Roman Catholic Blog

The Smoking Gun?

See:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jA-HURgaE8BFz76KPUhO1w-A2EAQD9AQ4KCO0

 

 

 

Cardinal (Mahoney) allegedly

 

delayed report of abuse claim

By GILLIAN FLACCUS (AP) – 19SEP09

LOS ANGELES — A former high-ranking official with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles testified that Cardinal Roger Mahony ordered a subordinate to delay reporting clergy abuse claims to the police until the priest in question could be defrocked, according to court papers filed Friday.

He also decided not to tell parishioners about the allegations, according to the papers.

The claims were contained in a motion filed by plaintiff attorneys in Los Angeles County Superior Court and were based on the recent deposition of former vicar for clergy Monsignor Richard Loomis (Pic above). A transcript of the deposition was attached.

The testimony centers around now-defrocked priest Rev. Michael Baker and a lawsuit filed in 2000 by two Arizona men who alleged sexual molestation by Baker in the mid- to late-1990s.

The archdiocese eventually settled the case for $1.2 million. Baker, who was defrocked later in 2000, was convicted in 2007 of molestation based on the claims of the two men and one other victim and is serving a 10-year prison sentence.

Baker was called earlier this year to testify before a federal grand jury investigating possible criminal wrongdoing by the archdiocese in its handling of clergy abuse cases.

Calls after business hours to two archdiocese attorneys and archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg were not immediately returned. However, in the deposition transcript, archdiocese attorney Don Woods said that because the two alleged victims were adults when they filed their claim, Mahony was not obligated to report it to the police and did no wrong.

In his testimony, Loomis said he told Mahony in a memo that he was going to report the new allegations against Baker to police. Loomis said Mahony initially supported the idea, but later told him — through a secretary — not to do so until the Vatican approved Baker's defrocking.

Plaintiff attorney John Manly said the archdiocese did not report abuse claims to the police until 2002, although Baker was defrocked in December 2000.

Loomis later testified that he wanted to report the new allegations to parishioners who worshipped in parishes where Baker had worked, but was told by Mahony not to do so — an apparent breach of normal church policy. Loomis said the order upset him deeply and he would have resigned if his term wasn't about to end.

"I wanted to follow our regular policy and inform the parishes where Father Baker had been assigned. And I was instructed that we were not going to do that because the lawsuit was still under the process of settlement," Loomis said, according to the transcript.

"I was very upset that we were not going to follow through with our ordinary way of doing it."

Loomis said when he was appointed vicar, his predecessor told him that Baker was treated differently than other priests accused of sexual molestation because he had "self-disclosed."

Baker first told Mahony in 1986 at a priests' retreat that he had molested two young boys from 1978 to 1985, according to church documents. Mahony did not notify police but sent Baker to a residential facility that treated priests for sexual abuse problems.

In the years that followed, Baker was assigned to nine parishes but barred from having one-on-one contact with minors. He violated those restrictions three times, according to church personnel file summaries released by the archdiocese.

Mahony removed Baker from the ministry in 2000 after the Arizona lawsuit.

Baker was charged two years later with 34 counts of molestation involving six victims, but those charges were dismissed in 2003 after the U.S. Supreme Court voided a California law that allowed the prosecution of cases involving acts that occurred before 1988.

However, the allegations by the Arizona men and one other victim allowed prosecutors to file new charges against Baker that fell within the statute of limitations.

In January 2006, the former priest was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport as he returned from a vacation in Thailand and prosecuted.

A Form of Schism

Great article by George Weigel at the Ethics & Public Policy Center.

See: http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubid.3780/pub_detail.asp

Sisters on a Different Mountaintop By George Weigel Posted: Monday, April 6, 2009 THE CATHOLIC DIFFERENCE Publication Date: March 25, 2009 On Jan. 30, an apostolic visitation of religious orders of women in the United States was announced. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), whose membership includes most of the sisters whose manner of life and apostolates will be explored, subsequently released a measured statement, expressing its "surprise" at the Vatican-mandated visitation. The LCWR statement also hinted vaguely at a degree of alarm, noting that the visitation's "purposes and implications for the lives of U.S. women religious remain unclear." A far more forthright comment on the visitation came from Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, who teaches New Testament at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley and is completing a multi-volume study of post-Vatican II religious life. (She holds an M.A. from the University of Detroit, and S.T.L. from the Institut Catholique de Paris, and an S.T.D. from the Pontifical Gregorian University.) Dr. Schneiders' letter on the visitation was originally intended for friends and colleagues; it inevitably leaked into the blogosphere and was then published with Dr. Schneiders' permission in the online National Catholic Reporter. There was nothing vague about Dr. Schneiders' reaction to the impending visitation: "I am not inclined to get into too much of a panic about this investigation --- which is what it is. We just went through a similar investigation of seminaries, equally aggressive and dishonest. I do not put any credence at all in the claim that this is friendly, transparent, aimed to be helpful, etc. It is a hostile move and the conclusions are already in. It is meant to be intimidating. But I think if we believe in what we are doing (and I definitely do), we just have to be peacefully about our business, which is announcing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, fostering the Reign of God in this world. "We cannot, of course, keep them from investigating. But we can receive them, politely and kindly, for what they are, uninvited guests who should be received in the parlor, not given the run of the house. When people ask questions they shouldn't ask, the questions should be answered accordingly. "I just hope we will not, as we American religious so often do, think that by total 'openness' and efforts to 'dialogue' we are going to bring about mutual understanding and acceptance. This is not mutual and it is not a dialogue. The investigators are not coming to understand --- believe me, we found that out in the seminary investigation. "So let's be honest but reserved, supply no ammunition that can be aimed at us, be non-violent even in the face of violence, but not be naive. Non-violent resistance is what finally works as we've found out in so many arenas." Between the circumspection of the LCWR and the call-to-arms of Sister Sandra Schneiders, I'll take Dr. Schneiders' any day. Hers is perhaps the most candid summation of the cast of mind of many American religious women I've read in years. What it avoids, however, is the clear implication of Dr. Schneiders' use of "them" to identity the "investigators:" "them" are not, so to speak, "us." "We" are not of, or with, "them." "Them" reminds me of the Master of Trinity in Chariots of Fire, speaking of a Cambridge student whose approach to athletics (and indeed life) he deplored: "A different god; a different mountaintop." What Sister Sandra Schneiders' admirably frank letter suggests is that the women religious who share her views live in a form of schism. It's not a formal, canonical schism. One might call it a kind of psychological schism, in which the outward forms of ecclesial unity are tenuously maintained, but the inner "self" (as these renewed sisters might put it) is, well, somewhere else. The balance of Dr. Schneiders' letter argues that she and her colleagues have "birthed a new form of religious life," and makes clear that she and those who stand with her will accept no one's appraisal of the Catholic authenticity of their creation but their own. That's an accurate, honest description of the current state of affairs. It also bespeaks a form of schism. Will the impending visitation take a cue from Dr. Schneiders and have the courage to name these things for what they are? And if so, then what? -- George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

______________________________

Here's "Sister" Schneiders' pic:

 

Here's another heretical quote from her:

From her book Beyond Patching: Faith and Feminism in the Catholic Church

(Mahwah, NJ, Paulist Press, 1991, page 110.):

"When the first Women's Ordination Conference met in Detroit in 1975, the women who attended were focused on...the admission of women to orders.....Since 1978, women have come to realize that...we are not talking about how to organize the institution. We are talking about whether the God of Judeo-Christian revelation is true God or just men-writ-large to legitimate their domination; whether Jesus, an historical male, is or can be messiah and savior for those who are not male; whether what the church has called sacraments are really encounters with Christ, or tools of male ritual abuse of women; whether what we have called church is a community of salvation or simply a male power structure."

If (he) can make it there.........

The old song goes:

"If I can make it there, Ill make it anywhere
Its up to you - New York, New York"

Well, Timothy Dolan is going to get his chance.

Archbishop Dolan to New York
February 23, 2009

"Confirming rumors that have circulated for weeks, the Vatican today announced that Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be installed on April 15 as head of the New York archdiocese. Archbishop Dolan, who has served since 2002 as Archbishop of Milwaukee, will replace Cardinal Edward Egan, who is retiring just a few weeks short of his 77th birthday."

"Born in St. Louis in 1950, Timothy Dolan was ordained to the priesthood in 1976. In 1994 he was appointed rector of the North American College in Rome, where he regularly played host to visiting prelates and supervised the education of some of America's most gifted seminarians. In 2001 he became an auxiliary bishop of the St. Louis archdiocese. He moved to Milwaukee the following year to succeed Archbishop Rembert Weakland, whose mandatory retirement at the age of 75 was promptly accepted by the Vatican in light of an emerging scandal."

See the full story at: http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=2072

__________________________________

Whenever you think of Dolan, always remember that he replaced the archetype of crypto-modernist clergy, the Archbishop Weakland. That's his pic below.

Winston Churchill once quipped that the last name of the Norwegian collaborationist Vidkun Quisling was "made to order" as it sounded like an apt adjective for a traitorous man. I've often thought that Weakland is another such occurrence - where the name betrays the inner disposition of its owner.

If Archbishop Dolan could clean up after Weakland, a task more arduous than Hercules having to clean the Augean stables, then he's the man for Gotham.

God Bless the Archbishop designate for New York - Timothy Dolan!

Fire and Ice

I post about this story as I was baptized at the Cathedral of the Holy Name some 40+ years ago. While the Cathedral has suffered at the hands of liturgical "innovators," it bones were (and are) grand.

Fire at Holy Name Cathedral

When it was over at Holy Name Cathedral, water poured down from pillars, and firefighters sweptcascades of water from the nave.

The five red, broad-brimmed cardinals' hats, or galeros, suspended from the ceiling, were soaked but otherwise appeared intact, according to one church official. Each of those hats was raised to the ceiling on a cardinal's death.

Perhaps amazingly, the extra-alarm blaze that caused extensive damage to the cathedral's roof and attic this morning, spared the sanctuary. However, the water used to fight the fire--from firefighters' hoses and from the cathedral's own sprinkler system--wrought considerable damage.

At 10:15 a.m., a Tribune reporter walking inside the church could observe from the
foyer that the sanctuary appeared in good condition.

The dark wood-paneled ceiling was in place as were the stone vaults below it.

Hard-hatted inspectors, meanwhile, gazed upwards toward the ceiling. A large hole, chopped in by firefighters to pour water on the blaze, was visible on the north side of the church's cross-shaped roof.

Cardinal Francis George said the cathedral's roof probably would have to be rebuilt and noted considerable water damage inside. But "Chicago has always bounced back from fires and I think we'll bounce back from this," the cardinal said as he left the church.

See the full article at: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/02/fire-at-holy-name-cathedral.html

_________________________

As grand of a Church as Holy Name Cathedral is, it is not the sine qua non of Catholicism in Chicago. No church, no building, no piece of property, none of the Church's corporate wealth are essential.

We absolutely need good and holy priests to perform the sacraments!

As a related historical fact, at the time of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871:

"At the time of the founding of the Diocese of Chicago on September 30, 1843, Bishop William Quarter led his faithful from the Cathedral of Saint Mary at the southwest corner of Madison and Wabash Streets. A few years later in 1851, an immense brick church called the Church of the Holy Name was being constructed on State Street between Huron and Superior streets. Its cornerstone was set in 1852. In October 1871, however, both churches were destroyed as the Great Chicago Fire engulfed all of the city. Church of the Holy Name pastor John Mcmullen travelled the country to raise funds to rebuild the churches and to aid the homeless of Chicago. Meanwhile, Chicago's Catholics were forced to worship in what was called the shanty cathedral, a boarded-up burnt house on Cass Street. They worshiped there for over four years." (Source: Wikipedia)

 

Here the liturgical "innovations" have just begun. A wooden altar was placed before the old high altar. Nonetheless the tabernacle still maintains its central place in the sanctuary, and the side altars were still present.

   

Here is the cathedral in its most current iteration. The old high altar has been removed. The tabernacle containing our Lord Jesus Christ (body,soul and divinity) has been relegated to a side chapel, the Cardinal's cathedra occupies the focal point of honor. An organ has been placed in the sanctuary, seperating it from the chapel to the Blessed Mother. Nonetheless the glorious gothic "bones" of this place cannot be hidden!

I doubt that Cardinal George will take the opportunity of this fire to undo the "innovations" put in place by Cardinal Cody in 1968 to 1969. I'm happy I was baptized at this Church prior to Cody's handiwork. While being too young at the time to remember, my late mother used to like to visit the Cathedral to light candles at it's numerous shrines - when they were still there.

New Auxiliary Bishop in Orange.

Knowing that many who read this blog are Orangensis, I noticed a link to this at Amy Wellborn's blog.

(It's from the Vatican webiste so it's in Italian.)

NOMINA DI AUSILIARE DI ORANGE IN CALIFORNIA (U.S.A.)

Il Santo Padre ha nominato Vescovo Ausiliare di Orange in California (U.S.A.) il Rev.do Cirilo Flores, del clero della diocesi di Orange, finora Parroco di Saint Anne Parish a Santa Ana, assegnandogli la sede titolare vescovile di Quiza.

Rev.do Cirilo Flores

Il Rev.do Cirilo Flores è nato il 20 giugno 1948 in Corona, California. Dopo quattro anni alla "Loyola Marymount University", conseguito il Baccalaureato, si è iscritto alla "Stanford University Law School" conseguendo il dottorato in giurisprudenza. Ha praticato la professione nell’ambito legale per 10 anni. E’ entrato quindi nel seminario di "Saint John" a Camarillo, dove ha ottenuto il "Master of Divinity".
E’ stato ordinato sacerdote per la diocesi di Orange l’8 giugno 1991.
Dopo la sua ordinazione, ha svolto il ministero in parrocchia, dapprima come vicario e successivamente come parroco. Dall’ anno 2000 è parroco di "Saint Anne Parish" a Santa Ana. Attualmente è anche membro del consiglio economico della diocesi, della commissione per le comunicazioni sociali, di quella per la carità, del consiglio pastorale e di quello presbiterale.

_____________________________

Thoughts on Fr. Flores?

Eavesdropping on Monsignor

My fiance and I were scheduled to have lunch with two of her friends a couple of weeks ago, and they stood us up. When the waitress came by and asked if we wanted to relocate to a smaller table, I said "no." My reason, far from being a desire not to have to move was that I was eavesdropping on a conversation at a table adjacent to ours.

At that table were seated two priests, both in mufti, one of whom is the "old Monsignor" who's the Pastor at my parish in Fresno. They were having a serious conversation about the results of the recent presidential election and how the "right" was unjustly trying to say that "one could not be a good catholic and vote for Obama." What caught my attention was Monsignor's stentorian voice as he said "life is about more than just abortion." I could feel my bile rise as he continued:

"the abortion rate was higher under both Presidents Reagan and Bush I than it was under President Clinton."

I really think that if my fiance had not been there I would have broached all protocol and confronted him - All I could think was "Not another closeted Obama supporting priest ala Art Holquin." This same skewed argument is what Doug Kmiec and the other Obamacons have been peddling.

A few thoughts:

1.) I don't know if Monsignor's "facts" are correct, but let us say arguendo that the abortion rates were higher under Reagan and Bush (1) than they were under Clinton, the case that somehow those rates were lower because of increased federal spending in other areas of social welfare HAS NOT BEEN MADE.

2.) What has become of the Church's role in our society to CONFRONT evil? The easy alliance with the purveyors of the culture of death that Professor Kmiec, and my own pastor!, seem glibly willing to make are akin to some mongrelized form of neo-utilitarianism - where the end justifies the means.

I understand the firm doctrine of "ex opere operato," but I really think I'm going to switch parishes over this.

....Forest for the Trees.

Priest apologizes for ordering car with Obama stickers removed

By Jennifer Garza

Sacramento Bee, 11/16/2008

A Fairfield priest who had asked that a car with several Obama for President stickers be removed from the church parking lot a week ago apologized Sunday to churchgoers for his outburst.

A Fairfield priest who had asked that a car with several Obama for President stickers be removed from the church parking lot a week ago apologized Sunday to churchgoers for his outburst.

The Rev. Sebastian Meyer, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, read an apology at all the church's Masses "for the poor judgment I showed in expressing myself."

Parishioners, who reported the outburst to diocesan officials, said Meyer didn't make it clear during the Mass why he wanted the car removed. It happened five days after the election.

Last Wednesday, a reporter from the Vacaville Reporter filed a police report alleging that Meyer verbally and physically attacked him after he asked the priest about the incident.

Meyer could not be reached for comment.

In his statement, Meyer said he asked that the car be removed because he thought it was parked illegally.

"The fact is I overreacted, and some of you, including the owner of the car, interpreted my remarks as critical of President-elect Obama, when all I really meant to do — and should have done — was make a simple announcement asking the owner to move the car."

He did not mention the incident with the reporter in his statement.

A diocesan official said some parishioners took the priest's remarks as a criticism of Obama, while others interpreted it as an inappropriate outburst.

"Either way, we don't condone any of this and we certainly wouldn't criticize any parishioner for who they voted for," said Kevin Eckery, spokesman for the Diocese of Sacramento.

Eckery said he didn't have information about the reported assault by the priest on the reporter and couldn't comment.

The diocese has made no final decision with respect to any actions against the priest, Eckery said.

__________________________________

Two points of interest:

1.) The "Diocesan spokesman," Kevin Eckery, used to be Republican Governor Pete Wilson's press guy.

2.) Will the Diocese of Sacramento really not "criticize any parishioner for who they voted for" after President Obama signs the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA)?

Weak Archbishop Weakland....

From: http://www.catholicculture.org/

News Briefs

Former Milwaukee archbishop admits shuffling abusive priests
November 13, 2008

In a deposition made public yesterday, Archbishop Rembert Weakland, the former head of the Milwaukee archdiocese, conceded that he had knowingly assigned abusive priests to pastoral work and kept parishioners uninformed about the clerics' past offenses. The former archbishop's deposition came in a lawsuit in which victims of priestly abuse charge a cover-up by archdiocesan leaders. Defense lawyers have sought to avoid a trial, saying that the key witnesses are dead.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/34335169.html

http://www.620wtmj.com/shows/charliesykes/34386719.html

The Culture of Death Advances....

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Washington State voters approve assisted suicide initiative

By CURT WOODWARD

Associated Press Writer

Voters approved Initiative 1000 on Tuesday, making Washington the second state to give terminally ill people the option of medically assisted suicide.

The ballot measure, patterned after Oregon's "Death with Dignity" law, allows a terminally ill person to be prescribed lethal medication, which would be self-administered.

With about 43 percent of the expected vote counted Tuesday in unofficial returns, I-1000 was being approved by a margin of about 58 percent to about 42 percent.

Supporters, led publicly by Democratic former Gov. Booth Gardner, said the initiative would provide a compassionate way for terminally ill people to die.

Gardner has Parkinson's disease, an incurable disorder that causes tremors and stiff or frozen limbs. Gardner, who would not be eligible under I-1000 because Parkinson's is not considered fatal, said he pushed the measure in his "last campaign" because he understood why other ill people would want the option.

Opponents, including the Catholic church, said assisted suicide is a dangerous step that devalues human life. Critics also said the assisted suicide measure could exploit depressed or vulnerable people who worry they've become a burden on their families.

The measure involved a multimillion-dollar campaign, including TV advertisements featuring actor Martin Sheen, who urged a "no" vote. But polling before Election Day showed I-1000 with significant support.

Outside of Oregon, advocates of similar laws haven't fared well. California, Michigan and Maine voters rejected the idea, and bills have failed in statehouses around the country. In Washington, voters rejected physician-assisted suicide in 1991.

This year's proposal differs from the earlier Washington measure - it doesn't allow doctors to administer lethal drugs on behalf of patients who can't do so themselves.

Any patient requesting the fatal medication must be at least 18, declared competent and a resident of Washington State.

The patient would have to make two oral requests, 15 days apart, and submit a written request witnessed by two people, including one person who is not a relative, heir, attending doctor, or connected with a health facility where the requester lives.

Two doctors also would have to certify that the patient has a terminal condition and six months or less to live.

Forty-nine people died in Oregon last year under that state's assisted suicide law, according to a report by the Oregon Department of Human Services. Since it went into effect, more than 340 Oregon patients have used the law to end their lives.

Most suffered from cancer, and the most common reasons reported for choosing assisted suicide were loss of autonomy, loss of dignity and a decreasing ability to participate in activities they enjoyed.

The decision on I-1000 was a personal one for 82-year-old Jean Hoggarth of Yakima. She battled breast cancer and the disease now has spread to her bones, but voted against the initiative.

"I've had experience with people dying, but I believe it can be done peacefully," Hoggarth said. "And we have doctors today who give the best care. They should be allowed to do that all the way to the end."

Mike Dingus, a 39-year-old long-term care worker in Yakima, voted "yes."

"You don't get much choice coming in, so you should get some choice going out," Dingus said.

G*d Save Our Republic!

Francis Cardinal Spellman's

Prayer for America

God of our Fathers, Shepherd of Thy people, Lord of free men's souls, bless Thou our nation with a valiant, Godly spirit, with a vision to see, with the courage to try, with the power to achieve, that, marching behind Thee, Thy people shall not perish.

God, bless our America! Hear our prayer for our united peoples, grant guidance to our leaders, protection to our sons, and teach each of us Thy way of life in good will and peace.

Amen.