UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
It surely is a hectic time for NY’s Cardinal Dolan. Although demoted as a “power player”, in effect, by Pope Francis, he seems busy still. The lawyers defending his “burial” of the Milwaukee archdiocese’s excess cash in a cemetery trust appear to be seeking to terrorize further the desperate priest sexual abuse survivors there seeking some minimal justice. And Dolan’s former criminal subordinate from St. Louis, Bishop Robert Finn, has now been sacked by the pope.
Dolan is also busy pleasing his “low tax” billionaire donors by boosting the right wing US Republican election campaign’s push for another Middle East military invasion, advocated also by Pope Francis, to “protect Christians”. This includes Dolan’s hyping of convicted felon and Iraq War booster, Scooter Libby’s Hudson Institute’s latest seeming warmongering presentation. And busy Dolan has also recently confirmed his NY parish closing “cost cutting” plans, as he simultaneously spends almost $200 million on refurbishing his NY mansion and cathedral. He recently confirmed that his NY archdiocese’s parish closing program will shrink the number of NY parishes by over 20 % to 296 parishes from 368 recently. At the same time, NY Jesuit college students are protesting strongly Dolan’s plans to speak at their upcoming graduation, although he is welcomed to speak to cheering investment bankers at Goldman Sachs. What is wrong with this picture in the name of God?
Is Pope Francis watching this? Does he even care? Apparently not! Please see my pertinent remarks, “What Do We Now Know About The Real Goal Of Pope Francis?”. Meanwhile, Pope Francis will soon visit NY to bless Dolan’s “hardly Christian” efforts before moving on to the Philadelphia Archdiocese, evidently the USA’s Priest Pedophile Paradise, to bless Archbishop Chaput’s and Cardinal Rigali’s misdeeds there. Francis has also just signaled he will not wait for the Final Synod in October to reject changes in the Catholic Church’s unbiblical, unwarranted and harmful approach to women’s reproductive options. He will instead designate some priests to offer women forgiveness for daring to sin by trying to regulate the number of children the pope so often encourages them to breed. Thanks for nothing, Pope Francis! Keep up the guilt generation and control of poor women and couples, and watch another 30 million + US Catholics leave the Church, no?
Dolan and Pope Francis are not fooling everyone. Dolan is now facing his own coming USA revolt — just when the pope is getting ready for his visit to the USA in September. This USA revolt has already begun with brave Jesuit students, many opposed to priest child abuse and bishops’ cover-ups and homophobic crusades, at a New York Jesuit university, Le Moyne, with their petition here on Change.org (SIGN IT NOW PLEASE), and related anticipated civil disobedience seeking to reject prominent New York’s Cardinal Dolan as their graduation speaker, in light of his evident child protection and homophobic failures, see here, Catholics Revolt: Jesuit Grads Shun Dolan As Goldman Sachs Bankers Woo Him.
Lawyers representing Dolan’s former Milwaukee archdiocese in bankruptcy proceedings indicated that they will continue to play hardball to protect some or all of more than $55 million that the archdiocese under Dolan “buried in a trust fund” for the care of nine cemeteries it operates. Francis LoCoco, the lead lawyer for the archdiocese, reportedly indicated during a recent bankruptcy court hearing that if the bankruptcy judge decides against leaving the cash in the cemetery trust, as LoCoco indicated the abuse survivors want, the subsequent litigation could be even more protracted, and therefore even more expensive.
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