Saturday, June 23, 2012 2:56:41 AM
Sunday: Moldy Loaves and Rotten Fishes
by: kestrel9000
Sun Jun 10, 2012 at 12:44:05 PM EDT
Installment 1 in a hopefully weekly series dealing with the pernicious influence of Christianity in American society, with a particular emphasis on politics.
Just so you know, while this cartoon was being drawn, Catholic men in dresses were testifying before Republican men in suits on a Congressional committee about the evils of nasty lady parts.
Speaking at a diocesan convocation on public policy here, Cardinal Dolan, who is the archbishop of New York and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, "We are called to be very active, very informed and very involved in politics [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/nyregion/cardinal-timothy-m-dolan-urges-catholics-to-become-more-politically-active.html ]."
A Catholic hospital is being sued for denial of HIV medication to a gay man "for going against God's will [ http://www.care2.com/causes/catholic-hospital-denies-gay-man-hiv-medicine.html ]."
Trinitas Regional Medical Center, says Joao Simoes, admitted him last August but then denied him the medicine he needed and also would not let his sister see him. The complaint says that after admittance he met Dr. Susan V. Borga. She asked him how he had acquired HIV and "closed the plaintiff's file, put it down and looked at plaintiff with disgust on her face and asked, coldly, 'Is that from sex with men?'" Three days later, he was finally permitted to ring his personal physician and learned that he had already told Borga about his medication, but he had not received any or been visited by any doctor.
The complaint adds: Additionally, apparently realizing that plaintiff's doctor had an accent, Dr. Borga exclaimed, "What, do you need a translator?" to which plaintiff's doctor had again responded that Dr. Borga needed to give plaintiff his HIV medication. Dr. Borga responded to plaintiff's doctor by stating, "This is what he gets for going against God's will," and hung up the phone on plaintiff's doctor.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reiterated its threat to sue the Obama administration over its rule that all employers must offer contraception without a copay in their insurance plans [ http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/catholic-college-drop-health-care-coverage-bishops-threaten-165830383.html ]...The bishops want the government to either rescind the mandate altogether or add a clause that allows any employer to opt out if he or she has moral or religious qualms. President Obama said in February that he respected religious freedom but that all women should have access to affordable birth control, no matter their employers' religious beliefs.
Proposition 8 "served no purpose, and had no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California," the federal court said [ http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/appeals-court-rules-prop.-8-unconstitutional/ ]. Ahead of the decision, Prop. 8 backer Catholics for the Common Good called for a "massive response" by supporters involving e-mails and calls to radio and TV talk shows and letters to the editor of newspapers....Catholics for the Common Good charged that Walker's ruling created "an entirely new definition of marriage as merely the public recognition of a committed relationship between adults."
SACRAMENTO, California, Aug. 19 /Christian Newswire [ http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/863947548.html ]/ -- Proposition 8, the ballot initiative to Protect Marriage, announced today it has received a $1 million contribution from the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic family fraternal service organization...The Knights of Columbus includes more than 1.7 million members throughout the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, and other areas.
For more than two decades, the Catholic Church has grappled with a series of clergy sexual abuse scandals and lawsuits [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/roman_catholic_church_sex_abuse_cases/index.html ]. The cases have cost an estimated $2 billion in settlements and have shaken the faith of many of the church's members. Still more have expressed outrage with the church leadership, which has responded by making significant changes in its disciplinary procedures but often by characterizing the attention to the cases as an attack on the church.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue is sick and tired of coddling rape victims [ http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bill-donohue-gets-tough-rape-victims-wants-fight-them-one-one ]. That's why he supports efforts by lawyers for two Missouri priests accused of sexual abuse to cripple an organization that advocates on behalf of the victims of pedophile priests - Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Donohue thinks this effort, which seeks to bankrupt and embarrass the organization, is justified because "SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church." Donohue went further, telling the New York Times' Laurie Goodstein that the Catholic Church "has been too quick to write a check" and could save money "in the long run if we fought them one by one" - them being rape victims.
A Catholic food pantry in Green Bay, Wisconsin whose mission is to feed the hungry is refusing to accept 50 pounds of donated food from Planned Parenthood, simply because it's from Planned Parenthood [ http://blisstree.com/eat/nutrition/catholic-hypocrisy-charity-refuses-food-from-planned-parenthood-332/ ]. As part of its Martin Luther Kind food drive, Planned Parenthood collected food to donate to Paul's Pantry, a local shelter who is dedicated to feeding those who are less fortunate. But when it came time to deliver the food, the Catholic-run pantry said they didn't want it.
This weekend, many Catholics going to Mass will be greeted by something they haven't seen in their churches for decades: political petitions [ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2017951859_danny11.html ]. The Catholic Church here is set to start collecting signatures, in churches, to repeal gay marriage, Referendum 74. Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain announced last week he had approved the petitioning of the flock as part of church services in all local parishes...she's pained her church now is in league with the entity that set up the group sponsoring Referendum 74, the National Organization for Marriage. A confidential strategy memo showed that group had planned extreme tactics to try to defeat same-sex marriage. Such as trying to find disillusioned children of gay parents to talk on camera about their sorry upbringings.
Oh, and don't forget: Vote for Republicans or burn in hell [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=D9vQt6IXXaM ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f72CTDe4-0 ].
Copyright 2012 Green Mountain Daily
http://www.greenmountaindaily.com/diary/8844/sunday-moldy-loaves-and-rotten-fishes ; http://www.greenmountaindaily.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8844 [with comment]
===
News Fit For A Sunday
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Brought to you [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/us/cardinal-authorized-payments-to-abusers.html (in full next below)] by the same people who refuse to pay for birth control for their employees.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York authorized payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests as an incentive for them to agree to dismissal from the priesthood when he was the archbishop of Milwaukee.
Questioned at the time about the news that one particularly notorious pedophile cleric had been given a “payoff” to leave the priesthood, Cardinal Dolan, then the archbishop, responded that such an inference was “false, preposterous and unjust.”
But a document unearthed during bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and made public by victims’ advocates reveals that the archdiocese did make such payments to multiple accused priests to encourage them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to remove them from the payroll.
A spokesman for the archdiocese confirmed on Wednesday that payments of as much as $20,000 were made to “a handful” of accused priests “as a motivation” not to contest being defrocked. The process, known as “laicization,” is a formal church juridical procedure that requires Vatican approval, and can take far longer if the priest objects.
“It was a way to provide an incentive to go the voluntary route and make it happen quickly, and ultimately cost less,” said Jerry Topczewski, the spokesman for the archdiocese. “Their cooperation made the process a lot more expeditious.”
Birth control, baaaaaaaaad. "Rewards" for sexually abusive priests, excellent!
Three Hail Marys and two Our Fathers and you're good to go, Cardinal Dolan.
Such despicable people.
Copyright 2012 South Florida Daily Blog
http://southfloridadailyblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/news-fit-for-sunday.html [with comment]
===
In Milwaukee Post, Cardinal Authorized Paying Abusers
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: May 30, 2012
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/timothy_m_dolan/index.html ] of New York authorized payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests as an incentive for them to agree to dismissal from the priesthood when he was the archbishop of Milwaukee.
Questioned at the time about the news that one particularly notorious pedophile cleric had been given a “payoff” to leave the priesthood, Cardinal Dolan, then the archbishop, responded that such an inference was “false, preposterous and unjust.”
But a document unearthed during bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and made public by victims’ advocates reveals that the archdiocese did make such payments to multiple accused priests to encourage them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to remove them from the payroll.
A spokesman for the archdiocese confirmed on Wednesday that payments of as much as $20,000 were made to “a handful” of accused priests “as a motivation” not to contest being defrocked. The process, known as “laicization,” is a formal church juridical procedure that requires Vatican approval, and can take far longer if the priest objects.
“It was a way to provide an incentive to go the voluntary route and make it happen quickly, and ultimately cost less,” said Jerry Topczewski, the spokesman for the archdiocese. “Their cooperation made the process a lot more expeditious.”
Cardinal Dolan, who is president of the national bishops’ conference and fast becoming the nation’s most high-profile Roman Catholic cleric, did not respond to several requests for comment.
A victims advocacy group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, sent a letter of protest to the current archbishop of Milwaukee on Wednesday asking, “In what other occupation, especially one working with families and operating schools and youth programs, is an employee given a cash bonus for raping and sexually assaulting children?”
Experts in the Catholic Church’s response to sexual abuse say that payouts to dismissed priests are not uncommon. When a man becomes a priest, the church is expected to care for his needs for a lifetime.
The newly revealed document is the minutes of a meeting of the finance council of the Milwaukee archdiocese from March 7, 2003, which Cardinal Dolan attended. The archdiocese was facing a flood of potential lawsuits by people claiming abuse, and the church’s insurance company was refusing to cover the costs because it said the church had been negligent. The minutes noted that “unassignable priests” — those suspected of abuse — were still receiving full salaries.
The minutes say that those at the meeting discussed a proposal to “offer $20,000 for laicization ($10,000 at the start and $10,000 at the completion the process).” Instead of salary, they would receive a $1,250 monthly pension benefit, and, until they found another job, health insurance.
The first known payment in Milwaukee was to Franklyn Becker, a former priest with many victims. Cardinal Dolan said in response to a reporter’s question at the time that the payment was “an act of charity,” so that Mr. Becker could pay for health insurance.
According to church documents, Mr. Becker was accused of abusing at least 10 minors, and given a diagnosis of pedophilia in 1983. The church paid more than $16 million to settle lawsuits involving him and one other priest.
The Milwaukee Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January 2011, in the face of potential lawsuits by 23 accusers.
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/us/cardinal-authorized-payments-to-abusers.html
by: kestrel9000
Sun Jun 10, 2012 at 12:44:05 PM EDT
Installment 1 in a hopefully weekly series dealing with the pernicious influence of Christianity in American society, with a particular emphasis on politics.
Just so you know, while this cartoon was being drawn, Catholic men in dresses were testifying before Republican men in suits on a Congressional committee about the evils of nasty lady parts.
Speaking at a diocesan convocation on public policy here, Cardinal Dolan, who is the archbishop of New York and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, "We are called to be very active, very informed and very involved in politics [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/nyregion/cardinal-timothy-m-dolan-urges-catholics-to-become-more-politically-active.html ]."
A Catholic hospital is being sued for denial of HIV medication to a gay man "for going against God's will [ http://www.care2.com/causes/catholic-hospital-denies-gay-man-hiv-medicine.html ]."
Trinitas Regional Medical Center, says Joao Simoes, admitted him last August but then denied him the medicine he needed and also would not let his sister see him. The complaint says that after admittance he met Dr. Susan V. Borga. She asked him how he had acquired HIV and "closed the plaintiff's file, put it down and looked at plaintiff with disgust on her face and asked, coldly, 'Is that from sex with men?'" Three days later, he was finally permitted to ring his personal physician and learned that he had already told Borga about his medication, but he had not received any or been visited by any doctor.
The complaint adds: Additionally, apparently realizing that plaintiff's doctor had an accent, Dr. Borga exclaimed, "What, do you need a translator?" to which plaintiff's doctor had again responded that Dr. Borga needed to give plaintiff his HIV medication. Dr. Borga responded to plaintiff's doctor by stating, "This is what he gets for going against God's will," and hung up the phone on plaintiff's doctor.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reiterated its threat to sue the Obama administration over its rule that all employers must offer contraception without a copay in their insurance plans [ http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/catholic-college-drop-health-care-coverage-bishops-threaten-165830383.html ]...The bishops want the government to either rescind the mandate altogether or add a clause that allows any employer to opt out if he or she has moral or religious qualms. President Obama said in February that he respected religious freedom but that all women should have access to affordable birth control, no matter their employers' religious beliefs.
Proposition 8 "served no purpose, and had no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California," the federal court said [ http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/appeals-court-rules-prop.-8-unconstitutional/ ]. Ahead of the decision, Prop. 8 backer Catholics for the Common Good called for a "massive response" by supporters involving e-mails and calls to radio and TV talk shows and letters to the editor of newspapers....Catholics for the Common Good charged that Walker's ruling created "an entirely new definition of marriage as merely the public recognition of a committed relationship between adults."
SACRAMENTO, California, Aug. 19 /Christian Newswire [ http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/863947548.html ]/ -- Proposition 8, the ballot initiative to Protect Marriage, announced today it has received a $1 million contribution from the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic family fraternal service organization...The Knights of Columbus includes more than 1.7 million members throughout the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, and other areas.
For more than two decades, the Catholic Church has grappled with a series of clergy sexual abuse scandals and lawsuits [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/roman_catholic_church_sex_abuse_cases/index.html ]. The cases have cost an estimated $2 billion in settlements and have shaken the faith of many of the church's members. Still more have expressed outrage with the church leadership, which has responded by making significant changes in its disciplinary procedures but often by characterizing the attention to the cases as an attack on the church.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue is sick and tired of coddling rape victims [ http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bill-donohue-gets-tough-rape-victims-wants-fight-them-one-one ]. That's why he supports efforts by lawyers for two Missouri priests accused of sexual abuse to cripple an organization that advocates on behalf of the victims of pedophile priests - Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Donohue thinks this effort, which seeks to bankrupt and embarrass the organization, is justified because "SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church." Donohue went further, telling the New York Times' Laurie Goodstein that the Catholic Church "has been too quick to write a check" and could save money "in the long run if we fought them one by one" - them being rape victims.
A Catholic food pantry in Green Bay, Wisconsin whose mission is to feed the hungry is refusing to accept 50 pounds of donated food from Planned Parenthood, simply because it's from Planned Parenthood [ http://blisstree.com/eat/nutrition/catholic-hypocrisy-charity-refuses-food-from-planned-parenthood-332/ ]. As part of its Martin Luther Kind food drive, Planned Parenthood collected food to donate to Paul's Pantry, a local shelter who is dedicated to feeding those who are less fortunate. But when it came time to deliver the food, the Catholic-run pantry said they didn't want it.
This weekend, many Catholics going to Mass will be greeted by something they haven't seen in their churches for decades: political petitions [ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2017951859_danny11.html ]. The Catholic Church here is set to start collecting signatures, in churches, to repeal gay marriage, Referendum 74. Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain announced last week he had approved the petitioning of the flock as part of church services in all local parishes...she's pained her church now is in league with the entity that set up the group sponsoring Referendum 74, the National Organization for Marriage. A confidential strategy memo showed that group had planned extreme tactics to try to defeat same-sex marriage. Such as trying to find disillusioned children of gay parents to talk on camera about their sorry upbringings.
Oh, and don't forget: Vote for Republicans or burn in hell [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=D9vQt6IXXaM ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f72CTDe4-0 ].
Next week: American politics, the planet Kolob, more homophobia, racism, and magic underwear [no such yet].
Copyright 2012 Green Mountain Daily
http://www.greenmountaindaily.com/diary/8844/sunday-moldy-loaves-and-rotten-fishes ; http://www.greenmountaindaily.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8844 [with comment]
===
News Fit For A Sunday
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Brought to you [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/us/cardinal-authorized-payments-to-abusers.html (in full next below)] by the same people who refuse to pay for birth control for their employees.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York authorized payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests as an incentive for them to agree to dismissal from the priesthood when he was the archbishop of Milwaukee.
Questioned at the time about the news that one particularly notorious pedophile cleric had been given a “payoff” to leave the priesthood, Cardinal Dolan, then the archbishop, responded that such an inference was “false, preposterous and unjust.”
But a document unearthed during bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and made public by victims’ advocates reveals that the archdiocese did make such payments to multiple accused priests to encourage them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to remove them from the payroll.
A spokesman for the archdiocese confirmed on Wednesday that payments of as much as $20,000 were made to “a handful” of accused priests “as a motivation” not to contest being defrocked. The process, known as “laicization,” is a formal church juridical procedure that requires Vatican approval, and can take far longer if the priest objects.
“It was a way to provide an incentive to go the voluntary route and make it happen quickly, and ultimately cost less,” said Jerry Topczewski, the spokesman for the archdiocese. “Their cooperation made the process a lot more expeditious.”
Birth control, baaaaaaaaad. "Rewards" for sexually abusive priests, excellent!
Three Hail Marys and two Our Fathers and you're good to go, Cardinal Dolan.
Such despicable people.
Copyright 2012 South Florida Daily Blog
http://southfloridadailyblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/news-fit-for-sunday.html [with comment]
===
In Milwaukee Post, Cardinal Authorized Paying Abusers
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: May 30, 2012
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/timothy_m_dolan/index.html ] of New York authorized payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests as an incentive for them to agree to dismissal from the priesthood when he was the archbishop of Milwaukee.
Questioned at the time about the news that one particularly notorious pedophile cleric had been given a “payoff” to leave the priesthood, Cardinal Dolan, then the archbishop, responded that such an inference was “false, preposterous and unjust.”
But a document unearthed during bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and made public by victims’ advocates reveals that the archdiocese did make such payments to multiple accused priests to encourage them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to remove them from the payroll.
A spokesman for the archdiocese confirmed on Wednesday that payments of as much as $20,000 were made to “a handful” of accused priests “as a motivation” not to contest being defrocked. The process, known as “laicization,” is a formal church juridical procedure that requires Vatican approval, and can take far longer if the priest objects.
“It was a way to provide an incentive to go the voluntary route and make it happen quickly, and ultimately cost less,” said Jerry Topczewski, the spokesman for the archdiocese. “Their cooperation made the process a lot more expeditious.”
Cardinal Dolan, who is president of the national bishops’ conference and fast becoming the nation’s most high-profile Roman Catholic cleric, did not respond to several requests for comment.
A victims advocacy group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, sent a letter of protest to the current archbishop of Milwaukee on Wednesday asking, “In what other occupation, especially one working with families and operating schools and youth programs, is an employee given a cash bonus for raping and sexually assaulting children?”
Experts in the Catholic Church’s response to sexual abuse say that payouts to dismissed priests are not uncommon. When a man becomes a priest, the church is expected to care for his needs for a lifetime.
The newly revealed document is the minutes of a meeting of the finance council of the Milwaukee archdiocese from March 7, 2003, which Cardinal Dolan attended. The archdiocese was facing a flood of potential lawsuits by people claiming abuse, and the church’s insurance company was refusing to cover the costs because it said the church had been negligent. The minutes noted that “unassignable priests” — those suspected of abuse — were still receiving full salaries.
The minutes say that those at the meeting discussed a proposal to “offer $20,000 for laicization ($10,000 at the start and $10,000 at the completion the process).” Instead of salary, they would receive a $1,250 monthly pension benefit, and, until they found another job, health insurance.
The first known payment in Milwaukee was to Franklyn Becker, a former priest with many victims. Cardinal Dolan said in response to a reporter’s question at the time that the payment was “an act of charity,” so that Mr. Becker could pay for health insurance.
According to church documents, Mr. Becker was accused of abusing at least 10 minors, and given a diagnosis of pedophilia in 1983. The church paid more than $16 million to settle lawsuits involving him and one other priest.
The Milwaukee Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January 2011, in the face of potential lawsuits by 23 accusers.
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/us/cardinal-authorized-payments-to-abusers.html
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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