Month: Jan 2019

A prominent cardinal resigned in disgrace. Grand jurors accused hundreds of Catholic clerics of secretly abusing children. A former Vatican ambassador urged the Pope himself to step down.
It was enough for New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan to call it the Catholic Church’s “summer of hell.”
The cardinal may have been overly optimistic.
In fact, the church’s hellish year began in January, when Pope Francis forcefully defended a Chilean bishop he had promoted. He later had to apologize and accept the bishop’s resignation.
But the clergy sex abuse scandal shows no signs of abating, with a federal investigation and probes in 12 states and the District of Columbia in the works.
Read More
The Pope has convened a meeting of bishops from around the world in Rome next February 21-24, saying he wants the church to tackle the scandal together. But lay Catholics and law enforcement officials appear to be losing patience with the church’s hierarchy.
“The Catholic Church cannot police itself,” said Lisa Madigan, Illinois’ attorney general, in announcing that Catholic leaders had withheld the names of 500 clergy members accused of abuse.
The church’s institutional crisis was mirrored by individual soul-searching, as American Catholics questioned whether to stay in the church. 2018 saw parents challenging priests at Mass, prominent Catholics urging the faithful to withhold donations and parents worrying whether their children are safe in the sacristy.
One Catholic historian called it the church’s greatest crisis since the Reformation in 1517.
Here’s a guide to how the Catholic Church got to this point in 2018:
January
The Pope began the year with an apology to sexual abuse survivors in Chile, where he aroused anger by saying he had seen no “proof” against Bishop Juan Barros, who has been accused of covering up for an abusive priest.
Francis’ top adviser on the issue, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, called the Pope’s comments “a source of great pain” for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy.
Barros denied the accusations and the Pope continued to defend him, even as he sent the Vatican’s top sex abuse adviser to Chile to investigate the allegations.
February
The Pope had received a letter from a Chilean abuse survivor in 2015, saying that Barros had witnessed a priest molesting teenagers, according to the author of the letter and another source. The news raised questions about whether the Pope had read the letter and what, if anything, he did about it.
April
In a dramatic reversal, the Pope admits he made “grave errors” in handling the accusations against Barros. After reviewing his investigator’s report on Chile, Francis said his previous comments were based on a “lack of truthful and balanced information.”
The Pope later meets with three Chilean survivors of sexual abuse, including Juan Carlos Cruz, who says Francis told him, “I was part of the problem. I caused this and I apologize to you.”
May
Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell stands trial on multiple counts of historical sexual abuse in his native Australia. Pell is the most senior figure in the Catholic Church to face criminal charges for alleged assault.
Also in Australia, Archbishop Philip Wilson is convicted of covering up sexual abuse, though his conviction was later overturned.
All of Chile’s 34 bishops offer to resign, after a three-day emergency summit at the Vatican. The simultaneous resignation of all the bishops in a single country is thought to be unprecedented in the modern history of the Catholic church. The Pope would later accept the resignation of seven bishops, including Barros.
June
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington and an influential voice in the church and international politics, is removed from public ministry by Pope Francis after a church investigation finds an allegation that McCarrick sexually abused a minor in the 1970s “credible and substantiated.” McCarrick said he had “no recollection” of the alleged abuse.
McCarrick is also accused of sexual misconduct with adults “decades ago” while he served as a bishop in Metuchen and Newark, New Jersey, the bishops of those cities said. Two of those allegations resulted in settlements, the bishops said, raising questions about how McCarrick rose through the church’s ranks despite rumors about his conduct.
McCarrick has not commented on those allegations.
July
After more media reports accuse McCarrick of abusive conduct with seminarians and a young boy, Pope Francis demotes him from the College of Cardinals, a rare step. McCarrick is ordered to lead “a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial.”
Pope Francis accepts the resignation of Australian Archbishop Philip Wilson, the highest-ranking Catholic official ever to be convicted of covering up sex abuse.
August
A sweeping report by a grand jury in Pennsylvania accuses more than 300 “predator priests” of sexually abusing more than 1,000 children in six dioceses since 1947. Though most of the accusations date back decades, before the church instituted new protocols, the report plunges the church into crisis, as Catholics across the country express outrage.
Two days later, a Vatican spokesman calls the alleged abuses detailed in the Pennsylvania report “criminal and morally reprehensible.”
Pope Francis pens a letter “To the People of God,” in which he apologizes for the Catholic Church’s failure to protect children from abusive clergy. “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.”
The Pennsylvania grand jury report prompts law enforcement officials in other states to begin investigating the Catholic Church. Eventually, 12 states and Washington, DC, would announce probes of varying scope.
During a visit to Ireland, where government reports have found widespread abuses by Catholic clergy, the Pope says the failure of church officials to address “these appalling crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community.”
In an 11-page “testimony” released to conservative Catholic media, a former Vatican ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, accuses Francis of ignoring his warnings about McCarrick’s conduct and calls on the Pope to resign.
The Pope declines to answer Vigano’s accusations, telling journalists to dig for the truth.
New York’s attorney general issues civil subpoenas for all eight Catholic dioceses in the state to investigate how they handled accusations of clergy sexually abusing children.
New Jersey’s attorney general forms a task force to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by clergy and any attempted cover-ups.
September
Vigano unveils a new charge against Francis and other high-ranking Vatican officials: that they have told untruths about the Pope’s controversial meeting in 2015 with Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to sign same-sex marriage certificates.
The Vatican announces that Pope Francis has summoned leaders of national bishops’ conferences from around the world to Rome to discuss the clergy sex abuse crisis, an unprecedented step in the history of the church.
Pope Francis accepts the resignation of West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield and orders an investigation into allegations that Bransfield sexually harassed adults.
A week after meeting with Pope Francis in Rome, leaders of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops say they intend to adopt new policies to hold bishops accused of abuse or cover-ups accountable
More than 46,000 Catholic women sign an open letter asking Pope Francis to answer Vigano’s charges. Francis and his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, remain silent on the matter.
A report from Germany’s Catholic bishops admits to “at least” 3,677 cases of child sex abuse by the clergy between 1946 and 2014.
October
The sex abuse scandal sends the Pope’s approval ratings among Americans to a new low, according to Pew Research Center survey.
Michigan authorities seize records from every Catholic diocese in the state as part of an investigation into possible sexual abuse by clergy
Under pressure to respond to Vigano’s allegations, the Vatican says Pope Francis ordered an investigation last year into the accusations against Archbishop McCarrick, adding that the results will be released “in due course.”
Pope Francis accepts the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the embattled archbishop of Washington, after the Pennsylvania grand jury report accuses the former Pittsburgh bishop of mishandling clergy sex abuse cases.
Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia subpoena records from every diocese in Pennsylvania, the first federal investigation of that size into the abuse of children by priests and the cover-up of those crimes by Catholic leaders. The same federal prosecutor tells every Catholic diocese in the country not to destroy records pertaining to child sexual abuse.
Attorneys general in Washington, DC, and Virginia launch investigations into the Catholic Church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse.
A bishop in New York is removed pending an investigation into allegations that he sexually abused a minor. The bishop denied the allegations.
November
The Vatican dramatically intervenes in the US Catholic bishops annual meeting, instructing them not to adopt new policies to hold bishops accountable for misconduct and failing to protect children from sexual abuse.
Law enforcement officials in Texas raid the offices of Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Houston, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, looking for files related to a priest accused of abusing a minor. DiNardo’s diocese said it is cooperating with the investigation.
December
An Australian court overturns the conviction of Archbishop Philip Wilson, saying there was reasonable doubt that he covered up the abuse of children.
Pope Francis removes three cardinals from his small council of advisers. Two have been the subject of allegations relating to sexual abuse or covering it up.
Four Jesuit regional provinces in the United States reveal that at least 230 Jesuits had been credibly accused of abusing minors since the 1950s. A fifth province will release its list of abusive clergy in January.
Illinois’ attorney general says the state’s six dioceses have failed to disclose accusations of sexual abuse against at least 500 priests and clergy members.
In a speech to the Vatican curia, Pope Francis tells priests who abuse minors to turn themselves in to civil justice authorities and “prepare for justice”

PAT SAYS:

That video and article says it all.

Pope Francis and I have one thing in common – we both say and believe that the RC thing is utterly corrupt.

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NOEL TREANOR’S NEW TOILET

An Armagh priest sent the pic below and said it is a pic of Noel Treanor’s new toilet in Chateau Noel.

 

Blog removed at the request of victim Marie.

ARMAGH DIOCESAN CHANGES

PAT SAYS

The interesting part of these appointments is the Monasterboice one.

Amy went to Monasterboice a few months ago and promised them a new PP “in the New Year”.

That has not happened. Instead, the retired PP of Drogheda is looking after it temporarily.

That is not good enough.

More and more people are becoming totally disillusioned with the Roman Catholic institution.

Some of them walk away completely – and sadly many walk away not only from the totally corrupt RC institution – but they walk away also from God and spirituality.

I am not one of those who have walked away completely – and I understand those who walk away from everything. For many made the mistake of thinking that the institution, the hierarchy and the clergy were God or a big part of God. Of course the hierarchy and clergy often represented themselves as of God – when the very opposite is probably true.

As a younger man I swallowed all I was taught hook, line and sinker.

After ordination I was introduced to the reality of what is the clergy and hierarchy.

I met several “bastardo” Irish born parish priests when I served in Wales – they were bullies and drunkards who treated me as dirt in the presbyteries we shared. One made me go to bed every night at 9. One forbade me entering the kitchen to make a cup of tea.  One taunted me at every meal as being from “dirty Dublin”.

I told the archbishop – John A Murphy about what was going on. He replied by telling me that they were saints and would make me a saint.

I eventually got the boat home to Dublin and Murphy nominated me a “fugitivus” – a fugitive in canon law.

Then I came to Belfast where I was unfortunate to meet two other “bastardo” priests. Eventually they persuaded Daly that I was a bad man and Daly gave me the heave-ho.

I didn’t realise it at the time – but Daly actually did me a great favour.

He cut me loose from the rotten institution.

And for 33 years now I have ministered independently from The Oratory in Larne.

There we practice an independent Catholic Christianity.

We have thrown away the dirty water of the RC junta and have kept the “baby” of Catholic Christianity.

We have the Catholic Mass and sacraments – and at the same time the congregation is not only made up of Catholics. We enjoy regulars and visitors who by tradition are Protestant, Jewish, Muslin et al.

One Sunday a few years ago we had a group of 20 or so Hari Krishna join us for Mass. They did the music and told us about their faith.

On another occasion we had visitors who were from India and were members of the Parsee faith. They were beautiful people.

So we are Larne Catholics, Independent Catholics and NOT Roman Catholics.

The faith that Jesus preached was non institutional and over time the clerics institutionalised it.

We have cast off the institution and returned to the simple, charismatic faith that Jesus preached.

When faced with a decision we only ask: “What would Jesus do” and then we try and do it.

As a result we have the freedom of the sons and daughters of God.

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THE NATIONALITIES OF OUR BLOG VIEWERS YESTERDAY

(By numbers of readers)

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THE 47 YEAR OLD VICTIM OF SEVERE SEXUAL ABUSE BY A DOWN AND CONNOR PRIEST IS SAYING THAT SHE TOLD FATHER MARTIN O’ HAGAN OF “THE PRIESTS” 30 YEARS AGO THAT ANOTHER D&C ABUSED HER AS A LITTLE GIRL.

We have decided to call the victim “Marie”.

TREANOR REFUSING TO MEET DOWN AND CONNOR ABUSE VICTIM

At the time she told Martin O’Hagan he was the curate at St. Matthew’s parish in East Belfast.

The parish priest at the time was a Father Eamon O’Brien who has since passed away.

Her revelation to the two priests was made at a dinner in the priest’s house to thank parish volunteers. Marie was part of the parish choir and she and Martin O’Hagan performed duos during church services.

At the time Father O’Brien promised Marie he would do something about her abuse – but it seems he never did. O’Brien himself had the reputation of being a womaniser.

Did Martin O’Hagan do anything about it?

I asked him via email yesterday morning:

Dear Martin,

Xxxxx from St Matthews, who used to sing duos with you when you were a curate there says she told you and Eamon O’Brien of her sexual abuse by Fr Xxxx Xxxxxxx as a child.

She says she told you this in the context of a meal for church volunteers held in the presbytery.

Did you inform the bishop of her abuse?

Did you inform the police or social services?

If not, why not?

Pat

Martin replied:
Dear Pat
I always take complaints of abuse very seriously and ensure any complaint brought to my attention is reported to the statutory authorities.
I have never received any allegations in relation to the priest you have named in your correspondence.
However I have passed on your query and its’ content to the Diocesan Safeguarding Office and have asked them to liaise with the appropriate statutory authorities.
Sincerely
Martin

At the time of the abuse Marie was only 12/13. The priest who abused her was a priest of St Matthew’s parish and he abused her both in his car and on church property.

When she told O’Hagan and O’Brien about the abuse she was only 17.

Had it being address at that time her intense suffering of the last 30 years could have been avoided or at least reduced.

Marie is still trying to get justice – but the alleged abuser has fled the jurisdiction and the PSNI are having problems getting him retuned.

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IS ABUSE FUGITIVE STILL BEING PAID BY TREANOR

Marie believes that the fugitive priest is still being paid a monthly salary by Noel Treanor and the diocese of Down and Connor.

He is a “retired” priest of the diocese and the thought is that he is being given £1,500 – £2,000 a month to draw out from his bank account in his new country.

Do you not think that Noel Treanor should be telling him that he has a most serious moral and legal duty to return and answer the charges against him – while of course, regarding him as innocent until proven guilty.

Marie is not the only alleged victim.

In my opinion, his monthly salary should be withheld pending his return. Otherwise, Treanor and D&C are aiding his fugitivity.

The fugitive is claiming that he is not well enough to travel.

These last few days we have been concentrating on the major problems in the diocese of Down & Connor. We have other issues to explore and so we bring our current commentary on D&C to an end with this summary.

These are the current problems:

The overspending by bishop and priests on luxurious homes and fittings

The spending of £4 million by Noel Treanor on his palace.

The recent spending of £32,000 on blinds for his conference room.

The constant absence of Noel Treanor from his diocese.

Noel’s not wanting to celebrate Confirmations.

Noel refusing to meet abuse victims/survivors.

The bullying in St. Patrick’s Parish.

The demanding of £1,000 a month from the Soup Kitchen,

The problems in Poleglass Parish with the complication of the role played by Big Delia Neeson.

The fact that the PP of Turf Lodge – Brendan Mulhall – refuses to live in the presbytery and who is an absentee/visiting PP.

The priest who cruises gents toilets in the North Antrim area.

The priest who cruises laybys and truck stops on the A1.

WATCH NOEL AT HIS BEST IN EUROPE:

So, to hell with Down and Connor.

Let’s concentrate on Europe and its God given institutions.

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DISGRACED CARDINAL TO BE DEFROCKED/LAICISED?

VATICAN CITY, —
Disgraced former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick is almost certain to be defrocked in the next few weeks over allegations against him, including sexual abuse of minors, two Vatican sources said.

Last July, McCarrick became the first Catholic prelate in nearly 100 years to lose the title of cardinal. The allegations against him date back to decades ago when he was still rising to the top of the U.S. Church hierarchy.

McCarrick, 88, has responded publicly to only one of the allegations, saying he has “absolutely no recollection” of an alleged case of sexual abuse of a 16-year-old boy more than 50 years ago.

McCarrick’s canon lawyer, J. Michael Ritty, and his civil lawyer, Barry Coburn, both declined to be interviewed for this article. The Vatican said a “canonical process” was taking place and that there would be no comment until it ends.

Pope Francis, who has the final say in the case, wants it completed before heads of national Catholic churches meet at the Vatican from Feb. 21-24 to discuss what is now a global sexual abuse crisis, three sources said.

The meeting offers a chance for him to respond to criticism from victims of abuse that he has stumbled in his handling of the crisis and has not done enough to make bishops accountable. “It (the defrocking of McCarrick) would be like a trophy to show that the pope is indeed serious about dealing with this.

That is the process that seems to be unfolding,” said Kurt Martens, professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America in Washington.

McCarrick, who rose to be an important power broker in the American Church as Archbishop of Washington, D.C. from 2001 to 2006, has already received one of the most severe punishments short of defrocking. When the pope accepted his resignation as cardinal last July, he also ordered him to refrain from public ministry and live in seclusion, prayer and penitence.

A month earlier, American Church officials said the allegations that McCarrick sexually abused a 16-year-old-boy were “credible and substantiated.”

One Vatican source with knowledge of the Vatican proceedings said it would be stunning if the pope did not dismiss McCarrick from the clergy, a process known as “laicization.”

“I don’t know what the alternative would be,” another source said.

He and the other Vatican sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case. One of the sources said that if he is defrocked, McCarrick will be the highest profile Roman Catholic figure to be dismissed from the priesthood in modern times.

Defrocking would mean McCarrick could no longer call himself a priest or celebrate the sacraments, although he would be allowed to administer to a person on the verge of death in an emergency. Confined to Kansas friary

McCarrick has been confined to a Franciscan friary in a tiny town in remote northern Kansas.

In the past few weeks the top officials of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which handles sexual abuse cases, have been reviewing documentation and testimony about McCarrick, two of the Vatican sources said.

This is part of what is known as an “administrative process,” which is much more streamlined than a full canonical trial. It is the path taken when there is an abundance of clear evidence, one of the Vatican sources said.

The procedures can result in a defrocking decree from the CDF, signed by its prefect Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria and approved by the pope. The pope, who is the Church’s supreme legislator, can also decide to take over the dossier personally and rule on it himself.

A papal ruling could not be appealed. A decree by the CDF could be appealed within 60 days. A third possibility is that the pope could approve a CDF decree but shorten the appeals time so that the case is over before the bishops’ meeting in February.

Briefing reporters on Wednesday about the upcoming meeting, Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said the pope wants the bishops to “understand laws to be applied, take necessary steps to prevent abuse, care for victims, and make sure that no case is covered up or buried.”

A Vatican source confirmed that McCarrick was accused of sexual misconduct involving a child, sexual misconduct involving an adult, and solicitation.

Solicitation is a separate crime under canon law and refers to when a priest uses the pretext of the sacrament of confession to commit an immoral act with a penitent.

Separately, several priests and ex-priests have come forward alleging McCarrick used his authority to coerce them to sleep with him when they were adult seminarians studying for the priesthood.

McCarrick has not commented publicly on these allegations. Pope Francis ordered a “thorough study” last year of all documents in Holy See offices concerning McCarrick. The four U.S. dioceses where he served — New York, Metuchen, Newark, and Washington, D.C. — have launched independent investigations.

On Monday, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who last August accused the pope of covering up for McCarrick, issued a letter urging McCarrick to publicly repent for his “sins, crimes and sacrileges,” saying such a gesture would bring “healing to a gravely wounded and suffering Church.”

PAT SAYS:

There should be a church tribunal where all bishops can be called to task for every kind of misbehaviour – sexual, financial, pastoral etc.

NOEL TREANOR IS, UNTIL TODAY, REFUSING TO MEET A VICTIM OF A D&C PRIEST WHO HAS TOTALLY WRECKED HER LIFE AND BROUGHT HER TO ATTEMPT TAKING HER LIFE!

NOEL “AIRMILES” TREANOR

The victim, we will call her Maire, was brutally sexually abused by this priest in his car, and on parish property that led her to have experienced massive mental and emotional suffering for 30 years!

She has consistently asked Noel Treanor and he consistently tells her he will not meet her “as it is a police matter”!

So it the PSNI who should give Maria pastoral care – not the principle pastor of D&C?

Is it the job of the PSNI to minister to Maire?

Is it the PSNI’s mission to provide Maire with therapy and counselling after massive priestly sexual abuse?

Is it the PSNI’s role to heal and restore Maria’s faith and prayer life that was destroyed by a rapacious D&C priest?

NO!

These things are the MISSION of Noel Treanor as a priest and bishop and as the overseer of the church in this area.

And yet, Treanor, with his cold autistic heart, is refusing to meet this poor woman and help her – while he refers her to the state police!

Is he not behaving like Pilate who sent Jesus to Herod?

Treanor has also been putting up his safeguarding minions to put Marie off.

She last spoke some time ago to a Philip O’Hara who is listed on the D&C website as:

Designated Liaison Person for Safeguarding Children and Adults
Philip O’Hara

He was the last person to tell her that Treanor would not meet her and that she should deal with the PSNI.

I sent Mr. O’Hara and email this morning:

Dear Philip,

Is it true that Noel Treanor is refusing to meet ***** from St Matthews parish?

She is, as you know, an alleged victim of Father ***** ******.

Is Noel not interested in giving her:

1. The listening ear of a shepherd.

2. Assistance with counselling and therapy?

No police investigation will be hampered by pastoral care.

She wants to meet her bishop!

Why is he refusing to meet her as Pope Francis tells bishops to do?

+ Pat Buckley

I’m sure the first thing that Philip did was to refer the email to Messrs O’Hagan and Glover.

They will bring it to Airmiles Noel at the Cordon Blue lunch table in Chateau Noel.

And it will probably be ignored – and maybe even laughed at over a classic red from Pomerol.

Here is O’Hara’s reply and my answer to him:

Dear Father Pat,

Thank you for kindly drawing this issue to my attention. We respect the confidentiality of anyone who has contact with the Diocese of Down and Connor Safeguarding Office.

I will note the issues you have raised in this communication.

Regards

Philip O Hara

Designated Liaison Person , Diocese of Down and Connor Safeguarding Office

REPLY

Dear Philip,

You know as well as I do that this is no answer to my previous mail.

Does your conscience not tell you not to do the bad things the Treanor, O’Hagan and Glover trio tell you to do?

I know they pay you well. But is that not todays equilalent of the 30 pieces of silver?

For Gods sake, like all of us, you have a death bed and a meeting with the Lord to face.

I expect emails like this from clerics.

But not from a father and grandfather.

Have they already destroyed your faith and integrity.

May God forgive you!

Bishop Pat.

PS: I have been dealing with xxxxx for several years and unlike Treanor I did not turn her away.

While tears flow in parishes all over Down & Connor, the wine flows at Chateau Noel

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VICTIM CLAINMS THAT FATHER AIDAN KEENAN WAS REMOVED FROM ST MATTHEWS BELFAST BECAUSE HE HAD REPORTED HER ABUSE TO THE PSNI.

Maria has asked me to tell my readers that she reported her abuse to Father Aidan Keenan when he was parish priest of St Matthew’s Parish in Belfast.

Father Aidan immediately reported her abuse and the abusing priest to the PSNI and notified the diocese.

She claims that Father Aidan told her that he moved from St. Matthew’s – where he wanted to stay – because he reported her abuse to the PSNI.

She had told numerous priests before Father Aidan that she had been abused and that while these men said they would do something about it they never did.

In fact, other Down and Connor priests plied her with wine at a time she did not drink.

Maria will have nothing bad said against Father Aidan as he was the first to believe and help her.

She does say that Delia Neeson is playing an unhealthy role in Father Aidan’s life and that at times, Delia blocked Maria from having access to Father Aidan.

THE SAD STORIES COMING OUT OF TWO DOWN AND CONNOR PARISHES IN THE PAST FEW DAYS ON THE BLOG ARE BAD IN THEMSELVES BUT POINT TO THE GREATER DYSFUNCTION AND MELTDOWN IN THE WHOLE DIOCESE THAT IS OVERSEEN BY NOEL “AIRMILES” TREANOR.

When Treanor accepted the bishopric of D&C he knew that when it came to ALL matters in Down & Connor the buck stops with him!

So, he is responsible for the mess that O’Neill is making of St. Patricks.

He is responsible for the insulting treatment being given to the Soup Kitchen volunteers and clients.

He is responsible for what Big Delia are doing to Poleglass.

He is responsible for the horrific way the staff of the now closed DRC shop were treated.

Noel Treanor has created a mini Kremlin in his Lisbreen palace aka Chateau Noel.

He sits in glorious and remote splendour and through his daily lunches attended by Messrs O’Hagan and Glover he rules/misrules his kingdom.

He started off by spending up to £4 million on renovating Chateau Noel to medieval splendour with £300 door knobs and £100 a roll wallpaper.

Apparently Dean Emeritus Kennedy was brought in as the textiles expert and helped to order the fine curtains that adorn Chateau Noel.

I’m told that lately Noel has installed blinds in his conference room at Lisbreen that cost £32,000?

I’m also told that he become tired of celebrating Confirmations and is despatching Eugene O’Hagan to do them in spite of Cardinal Sarah’s instructions that all diocesan bishops should celebrate all their Confirmations.

It seems that Noel is already in semi retirement in Chateau Noel.

He seems enthusiastic about his regular trips to Europe – especially after he got himself elected as the vice president of the European council of bishops.

Of course he likes his wines too – with regular deliveries of fine wines from Nicholson’s of Crossgar.

Noel has seen to it over the past 10 years that his and my paths never cross.

But I have been studying him very carefully and I have many reports from priests and lay people who met him.

Some of these people have brought me back reports of the sheer luxury of Chateau Noel. One such informer spoke to me only yesterday of the luxury marble that is part of the palace.

Noel Treanor is a cold, cold fish. He may have inherited this coldness in his DNA? He may have some deep underlying psychological defect?

But he is definitely not a people person and he only socialises within the social elite.

He is not a pastor. He never was and he never will be. He is a desk man. His world is cerebral. I’m told that when you are with him a great part of him is elsewhere.

His ten years to date in D&C has been dismal. Priests and people are hugely demoralised.

I am beginning to think that the only legacy he wants to leave is a legacy for having increased the diocesan financial and property portfolios.

And, against this background the Eugene O’Neill’s, and the Delia Neeson’s thrive.

And at the diocesan Kremlin – the O’Hagan’s and the Glovers plot, plan and do the wishes of Chairman Noel.

Chateau Noel is NOT a religious establishment. It is a multi million dollar business with legal. financial and property departments.

And YOU – the unthinking Mass goers and envelope fillers – are helping them laugh all their way to the bank and the airports.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

1. Stop giving to all their collections.
2. Stop returning all your envelopes.
3. Cancel your tax concessions to them.
4. Stop going to their Masses and organise your own Masses or prayer meetings.
5. Send your children to non Catholic schools.
6. Have your funerals in undertaker’s funeral chapels and your weddings in hotels and secular wedding venues.
7. Baptize your children yourselves.

YESTERDAY I HAD SEVERAL TROUBLED PARISHIONERS OF THE PARISH OF THE NATIVITY IN POLEGLASS BELFAST.

THEY FEEL THEIR PARISH IS BEING RUINED BY THEIR PP – FATHER AIDAN KEENAN AND HUS LONG TIME SURROGATE MOTHER – DELIA NEESON FROM MONEYGLASS IN ANTRIM.

Here are excerpts from the emails:

Dear Pat

I am writing to you as a very concerned parishioner of the great parish of The Nativity in Belfast. Our parish has been ruined by our new PP Fr Aidan Keenan. Keenan has sacked all the secretarial staff and has moved his side kick Delia into their jobs. The two ladies previously in the jobs have worked in our parish for more than twenty years and both are now very ill because of the bullying from Delia and the verbal abuse from Keenan who struggles to control his temper. Delia even has her own rooms in the parish house. Pat please help us. How do we get a new priest? How do we get the jobs of our devoted parish workers back? Keenan is a ticking time bomb and it’s only a better if time before something happens.

A concerned parishioner.

She was in St Matthews with him. Goes on holidays with him and apparently is his personal assistant in every way. He won’t speak on the phone unless she is there.
Can you help us?

We were worried about his erratic behaviour but now we are angry about how he is happy to distance himself from us and allow his woman to ruin our parish. She is living in a house that we are paying for. Is he charging her rent? Does she pay for food? Yet we are expected to contribute to her upkeep!

She has come into our parish and made the secretary and the housekeepers lives hell. Both now are off on so unwell they cant attend work. The poor secretary has been doing her job for 20 years. why should she have to give way because of this lady? Has she no employment rights? Bishop Treanor saw the havoc in St Matthews and had no choice but to move him and now he has dumped him on us. Why was he not sent to St Brigid’s?

Fr Keenan will not arrange a baptism, wedding or funeral without Delia. She accompanied him when he came to see a sick neighbour on a house call. When they telephoned to arrange she said he was too busy to speak and arranged a time to visit with him directly. She then told me that ”they” would be with us in an hour. She arrived with him and the family asked that she stay in the car and he told them that she was his ”assistant” so in she came. WHO IS PAYING FOR HER?

PAT SAYS:

For some reason – I suspect psychological weakness – AIDAN KEENAN is totally under the control of DELIA NEESON since the day he was ordained.

There were problems with him and her in Portglenone, and then St. Matthews and now Poleglass.

The clergy of Down and Connor regard Aidan Keen as “in need of help”.

Delia has become, over years, his surrogate mother and he is not allowed to move without her permission.

She is a physically large woman and very domineering.

I have known her in the past and she is a real Martha Mitty character.

She used to attend Mass and meetings in The Oratory years ago.

One night she was late for a meeting and when she arrived she gave the following excuse:

“I was driving here tonight and I came across the scene of an accident. A man’s let was hanging off. Lucky enough I had my bread knife in the car with me and so I was able to cut the leg off completely and put a tourniquet on the stump”!

Do I have to say anymore.

Yesterday we saw how Noel Treanor is allowing Eugene O’Neill to ruin St. Patrick’s Parish.

Today we see Noel Treanor allowing Aidan and Delia to ruin Poleglass Parish.

Treanor does not give a damn about his people.

All he wants is the security of his 4 million pound palace, extensive trips to Europe and his favourite wines which are delivered by van regularly.

 

The RC bishop of Down and Connor, Noel Gold Door Handles Treanor wants to take £1,000 a month from a Belfast soup kitchen which feeds the hungry and the poor!

This soup kitchen is based at St. Patrick’s parishin Belfast and was set up by a previous curate of the parish.

The soup kitchen in run by volunteers who cook some of the food in their own homes and bring it to the soup kitchen.

The soup kitchen is run in a disused premises adjacent to the church.

Noel Treanor made a PR and photoshoot visit when the kitchen was opened. As far as I aware he did not roll up his sleeves and perl spuds!

The problem arose recently when a company that runs Northern Ireland cinemas decided to donate £1000 a month to the soup kitchen. Very good of them.

But then Noel Treanor, the new PP Eugene O’Neill (who is not liked by many parishioners) ant the diocesan chief operating officer, Tiernan O’Neill, according to a parish source, heard about the £1000 a month and demanded it be given to the diocese to cover costs.

The volunteers and others are not happy to fulfill the diocesan demand.

As a result, the Presbyterian church down the street has offered the soup kitchen free accomodation in their church.

Also angry about the Treanor/O’Neill demand for the money is the local SDLP councillor Paul McCusker who has been very supportive of the kitchen.

I wonder if the cinema company yet know that their donation to the poor will be taken by Treanor/O’Neill duo?

Will the volunteers bow down to them and let them take the poor’s money?

Why does a wealthy diocese, with millions in property and millions in cash, need this money?

Treanor needs to be careful because he already has a reputation for spending millions on renovating his palace.

He also has a reputation among clery and religious for liking expensive wines, European junket trips, etc.

Noel of Bling and his honcho O’Neill need to keep their hands off the purses of the poor and hungry.

And Chairman O’Neill needs to understand that the Catholic people will not tolerate bully PPs any longer!

Let the Soup Kitchen move down the street to those generous Presbyterians.

 

Let the Soup K

CBS News January 2, 2019, 7:38 AM

“The secret not yet told”: Women describe alleged abuse by nuns.
Catholic bishops from across the U.S. are gathering Wednesday for a weeklong retreat on the clergy sex abuse crisis at a seminary near Chicago. Organizers said the retreat, which was requested by Pope Francis, will focus on prayer and spiritual reflection and not policy-making.
The gathering comes as CBS News has also learned of several cases involving nuns accused of sexual misconduct. The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests – or SNAP – said it doesn’t keep count of sexual abuse allegations, but CBS News’ Nikki Battiste has spoken with several women who recently reported misconduct, ranging from forceful kissing to molestation, all carried out by nuns.
When Trish Cahill was 15 years old she said she confided in Sister Eileen Shaw at a convent in New Jersey. Cahill said she told Shaw things she’d never revealed to anyone about her now-deceased uncle – a priest – whom she claims sexually abused her, starting at age five.

“I would have done anything for her. I would have died for her,” Cahill said. “She gave me everything that was lacking that I didn’t even know I was lacking. I was so broken. She filled in all those pieces.”
She now describes that process as “grooming,” saying Shaw plied her with drugs and alcohol while teaching her how to have sex with a woman.

“I’m with my friends during the day. And I’m with this pedophile nun on the evenings and on the weekends, and in the summer,” Cahill said.
The Catholic Church has been plagued with high-profile abuse scandals but “pedophile nun” is a phrase many people have probably never heard before.
“That’s really a shame. Because there’s a lot of them out there … it’s the secret not yet told,” Cahill said.
Mary Dispenza is trying to change that.
“The demands of chastity and celibacy are unrealistic demands for many of us,” Dispenza said.
Dispenza, a former nun from another congregation, remembers what happened when a superior summoned her to her room.
“I knelt down right next to her and she kissed me all over softly, my face … and I want to say, ‘Oh but it wasn’t bad,’ but it was. And I’ve carried it with me until today,” Dispenza said.
Through her work with SNAP she said she would occasionally hear about abuse or cover-ups by nuns but since the publication of a grand jury report identified hundreds of pedophile priests in Pennsylvania, at least 18 people have contacted her to share stories of abuse by religious sisters.
Asked why we haven’t heard much about abuse by nuns until recently, Dispenza said, “A lot has to do with the culture of nuns which are, they are very, very private by nature.”
Cahill reported her abuse to the sisters of charity of St. Elizabeth in 1994. The congregation paid her a $70,000 out-of-court settlement.
“They had canon lawyers on retainer just for people like me. Shut her up, pacify her, tell her you love her and you’ll pray for her, and send her on her way,” Cahill said.
In a statement, the congregation told CBS News, “The case was investigated immediately when it was reported in 1994 and a settlement was reached that was mutually agreed on by all parties. We believe that the Sisters of Charity acted in a responsible manner.”
We reached out to Sister Eileen Shaw who Cahill said she continued to see for years as an adult. She hung up on Battiste.
The Sisters of Charity removed her from her role as a grade school principal but reports she remains a nun. They’re providing her with food and housing while restricting her from outside ministry. In the meantime, Cahill said the settlement she signed wasn’t enough to help her deal with a lifetime of trauma. But she hopes that her voice can help prevent this from happening again.
“That this is the beginning of many, many times more that I get to speak and I get to educate, and I get to, possibly, prevent this from happening to anyone ever again,” Cahill said.
Cahill said she believes other nuns had to have known what was going on with her. She’s struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, along with alcohol and drug addiction that she said began with her abuse. The Sisters of Charity said they’re willing to meet with her to address her continuing concerns.

 

PAT SAYS:

Many of us believe, rightly or wrongly, that there are more male than female paedophiles in the world?

I have met many victims of male paedophiles. I have only met one victim of a female paedophile.

He was about 10 at the time and a neighbour – a married woman – used to sexually abuse him in her kitchen.

It has had a long lasting affect on him. He is in his early 30s now.

I attended a nuns primary school from the age of four. I never witnessed sexual abuse – but I did witness regular psychological and physical abuse perpetrated by the nuns. They seemed to really enjoy beating children up.

I think that many of them were sexually frustrated and children reminded them of what they would never have.

I’m sure there are many cases out in the world of nuns sexually abusing children.