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Send in the Clones

By Vinnie Nauheimer

Suppose you had a guaranteed lifetime job, long flowing red robes, more bling than you could wear, servants, secretaries (handsome ones at that), hundreds of millions of people believing that you are the spiritual descendants of the apostles and were an intermediary between them and God! Would you give that up to become more Christ like? Not a chance! Therein lies the cardinal lack of motivation to elect anyone other than a clone to fill Benedict’s Prada shoes.

Baptized in the River of Denial, delusional, self-absorbed, uttering snippets to the press about the pressing issues of the poor and third world countries, the cardinals gather, feast sumptuously and strategize about who will be the next Vicar of Christ on Earth and what they will wear for the new pope’s, if not their own, inauguration. It’s the Vatican’s version of America’s Red Carpet Club. Yet, these same men, the cardinals, are the first to condemn the evils of materialism while totally oblivious to the fact that they are the polar opposites of their founder.

So why would anyone in their right mind harbor the slightest inkling that things will change?

Jesus said his church would last forever is one answer!

Who is to say that this is his church anymore? It was written in Thomas’ Gospel that the church lives in those who keep Jesus in their heart. Did Jesus drive around in a golden chariot? Did he spend lavishly on hats and shoes? Did either he or his apostles wear fourteen to twenty foot silk capes known as Cappa Magnum? Or, did Jesus chastise the rich and their lavish life styles saying it was harder for them to get into heaven than to get a camel through the eye of a needle? What’s that you say, “Bishops and cardinals have no money of their own; it is church money freely given?” Eating lavishly at the trough filled by the labor of others is the bigger disgrace!

Well what about the Holy Spirit! Surely he will reinvigorate and bless the conclave?

No, the Holy Spirit is too busy keeping the spark of justice alive in the thousands of abuse survivors. The Spirit has imbued survivors and their supporters with the tremendous strength and unwavering courage needed to take on a universally corrupt institution with global tentacles. Only the Holy Spirit could have sustained the survivors of clergy sexual abuse while they bore and still bear the brunt and full measure of a mega monolithic church attempting to crush them. Please pause here to remember those who didn’t survive, those whose spirits were willing to come forward, but whose minds were not able to withstand the intense pain brought on by the onslaught of a ruthless church, its high powered lawyers, and their high pressure tactics. No, the Holy Spirit is too busy tending to the suffering and giving them the courage to speak about the unspeakable atrocities committed on their bodies. The Spirit doesn’t have the time for those who have co-opted Christ’s church.

You speak of hierarchy as though they are incorrigible. Do you truly believe that?

Those that are not criminals themselves have opted to keep silent about the ones who are. There is nothing else to say. If they haven’t committed crimes of commission, they have committed crimes of omission. As Jesus said, “Bad trees don’t produce good fruit!” Which cardinal who has himself committed a crime is going to vote to have himself removed? Which cardinal who sat by silently will now publicly rebuke his red-hatted brothers? Bring in the clones!

Look at the headlines currently surrounding any number of cardinals. They include but are not limited to money laundering, fronting for the mob, perjury, failure to report sex crimes to civil authorities, failure to remove sexually abusing priests, interfering with judicial processes and those are only the ones we know about. Would the Jesus in the Gospels have men like Bernard Law, Roger Mahony, Edward Egan, Donald Wuerl, Francis George, George Pell, Sean Brady as apostles? Jesus would more than likely have fitted them for millstones for turning children away from Him as three of the four Synoptic Gospels tell us.

What incentive is there to change the way business is done in the Vatican? None!

Send in the clones; it’s business as usual!

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And the Oscar goes to…“The Sting LA Style”

By Vinnie Nauheimer

Accepting the Oscar for “The Sting LA Style” are Roger Cardinal Mahony and Archbishop Jose Gomez for their stellar performances in a remake of “The Sting.” Produced, directed and orchestrated by the Vatican, it is the story of two bishops who feign fighting with each other in order to collect vast sums of money from an unsuspecting laity. Gomez plays the part of a white knight who rides in, releases documents (which was his legal obligation), derides his predecessor, and saves the Los Angeles diocese from the last vestiges of child sex abuse. Mahony, for his part, takes umbrage at being silenced by his protégé and being blamed for his dastardly deeds. Could we expect anything less from the diocese that contains Hollywood? Certainly not!

Anyone believing the sincerity of the this “made for public consumption” feud should reach into their Tinker Bell pouches and throw some pixie dust on themselves so they can remain in La La Land. Are we really supposed to believe that Gomez was unaware of the extent of Mahony’s malfeasance? No more than that insulting excuse that Mahony made when he proffered, “nothing in my training prepared me for priests raping children.” If true, we ought to put both their faces on the Naiveté Awards! Mahony for not knowing that the rape, sodomization and molestation of children was a heinous, immoral, and criminal act. Gomez, who obviously doesn’t read, deserves his award in honor of his empty protestations that he knew nothing of how bad things were under Mahony. Really, did this man live under a rock for the past 10 years? As Mahony said, “Gomez never complained about me before.” These pernicious lines were written by the Vatican spin masters to add drama to the feud and Mahony followed the script perfectly giving a convincing performance penned to create the illusion of a genuine feud. “Please Don’t Throw Me into the Briar Patch, Archbishop Gomez!” wink, wink.

Why the wink, wink? Money, money, and more money!

Mahony has spent untold millions maybe even a billion dollars on PR Firms, lawyers and buying the silence of survivors. As early as 2002, he hired one of the most expensive PR Firms in LA, Weber Shandwick, which was rumored to bill at $500 per hour. Mahony then hired J. Michael Hennigan, of Hennigan Bennett and Dorman, a crème de la crème lawyer, who in turn fired Weber Shandwick and hired Sitrick and Co., a Century City-based firm whose forte was crisis management. Can you see the dollars flowing out of the LA Diocesan coffers? The outflow begun in 2002 has continued for over ten years. It is not hard to imagine the coffers of the PR and Legal firms unnecessarily swelling at the laity’s expense.

Since then, there have been suits, countersuits, appeals and more appeals especially when it came to the Herculean legal effort put forth, over the past six years, aimed at preventing abuse files from being made public. The outflow of money had to be enormous, but because there are no check and balances, no transparency, the sheep in LA’s pews will never know exactly how much money Mahony spent keeping up his image, countering suits, filing appeals, and that doesn’t count the six-hundred-fifty-million payout to survivors. The irony is magnificent. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent to protect an image that was ultimately sullied by his protégé. Truly Machiavellian!

The Sting LA Style is on now because those monies have to be replaced! Mahony and Gomez publicly pretend to dislike each other like Newman and Redford did in the Sting, but the goal is not to fleece a mobster, their goal is to take more money from the laity. Los Angeles is the largest diocese in the richest country in the world and both Gomez and Mahony are company men. Only those who still believe in the Easter Bunny would be naïve enough to believe that the Vatican would give this prize diocese to anyone but a company man. This script was written as a contingency plan when Gomez was given the nod, of the five million Catholics in the diocese; forty percent of LA Catholics are Latino. Coincidence?

Did the Vatican’s plan work? Did Gomez become the knight in shining armor for forbidding Mahony to speak in public? Yes! Did this unprecedented move (according to the press) make national headlines, yes! It has been national news and editorial fodder for over a week. Did the pew people all over the country bob their heads in agreement while saying, “It’s about time!” Yes! Is Mahony the bad guy? Yes! Is Mahony feigning hurt feelings, absolutely! Is Gomez being perceived as the good guy, yes! Has Mahony’s lifestyle materially changed, no! He swore a blood oath to the pope and this charade is a small price to pay for all he has been given.

Several papers have pronounced a bishop silencing another bishop as unprecedented. Not so, this same scenario was recently played out in Ireland where Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, made a big public display of demanding the resignations of three bishops, who like Mahony, had been instrumental in the cover-up of the sexual abuse of minors. After a suitable and very public fight, the bishops agreed to tender their resignations to Pope Benedict XVI who promptly refused to accept them. Martin went down as an Irish hero for battling the Vatican and the three bishops went back to work, business as usual.

There is a very little known rite created by, oddly enough, Benedict XIV who wrote the rules for the degradation of a bishop. The Rite of Degradation starts out as follows: “If the degradandus [he who is about to be degraded] be an archbishop, the degrading prelate removes his pallium, saying: “We deprive thee of the rights and privileges of the episcopal dignity, symbolized in this pallium, since thou hast abused them.” If Benedict XVI had the chutzpah to use this rite, it would indeed be unprecedented!

However, I digress and therefore back to the point of this exposition: The fine acting performance of Roger Cardinal Mahony and his protégé Archbishop Jose Gomez. The purpose of which, is to put Gomez in the position of white knight so that he can ask for and receive more money from the good people of the Los Angeles diocese. Money, which most likely will cover the legal bills accumulated by his predecessor and those which may arise from criminal charges, if any, filed when the recently released documents have been examined.

Despite the protestations of the church to the contrary, the church can only use laity money. The Roman Catholic Church makes and sells nothing of material value. Therefore, they can only exist by virtue of what they either take or that which is given to them. The hundreds of millions of dollars spent defending the indefensible can be traced back to the laity’s pocket one way or another.

According to the LA Times, Gomez has already been in touch with the New York Company, Guidance in Giving Inc. He is using professionals, like his predecessor, to study whether or not the pew Catholics of Los Angeles are ripe enough for another round of financial plucking. That folks is what this charade between Gomez and Mahony is all about.

It’s all about the money!

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An Open Letter to Pope Benedict XVI

What if you had the ability to undo egregious wrongs that affected hundreds of thousands of people worldwide would you, could you do it? What if there was only a sixteen day window for you to act? Would you find the time? Pope Benedict XVI, you have just sixteen days to perform this wondrous task. You’ve heard all about the crimes. You’ve heard the pleas of survivors; they have haunted you since before you took the office of pope. They will haunt your legacy for eternity too if you pay no heed to this request. I’m begging you on behalf of survivors of clergy abuse and their families all around the world, set them free, hear the pleas, hear their suffering, take to heart their pain and publicize the global clergy abuse files regardless of the rank of the offending priest. Only you can alleviate the endless suffering of victims and their families by giving their suffering validity and naming their tormentors!

Whether you wanted it or not, God gave you the opportunity to change the church and put an end to the worldwide sexual abuse of children by priests and bishops. God has given you two opportunities, one as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the second as Pope Benedict XVI to clean up this evil mess festering within His church. In both instances, you have not been up to the task. Now with just days left before the voluntary end of your papacy, you have yet a third chance. We implore you, to summon the courage before God and man to do what you swore to do in assuming your position as a priest, protect the flock.

A man of your intelligence knows beyond a shadow of a doubt about how the sexual abuse of children corrupts, has corrupted and has thrown the Catholic Church and your papacy into a tailspin. Now is the time to resurrect the church as a parting gift to the victims, the future of the church and to Jesus Christ who founded this church. It is your last chance to rectify the wrongs.

Throw open the doors and shine the light on the vermin that have been eating away at the foundations of Christianity for longer than we know. Let the light cleanse the church and heal the survivors. Open and make public all the records on clerical sexual abuse from around the world.

In 2002 your predecessor said, “There is no room in the church for priests who abuse children.” In 2008 before the Youth of the world, you said, “Victims should receive compassion and care, and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice.” Your words as those of your predecessor ring hollow. You have never brought any of those responsible for these evils to justice. They still reside in your church like roaches behind the walls. You know it, we know it and the world knows.

Now is the time to act! At the end of the month after a new pope is elected it will be too late. He will say and do the same things that all the replacement bishops have said: That was my predecessor’s fault, I never knew things were that bad, and besides, that’s all in the past.

Pope Benedict XVI things are that bad for hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide. Having your body and soul ripped asunder to feed a priest’s lust does not end with the deed. It stays with you for life. You have the power to ease that pain. God Almighty is looking down at you and has given you yet a third opportunity to right the wrongs. Will you like Peter, deny him and all the victims in this world yet a third time?

I pray not.

Sincerely,

Vinnie Nauheimer

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Mahony’s Legacy

By Vinnie Nauheimer

Let’s hear it for Cardinal Mahony!

Never was one so full of baloney;

Cunning hypocrite of the first order;

Priest, whose hypocrisy knows no border.

Panderer to the pedophile priest

Let loose the sick, hungry, ravaging beast

Who gorged upon the innocent flesh

Of our children; their pure souls to enmesh.

Roger the dodger spent untold dollars

Keeping, out of jail, rapists with collars!

Spending for lawyers to tighten the screws

On tortured child victims from the pews!

Protecting at all costs secret files;

Protecting his black heart with big smiles;

Protecting his image in the aisles;

From a paper trail running for miles.

Mahony has no more a sense of God

Than an old, dead, smelly, decaying cod

The cathedral to the great Mahony

Will be the fact that he was a phony.

A sepulcher that has been painted white;

A crystal chandelier without a light

Upon his name, church and God; he cast blight

His legacy, “Of his sins we shall write.”

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Election Results Confirm Roman Catholic Hierarchy Voted Out!

By Vinnie Nauheimer

The Catholic Hierarchy lost more in this past election than Mitt Romney ever could. The sin of hypocrisy has caught up with and trampled the power of what once was a powerful voice in American politics: the hierarchy of the American Roman Catholic Church. The bishops played their final hand in American politics and came up woefully short, aces and eights: the dead mans hand. Catholic bishops were undeniably roundly, soundly, and publicly rebuked in a fashion that was equal to the effort they expended to influence the election. Whether the hierarchy accepts it or not, they will now be consigned to pages of the volume: No Longer Politically Relevant.

Can bishops be politically significant to national politics when they can’t influence their own parishioners? They can’t. Bishops along with their pundits loudly proclaimed their ability to hold sway over the Catholic population of between sixty to seventy million Catholics in the United States, but as this election proved to the world, they couldn’t deliver a pizza without a GPS.

Only a few years ago, Bishop Chaput, Archbishop of Denver, was able to rally Colorado Catholics as a block to defeat a revision of the Statute of Limitations Bill that would have made it easier for victims of Clergy Abuse to recover damages from their abusers and the church that protected them. This year Colorado was one of only two states that passed a bill legalizing marijuana.

Not since the days of the Legion of Decency have the bishops been so vocal. In those days they utilized all the media in their efforts to prevent scandalous movies like Baby Doll or Lolita from being viewed by Catholics under the pain of sin. Below are some of the numerous exhortations voiced against Obama by bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.

Bishop Jenky compares abortion rights supporters to the Jewish crowd in Jerusalem that pledged loyalty to the Roman Empire and demanded that Pontius Pilate crucify Jesus. Jenky wrote, “For those who hope for salvation, no political loyalty can ever take precedence over loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his Gospel of Life,”

Bishops of Pennsylvania released a letter to voters declaring that policies on contraception, abortion and gay rights backed by the White House and Democrats meant the nation was “losing its soul by little steps.”

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn wrote: “It is inconceivable to me how Catholics could support such policies. Indeed, Roman Catholics who support abortion rights and vote for a candidate because of those policies, place him/herself outside of the life of the Church. In so doing, they also place themselves in moral danger.”

Clearly, the bishop’s admonitions were pretty much ignored except for the eleven percent of Catholics who attend mass on a weekly basis. Personally speaking, it is inconceivable how bishops and cardinals could support those within their ranks who abused children, broke their sacred covenant with God and a host of civil laws. This, “do as I say and not as I do” attitude is the real reason Catholics don’t listen to bishops anymore. Catholics are tired of the hypocrisy.

What do the numbers mean?

The sixty to seventy million Catholics number, which bishops and cardinals bandy about to strike fear in the hearts of politicians is a meaningless number. Though there may be sixty some- odd million people who were baptized Catholics living in the United States there are far fewer, who are practicing Catholics. In order to get to a voting block number, let’s remove about ten million who are below voting age bringing the total down to fifty million. Now consider that according to CARA, the research arm of the prestigious Catholic Georgetown University, 32% of all adult Catholics rarely go to Mass and 24% of them go a couple of times a year. That means that 56% of the adult voting age Catholics in the United States are non-practicing Catholics. That leaves a base of twenty-two million church goers that might listen to bishops. This is not speculation; the truth lies in plain sight for anyone who cares to read the results of the recent presidential election.

How did this Happen?

Hypocrisy would be the leading cause behind the erosion of hierarchal political clout. In light of the criminal activities, lying, cheating, bullying and obfuscation surrounding the Clergy Abuse Scandal, the admonitions of the bishops listed above are at the least laughable, at their worst, despicable. As Bishop Di Marzio said in his column, “It stretches the imagination!” It sure does. It blows the mind that supposed followers of Christ could dismiss with impunity the crimes, cover-ups, hypocrisy and lies committed by their own against children.

Over and over again, in the public eye, from the pope on down the hierarchy has been caught being dishonest, unethical, unwilling to abide by their own canons as well as civil laws when it involved the sexual abuse of children by priests and bishops.

Losing their Credibility through Large and Small Steps

The bishops of Pennsylvania had the process right, but as usual, they were unable to see how it applies to them. Since 2002 the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has been caught denying, promoting and minimizing horrific, heinous sexual crimes committed on children by their priests and bishops. Their arrogance blinded them to the fact that their credibility was dwindling faster than a used car salesman with a “Saturday Only” special.

Below is an excerpt of a letter written to the then Vicar of Priest Personnel for NY Archdiocese: Msgr. Edward O’Donnell. This priest traveled up to Croton on Hudson to defend a notorious pedophile priest with a twenty year history of abuse and excoriate the family who filed a suit against the priest and church.

Parents who once attended church regularly now find excuses. They cannot answer their children when the children speak the truth without looking and sounding like you! How sad is that? The following is a Croton Catholic father speaking about his daughter who left the church over this scandal.

The Journal News June 20, 2002

“It was difficult watching his daughter leave the church,” McClean said, but he did not try to persuade her to stay. “We support her in her decision and we understand it. She’s made her own decision based on her conscience and we support her in that,” he said.

Croton on Hudson had the dubious distinction of having two back to back pastors removed for child abuse.

Ogden Nash once parodied a Shakespeare quote. “Oh what tangled webs we weave when we first believe children to be naïve” The arrogance, hypocrisy and criminal activity of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy has come home to roost. Children raised in the church during the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first have no interest in Catholicism. They don’t get married in the Catholic Church and those children are now having children who are not being raised Catholic.

Not counting the adults the Catholic lost because of the Clergy Abuse Scandal, there are at least three generations of young people who have no regard or desire to listen to what the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has to say. The chain of cradle to grave Catholics has been broken. In addition, the bishops have taught young adults one lesson very well; the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has zero credibility.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life tells us that about one fifth of the current population of the United States has no religious affiliation. The largest age group in the non-affiliated class is 18-23. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out how many of that twenty percent came from once Catholic homes?

Hand in hand with the above is the fate of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Irish newspapers tell us that Ireland, with 95% of its population Catholic cannot get vocations. An expensive, national, vocations ad campaign netted just 12 men willing to enter the priesthood. The diocese of Dublin, home to the Archbishop of Dublin accounted for one quarter of the total leaving just 8 from the rest of Ireland. The Irish Sun wrote the following in their August 5, 2012 edition

Faith worse than debt: Priesthood ad fails to collar any of 400k jobless “The Diocese of Elphin ran ads in newspapers and newsletters in counties Sligo, Roscommon, Westmeath and Galway looking for new recruits. But despite over 400,000 people on the dole, not ONE person applied for the job.”

If the Catholic Church has lost its sway in one of the most Catholic countries in the world, what hope can bishops and cardinals have of persuading the politicians in the United States that they are relevant?

Conclusion

The Roman Catholic Church along with its cardinals and bishops are a mere shadow of their former selves. Without the culturally forced baptisms, mandatory mass attendance, and Catholic schools, the power both real and (mostly) perceived of the hierarchy will continue to dwindle. The stalwarts of the Catholic Church, the pre-Vatican II generation are dying off rapidly. The Vatican II generation, the baby boomers, are graying and are split between those who continue to cling like Voice of the Faithful and those who have left. In a few years when these two generations have passed, the Catholic Church will take its place in antiquity.

Middle aged white men running around in red dresses, is as anachronistic as their claim to speak for God. When historians write about the demise of the Catholic Church, they will write about the final crippling blow that was dealt to them by the Clergy Abuse Scandal. They will tell of the arrogance, hypocrisy and criminality of the hierarchy that came to light at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Historians will study with amazement the fact the only group who believed the lies, cover-ups and misrepresentations of hierarchy regarding the sexual abuse of minors were the same bishops, cardinals and popes making the excuses. They will ask, “Did the hierarchy really expect the pew Catholic to believe all their lies?” and the answer will be a resounding yes. Then they will ask, “Did the pew Catholics believe the nonsense that spewed forth from the Roman Catholic hierarchy?” The answer will be a resounding no and the number of people who left the church in the first two decades of the twenty-first century will stand as witness to that fact.

The presidential election is over and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States was soundly defeated by all their constituencies with the exception of the dwindling number who attend Mass every week.

The sins of the fathers have come home to roost!

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The Litany of the Laity: “But, that’s not my Church!”

By Vinnie Nauheimer

All rights reserved

Mary, having heard the cries of the suffering children and the prayers of a laity in the throws of turmoil, intercedes on their behalf with Jesus. He too is exceedingly dismayed by what his church has become, the hierarchy’s adamant refusal to change, the poor disenfranchised faithful, and decides to take action. He summons the Furies, whose job it is to punish those who break sacred trusts by sending them to, Judecca, which is a section of Dante’s Ninth Circle of hell reserved for those who, by betraying their God, their vows, and humanity, have committed crimes with great historical and societal consequences. The Furies are relentless in their pursuit of these defilers of faith and never stop pursuing either them or those who support them.

When the Furies are in his midst, Jesus charges them to seek out the laity and spell out the crimes of the hierarchy to them. Knowing full well the capacity of Catholics to rebuff the verbalization of hierarchal crimes as “Church Bashing,” and remembering, Doubting Thomas, Jesus admonishes the Furies to only mention crimes that have made headline news over the past ten years concentrating on the ones that have most recently been publicized, are Internet searchable and have been confirmed by the press thereby leaving little doubt in the laity’s mind as to the true nature of their hierarchy. In keeping with their task, the Furies have gathered the laity and are reciting the litany of hierarchal crimes against children, law, society and God. The laity responds with its own litany.

The Furies: A couple of weeks ago in Cardinal Dolan’s old diocese, Milwaukee, according to Judge Susan V. Kelley, the depositions of bishops Weakland and Sklba contained material so “scandalous”, that she would not release them to the public, apparently afraid of the impact they will have on the church’s reputation and ability to function as a business.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: The Catholic Church working with dictatorial government authorities took babies from political dissidents and gave them to couples they deemed to be acceptable parents.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: The Catholic Church sold babies for a profit in Spain, Ireland, and Australia.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: The Catholic Church working for the Canadian Government has been recognized as an active participant of the genocide of Native North American Children.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: The Catholic Church through its Vatican Bank has been accused of laundering money.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: Earlier this year, the largest Catholic publishing company in Germany, Weltbild, owned by German Bishops, with 1.7 billion Euros in sales, was forced to disclose it has been publishing pornographic novels for years. The biggest source of revenue is from what the bishops called Erotic novels; others have labeled such titles as, “Sluts Boarding School and Lawyer’s Whore,” porn!

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: In Ireland, the Catholic Church forced young women into servitude for years just because they were pregnant, they’re parents couldn’t afford to raise them or because they were too good looking.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: Over the past several years, the behavior of hierarchy of the Catholic Church in failing to deal with clergy sexual abuse has been condemned by Grand Juries across the United States and three separate commissions in Ireland.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: The Catholic Church is a global purveyor of the crime of sexual abuse against children with credible cases of clerical sexual abuse reported in over forty countries around the world. It has also sent known pedophiles from one country to another to protect them.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: The Catholic Church has seminaries where local bishops have sexually abused young seminarians.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: The Austrian seminary of Sankt Pölten was found to have over 40,000 pornographic photos on their computer system including bestiality and child pornography.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: Currently in Kansas City, a bishop is on trial for failure to report a priest who was found with child pornography on his computer.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: Currently in Philadelphia, lurid details of sexual abuse and their cover-up by a cardinal are released on a daily basis as the trial of Msgr. Lynn progresses.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: Recently a Canadian, a bishop was arrested for bringing child pornography into the country on his computer.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: In Palm Beach, Fl., two successive bishops J. Keith Symons and Anthony J. O’Connell were allowed to retire after admitting to sexual abuse, one of them with seminarians.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: Last year, Roger Vangheluwe, a Belgium bishop admitted to abusing his two nephews, the Pope Benedict XVI allowed him to retire.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: Then whose church is it?

The Furies: The Pope Benedict XVI made this statement at the World Youth Day in Australia, “I ask all of you to support and assist your bishops, and to work together with them in combating this evil. Victims should receive compassion and care, and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice.”

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: But, that’s not your church!

The Furies: The Catholic Church has excommunicated bishops over matters of doctrine, but has yet to laicize a single bishop for their personal sexual abuse or for covering up the sexual abuse of priests in their charge no matter how heinous the act.

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church!

The Furies: If this is not your church, whose church is it?

Parishioners: But, that’s not my church! My church is my parish community. We know each other, we love each other, help each other and we believe in and live the Gospels.

The Furies: Why have you let the hierarchy bring such shame down upon you? According to Matthew, Jesus said: “Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”

The Laity: We believe in one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church

The Furies: Why have you permitted the hierarchy to squander the spiritual riches of your church?

The Laity: We were taught to pray, pay and obey!

The Furies: Why have you permitted the hierarchy to squander the good will of the church?

The Laity: We believe in one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church

The Furies: Why have you allowed the hierarchy to force untold thousands to flee the church?

The Laity: We were taught to pray, pay and obey!

The Furies: Why have you permitted the hierarchy to, close your schools, your churches and rip your parishes asunder?

The Laity: We believe in one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church

Furies: Did you bear witness to hierarchal behavior with your silence?

Laity: Yes, not for the hierarchy, but for the sake of my parish community!

Furies: Have you tacitly approved of hierarchal behavior by putting your vote in the collection plate every Sunday?

Laity: Yes, not for the hierarchy, but for the sake of my parish community!

Furies: Have you asked you fellow parishioners to withhold money until changes are made?

Laity: No, not for the hierarchy, but for the sake of my parish community!

Furies: Have you been vocal about the scandal and shame the hierarchy has brought down upon you and your church?

Laity: No, not for the hierarchy, but for the sake of my parish community!

Furies: Have you listened to your conscience in matters of hierarchal criminal behavior?

Laity: No, not for the hierarchy, but for the sake of my parish community!

Furies: Are you saying that your parish community is not part of the greater church?

Laity: O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

The Furies: Why do you allow the hierarchy to continue to betray you and all that Jesus has taught? Have you not read Matthew 23:13-29?

Laity: O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

The Furies: Matt 7: 15-20 Jesus said: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.

Laity: O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Furies: Cut down the bad tree and throw it into the fire!

The Furies: St. Paul in his Epistle Corinthians 1, 5: 1-2, tells you “It is actually reported that there is immortality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let this be removed from you.”

Laity: O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Furies: Let this evil be removed from you!

The Furies: Corinthians 1, 5: 6-8, Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.

Laity: O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Furies: Cleanse out the old leaven, start anew!

The Furies Corinthians 1, 5: 11-13, But rather I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber-not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside, “Drive out the wicked person from among you.”

Laity: O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Furies: Drive out the wicked hierarchy from you!

4. Corinthians 1, 15: 33, Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.

Laity: O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Furies: Listen to Paul, bad company ruins good morals!

The Furies: Canon 748 states: “All are bound to seek the truth in the matters which concern God and Church; when they have found it, then by DIVINE LAW they are bound, and they have the right to embrace and keep it.”

The truth is your hierarchy is killing your church, depriving you of your religion, making a mockery of your religion and setting it on the path of destruction. They do this for no other reason than to maintain control, maintain their riches, their power, and feudal hold they on you the faithful. Let them be removed from you!

The Laity: Lord give us the strength to right these wrongs.

The Furies: Take your strength courage from He who died upon the cross.

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Cardinal Dolan’s Gamble

By Vinnie Nauheimer

April 5, 2012

The subtleties of Cardinal Dolan’s mind are unmatched. New York’s newest comedic cardinal has outdone himself in devising a strategy to bring the house down at Last Supper services on Holy Thursday. Cardinal Dolan, never accused of being shy, has come up with an incredibly unique way to imprint the message of the Last Supper on the minds of New York’s Catholic elite who attend services on Thursday at St. Patrick’s. All we can do is marvel at Dolan’s sharp and rapier like wit. After asking God to allow Judas to speak on the subject of betraying Christ and being turned down, Dolan came up with the perfect living substitute. He invited Cardinal Justin Rigali in his stead!

Let’s hear it for the newly minted cardinal for having the audacity to pull off a stunt like this! Who better to speak about the betrayal of Jesus Christ than the disgraced former head of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia? Who knows more about turning his back on the teachings of Jesus Christ than Cardinal Rigali whose former diocese is now steeped in disgrace and scandal? Disgusting graphic reports hit the papers on a daily basis as testimony is given describing the seamy underbelly of the church and sexually disturbed priests having lurid sex with minors. Excellent qualifications for someone to speak to the betrayal of Jesus. What will this pitiful, contemptuous former Vatican secretary to the pope have to say about his equivalent of thirty pieces of silver?

Speculation is running wild about the light that Rigali can shed on what makes a man turn his back on Jesus Christ while throwing children to the wolves in a manner that is the polar opposite of being a Good Shepard. Is it me Lord? That was the question Judas asked. Are there anymore offending priests still working in Philadelphia was the question. NO, was Rigali’s answer and yet several months later, when forced to, he announce not one, not two or three priests, but two dozen priests were to be suspended. Like Judas saying is it me, Rigali knew of his guilt.

One can only commend Dolan on finding such a suitable replacement to speak on Judas’ behalf. Of course, we could say it was divinely inspired, but we don’t want to take anything away from Dolan. However, it is our sincerest wish that Dolan does not have the rug pulled out from under him by Rigali. If Rigali can turn his back on his God, what assurances can Dolan have? What happens if at the last moment Rigali decides that he doesn’t want to explain his reasons for betraying Christ? What happens if he gets up and tries to play the role of a Good Shepard? What if he tries to tell New York Catholics how they should behave? How they should be more Christ like? Will Dolan’s reputation be able to withstand the shock? New Yorkers appreciate good theatre, but what bombs in Philly generally doesn’t float in New York. So it will be with Rigali.

Dolan is gambling on a Judas. Will Rigali speak to his betrayal of Christ, children and Catholics around the world or will he play Dolan for the fool by playing the Good Shepard?

Stay tuned!

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Eau de Pope; Scents, Sense and Nonsense

By Vinnie Nauheimer

St. Peter, “What is that smell?”

“Its pope Benedict XVI, Jesus,” said St. Peter

But he’s not supposed to die for another couple of minutes.

I know Jesus, but his cologne always gets there five minutes before he does!

As philosophers remind us, in every piece of humor is some truth. What possible truths could be associated with an 84 year old pontiff having a custom blended scent made for him to wear as has recently been reported in the Italian press? Maybe the toilet water in the Vatican is backing up or maybe the stench of the rotting empire is too much to bear. Then again, maybe this is what happened:

The Story of how Sexual Abuse Became Policy

In the beginning there was clerical sexual abuse and then came all the hierarchal excuses for it. The excuses were nonsense and without merit. And darkness fell over the church, the victims and their families. And the victims, their families and the laity spoke among themselves telling each other, “This is a crock of shit and it stinks to high heaven.”

So the families went to the monsignor and said, “Clergy abuse is a bunch of crap and we can’t stand the stench!” And the monsignor went to the bishop and said to them, “Clerical abuse is like a container of excrement and a very strong one at that. The laity can’t stand it! The strong smell is driving people to leave the church.”

And the bishops pondered the excrement in sacred convocation and went to the Cardinals saying to them, “Clergy sexual abuse is a crock of fertilizer and the smell isn’t as bad as the laity would have us believe.

And the Cardinals discussed the problem among themselves and they said to one another, “Fertilizer is a good thing because it contains that which allows plant growth, provides food and nutrition.”

And the Cardinals went to the pope and said, “Clergy abuse will promote growth and provide nutrition. It will grow the church and benefit both the clergy and their flocks.” And the Pope looked upon the plan, saw that it was good, blessed it and the plan became policy.

This is how clergy abuse became policy and why the pope needs Toilette Water not Holy Water to keep the odor of corruption from his aging nostrils.

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Pope commissions custom-blended eau de cologne

Fragrance was concocted by Italian boutique perfume maker Silvana Casoli

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/14/pope-commissions-eau-de-cologne

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When the Jurist loses Prudence, Goliath Hammers David

By Vinnie Nauheimer

It is obvious to the most casual observer that jurist prudence was snapped by the decision to allow lawyers for the Catholic Church carte blanche to pilfer, pour over and ponder twenty three years of personal files in the hands of the survivor’s group known as SNAP. One has to ask just how blind justice is when an organization steeped the sexual abuse of children, the Roman Catholic Church, is allowed to compel the leading advocate group for survivors of clergy abuse to turn over confidential records unrelated to the case in question.

The Roman Catholic Church is an internationally recognized promoter of child abuse having multiple documented allegations of sexual abuse in over thirty countries around the world including its home base, Italy and its home city, Rome. The Roman Catholic Church was been found guilty of acts of genocide against Native American Children in Canada by an International Tribunal in 1998.¹ In Ireland, they enslaved and abused children for years in workhouses.² The European commission has accused the Vatican of money laundering.³ The NY Times recently reported that priests and nuns in Spain and Argentina were guilty of trafficking in babies and selling them for profit.⁴ That report generated a similar complaint out of Australia.⁵ Every grand jury convened in the United States to investigate clergy abuse and their equivalent in Ireland roundly criticized the church for their always abominable and in some cases, criminal behavior. In Germany, the largest Catholic publishing company, Weltbild, with 1.7 billion Euros in sales has been publishing pornographic novels for years. The biggest source of revenue is from what the owners of the publishing house, the bishops, call Erotic novels; others have called titles such as Sluts Boarding School and Lawyer’s Whore, porn.⁶

Based on the truths above, giving the lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church unfettered access to Snap files is the moral equivalent of giving the Mafia unlimited access to FBI files. It is simply unconscionable! Did the church take advantage of the hole created by an imprudent jurist? You bet they did. They opened a six-lane highway and lined it with dumpsters prepared to take away everything they could get away with. The proof is in the transcripts from Mr. Clohessy’s deposition. The church went back twenty-three years though the incident in question only happened recently. In six hours of deposition given by Mr. Clohessy, most of the questions had nothing to do with the case of Rev. Michael Tierney who is accused by four people of sexual abuse. The NY Times tells us, “most of the questions were not about the case but about the network — its budget, board of directors, staff members, donors and operating procedures.” Surely the jurist could have limited the scope of the deposition as has been done so many times to so many victims trying to depose church leaders.

This is an unparalleled attack on Snap and as Bill Donohue, the church’s mouthpiece, tells us; it was a centrally planned attack supported by the fact they recently filed a similar fishing expedition suit in St. Louis. Hopefully the jurist deciding this case will see through the charade and act with more prudence by refusing to allow Kansas City to set precedence.

The target of the Holy Roman Empire is David Clohessy and the organization known as SNAP. Total income for SNAP in 2010 was $352,903; probably less that than the value of almost any church property in any US city. Some twenty years ago when the clergy abuse scandal could no longer be contained due the enormity of the abuse, several groups formed to aid survivors in their quest for justice. The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church was not then or now interested in justice. They adamantly oppose anyone who would dare bring scandal upon the church by complaining that their child had been victimized in a criminal act by a priest or bishop. Having no other recourse, victims sought the arbiter of last resort, the courts. The church steeped in their hypocrisy, conceit and self adoration deemed themselves above the law and used every legal and underhanded trick in their voluminous playbook to thwart survivors and their families who had the audacity to complain. Thus the survivor groups of the day sprung into existence. Snap went on to be largest survivor group and became the defacto spokesmen for survivors of clergy abuse. In that position, many survivors of clergy abuse have turned to the SNAP for help. Help in dealing with their abuse, help for finding resources to deal with the inherent problems of sexual abuse and of course, help in seeking justice for the crimes committed upon their bodies and souls. It is the latter that has enraged the hierarchy for it has cost them in terms of credibility and more dear to them than their integrity, their money.

And now we are the crux of the matter, money: the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church worships at the altar of dead presidents. The clergy abuse scandal has cost them dearly and they are targeting the organization which the largest number of survivors seeking help turn to when they wish to go public. The church holds SNAP responsible for their losses. How sad that after ten years in the spotlight, hundreds of millions of dollars spent fighting the truth, and countless survivors trampled, some so badly they committed suicide, that the hierarchy has still refused to look in the mirror. They are the source of their own problems and have yet to come to grips with it. However, the laity is beginning to recognize the source of the church’s problems, which is causing the bishops more angst and money. Thus in the fashion of a cornered animal, they are lashing out.

Regardless of the outcome in either Kansas City or St. Louis, survivors will continue to come forward and expose sexually abusing priests. If David Clohessy and SNAP are martyred, another will take their place and another after that. Like the early apostles of the church, the word will spread regardless of how heavy handed the tactics of the Roman Empire become. The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church is corrupt and suffers from the same moral decay as the original Roman Empire. Lions and tigers and gladiators couldn’t stop the word from spreading two thousand years ago and it is not going to prevent the truth from seeing the light of day now.

Let those that have ears hear and those that have voices speak out against this travesty.

Reference:

1. Annett, Kevin. Open letter, Nov. 26, 2009 Retrieved from: http://signatoryindian.tripod.com/id80.html

2. http://www.icl-fi.org/english/spi/oldsite/Magdalen.html

3. http://rt.com/news/vatican-bank-money-laundering/

4. http://www.childrensprotection.info/2011/10/catholic-church-global-baby-trafficking.html

5. Ibid

6. http://firedoglake.com/2011/11/06/sunday-late-night-the-german-bishops-porn-publisher/

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Meet Timothy Cardinal Dolan, New York’s Newest Comedian

By Vinnie Nauheimer

Speaking at a diocesan convocation on public policy last week freshly minted cardinal; Timothy Dolan made his New York debut as a comedian. The critics all agree that the funniest line of the night was, “If you want an authoritative voice, go to the bishops. They’re the ones that speak for the truths of the faith.” The line was uttered with such solemnity that one almost forgot it was a comedy sketch. It immediately brought the house down and left them rolling in the aisles from belly laughter. Which bishop should we go to for the truth Timothy Dolan? Should we go to Bishop Keith Symons or Bishop Anthony J O’Connell both of who resigned because they themselves were sexual abusers? How about Bishop Raymond Lahey who was caught bringing child pornography into Canada on his computer? What about Bishop Patrick Ziemann who was caught, in his car, getting oral sex from a priest forced to wear a pager so he could be summoned when the bishop had an urge. Perhaps we should consult Bishop Roger Vangheluwe who sexually abused two of his nephews. Okay, enough with the bishops, this could turn into a litany.

Maybe Dolan meant that we go to a higher level of authoritative voice, like that of a cardinal. Edward Cardinal Egan appointed a known abuser in 2002 to St. Benedict’s, a parish with an elementary school, the priest was subsequently defrocked. According to the Bronx Press Review, a parishioner, called Cardinal Egan insane, did Egan speak for truth? In Chicago we have Cardinal George whose faux pas’ are legendary. The most recent involved Fr. McCormack, a known abuser from his days in the seminary, but Cardinal George refused to remove him. This despite Cardinal George being a signatory and to the Charter for Protection of Children produced in Dallas in 2002. I’m sure he speaks for the truth. Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles is another stellar truth teller who spent untold dollars fighting survivors with his adamant refusal to release records of sexually abusing priests. Who would look to anyone but him for the truth? Maybe we should ask for the truth from Philadelphia’s recently deceased Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua who ordered aides to shred a 1994 memo that identified 35 Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests suspected of sexually abusing children? Now there was an authoritative voice that speaks the truths of the faith!

Certainly, we can look to the infallible pope for the truth. The fact that none of the above were ever fired speaks volumes about the amount of truth the pope is willing to part with.

So let’s repeat that line. “If you want an authoritative voice, go to the bishops. They’re the ones that speak for the truths of the faith.” With lines like that, Dolan proved himself a first rate comic, but good comedians need more than one good line to make a performance, and Dolan met the call. The NY Times Reported on March 4, this line from the same performance, “I don’t recall a right to marriage.” In his jocular fashion Cardinal Dolan went on to say that every day someone finds another right. Well he ought to know, the Roman Catholic Church leads the way in finding new rights. They have the right to hide sexually abusing priests, they have the right to destroy evidence, they have the right to shuffle sexually abusing priests from parish to parish, diocese to diocese and in some cases country to country, talk about inventing rights! But more than that; let’s talk about inventing the right to the wholesale destruction of the lives of children without the expectation of consequence.

On a roll, the newly minted prince of Catholic comedy was greeted with peals of laughter when, straight faced, he told the audience, “It’s not about contraception and it’s not about women’s health, it’s about an unwarranted, unprecedented intrusion into a church’s ability…” The audience didn’t know which part of that statement was funnier, the “it’s not about women” or it’s “all about government intrusion into church affairs.” Of course, his hilarious line about, “Fat, balding, Irish bishops,” was in reference to the unwarranted, unprecedented intrusion into Irish governance by the Vatican when it issued a memo to Irish bishops saying that they didn’t have to obey Irish law! Therefore, the fat, balding Irish bishops didn’t turn in criminal priests who were raping, sodomizing and molesting Irish children therefore allowing the abuse to continue. The discovery of this memo warranted an unprecedented public reprimand of the Vatican by Enda Kenny Prime Minister of Ireland. To emphasize the point, Dolan said, “I hate to tell you that the days of the fat, balding, Irish bishops are over,”

For the sake of our children let’s hope he’s right!

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Pope Clings to Obscenity, Law, Aimed at Mary, Mother of Jesus.

By Vinnie Nauheimer

Catholics have a long history of becoming quite vocal when perceived obscenities are produced directed at either Jesus or his mother Mary. Why is it they are deathly silent about the longest, largest, most vile obscenity ever directed at Mary, mother of God? In 1987 photographer Andres Serrano’s photograph depicting a crucifix submerged in a bottle of urine caused an uproar that permeated the entire Christian community. In 1999, the painting Holy Virgin Mary by Chris Offili raised another firestorm because this depiction of Mary had pieces of elephant dung incorporated into the painting. Once again outrage from every corner of the Catholicism especially from then New York City Mayor Giuliani was vocalized. It was declared an obscenity, blasphemous and every other adjective that could be mustered to describe the horrors perceived in putting a piece of elephant dung on the same canvas as a picture of the Virgin Mary.

Moral Relativism says there are no permanent morals and allows for morality to be dictated by the times. Pope Benedict XVI said his fight against moral relativism would be a cornerstone of his papacy. So, where’s the connection? What obscene abomination is Pope Benedict XVI allowing against the Blessed Virgin?

To fully understand the connection and the depth of this depraved indifference and blasphemous act against the Blessed Virgin, one first has to understand the importance of the Mary, Mother of Jesus, to the tradition and culture of Catholicism. Sacred, blessed, venerated are all words that describe the importance of Mary to members of the Roman Catholic Church. The word Marian describes the congregations that have made the adoration of Mary their life’s work. It is also used to describe churches built in her honor around the world. Of all the churches built around the globe to honor the name of Mary, there is none greater than the Basilica of Mary Major or Basilica Sanctae Mariae Maioris as it is know by its official title. Built in the fifth century and dedicated to Mary, it is among oldest Catholic Churches dedicated to Mary. It is also one of only four Basilicas outside the walls of the Vatican and the place where the Pope annually says mass on the Feast of the Assumption dedicated to Mary. This is where the blasphemy against Mary begins.

The sacred name of Mary, the dedication to Mary, and all that she stands for would make the any Catholic believe that the man given the responsibility for running the Basilica created to honor her would at least be above reproach. One would also expect that that person emulate some of Mary’s qualities especially her love and devotion to children starting with Jesus. After all, the Blessed Virgin’s best known appearances on earth have been to children in Lourdes and Guadalupe. The Blessed Virgin’s visit to Sister Agnes Sasagawa, a nun in Japan, perhaps foretold of the blasphemy against her being committed by the pope. Sister Sasagawa tells us that the Blessed Mother revealed the following to her: “the Church will be full of those who accept compromises, and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord” The appointment of Cardinal Bernard Law to the position of archpriest of her basilica speaks to compromises with the devil.

The infamous Bernie Law is the living symbol of the filth, corruption and hypocrisy that is rampant in the Roman Catholic Church. He stands as a living testimony to how the global abuse of children is permitted by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. The mere presence of Cardinal Law as archpriest of the Basilica of Mary Major (Jesus’ mother) is a blatant slap in the face to every man, woman and child in the world who calls themselves Catholic. It is also an abomination to the hundreds of children from Boston who were victims of Law’s gross negligence.

Pope John Paul II said the sexual abuse of young people is “by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God” Yet he made Cardinal Law Archpriest in charge of the Basilica dedicated to the Blessed Mother.

Cardinal Egan called the abuse of children by priests an abomination. What word describes a cardinal that would allow the sexual abuse of children to continue? The word is Law!

Pope Benedict XVI said the following about the sexual abuse of children “I ask all of you to support and assist your bishops, and to work together with them in combating this evil. Victims should receive compassion and care, and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice.” Yet he allows Cardinal Law, Archpriest of the Basilica dedicated to the mother of Christ, to remain in charge of Mary’s basilica and assist him at mass in her honor on the Feast of the Assumption.

As long as Cardinal Law serves as Archpriest of the Basilica, there is dung spread across tapestry of the basilica. Yet there is no public outcry. Where is the outrage from the Marianists, from the laity, from the clergy true to the teachings of Christ? They can’t stomach a depiction of Mary on canvas along with dung, but accept without a murmur the living blasphemy of Cardinal Law at the helm of the most sacred church in Catholicism dedicated to the Blessed Mother. The symbol of all that is wrong and evil within the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church stands as a living insult to all that Mary represents. Yet there is nothing but silence.

The newspapers tell us that members of the hierarchy from the Vatican joined Cardinal Law for a lavish birthday party celebrating his 80^th birthday this past week. This confirms that Law represents something more subtle than the profanity of child abuse. He is the unspoken symbol that perpetuates the evil within the RCC. His presence as archpriest is a very public reassurance to every cleric that loyalty to the Church is the only thing that counts. Crimes, blasphemies, heresies and sins can be overlooked as long as fidelity remains intact. The message is perfectly clear: The current hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church doesn’t give a damn about either the global raping, sodomization and molestation of children nor the teachings of Christ. If they did, would they put the Bernie Law on display as a loyal servant of the church and Mary, Mother of God? Hypocrisy doesn’t get richer than this!

The only question left is when will the Marianists and all those loyal to the teachings of Christ going get off their asses and do something about this insidious beacon of evil purposefully placed in the Blessed Mother’s basilica as a show of strength?

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A Declaration of Independence from Current Hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.

By Vinnie Nauheimer

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for the people to dissolve the religious bands which have connected them with Rome, and to assume among the gifts of the God, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Jesus and the church entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal and can serve the Lord, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness, Justice and Unmolested Children.-That to secure these rights, Religions are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from God and the consent of the followers, -That whenever any Form of Religion becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish the ruling hierarchy, and to institute new hierarchy, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect the practice of the Principles of their Religion and the Safety and Happiness of their Children. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Religions long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer at the hands of Rome, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of, sexual abuses, lies, hypocrisy, denial and blame shifting, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a vile hierarchy, and to provide new Guards for their future security and that of their children.-Such has been the patient sufferance of the Catholic Laity; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former hierarchal structure. The history of the present hierarchy is a history of repeated injuries, deceptions and hypocrisies all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the Catholic Laity. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

• Whereas priests and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church have been found guilty of raping, sodomizing and molesting minors around the world.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has known of these criminal acts for decades and made every effort conceivable to hide these acts from the public.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has used every means at their disposal to silence and defame those who complained about these criminal acts against children.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC did nothing to protect children and rid themselves of the priests responsible for these criminal acts until force to by an enraged public.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC by their refusal to act has brought great shame, humiliation and scandal to the people of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has consistently refused to take the responsibility for their failings in causing this scandal.
• Whereas the hierarchy has continuously foisted ludicrous excuses including but not limited to blaming survivors, the media, lawyers, psychologists and psychiatrists, Vatican II, the Sexual Revolution, etc. upon the laity.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has put themselves above the words of Jesus Christ.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has ignored the words of Scripture.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has ignored the precepts of Canon Law
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has ignored the precepts of the Catechism.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC have put themselves above Civil Law.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has ignored that which is the most wholesome and necessary for the good of the Eucharistic Body.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has silenced and ostracized religious men and women who have criticized their sinful and criminal behavior.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has established a double standard insofar as they have laicized offending priests, but have not laicized one offending bishop.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has deliberately withheld information from civil authorities and hidden from view the depository of their Records regarding sexually abusing priests and bishops.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC, for the sole purpose of fatiguing survivors into compliance, has dragged court cases on for years with despicable measures hoping the truth would disappear.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC has dissolved parish councils for opposing church closings and fired consultants they have hired when the answers weren’t to their liking thereby flaunting their power and ignoring the rights of the faithful.
• Whereas the hierarchy of the RCC by both their omissions and commissions have caused untold numbers of Catholics to leave the church.

In every stage of these our Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. Princes of the church whose character is thus marked by every act which may define Tyrants, is unfit to be the ruler of the church whose principles were established by Jesus Christ.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our hierarchy. We have warned them many times to of both their refusal and the refusal of Rome to extend protections to our children, families and beliefs. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our anger and the abuse of our children. We have appealed to their sense of justice, religious conviction and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common God and Savior to disavow these transgressions, which, would inevitably interrupt our spiritual health and welfare. The local bishops too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, as told to us by Jesus Christ separate the wheat from the chafe understanding that He spoke to us in these words.

“Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on the inside they are really like wild wolves. You will know them by what they do. Thorn bushes do not bear grapes, and briers do not bear figs. A healthy tree bears good fruit, but a poor tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a poor tree cannot bear good fruit. And any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know the false prophets by what they do” (Matthew 7.15-20)

We, therefore, the Catholics of the World, know what we have to do. Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of the Roman Catholic Religion, solemnly publish and declare, That the laity by God’s Right ought to be Free and Independent of the tyranny, sexual abuse and oppression foisted upon them by the current hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church; that the Laity be Absolved from all Allegiance to Rome, and that all Religious connection between the Laity and current hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent thinking Catholics, we have full Power to keep our faith, our children safe, to ordain those who are deemed worthy regardless of sex or sexual persuasion, to elect our own bishops, to rescind that right when a bishop fails in his obligations and to do all other Acts and Things which independent Catholic thinkers should do in their effort to give honor and glory to God. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Souls and our sacred Honor.

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John Jay Study Equates Hierarchy’s Mentality to that of Abusing Priests

By Vinnie Nauheimer

Did the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops unwittingly expose a direct link between their actions and those of sexually abusing priests with the John Jay Study? The recently released John Jay report The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010 indicates that they have. The study, has received a lot of press over what wasn’t said, however, we may need to pay more attention to what was said. The study, which the USCCB commissioned, clearly demonstrates the behavior of the hierarchy when dealing with abusive priests is as fundamentally flawed as that of abusive priests!

In an effort to explain how abusers can continue to abuse, the researchers delve into the techniques employed by an abuser to rationalize his heinous crime thereby allowing him to continue abusing. When reading these techniques, one fact jumps out at the reader, “These are the same tactics the hierarchy has used.” If the reader happens to be a survivor, he or she says, “They did these things to me and in doing so re-victimized me!” It is astonishing that none of the researchers either recognized or pointed out how the behaviors of bishops and abusers mirror each other. This information is critical to understanding just how sick the mentality of the hierarchy was when dealing with victims. Neutralization techniques also explains how and why bishops could live with their actions after permitting the rape, sodomization and molestation of children by putting abusing priests back on the street and how they could re-victimize those survivors who summoned the strength to complain.

The techniques of neutralization are not something made up by the researchers at John Jay. They are accepted ideas upon which many books have been written and studies done. According to Wikipedia: “Techniques of neutralization are a theoretical series of methods by which those who commit illegitimate acts temporarily neutralize certain values within themselves which would normally prohibit them from carrying out such acts, such as morality, obligation to abide by the law, and so on. In simpler terms, it is a psychological method for people to turn off ‘inner protests’ when they do, or are about to do something wrong.” As applied here, it allowed the bishops to cast off the mantles of both humanity and Christianity.

This is the relevant passage from the John Jay Study quoting Sykes and Matza, two well known researchers in this field:

One factor that is consistent with nearly all sexual abusers is the adoption of techniques of neutralization,” which alleviate feelings of guilt and shame, thus enabling offenders to commit the acts of abuse. Sykes and Matza list five primary neutralization techniques: the denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of the victim, condemnation of the condemners, and appeal to higher loyalties.¹

For ease of understanding, the five techniques of neutralization will be listed as they appear above. Below each technique are annotated clear cut examples citing how each technique was used by the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church against survivors of clerical abuse who had the audacity to speak out. Several of these techniques are addressed within the pages of the John Jay Study have been attributed to the hierarchy. However, they were identified as errors in judgment made by the hierarchy and not their true name, Neutralization Techniques.

Any neutralization technique admitted to in the John Jay Study is in bold and italicized. Underneath these examples may appear clarifications of just how harshly the example was used in real life. This list could go on ad nauseum, but for brevity’s sake, only a few examples are used under each technique to prove the point.

Denial of Responsibility

• Diocesan leaders attempted to deflect personal liability for retaining abusers by relying on therapists’ recommendations or by employing legalistic arguments about the status of priests.²

Nothing is more obscene than the repeated legal machinations used by bishops in their denial of their responsibility for the criminal actions of the priests under their jurisdiction.

Cardinal Egan Archbishop of New York, while bishop of the archdiocese of Bridgeport, CT presented this argument to the courts: The archdiocese was not responsible because priests were independent contractors and not employees of the diocese.³

A similar argument was put forth that stated the sexual abuse of minors was part of the priest’s job description and therefore the diocese was not responsible for his actions. This same argument was later used by the Vatican to defend itself.⁴

• The response of diocesan officials to civil litigation by victims was often vigorous and perceived as aggressive and intimidating.⁵

The following is a list of the vigorous, aggressive and intimidated devices used against victims and their families who spoke out: Blaming rape victims for their own recklessness, Hiring private investigators to track down incriminating evidence, Suing victims for slander, Suing minor victims’ parents for failing to watch over them, Intimidating witnesses, Concealing evidence, Stonewalling court proceedings and Denying knowledge of abuse — unless the victims can prove otherwise.⁶

Persisting in his efforts to make the complaint, he faced a series of responses from diocesan officials: “You must be mistaken; you’re the only one; you’re going to ruin this priest’s life; you’re lying; why now after all these years? Their first response was denial; the second, you’re the only one; if they didn’t work, then obfuscation. Last was the appeal to guilt: It’s your fault; you seduced Father. You’ll ruin his life.”⁷

Denying the Victim

The hierarchy became incredibly astute at denying the victim with a plethora of well thought out strategies. As the abuse scandal grew, they honed these skills until a victim of clergy abuse who complained had about as much of a chance of being heard as a sparrow in the midst of a tornado.

Tactics were employed that insured victims and their families were run around in circles, sometimes for months or years.

• Diocesan leaders rarely provided information to local civil authorities and sometimes made concerted efforts to prevent reports of sexual abuse by priests from reaching law enforcement, even before the statute of limitation expired.⁸

• Diocesan officials tried to keep their files devoid of incriminating evidence. The exercise of the episcopal prerogative to maintain “secret archives” was at odds with the advice of counsel and the guidelines of the Five Principles.⁹

With Cardinal Mahony getting ready to retire from the Roman Catholic Los Angeles Archdiocese, his eminence is pulling some strange, ill-conceived moves again, now refusing to maintain an updated list of sexually abusive priests on the archdiocese’s web site.¹⁰

In California, a bishop reprimanded a priest for writing a letter of apology to an 11-year-old girl he had molested. After a transfer to a rural parish and a promotion to pastor, the priest was accused of abusing three victims at his new assignment, including a 3-year-old girl. The diocese’s lawyer sought to deflect responsibility from Church leaders, stating that a psychiatric evaluation of the priest, who admitted abusing 25 children, did not “render any diagnosis of pedophilia.”¹¹

B. Archdiocese leaders employed deliberate strategies to conceal known abuse.

In the face of crimes they knew were being committed by their priests, Church leaders could have reported them to police. They could have removed the child molesters from ministry, and stopped the sexual abuse of minors by Archdiocesan clerics. Instead, they consistently chose to conceal the abuse rather than to end it. They chose to protect themselves from scandal and liability rather than protect children from the priests’ crimes.¹²

Roughly two-thirds of the top U.S. Catholic leaders have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to keep working, a practice that spans decades and continues today, a three-month Dallas Morning News review shows.¹³

Appealing to a Higher Authority

The case files are filled with victims who were told that by going public they would hurt the church; to belabor the point is a waste of time.

Who better to use as an example appealing to a higher authority than that of Pope John Paul II? In 2002 he called the American bishops to Rome and made this proclamation about Clergy Abuse. He called it “Mysterium Iniquitatis” or in laymen’s terms, “the mystery of evil” thereby shifting the blame from priests to the second most powerful entity in the world, Satan. Not only did he appeal to a higher authority, but he denied any fault of their own.

In the world according to Father Benedict Groeschel, the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal is largely the stuff of fiction. Reporters “doing the work of Satan” are driven to lie, the New York priest says, because they hate the church’s moral teachings.¹⁴

“I told my mom that he had hugged me in a very uncomfortable way and that he had kissed me in his bedroom on his bed and that I was lying down.” She said her stepfather contacted another priest, who reported the matter to Monsignor Dennis Dorney, vicar general of the Tulsa Diocese. “They advised us so many times over and over again, ‘Don’t say anything until he is gone, because it would hurt the church.’ “¹⁵

The case files are filled with victims who were told that by going public they would hurt the church; to belabor the point is a waste of time.

Minimization of Harm

• Diocesan leaders failed to understand the importance of direct contact with victims, thereby giving the impression that they felt no personal responsibility for the harm sustained by victims.¹⁶

• The bishops did whatever they felt like doing and whatever they could to avoid tarnishing their image.¹⁷

Father Rogers was never punished or held to account for his unchecked sexual predations or the devastation they caused. He was permitted to retire in 1995, his “good name” intact. The message clearly communicated by the Archdiocese’s actions — to victims and abusers alike — was that it would protect the reputation of its priests at all costs. This twisted sense of priorities was not lost on Fr. Rogers. In 2002, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer article, Fr. Rogers admitted to having sexual relations with Russell but minimized its significance and questioned the importance of the disclosure. Father Rogers said that the abuse “may have happened but it was not as prolonged as he says it was … Naturally, he was young and I was older, so I should have known better. I don’t know why it has to come out now … It will just ruin my reputation.”¹⁸

To this day, bishops are still doing this. No greater example can be given then the John Jay Study itself; paid for by the bishops to exonerate the bishops. As noted in the first paragraph in this section, they paint a nice picture that says, “Bishops gave the impression” when in fact, they never gave a damn about the victims. Of the 300 bishops in the United States there has only been one advocate of survivors, Bishop Gumbleton and he only became an advocate after he retired.

Of the 300 plus cardinals around the world, there is not one who can be called an advocate for victims.

Perhaps the most notable minimization of victims is the lack of the use of the word crime. Crime is omitted from the Title. Sexual abuse of minors is a crime and it was a crime prior to the Sexual Revolution. A far more accurate title would have been The Causes and Context of the Crime of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010. Yet even this minimizes the harm done. The words “sexual abuse” are a very soft term that makes the rape, sodomization and molestation of children more palatable because sexual abuse is a catchall. It keeps the readers guessing. Which sounds better, 1,000 children were raped by priests or 1,000 children were sexually abused by priests?

The second play on words was to reduce the impact of the word pedophile. To this extent, the ephebophile word was created. A word, that the studies authors are quick to point out, is not in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). So why use it? The ephebophile is someone who has rapes, sodomizes or molests post pubescent children over thirteen, but under eighteen. The church wanted to create confusion, doubt and minimize the harm. By their standards, a priest sodomizing a fifteen year old is not as shocking as a priest sodomizing a ten-year-old. If a priest has anal sex with a fifteen-year-old, according to the church, that is a homosexual relationship and not “statutory rape” as it should be called. The hierarchy and their minions are adept linguists who are well practiced in the art of neutralization techniques and verbiage.

Condemning the Condemners

• The response of diocesan officials to civil litigation by victims was often vigorous and perceived as aggressive and intimidating¹⁸.

Persisting in his efforts to make the complaint, he faced a series of responses from diocesan officials: “You must be mistaken; you’re the only one; you’re going to ruin this priest’s life; you’re lying; why now after all these years? Their first response was denial; the second, you’re the only one; if they didn’t work, then obfuscation. Last was the appeal to guilt: It’s your fault; you seduced Father. You’ll ruin his life.”¹⁹

Roman Catholic Bishop Bernando Álvarez said “There are 13 year old adolescents who are under age and who are perfectly in agreement with, and what’s more wanting it, and if you are careless they will even provoke you,” he said.²⁰

A Roman Catholic bishop in Mexico has sparked outrage by suggesting eroticism on television and internet pornography were to blame for child sex abuse by priests. He also claimed sex education in schools was making it more difficult for priests to remain celibate. Bishop Felipe Arizmendi was speaking before the Pope arrived in Malta where he is meeting victims of abuse by Catholic priests.²¹

Boston’s beleaguered Cardinal Bernard Law is now making his yearly fund-raising appeal to the city’s 2 million Catholics. He needs $16 million for the chancery’s overhead–and won’t get it. His approval rating sank to a new low last week when he asserted in court papers that Gregory Ford was responsible for his own alleged abuse, through “negligence,” despite being 6 when it began.²²

Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, in a May interview with the Italian-Catholic publication 30 Giorni, claimed Jews influenced the media to exploit the current controversy regarding sexual abuse by Catholic priests in order to divert attention from the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.²³

The Holy See press office director under John Paul II, Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, has today criticized the media for “a raging phobia” against the Church over pedophilia while ignoring the problem in the rest of society which he says is widespread.²⁴

Fr Anthony Charanghat, director, Catholic Communication Centre. “You must also understand that the global porn industry is responsible for blowing these reports out of proportion. They have been trying to demonise the Catholic clergy, since the Church has been fighting them,” he added.²⁵

Some still complain, although privately, that the entire crisis, the Long Lent of 2002, was manufactured by the media and motivated by anti-Catholicism. There is only some truth in that. Without the media there would have been no felt crisis. There is a generous measure of anti-Catholicism in the media, as elsewhere, but without the deeper crisis of the infidelity and negligence of bishops, the media could not have produced the public and, consequently, episcopal sense of crisis. The scandal was in the chanceries, parishes, and seminaries before it was on the front page or television news.²⁶

The Superiority Complex

Although it is alluded to in a paragraph the John Jay Study it bears mention because it adds another dimension to understanding the deplorable behavior of the bishops.

• Relative advantage—the perceived degree of relative advantage over the status quo. Rogers notes the significance of “social prestige factors” concerning this attribute. As it pertains to the sexual abuse crisis, this factor may have affected the way bishops weighed concern for victims against their expectation of institutionally damaging publicity.²⁷

If one considers their victim less than, it is easier to justify inhumane treatment of them. Slave owners consider slaves their property. It took an 16^th century edict from the Vatican to declare that Native Americans had souls. Hitler considered Jew and others “Mud People” so as to justify their destruction. The superiority complex of the hierarchy is legendary and because of it, it that much easier for them ignore the crimes of their priests, deny the claims of victims and allow priests to rape, sodomize and molest at will. Nowhere is this false ideology of Divine Right more clearly stated than in Vehementer Nos an encyclical promulgated by Pius X in 1906.²⁸

Consider here what a pope had to say about the superiority of the clergy.

“It follows that the Church is essentially an unequal society, that is, a society comprising two categories of persons, the Pastors and the flock, those who occupy a rank in the different degrees of the hierarchy and the multitude of the faithful. So distinct are these categories that with the pastoral body only rests the necessary right and authority for promoting the end of the society and directing all its members towards that end; the one duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock, to follow the Pastors.”²⁸

This passage written about the sexual abuse scandal several years ago by then-director of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (Notice the word Superiors), Fr. Ted Keating picks up on the point.

“The days of the pass or station house adjustment for Father or Brother by the Irish cop or prosecutor are over. Either we will learn to become more comfortable in the gaze of the rude and scoffing multitude (depending on our attitude) or we will be dragged kicking and screaming into a new future for religion and religious life”

There are two things to note in this statement. The first is the unequivocal admission by Fr. Keating that priests, who committed crimes, were not arrested by police. The second is Keating’s use of the term “the rude and scoffingmultitude” when referring to the laity. It smacks of arrogance and superiority while mimicking Pious X’s statement on superiority of the clergy.

Conclusions

1. The above examples provide a concrete link between the mentality of the abusing priests and the bishops who protected them. The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has an abusive mentality when it comes to the victims of clergy abuse. To say otherwise is to spit in the face of reason.

2. The bishop’s abusive mentality is well documented and follows the same line of warped reasoning that allows all perpetrators of despicable acts against children to live with themselves their actions and their crimes.

3. The twisted mentality of the hierarchy is not limited to bishops and cardinals in the United States. The tactics employed by the US bishops are the same ones used by the worldwide hierarchy. It is indicative of mentality deeply ingrained in the culture of the Catholic Hierarchy.

4. John Jay tries to create the appearance of a them (abusing priests) versus us (bishops) situation where the offending priests are the bad guys and the bishops are the good guys. This is not the case at all. The number of credibly accused bishops is on par with the percentage of abusing priests as evidenced by the list of abusers on bishopaccountability.org. The only difference is that not one bishop has ever been defrocked. Let us not forget that most of the bishops currently in power were in the seminary during time period measured by John Jay.

5. The sexuality of bishops was never called into question. Bishops are human beings and therefore have a sexuality be it hetero, homo or bi sexuality. The study treats them as asexual only looking at the sexual norms of seminarians and priests. John Jay is not the only one to avoid mentioning bishops. In his twenty-four page response to the John Jay Study, John Jay 2011 Study on Sexual Abuse: a Critical Analysis, William Donohue, an ardent Catholic conservative and lays the blame for the sexual abuse scandal clearly at the feet of homosexual priests. He never mentions the word bishop and homosexual in the same sentence. He too holds that the bishops are above it all in his dissertation.

Donohue ends his dissertation on homosexuality as the root cause of the clergy abuse scandal with the following: “There is no way that priests who are faithful to the precepts of the Church’s teachings on sexual ethics could possibly live a life of sexual recklessness. Only by jettisoning the teachings—casting celibacy and chastity as anachronistic—could they do so.”²⁹

This will end by saying: There is no way that a pope, cardinals or bishops who are faithful to the precepts of the Church’s teachings on sexual ethics could possibly have allowed criminal sexual abuse by priests to flourish. Only by jettisoning their faith, the teachings of Jesus, Holy Scripture, Canon Law and the Catechism could the bishops have done it. In other words, they had to adopt the mentality of an abuser and whole-heartedly endorse the techniques of neutralization while becoming heretics in the process to deal with victims seeking justice.

For further discussion see: According to Aquinas, There Are Heretics in the Vatican.³⁰

Reference

1. John Jay College Research Team The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010 Retrieved May 23, 2011 from http://www.usccb.org/mr/causes-and-context-of-sexual-abuse-of-minors-by-catholic-priests-in-the-united-states-1950-2010.pdf

2. Ibid pg. 89

3. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/16/nyregion/egan-is-leaving-unfinished-work-on-abuse-victims-say.html?pagewanted=4May 30, 2011

4. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/0628/Supreme-Court-allows-sex-abuse-case-to-proceed-against-the-VaticanMay 30, 2011

5. John Jay College Research Team The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010 Retrieved May 23, 2011 from http://www.usccb.org/mr/causes-and-context-of-sexual-abuse-of-minors-by-catholic-priests-in-the-united-states-1950-2010.pdf

6. http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/01780639.htm May 30, 2011

7. John Jay College Research Team The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010 Retrieved May 23, 2011 from http://www.usccb.org/mr/causes-and-context-of-sexual-abuse-of-minors-by-catholic-priests-in-the-united-states-1950-2010.pdf

8. Ibid pg. 89

9. Ibid pg. 89

10. http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2010/09/cardinal_roger_mahohy_predator.php May 30, 2011

11. http://www.catholicsexabuse.com/THE_PHILADELPHIA_GRAND_JURY_REPORT/ Section_III__Overview_of_the_CoverUp_by_Archdiocese_Officials May 30, 2011

12. John Jay College Research Team The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010 Retrieved May 23, 2011 from http://www.usccb.org/mr/causes-and-context-of-sexual-abuse-of-minors-by-catholic-priests-in-the-united-states-1950-2010.pdf

13.http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spe/2002/bishops/stories/041702dnrelbg. 852d3201.html May 30, 2011 14 .http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spe/2002/bishops/stories/041702dnrelbg. 852d3201.html May 30, 2011 15 .http://www.bishopaccountability.org/news3/2002_07_31_Branstetter_Bishop Admits_Kenneth_Lewis_4.htm May 30, 2011 16. John Jay College Research Team The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010 Retrieved May 23, 2011 from http://www.usccb.org/mr/causes-and-context-of-sexual-abuse-of-minors-by-catholic-priests-in-the-united-states-1950-2010.pdf

17. Ibid pg. 90

18. Ibid pg. 89

19. Ibid pg 90

20. http://madmikesamerica.com/2010/04/tenerife-catholic-bishop-blames-child-abuse-on-the-children/ May 30, 2011

21. http://thecornfieldonline.com/index.php?topic=19504.0;wap2May 30, 2011

22. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-85590510.htmlMay 30, 2011

23. http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASInt_13/4135_13.aspMay 30, 2011

24. http://www.ncregister.com/blog/navarro-valls_on_the_abuse_crisis#ixzz1Nm08iQi4 May 30, 2011

25. http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/mar/310310-mumbai-catholics-reaction-vatican-paedophilia-scandals.htm May 30, 2011

26. http://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/02/scandal-time-iii-43May 30, 2011

27. JJS

28. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_x/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-x_enc_11021906_vehementer-nos_en.htmlMay 30, 2011

29. Donohue, W. John Jay 2011 Study on Sexual Abuse: a Critical Analysis, May 30, 2011

30. Nauheimer, V. According to Aquinas’ Definition, There are Heretics in the Vatican. http://reform-network.net/?p=6431

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The John Jay Report Ignores History While Focusing on the Wrong Culture!

By Vinnie Nauheimer

There are lies, damned lies and statisticians as the old saw states. After reading the noxious claims of the recent John Jay report attributing the sexual abuse scandal of the Roman Catholic Church to the social norms of the Sixties and Seventies, we have to revise the old saw. The new one states, “There are liars, damned liars, statisticians and then the Roman Catholic Church!” Their crimes also belong to all those who aid and abet them in their attempt to cover up and trivialize the sexual abuse of children. Shame on you John Jay College; for you have sullied the good name of John Jay, a man whose life was devoted to seeking justice; and for what, thirty pieces of silver?

Those who are not familiar with Roman Catholic Church history are doomed to believe the lies the current hierarchy has just paid to produce. The Roman Catholic Church is desperately trying to convince the world that the clergy only began abusing children during the sexual revolution of the late nineteen sixties! Ad absurdum has never been better defined. Squealer, Orwell’s Animal Farm propagandist pig must be squealing with delight. The despicable, shameful, centuries long, and well documented history of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, flies in the face of the John Jay Excuse.

The first fallacy presented by John Jay is using the Sexual Revolution as an excuse for deviant sexual behavior. For the vast majority, the new sexual freedom referred to by John Jay, did not include sex with children. Hetero and Homo sexual liaisons became casual and open while for heterosexual liaisons, the pill, shattered the old norms. Was there a minority element from that era that encouraged sex with children? The unfortunate answer is yes. There was a small group allied to the homosexual activist groups of the era who wanted to eliminate the “age of consent.” These people were opportunists who saw the sexual revolution as a chance to legitimize their criminal acts. As gay rights groups became more mainstream, those professing to believe that having sex with children was okay, became so marginalized that they eventually formed their own splinter group called NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association.¹ One of the earliest proponents of NAMBLA was the notorious Fr. Paul Shanley of Boston infamy who was tried and convicted of rape. Though the John Jay Excuse confirms a number of priests decided to follow the NAMBLA path and engage in sex with children, they fail to explain why. Why were so many priests experimenting with deviancy by going after children when the rest of the adult world was engaging in hetero and homo sexual sex?

Perhaps the answer lies in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. A history, though invisible to John Jay researchers, is obvious to any interested party who can type and use the Internet. Let’s start with the controversial document called Crimen Sollicitationis. This is perhaps the most damning and yet at the same time the most marginalized proof of the Vatican’s knowledge of the pedophilia problem among its clergy. The fact that the importance of this document has been so trivialized is nothing more than a testimony to the power of the Vatican spin machine. They have succeeded in making the world believe that the document pertains only to acts of solicitation committed in the confessional.

Title V of Crimens Sollicitationis is subtitled: “The Worst Crime” as seen from this excerpt:

Title V

The Worst Crime

73. To have the worst crime, for the penal effects, one must do the equivalent of the following: any obscene, external act, gravely sinful, perpetrated in any way by a cleric or attempted by him with youths of either sex or with brute animals (bestiality).

74. Against accused clerics for these crimes, if they are exempt religious, and unless there takes place at the same time the crime of solicitation, even the regular superior can proceed, according to the holy canons and their proper constitutions, either in an administrative or a judicial manner. However, they must communicate the judicial decision pronounced as well as the administrative decision in the more serious cases to the Supreme Congregation of the Holy Office.²

For those who state that this document only applies to the act of soliciting in the confessional, I ask only one question, “When was the last time anyone saw a four legged sheep enter a confessional?” Perhaps the John Jay crew can study that problem.

The wording of Title V is extremely important as it confirms the Vatican’s own knowledge and acceptance of the fact that the sexual abuse of children, regardless of sex, is a crime. The Vatican did not use the words evil, sinful, offensive, lapse of judgment, moment of weakness or illness. They used the words “worst crime” which is the only word that can adequately describe the act of a priest preying on a child for his own sexual gratification. The John Jay Excuse must have missed this tidbit. A careful and meticulous organization like the Catholic Church is not going to call an act criminal and create a punishment for said act if they weren’t aware of its existence. Laws are written to protect people from crimes that are known and the church knew about these crimes. Laws against cyber crime weren’t written fifty years ago because it didn’t exist then, however, Crimens was.

Crimens was sent out in 1962 under the reign of John XXIII, which unfortunately for the John Jay Excuse was prior to the sexual revolution. Fr. Tom Doyle tells us in his 2008 essay: “THE 1922 INSTRUCTION AND THE 1962 INSTRUCTION“CRIMEN SOLLICITATIONIS,” PROMULGATED BY THE VATICAN” the following:

Crimen sollicitationis is essentially a set of procedural norms for processing cases of accusations against priests for soliciting sex while in the act of sacramental confession. Solicitation is an especially heinous canonical crime and one which results in severe penalties for those found guilty. This document on solicitation was preceded by one issued on June 9, 1922 by the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. It was signed by the prefect, Cardinal Merry del Val, and was approved by Pope Pius XI. Like the 1962 document, it was issued in strict secrecy and its content was never published in the official publication of the Holy See, the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.³

We now know that the problem existed back in the 1920’s, Here is another quote that comes to us from the “Roaring Twenties” courtesy of the then Superior General of the Irish Christian Brothers, Patrick Hennessy: “The fondling of boys, the laying our hands upon them, is contrary to the rules of modesty and is decidedly dangerous” The good Superior General seems to have had a distinct knack for understatement while at the same time a full understanding of the abuse that was taking place within the ranks of the Irish Christian Brothers. However, if the John Jay crew knew this history, in line with their latest findings, they’d attribute it to the lack of morality that characterized the Roaring Twenties.

Had the researchers at John Jay known 17^th century church history, they might have excused pedophilia because it was the “Age of Discovery!”

From Karen Liebreich’s book Fallen Order: “One of his recruits in particular, Father Stephano Cherubini, was to prove a disaster. Cherubini was dogged throughout his career by allegations of inappropriate behaviour with pupils, but his powerful family ties and connections with the Inquisition made Calasanz wary of expelling him. Instead, he invented that staple of the Catholic church in subsequent centuries when faced with paedophile priests – he promoted him, writing to the priest he charged with clearing this up: “I want you to know that your reverence’s sole aim is to cover up this great shame in order that it does not come to the notice of our superiors”⁴

Going back a little farther in history, we come across St. Peter Damian in the 11^th century.

St. Peter Damian’s Letter 31, the Book of Gomorrah (Liber Gomorrhianus), Randy Engel says it is “the most extensive treatment and condemnation by any Church Father of clerical pederasty and homosexual practices. [2] His manly discourse on the vice of sodomy in general and clerical homosexuality and pederasty in particular, is written in a plain and forthright style that makes it quite readable and easy to understand.”⁵

Pierre J. Prayer translated Peter Damian’s work and in his introduction, he makes this comment: “One of his consistent themes was an attack on the sexual immorality of the clergy and the laxness of the superiors who refused to take a strong hand against it.”⁶

We can take away two things from this book. 1. The problem of sexual immorality had to be so widespread that Damian deemed it necessary to write this treatise in a time when writing was a tedious job done with quill and ink on very expensive paper. 2. If the Church Fathers of the time had disagreed with Peter Damian, his treatise on the sexual immorality of the clergy would have never survived and he would never have attained sainthood. Surely, the John Jay crew would attribute this outburst of pedophilia in the Middle Ages to a carryover from the centuries spent groping in the Dark Ages.

The buck stops as the church enters the fourth century because that is when the church as we know it coalesced. So from the fourth century, we give you the Council of Elvira:

From the Council of Elvira 306: There were a host of Canons that came out of this Ecumenical Council. These are but a few that speak to the subject of sexual abuse.

18. Bishops, presbyters, and deacons, once they have taken their place in the ministry, shall not be given communion even at the time of death if they are guilty of sexual immorality. Such scandal is a serious offense.

71. Those who sexually abuse boys may not commune even when death approaches.⁷

As mentioned above, laws are not written to address crimes that are unknown. They are written to address the crimes of the day. John Jay researchers would probably say that the sexual abuse of children in the Fourth Century was obviously a classic symptom of a civilization entering the Dark Ages.

On page 118 of the report, the John Jay crew says the following about the history of the clergy abuse scandal. “The “crisis” of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests is a historical problem. Data from multiple sources show that incidence of abuse behavior was highest between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s.”⁸ The only words that can be construed as being accurate are “Historical Problem.” What the John Jay researchers need to learn is the true meaning of the words “Historical Problem.” If they did, then they would understand that the clergy abuse crisis was not an aberration caused by a change in social norms, but it is actually a function of a deeply embedded culture within the Catholic Church. Having been tolerated for such a long period of time, it cannot be otherwise.

References

1. http://www.allamericanblogger.com/682/the-shadow-sexual-revolution-the-push-to-legalize-pedophilia/

2. http://www.priestsofdarkness.com/crimen.pdf

3. http://www.richardsipe.com/Doyle/2008/2008-10-03-Commentarydocuments.pdf

4. http://www.liebreich.com/LDC/HTML/Books/FallenOrder.html

5. http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/articles/damian1.htm

6. http://books.google.com/books?id=hr4VAAAAMAAJ&pg

7. http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/Canon%20Law/ElviraCanons.htm

8. http://www.usccb.org/mr/causes-and-context-of-sexual-abuse-of-minors-by-catholic-priests-in-the-united-states-1950-2010.pdf

 

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Another Day of Infamy at the Vatican

By Vinnie Nauheimer

Is the Catholic Church so starved for saints that they have to rush the process through to canonize John Paul II? There was a time when the church canonized children who gave their lives in defense of their innocence. Now, they rush to canonize a man who did nothing to stop priests and bishops who stole that innocence from children. Has the moral compass of the Roman Catholic Church swung that far around? Sadly, the obvious answer is a definitive yes.

How must the sainted children who gave up their lives protecting their virtue feel as they look down from heaven at the impending sacrilege of canonizing Pope John Paul II? Children like St. Agnes of Rome who at age 12 or 13 was ordered to sacrifice to pagan gods and lose her virginity by rape. She declined and paid the ultimate price. Then there is St. Belina, A peasant girl who died in defense of her virginity when threatened with rape by the feudal lord of her district. The most famous of all children saints is Saint Maria Goretti. A farm hand tried to rape the girl who fought, yelled that it was a sin, and was stabbed fourteen times for refusing to sin and went so far as to protect her virginity with her life. Does it strike anyone how terribly wrong this is? How anyone could place John Paul II in the company of these children is both incomprehensible and the height of hypocrisy.

Incomprehensible is the fact that a New Hampshire legislator referred to a Catholic Bishop,John McCormack, as a “pedophile pimp”and the world knew immediately what he meant by that comment. The bishop had the unmitigated gall to pretend to be concerned about society’s most vulnerable! For those who are not familiar with Bishop McCormack, he worked for the notorious Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston infamy and has been steeped in accusations regarding covering up and moving offending priests to new parishes without warning the parishioners of the danger they posed.

Benedict XVI has beatified the pope who whisked Cardinal Law out of Boston. According to some accounts, Law left Boston just hours before he was to be subpoenaed to answer for his dismal failure to protect the children of Catholic families in the Boston Archdiocese. After Law tendered his resignation, John Paul II appointed Law to a post in Rome. Not any position, but John Paul II put the disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law in charge of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, with the title of Archpriest. This was a sacrilegious act of the highest order on the part of John Paul II. Pulling the protector of sexually abusing priests out of Boston to evade civil law is one thing, but to name that same man to oversee the largest Basilica in Rome dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, is affront to all that is holy.

Sainted children who died protecting their innocence pray for the soul of John Paul II for he does not deserve to be on the same platform with you.

The blasphemy of that appointment by John Paul II is compounded when one takes into account the special relationship that Mary, Mother of God has with children. Mary’s visitations on Earth have mostly been to children. She is the Mother of God and therefore in the eyes of the church: mother to the children of the church. When one considers the vile nature of sexual abuse of children, it is not difficult to imagine the pain and agony inflicted on the mothers of victims. The Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore was twice defiled by John Paul II. Once for placing vermin like Cardinal Law in the position of caretaker and twice for the insult because all Mary stands for is repudiated by the presence of Cardinal Law in the basilica dedicated to her holy motherhood.

One could wish that this was the only grievous error of John Paul II, but sadly, it is not. The list of his accommodations to those who have abused children is lengthy. Who can forget his incredulous statement about clergy abuse in 2002 when instead of ridding the church of priests who abused children, he called it a mystery of evil, mysterium iniquitatis thereby laying the blame on the evil in the world (Satan) and failing to recognize the evil within his own church. A scapegoat was offered which was homosexual priests, however the homosexual priests accounted for neither the abuse to females nor pedophilia. More importantly, it never addressed why bishops had forsaken Scripture, Canon Law and the Catechism by covering up for abusing priests and allowing them to remain in the priesthood.

Along with the above statement, Pope John Paul II wrote, “People need to know that there is no room in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young.” By any standard this was an excellent condemnation. Sadly, the statement turned out to be mere words that never had the weight of the office put behind them. In fact, these words turned out to be a monstrous hypocrisy as the appointment of Cardinal Law just a few months later would prove.

Then there is the equally infamous case of Fr. Marcial Maciel and his Legionaries of Christ which predated the appointment of Cardinal Law. John Paul II consistently refused to acknowledge the mounting accusations against Fr. Maciel. Those accusations have now been verified and the body of evidence uncovered has become proof positive of the warped, insidious and demonic nature of Fr. Maciel. How ironic that once the Vatican looked for collaborating evidence of the accusations made in the 1990’s, when JP II was pope, that they found it plus more than they bargained for.

Is this the stuff that saints are made of?

Nobody is denying the good that John Paul II did. The lives of most men are made up of good and bad things. In the end, we all hope that the good we’ve done outweighs the bad. However, one thing is conclusive: John Paul II’s response to the rape, sodomization and molestation of children around the world by priests, bishops and religious was abysmal. The most vulnerable population of the church, the children, were sacrificed for the sake of the reputation of the church. This was a grievous omission that should disqualify him from the process of sainthood.

His error was compounded by appointing Cardinal Law to preside the largest basilica in Rome dedicated to the Blessed Mother. Does that make JP II an evil man? No, but maybe it speaks to what he really was: A man with all strengths and weaknesses of man.

Does it make him a saint? Not by the standards of the sainted children who gave their lives for their beliefs. In an irony that boggles the imagination, the man who did not have the courage, convictions or will to rid the church of either child abusing priests or those who protected them is to be elevated to a level equal to the sainted children who forfeited their lives rather than be violated. Compared to them, John Paul II’s measure comes up short.

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The Spinmeister

An opinion on Straight talk about the Catholic Church by William Donohue

By Vinnie Nauheimer

One of the sad truths that history teaches us is that hand in hand with a great evil comes the great spinmeister. Whether the Minister of Propaganda is drawn into the vortex of evil or is intrinsically evil himself can be debated like the chicken and the egg. The answer is irrelevant, but the fact that they feed the evil and are responsible for the perpetuation of evil will always be relevant.

The twentieth century has given us two extraordinary spinmeisters: Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, and Squealer the Pig in George Orwell’s Classic book “Animal Farm.” The first part of the twenty-first century has given us, in my opinion, another: William Donohue, the president of the Catholic League.

Mr. Donohue recently published a brilliant PR piece in the form of a paid advertisement in the NY Times. This is right out of Goebbels’ playbook, “Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda” Number 6: “To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.” thus the paid advertisement in the NY Times. Subterfuge, distortions, omissions and denial were intricately woven to portray the church as the object victim in what is now considered the Global Clergy Abuse Scandal. Such a fine piece of work cannot and should not go unnoticed. Mr. Donohue is indeed a master manipulator of language.

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, knew the importance of a scapegoat. Hitler is reported to have said of Goebbels that his success was due to both his mastery of language and intellect. Mr. Donohue has both these qualities as does Squealer in Animal Farm. Goebbels chose for his scapegoat the Jews and subsequently through the force of language and sheer intellect, led an entire nation to believe that the source of their problems were the Jews. Although Donohue mentions the clergy abuse problem among Rabbis, he was careful not to go too far for fear of being branded anti-Semitic.

Goebblel’s eighteenth dictum in his principles of propaganda is as follows: “Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.” The scapegoat selected by Donohue is none other than the pariah of the Catholic Church, Homosexuals! Notice how the clever Donohue never uses the words homosexual priests together in the entire length of his essay! (see dictum 18 above) Notice how deftly Donohue omits the preposterous presumption that there would ever be homosexual priests in an organization that considers homosexual acts to be depraved. (http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2004/ 0407sbs.asp ) Blame without an in depth examination is the trademark of a great spin doctor. Throw it out, let it stick to the wall and then move on. Donohue defines the clergy abuse scandal as a homosexual problem. The beauty of ignoring the relevance of homosexual priests is that it avoids embarrassing questions such as: Why does a church so profoundly anti-gay ordain so many gay priests?, Why upon discovering the homosexual acts with minors, did it actively protect these priests and what do theses actions say about the sexuality of the hierarchy? Donohue believes he has found his true calling. He is single handedly shielding his church from the homosexual horde that seeks to undermine his church and those that promote them.

Consider the outlandish proposition that the victims are not children! In this case Mr. Donohue makes a blanket statement that would make both Goebbels and Squealer turn green with envy. “let’s get it straight—they weren’t children and they weren’t raped” This statement is made with authority. It is confusing and meant to confuse, which was the hallmark of Squealer. The spinmeister speaks as if he is the first and last word on what constitutes a child; speaking from authority is a benchmark of a great spin doctor. Without saying what they were, he implies that the abused weren’t children. Notice how the propaganda leaves out ages. The readers say to themselves well if they weren’t children, they must have been older. Does older mean its okay? Does it make a difference if a child was ten, thirteen or fifteen when they were assaulted by their priest? Though the former may be termed a child and the latter an adolescent among those who utilize psychobabble (Spinmeisters) to make the act more palatable to their audience, does the rape, sodomization or molestation make the crime any less heinous? A good propagandist knows it does and employs the tactic every chance they get.

Goebbels seventh law part d.: states that the propaganda must be boomerang proof. Donohue does a masterful job of omitting young girls from the equation by insisting the clergy abuse scandal is all about homosexuality. By minimizing the number and nature of crimes against female minors he makes his argument about homosexuals boomerang proof. Quoting numbers such as over 80% of the abuse cases were of a homosexual nature he sets the parameters of clergy abuse. Once this is ingrained in the readers head, they will completely ignore the fact that the Vatican itself states that worldwide 30% of the cases of sexual abuse by priests is of a heterosexual nature and 10% is other. Donohue skips by this so fast that one never has the time to ponder either what the 10% other is or the fact that thirty percent plus ten percent equals forty percent so it is mathematically impossible to have over 80% of the sexual abuse be of a homosexual nature. Like Squealer and Goebbels, he knows that if he is ever called on it in the future, he can say he included the numbers, but in true fashion, he expects no one to call him on his numbers and if somebody did, he would dismiss them with the wave of a hand.

Who could possibly deny the brilliance of framing his argument as a dalliance among priests? A mere touch, a palpable touch nevertheless. “Minimization of the act” is the operative mandate. The acts of raping, sodomizing and molesting minors are considered felony crimes in most countries, Donohue never goes there. He avoids the criminal aspect like the plague for it would not do well to have anyone associate the Catholic Church with criminal activity or see the words criminal priest in a sentence. Like Squealer, Donohue utilizes his command of language to justify the unjustifiable acts of priests who abused children and the hierarchy who covered up these acts. He has the traits of a lap dog and a pit bull: blind allegiance to his church and the tenacity to never let go. Bringing in teachers and other organizations says to the public: yes, we have a few problems, but there are other groups such as the schools, other religions, etc that have problems too. “Its not only our problem” is another minimization tactic that is hard to rebuff. To his credit, Donohue cleverly avoids the global scale of Roman Catholic Clergy Abuse because it serves no purpose to let people know that there are credibly abused priests in over thirty countries around the world. Schools aren’t global and don’t move priests, bishops and cardinals around the world at will so Donohue localizes the issue to minimize it.

One cannot overrate the need for minimization of clergy abuse. A church that professes to be the one true church, whose priests are chosen by God, whose pope is the spiritual descendant of Christ and whose stated mission is to speak for the poor and vulnerable simply cannot either be associated with or guilty of sexual abuse. Donohue knows this and it is in this framework he tirelessly expends his energy.

In the neighborhood where I grew up, we had an expression when someone was trying to con us. It was, “Stop pulling my chain!” In the spirit of that expression, I nominate William Donohue for the “Pull It Sir Award.” for his first rate propaganda. This BOOH is for you!

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Children Carry Their Crosses

”With Holy Week approaching, Children Carry Their Crosses will remind everyone that there’s still unfinished business.” Vinnie

Comments are encouraged, click on the drawing to read comments and access a box for writing your comment

link to view Vinnie’s abuse collection: HERE

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Causes of the Unfathomable Clerical Silence on Clergy Sex Abuse

By Vinnie Nauheimer © all rights reserved

Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” Living proof of this quote comes from the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. The act of raping, sodomizing and molesting children is intrinsically evil. Yet the clergy, as a whole, has remained incredibly silent about these deplorable crimes. In doing so, the evil of sexual abuse has triumphed at all levels of the clergy. There is no better quote to describe the excruciating pain caused by the global silence of the priesthood, bishops and cardinals regarding the vile sexual crimes committed against children. Or is there?

“Show me the leaders and I will show you the troops,” speaks volumes too!

There are one-hundred eighty-five cardinals. Not a single cardinal has ever publicly spoken out about the pope’s woefully inept handling of the clergy abuse scandal. Neither a cardinal nor a pope has ever removed a bishop from office for their sexual abuse of minors or for protecting priests who have sexually abused minors. This is a travesty of justice as well as a mockery of Jesus Christ and his teachings. Not one cardinal out of one-hundred-eighty-five cardinals can be called a survivor’s advocate. This fact alone confirms all-encompassing grip of evil on the higher echelons of the church. The triumph of evil is crystal clear at the cardinal level of the Roman Catholic Church.

Worldwide there are roughly five thousand bishops. Out of the five thousand bishops, there are only two bishops who are vocal critics of the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of the clergy abuse scandal. Both are retired, Bishop Gumbleton of Detroit and Bishop Geoffrey Robinson of Australia. Not only are they critics, but both are advocates for victims of clergy abuse. They have both been banned from speaking in many dioceses as well as suffering numerous other indignities at the hands of cardinals and their fellow bishops. Robinson said the following about clergy abuse, “Sexual abuse is all about power and sex, so to counter abuse, we must be free to ask serious questions about power and sex in the institution of the church. Without this freedom, we would be attempting to respond to abuse while handcuffed and blindfolded.” Noteworthy also is the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin. Not only has he apologized to survivors, but he also demanded the resignations of several bishops steeped in the clergy abuse scandal. Recently, two of the bishops who sent their resignations to Rome had them refused by the pope making the Archbishop look the fool. At the bishop level, evil has triumphed as the troops mimic their leaders. Two retired bishops and one active out of five thousand is an infinitesimal percentage; once again evil triumphs.

However, there is an area of clergy abuse where we can find a larger percentage among bishops. According to BishopAccountability.org in the United States, there are seventeen bishops credibly accused of sexual abuse. Seventeen out of 425 active and retired bishops totals four percent. That number only speaks to the bishops in the United States! Is it any wonder why silence is golden when it comes to bishops in the United States? Not one has ever been laicized and that includes the notorious Bishop Ziemann who was arrested for having oral sex performed on him, in his car, by a priest who wore a pager in order to be summoned by the bishop for sex. Who protected this bishop? None other than Cardinal Levada, the man appointed by the pope to fill his old position as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. Once again evil triumphs!

Show me the leaders and I will show you the troops.

The number of priests worldwide is just over four-hundred-thousand. Of these four hundred thousand priests there are only a handful of well known outspoken priests who are survivor advocates. Frs. Tom Doyle and Bob Hoatson are the best known both in the United States and globally. Being overly generous, let’s say there are in fact a hundred vocal priests worldwide. One hundred priests is a miniscule fraction of one percent of the four hundred thousand priests: .00025 to be exact. Sadly, these are the troops.

Any human being with even a thread of humanity understands that the rape, sodomization and molestation of children by clergy or anyone are inherently evil acts. Despite the heinous nature of these crimes, despite the outcry from the victims, despite the outcry from Grand Juries and Special Inquiries, there remains a deafening silence among ninety-nine point nine percent of the Roman Catholic Clergy. There has been a great deal of speculation about the cause or causes of this white collar silence. We will look at three of these causes and the arguments supporting them. They are: The Superiority Complex, The Wet Monkey Mentality and a complete and utter Lack of Faith.

The Superiority Complex

Medieval Kings operated on the principle of Divine Right, which is defined as: “the doctrine that kings derive their right to rule directly from God and are not accountable to their subjects; rebellion is the worst of political crimes.” Other definitions add this phrase, “any attempt to depose a monarch or to restrict his powers runs contrary to the will of God.” Welcome to the centuries old philosophy of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Nowhere is this false ideology of Divine Right more clearly stated than in Vehementer Nos an encyclical promulgated by Pious X in 1905.

“It follows that the Church is essentially an unequal society, that is, a society comprising two categories of persons, the Pastors and the flock, those who occupy a rank in the different degrees of the hierarchy and the multitude of the faithful. So distinct are these categories that with the pastoral body only rests the necessary right and authority for promoting the end of the society and directing all its members towards that end; the one duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock, to follow the Pastors.”

 

However, Pious X was not alone in his assumption that priests are on a higher level than the laity. Consider the arrogance of this name: Conference of Major Superiors of Men. Who but arrogant, self-serving, elitists would give themselves a name that proclaims them superiors of men? Not to worry, Mother Superior has her organization too, The Conference of Major Superiors of Women Religious. These groups are made up of all the “Superiors” of the various groups of orders that comprise the religious community other than diocesan priests. One might ask this reasonable question, “Does using the word superior in their title really make them feel superior?” The answer is clear in this passage written about the sexual abuse scandal several years ago by then director of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, Fr. Ted Keating.

“The days of the pass or station house adjustment for Father or Brother by the Irish cop or prosecutor are over. Either we will learn to become more comfortable in the gaze of the rude and scoffing multitude (depending on our attitude) or we will be dragged kicking and screaming into a new future for religion and religious life”

There are two things to note in this statement. The first is the unequivocal admission by Fr. Keating that priests, who committed crimes, were not arrested by police. The second is Keating’s use of the term “the rude and scoffing multitude.” Using these words to describe the laity is his tacit acknowledgement of Pious X’s statement on superiority. This too is an admission that there are those in the priesthood who believe they are superior to mere mortals. This is the height of arrogance and one has to wonder how the laity would react to knowing they were referred to as the “the rude and scoffing multitude.” The director of the Conference of the Major Superiors of Men has demonstrated by his words that their superiority complex is real.

The irony of the superiority over the rude and scoffing multitude is that is that the believer of this warped philosophy looses touch with his humanity. This one sentence “the one duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock,” explains the utter contempt heaped upon victims of clergy abuse and their families by priests, bishops, cardinals, and yes, even popes. This attitude made it easy to transfer sexual felons from one parish to another with because they had contempt for children. This attitude made it easy for bishops to lie to authorities because civil authorities were beneath them. This ingrained cultural flaw allowed them to withhold evidence from the courts. Slavery can not exist unless one group believes they are superior to another group. The act of believing superiority then makes it okay and even easy to use those “less than” however they see fit and treat with utter contempt anyone who would question their decisions. Welcome to the philosophy that has perpetuated clergy sexual abuse over the years.

This fallacious thinking along with the culture that perpetuates it must cease. It will when people realize, of their own accord, that God made them in his image and likeness: Intelligent beings capable of loving, thinking and creating. We were not created to be a “docile flock” led around by our noses by those who purport to speak for God, but who reject his teachings every time the teachings either interfere with or threaten their money and power.

The Wet Monkey Mentality

This theory is often used to describe outdated cultural practices, customs or traditions and the experiment was carried out like this.

Inside a cage containing five monkeys, a banana was hung from the ceiling and a set of stairs was put under the banana. When one of the monkeys tried to go up the stairs towards the banana the remaining monkeys were sprayed with ice water.

Then another monkey went for the banana with same result: the other monkeys were sprayed with ice cold water. After a while when any monkey tried to climb the stairs, the remaining monkeys prevented him from going to the banana by beating him.

Once this behavior was established, the cold water was stopped and still any monkey going for the banana was beaten by the other monkeys. The one monkey was removed from the cage and replaced with a new one. The new monkey upon seeing the banana wants to climb the stairs and eat it. To his shock, the rest of the monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

Each of the five original monkeys were removed one at a time and replaced with a new one. As the newcomer went to the stairs he was attacked. The previous newcomer then took part in the punishment of the next newcomer with as much enthusiasm as the original monkeys. Every time the newest monkey touched the stairs he was viciously attacked.

When all of the original monkeys had been replaced, the new ones having never been punished with ice water continued to beat up any newcomer that went for the banana. Also after receiving a beating for going for the banana, they became active participants in beating up any subsequent monkey introduced to the cage that went for the banana. No monkey ever again got a banana because as soon as he approached the stairs, he was set upon. Why? Because as far as they knew, that was the way it had always been done in there.

If you substitute truth for the banana, this theory could account for the almost universal silence by the vast majority of the clergy on the subject of the clergy abuse scandal. Speak the truth in public and you were viciously beaten. Could this theory explain the incredible lack of support for clergy abuse survivors by all but a miniscule number of clergy? Yes! Does the Wet Monkey Mentality account for the personal attacks on the person of Fr. Tom Doyle, the first outspoken advocate of clergy abuse survivors, who was accused of heresy, fired from his job as an Air Force Chaplain and declared persona non-grata by any number of fellow priests and bishops? Yes! Can it explain why a Pennsylvania bishop went through extraordinary machinations to find the nun behind the non-de-plume Sr. Immaculata; whose letters to the editor chastising bishops and cardinals were carried in newspapers around the United States. Does it account for the terrible things said about and done to Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, when after retiring; he spoke out against the church and condemned its role in the cover-up of the clergy abuse scandal? Does it account for Bishop Geoffrey Robinson being forbidden from speaking in any Catholic Church or on any Catholic Church property by bishops and cardinals across the United States?

Unfortunately, the Wet Monkey Mentality explains all of these actions taken by the church against these few and those unnamed who dared to challenge the prevailing norms by speaking the truth about the clerical sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. These stand-up clergy members were pounded by those with the monkey mentality as a lesson for the rest of the worldwide clergy.

Loss of Faith

Some twenty years ago, while attending a meeting, a young woman told this story. “I have two constant companions, I call them my pets. One is called fear and the other is called faith whichever one I feed is the one that grows.” I never saw her again, but I have survived and thrived remembering her words and while looking at causes for deafening silence of good men about such an evil issue as child abuse her words came back to me yet again. The silence of the clergy is due to their lack of faith in God. The clergy of the Roman Catholic Church is feeding their fear and not their faith! They fear scandal as if scandal could hurt God. Scandal can only hurt men. They fear being found out for the despicable acts they’ve committed, witnessed and concealed; they fear for their material possessions, their power, their wealth and their false superiority.

If priests, bishops and cardinals had unquestioning faith in God, they would not be afraid to speak out against the evil that has triumphed because of their silence. They would not be afraid of losing their jobs, their pensions, their cushy parish, their shot at purple or red buttons and the biggest prize of all, the white hat. In other words, they would lose their fear of naming evil whether that evil is called bishop, cardinal or pope. Their faith would sustain them if they would just feed it. Fear has frozen the voices of the good men in the priesthood because they have lost their faith in the God. A crash course in the Acts of the Apostles might help the remaining good members of the clergy, who wish to serve God and not their superiors, to find their tongues. We can all pray that the Holy Spirit will once again ignite the flame of faith in Jesus and his teachings.

Only men steeped in fear can keep silent about the travesty of justice and the horrors of sexual abuse that are and have occurred in the Roman Catholic Church. It is impossible to believe that out of five thousand bishops worldwide that there are none who remember who they represent. Equally implausible is that there are none who are not appalled by the actions of their fellow bishops, cardinals and the pope relative to the sexual abuse of children by clergy members. The same can be said for the four-hundred-thousand priests. There must be more than a handful who want to drive these despoilers of children and those who protect them from the church.

Those in power have brought the church to the brink of collapse; the triumph of evil. Those that have remained silent have encouraged it! Now is the time to oppose it! Get some gumption from your boss; the one who died on the cross. Let he who has ears hear!

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According to Aquinas’ definition, there are heretics in the Vatican

By Vinnie Nauheimer © All rights reserved

The unmitigated gall along with the exasperating temerity of the Vatican and the pope is nowhere more evident than in the slap in the face that the pope has just delivered to the global survivor community. Just when you thought they couldn’t sink any lower than equating the ordination of women with the raping, sodomizing and molesting children; they do this. The mentality that pulled Cardinal Law out of harm’s way and rewarded him for covering up criminal acts and the criminals who committed them is flourishing in Rome.

In the first place, the ruling elite of the Vatican along with the pope have lost all their integrity if one supposes that they had any in the first place. Acting holy and deliberately disobeying Sacred Scripture, which is the Word of God, and also the Catechism and Canon Law which are the teaching elements of the Magisterium are the acts of heretics according to St. Thomas Aquinas.

Compounding their crimes against man and God, they tried to convince the world that ordaining a woman is as grave a scandal to the Body of Christ as the raping of a child by a priest. On top of that, the pope reinstates two bishops who allowed children to be abused because they were spineless as well as being unfaithful to the teachings of Christ. The hypocrisy of the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church knows no bounds. In 2009 the pope said, “Victims should receive compassion and care, and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice.” The pope cannot reconcile any of his words with his deeds. His lies and hypocrisy have brought untold scandal down upon the church. The English language does not have words to describe such an unprecedented display of contempt for Jesus Christ, his people and scripture. The only two words that come even close to describing this bald-faced act of duplicity are Mysterium Iniquitus.

The job of the Magisterium (the pope and all the bishops) is teaching or interpreting Sacred Scripture. It puts Sacred Scripture on the top after which come all else. For example, if there were a conflict between what Jesus said and what and what a bishop says some five hundred years later, the quoted words of Jesus takes precedent. The Catechism tells us the following in Para. 86: “Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant.” Direct quotes by Jesus on the single subject child abuse are found in all three of the Synoptic Gospels. Jesus himself tells us how the well being of children is of profound importance to him, but the hierarchy hasn’t listened.

Here are the direct quotes from Jesus condemning the sexual abuse of minors:

Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Mark 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.

Luke 17:2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

Matthew 18:10:Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 18:14: In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.

Matthew, Mark and Luke also quote Jesus as saying: “But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”

The importance of these tracts must be put in perspective. The well regarded concept of the Virgin Birth is in the narrative form which does not carry the same weight as a direct quote from Jesus. Also, it is only found in two of the Gospels whereas admonitions against defiling children are found in all three of the Synoptic Gospels. Jesus stated multiple times that no one should prevent children from coming to him. Yet the hierarchy has steadfastly refused to heed Him.

What does this mean? It means that if the hierarchy had put just half the belief into the words of Jesus concerning child abuse, as they did to the concept of the Virginal Birth, there would be neither the clergy abuse scandal we have today nor those in previous eras of church history. Next is the gravity of their sins. The current hierarchy right up to the pope has knowingly moved pedophile priests around and then covered up for these monsters in direct violation of Sacred Scripture. The perverted culture of the Vatican is and has been responsible for the rape, sodomization and molestation of children. There has been an ongoing, well documented denial of the words of Jesus. In plain English, they have committed gross acts of heresy by refusing to adhere to Sacred Scripture.

Aquinas defines heresy as: “a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas.” He further states: “Heresy comes from restricting belief to certain points of Christ’s doctrine selected and fashioned at pleasure, which is the way of heretics.” Aquinas says this of the heretics motives: “The impelling motives are many: intellectual pride or exaggerated reliance on one’s own insight; the illusions of religious zeal; the allurements of political or ecclesiastical power; the ties of material interests and personal status; and perhaps others more dishonourable”

If Aquinas were alive today, he would have no problem condemning the current hierarchy for the heretics they are. The hierarchy, men who profess faith in Christ, have created their own dogma which says, “We make decisions for Christ and we will totally ignore anything He has said which will cause us to forfeit our jobs, riches or the priests who make our jobs, power and riches possible.” In order to maintain the allurements of ecclesiastical power, not one bishop has ever been laicized in connection with the clergy abuse scandal. That includes both bishops who have personally abused children as well as bishops who have protected the perverted priests who preyed on children. Now, two bishops that have resigned over their involvement with clergy abuse have been reinstated. Every member of the hierarchy has maintained both their personal wealth and power despite numerous transgressions a la Cardinal Law who was whisked out of Boston to insure he maintained both his power and opulence. In short, they have corrupted the Sacred Scripture, thrown our children to the wolves and for what, to maintain the status quo!

However, this heresy does not stop with Sacred Scripture. The heretics have and continue to ignore both the Catechism and Canon Law making their heresy complete. The following paragraphs are from the Catechism:

2326 Scandal is a grave offense when by deed or omission it deliberately leads others to sin gravely.

2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. “Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!”

2353 Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young. (Emphasis mine)

2389 Connected to incest is any sexual abuse perpetrated by adults on children or adolescents entrusted to their care. The offense is compounded by the scandalous harm done to the physical and moral integrity of the young, who will remain scarred by it all their lives; and the violation of responsibility for their upbringing.

The acts of raping, sodomizing and molesting children, allowing them to continue and then covering them up can safely be assumed to be manifestly a grave scandal. The Catechism specifically points out the evils of adults having sex with children. Strike two, the hierarchy has turned their backs on Sacred Scripture and the Catechism.

What’s next? Next is Canon Law.

The current hierarchy has denied, by their failure to remove bishops, Canon Law applies to them too. As Aquinas points out, they’re simply ignoring this truth because of material interests and personal status

Can. 212 1, Priests and Bishops are also bound by this obedience, in fact more so since they are responsible for passing on to the faithful genuine Catholic teaching. In other words, a Bishop or Priest who dissents from Church teachings is not to be obeyed in that matter, rather all must obey the Magisterium at all times, as Vatican II states.

All along the Canons have applied to every priest, bishop, and cardinal around the world, which includes the pope. The hierarchy is quick to throw out the many comparisons of relative guilt. Why are you picking on us, we’re only human? We’re no worse than other religions; the public schools are infested with pedophiles, etc. etc. Sacred Scripture along with their own Catechism spells out why they need to be held more accountable than others. Can. 2121: “in fact more so since they are responsible for passing on to the faithful genuine Catholic teaching.”

Can. 1369 A person is to be punished with a just penalty, who, at a public event or assembly, or in a published writing, or by otherwise using the means of social communication, utters blasphemy, or gravely harms public morals, or rails at or excites hatred of or contempt for religion or the Church.

By their adamant refusal to justly punish any bishop for their part in the Clergy Abuse Scandal, the hierarchy has gravely harmed public morals, excited hatred of and contempt for the Church along with making it a laughing stock of the world. The hierarchy by their omissions (remaining silent) and their commission (Hiding and shuffling offending priests) promoted evil. The church did nothing about the rape, sodomization and molestation of children until they were forced into action and then only did a grudgingly pittance.

Can. 1389 § 1 A person who abuses ecclesiastical power or an office, is to be punished according to the gravity of the act or the omission, not excluding by deprivation of the office, unless a penalty for that abuse is already established by law or precept.

§ 2 A person who, through culpable negligence, unlawfully and with harm to another, performs or omits and act of ecclesiastical power or ministry or office, is to be punished with a just penalty.

Hard evidence of hierarchal culpable negligence has come out across the globe for the past two decades. Ecclesiastical power has been misused all over the globe and in no place more than the Vatican in their concerted effort to thwart justice. Turning their back on Canon Law completes the blatant refutation of the Magisterium, which is nothing more than heresy.

Is it a sin to call a pope, cardinal bishop or priest a heretic? No, Sacred Scripture, the Catechism and Canon Law call them heretics. The three are there for the world to read; no interpretation necessary because the language is clear. Each one supports the other back to the words of Jesus Christ. No bishop, cardinal or pope can deny or refute them without committing a larger heresy. The hierarchy would have the laity believe that they are above it all, but their own laws tell us different. Most members of the human race don’t need church law to reaffirm what they already know which is: The rape, sodomization and molestation of children is morally repugnant and intrinsically evil. Those who have both covered up these acts and protected the perpetrators are equally guilty.

Can. 748 §1 All are bound to seek the truth in matters which concern God and his Church; when they have found it, then by divine law they have the right to embrace and keep it.

The truth is here from the mouth of Jesus, church law and church history. All three tell us the first two have been totally ignored to the detriment of children and the church. The heresies speak for themselves. Aquinas tells us they are “a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas.” Aquinas is only mirroring the words of Jesus who said.

Matt.15: 7-9 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”

We can’t deny the teachings of Jesus, but we can certainly deny the authority of those who have ignored and trampled upon his teachings.