UNITED STATES
OpEd News
By Rev. Dan Vojir
New York Times:
“Files released by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday reveal that in 2007, Cardinal Timothy F. Dolan, then the archbishop there, requested permission from the Vatican to move nearly $57 million into a cemetery trust fund to protect the assets from victims of clergy sexual abuse who were demanding compensation.”
“These are old and discredited attacks”
Cardinal Dolan simply must learn to lie better than that, because one letter in the latest disclosure was not in the original accusatory documents in 2012:
“However, the files contain a 2007 letter to the Vatican in which he explains that by transferring the assets, “I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.” The Vatican approved the request in five weeks, the files show.”
The deposition that Dolan himself submitted to the public (media) on Monday is now under new scrutiny: if Dolan lied about not protecting funds from liability, what else could he have lied about? Certainly the new letter casts a shadow of doubt on Dolan’s rambling, confusing statement about payouts to child molesters willing to leave the priesthood:
“I would not call that a practice. I would not deny that that was done on occasion, but I would not call that a payoff or a settlement. But I would not deny that that was done, the fact that you mentioned. Was it a payoff, was it a settlement, was it an impetus, I wouldn’t say that, nor would I saw was it a normal practice, but it was done.”
Added to the incriminating letter, are some thousands of very descriptive instances of abuse for which the current archbishop, Jerome Listecki, warned parishioners: “Prepare to be shocked.” The cardinal’s protestations of “old and discredited attacks” may not be able to withstand a totally contradictory letter to the Vatican (approved by Benedict as then-Cardinal Ratzinger) and sexually graphic child abuse.
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