests can't keep their hands off children. And we know that you and the pope hide their transgressions, choosing to protect the priests rather than the children. How can you possibly speak these words when your church is being sued across the world for raping children?!

Timmy, you are a pompous, duplicitous, immoral fool. To think that you have the nerve to speak about morality in public! You! 

Ah well, at least your words teach the world that the catholic god does not exist. Because if jeebus did exist, he'd smite you and the popey guy before he did anything else. As long as we can still see folks like you -- getting promoted to red hat status, no less -- there is no god. Thank you for confirming this.

The roman catholic church is going down

Victim. Ha!

There is a marvelously reassuring and chuckle-some article in the NY Times today about the "state of siege" that US Bishops seem to think they're under. In essence, they consider any externally imposed constraints on their ability to continue discriminating against gays and women to be an infringement of their inalienable "religious rights". These guys are so tone-deaf and immoral, it's shocking.

The article has wonderful quotes like this:

Scott Appleby, a prominent religious historian at the University of Notre Dame, says many church leaders have recently adopted "a more pugnacious style, much more of a kind of culture-wars attitude." At the same time, the bishops' have been stung by their loss of public influence from the sex abuse crisis and the years of bruising revelations that many dioceses moved guilty clergy among parishes without alerting parents or police.

"The church no longer receives deference or the hands-off attitude that it once had for many years. That's gone," Appleby said. 

Duh. I wonder why. There are evil groups and there are evil groups. The roman catholic church is one of the truly evil groups. Go read the article. It's fun.

PS on Avila: a new day dawns

Today's AP:

BOSTON (AP) — The author of a newspaper column suggesting the devil may be responsible for homosexuality has resigned from his job with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic bishops said Friday that Daniel Avila (AH'-vee-lah) offered to step down and his resignation was accepted Friday.

Avila's column appeared a week ago in The Pilot, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston. Avila had written that there's evidence suggesting the devil is responsible for same-sex attraction. Gay rights groups and others condemned the column.

The newspaper withdrew the article from its website Wednesday. Avila apologized for any pain the column caused. He said his views did not represent the position of the bishops' conference.

Avila had worked on policy and research for the bishops in Washington.

Lordy, would you look at this

I posted the other day about an insane column that appeared in the Archdiocese of Boston's official newspaper, The Pilot. In it, David Avila said Satan was responsible for the existence of gay people. It was an attempt to push the idea that god didn't create gays, because, you know, that'd be a mistake. So naturally, the devil did it.

It was so embarrassingly off the wall that they're gonna take it back! Here's an excerpt from the linked article:

Catholic bishops on gays: the devil is to blame

Logo of the Evil Ones.

Hat tip to Joe Jervis for pointing me to this story. The evil US Conference of Catholic Bishops is trying to convince the flock that Satan causes homosexuality. The USCCB wrote the most inane, unbalanced, hate-filled rant against gays -- and it was published in the official newspaper of the Boston archdiocese.

It's such a funny article. Read it if you like, and watch the writer tie himself up in knots as he tries to push an insane proposition on readers. There are gems throughout the piece. Here's one: