Month: Mar 2019

BLOGGING FROM ROME – MARCH 20 – 27TH

Posted Mar 20, 11:05 AM SiLive.comCHURCH HYPOCRITICAL –
By Anthony J. Raiola and Michelle Simpson Tuegel

For decades, the Catholic Church has turned a blind eye to the child predators in its ranks and refused to be held accountable for the thousands of lives it ruined.
Yet it took less than two days for the Brooklyn Diocese to respond to a joke on Saturday Night Live that compared the Catholic Church to R. Kelly.
There is no greater evidence that the Church refuses to take its child abuse problem seriously. It is clear the priorities lie in feigning outrage, not actually changing the culture of secrecy and abuse that has become the tenet of the modern Catholic Church.
Take, for example, the recent Vatican conference on sexual abuse of minors that was portrayed by many as a positive step forward by the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the conference failed to establish any real solutions or tangible outcomes for survivors of clergy abuse. The Church has knowingly allowed abuse against minors to go on for decades, working hard to keep the abuse quiet and rotating sexual predators around different communities. Despite a contrite tone, Pope Francis proposed no concrete solutions to deal with the scourge of clergy abuse and failed to promise a zero-tolerance approach from the Church.
Survivors of clergy abuse in New York and beyond deserve more. It is time for Catholic bishops in New York state to make real reforms rather than empty promises, and do what the participants of the Vatican conference refused to do — focus on the survivors and enact concrete changes so that this abuse never happens again.
For example, New York bishops must convene a statewide summit and actually listen to the voices of survivors, not the clergy and institution that allowed this corruption to happen. By failing to prioritize the needs of survivors, the Church is once again choosing its leadership over the people it has failed to protect for decades.
The Church must also implement a zero-tolerance policy towards abusive clergy members and the priests and bishops who protect them, resulting in automatic dismissal from the clerical state. In addition, candidates for the priesthood should have to undergo more rigorous screening to help prevent such abuse from occurring in the first place.
Finally, the Vatican must reveal everything it knows about the destruction of files that could have prevented some abuse from occurring. The Church has proven that it cannot be trusted to do the right thing, so it must be forced to be entirely transparent and provide answers to questions survivors have struggled with for decades: What did the Church know about clergy abuse and when? And why didn’t it do more to stop it?
Part of ending the culture of covering up is holding abusive priests, the individuals who protected them, and the Church accountable in court. Despite resistance from the likes of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Child Victims Act was recently signed into law, creating more opportunity for survivors to seek justice and get answers. The new law gives survivors of sexual abuse more time to seek criminal or civil charges against their abusers and creates a one-year window for survivors to file lawsuits that were previously barred by the statute of limitations. It helps ensure that from now on, survivors of sexual abuse in New York will not be silenced.

PAT SAYS

Is it not amazing that the US bishops have covered up abuse for 50 + years but react in 24 hours to their church being mocked and ridiculed?

They are so protective of their “reputation” but in reality their reputation is already zilch!

They have more concern for their so called “good name” than the wrecked lives and peace of mind of many thousands of innocent children.

These are rats that need the fire of exposure and publicity focused upon them.

The centuries of denial and corruption are coming home to roost.

There is a God in Heaven!

BLOGGING FROM ROME 20TH – 27TH OF MARCH.

Catholic News Agency

Archbishop Luigi Ventura is accused of inappropriately touching a young male staffer of Paris City Hall
France’s European affairs minister encouraged the Holy See last week to aid in an investigation of the apostolic nuncio to France, who has been accused of sexual assault in Paris.

Archbishop Luigi Ventura, 74, is accused of having inappropriately touched a young male staffer of Paris City Hall during a Jan. 17 reception for the New Year address of Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo. He is being investigated by Parisian authorities.
Nathalie Loiseau, France’s Minister of European Affiars, told French television channel CNews March 1 that “this inquiry needs to be allowed to reach its conclusion, what matters is that the truth be known.”
“At this point, [Archbishop Ventura] benefits from diplomatic immunity, but the Holy See is clearly aware of the serious accusations that have been brought against the apostolic nuncio and I don’t doubt for a second that the Holy See will do the right thing … I’m waiting for the Holy See to take its responsibilities in hand.”
The deputy in the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs added that “if the facts are proven, they are very serious because when you are a religious leader you are supposed to have a moral authority, so I would say that’s an aggravating circumstance.”
Diplomatic immunity, which allows diplomats in a country to do their work without fear of interference from the host country’s laws or lawsuits from the host country, is based in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.
The need for the practice has been highlighted by various accusations of spying or other wrongdoing between two countries with strained relationships. But the standard diplomatic protections can be removed by the diplomat’s home country, in special circumstances and at the country’s discretion.
In recent years, the Holy See’s practice has generally been to recall diplomats accused of civil crimes in their host countries. They are then tried by the civil court in the Vatican and by a canonical court, and they may later be stripped of diplomatic immunity so they can also be prosecuted by the host country.
For example, allegations of sexual misconduct arose against the apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic in 2013. The nuncio, Archbishop Józef Wesołowski, resigned later that year.
Wesołowski was found guilty of sexual abuse by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in June 2014, and was subjected to dismissal from the clerical state. Vatican City then decided also to hold a criminal trial for the former diplomat on charges of pedophilic acts and possession of child pornography. Wesołowski died in August 2015 while awaiting his criminal trial.
In August 2014, then-Holy See press officer Fr. Federico Lombari said that Wesołowski may “be subjected to judicial procedures from the courts that could have specific jurisdiction over him” in the Dominican Republic, and that he no longer had diplomatic immunity as he had been removed from his post as nuncio.
Lombardi added that the Vatican had “from the very first moments that this case was made known to them, moved without delay and correctly in light of the fact that former nuncio Wesołowski held the position of a diplomatic representative of the Holy See,” particularly in recalling the former nuncio to Rome for canonical trial.
Similarly, in April 2018 Vatican police arrested former diplomat Fr. Carlo Alberto Capella, who was being investigation for the violation of laws concerning the possession of child pornography and its distribution or sale.
Capella was recalled from the US Nunciature in September 2017 after the Vatican was informed by the US State Department that there was a “possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images” by a member of the Holy See’s diplomatic corps.
The US State Department requested that the Vatican lift Capella’s diplomatic immunity, which requeste was declined. However, information regarding the findings of the US State Department was passed along to the Vatican’s Promoter of Justice.
Ventura has served as nuncio to France since 2009.
He was also accused last month of sexual misconduct against an adult male in Canada in 2008.
Christian Vachon, who was 32 at the time of alleged incident, says Ventura touched his buttocks at least twice during a banquet held at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, near Quebec.
Ventura was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Brescia in 1969. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1978 and was stationed in Brazil, Bolivia, and the UK. From 1984 to 1995 he was appointed to serve at the Secretariat of State in the Section for Relations with States.
After his episcopal consecration in 1995, Ventura served as nuncio to Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chile, and Canada, before his transfer to France.

PAT SAYS

It seems that Ventura has a lifetime habit of groping young men.

That the Vatican continued to promote him, knowing this, makes them worse than Ventura.

They just don’t give a damn about anyone.

They do what they want and hide behind immunity.

Italy should overturn the 1929 Concordat making the Vatican a state.

Then civil administrations around the world could have their police, prosecutors, judges and prison officers deal with these cynics.

382 priests have been accused of abusing 625 potential victims since 1990

Nearly 400 Polish priests were accused of sexual abuse of minors from 1990 until 2018, a study commissioned by the Episcopal Conference of Poland revealed on Thursday.
The study covered data collected from the more than 10,000 parishes in Poland, and included religious orders.
According to the report, 382 priests were accused of abuse during the time covered, and the allegations concern 625 potential victims. Of the clerics accused, 284 were diocesan priests, and 98 belonged to a religious order.
Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, who leads the Episcopal Conference of Poland, called the report’s findings “tragic,” and said every instance of sexual abuse is a “particularly painful” betrayal of public trust.
The archbishop also noted that while the Church must deal with the problem of clerical sexual abuse, it was important that the same kinds of abuse not be permitted to continue in other institutions.
Among allegations concerning diocesan priests, 54.2 percent concerned victims under the age of 15, and 45.8 percent victims over the age 15.
Allegations involving religious orders showed that a total of 44 priests–44.9 percent–were accused of sexually abusing someone under the age of 15. Fifty four priests, or 55.1 percent, were accused of abusing someone over the age of 15.
In total, 198 priests were accused of abusing those under 15, compared to 184 who were accused of abusing older teens.
In 58.4 percent of allegations of clerical abuse in Poland, males were reportedly the victims. Females were the reported victims in 41.6 percent of allegations.
Since 2002, when revelations of abuse by American clergy became worldwide news, the number of cases reported to Polish authorities has seen a gradual increase. In 2017, there were 36 allegations made against diocesan priests.
Of the 382 accused priests, a canonical penal process was pursued in 362 of these cases. There is no data available for the other 20 cases, nor is it explained in the report why this is the case. In 270 cases, the process was completed at the time of the study’s commision, and the process was ongoing in 92 cases.
A total of 68 priests–almost exactly one quarter–were removed from the priesthood as a result of the canonical process. 109 were punished with a limitation of ministry or other sanctions, and 31 were transferred to either a different parish or in a location away from children. In 34 cases, the process was ended after the death of the accused, and in 28 cases, the priest was acquitted.
Only 168 priests were charged with a crime by civil authorities. At the time the report was published, the trial had concluded in 135 of those cases. Eighty-five priests were convicted of sexual abuse. In 36 cases, the charges did not move forward, and in 12 cases, the accuser did not want to cooperate and pursue charges. Two priests were aquitted.
There are 33 priests whose trials are ongoing.
Poland’s statistics on clerical abuse tell a different than data concerning the United States. According to the “John Jay study,” a report into allegations of abuse by American priests commissioned in 2002, only 27.3 percent of those abused by priests were over the age of 15. In the U.S., males accounted for nearly 80 percent of survivors of clerical abuse.

PAT SAYS

Here we go again.

Another confessional Catholic country reveals a national crisis of child abuse in the priesthood.

And these are only the known about cases and cases from 1990.

There will be many more cases.

And we will hear of the cases of the 1950s to 1989.

And this was the church that produced the great John Pole.

Bet ya he covered hundreds of cases.

He covered up for Marciel too in return for millions for Poland.

Maybe he should be made the patron saint of paedophiles?

I had a meeting with a priest of an English Catholic diocese who told me that he belonged to a small group of priests in the diocese who called themselves the SOCIETY OF PERPETUAL RECREATION – SPR

The motto of this society is: “TO WORK ONE DAY (SUNDAY) AND TO “DOSS” FOR SIX DAYS”.

The founder of the SPR was an Irish priest from Kanturk in County Cork – Canon Denis McSweeneywho was a well known priest of the Catholic Diocese of Northampton. However he was well known in the dioceses of Westminster and Birmingham also.

There are still a number of members of the SPR alive and well.
CANON DENIS MC SWEENEY
As a priest he was well known in the biker community. He was also famous for his collection of antiques – especially old telephones, wind up gramophones. He was also famous as an art collector.

CANON MC SWEENEY LEFT

Mind you Denis McSweeney was liked by many clergy and people and he was very human and friendly and a great story teller.

CANON MC SWEENEY IN THE LONDON ACE BIKERS CLUB

The SPR encouraged its member priests to spend six days a week meeting each other and following up their own hobbies. The priest I spoke to was an “officer” is the SPR and at meetings of the Society he was required to dress up in a bishop’s purple mozetta (red cape).

MOZETTA

He also had to wear this mozetta when they met in pubs and hostelries for “meals, drinks and laughs”. My priest friend said:
“There are still living SPR members in England. It was a totally subtle secret society, I know members who were Cagney & Lacey and Wycliffe fans , we didn’t answer the door 🚪or phone”.

WHAT IS MY EXPERIENCE OF LAZY PRIESTS AND THE SPR?

I have no personal experience of the SPR but I have known a few priests in my time who did little or no work. My fellow curate in St Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast Fr Joe Mc Gurnaghan RIP from 1978 – 1983 had the following daily routine:

9 AM: Breakfast and read Irish Times.

10 am  – 1 pm: Listen to music in private sitting room.

1 pm: Lunch – Vegetable Broth laced with sherry, main course with red wine, desert, coffee laced with brandy.

2 pm to 6 pm: Listen to music in private sitting room.

6 pm: High Tea.

Some days he celebrated Mass.

Thursday was his “Day off”.

In fairness to Joe he never should have been a priest. I think he was pushed into the priesthood by an overbearing and bullying school principal father.

In the priesthood you can either be a “dosser” or a “worker” and you will get away with it either ways.

There are some very good and very active priests.
There are plenty of dossers among the priests in parishes.
I think there are even more dossers in religious orders.

The priesthood can either be a WASTED LIFE or a VERY FULFILLING LIFE.
I’d like to hear the readers experiences of dosser priests and hard working priests.

SAINT PATRICK WAS MARRIED – HIS WIFE WAS SHEELAH AND HER DAY WAS CELEBRATED ON MARCH 18TH

From http://www.mythicaliteland blog

While the whole population of Ireland and people of Irish descent around the world celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day this coming Saturday, not many people will know that the day after, March 18th, is dedicated to Patrick’s wife, Sheelah. Yes, Saint Patrick was married, according to tradition!

The revelation that Saint Patrick had a wife whose name was Sheelah is tremendously exciting for a number of reasons. Shane Lehane, a folklorist from University College Cork (UCC) has discovered pre-Famine references to a widespread belief that Saint Patrick had a wife and that St. Sheelah’s Day was celebrated the day after St. Patrick’s Day, on March 18th.

Lehane is quoted in the Irish Times as saying “Pre-Famine, if you go back to the newspapers in Ireland they talk not just about Patrick’s Day but also Sheelah’s Day. I came across numerous references that Sheelah was thought to be Patrick’s wife. The fact that we have Patrick and Sheelah should be no surprise. Because that duality, that union of male and female together, is one of the strongest images that we have in our mythology.”

Great Famine

Although the devastating effects of the Great Famine on Irish culture might never be fully quantified, we have a significant example here of a folk belief that seems to have died out in Ireland with the famine. References to Sheelah’s Day were found in the Freeman’s Journal of 1785, 1811 and 1841, but the feast day has been “largely forgotten about in Ireland” according to Lehane.
Some time ago, I wrote about the story of the “twining branches” (from the tale of Deirdre and the Children of Uisneach) and how memories of this creation myth were brought by Irish emigrants to Nova Scotia. The story of Sheelah seems to follow a similar fate. Before the Famine, which happened in the late 1840s, the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day continued into March 18th for his wife’s special day, St. Sheelah’s Day (and of course in typical Irish fashion copious amounts of alcohol were consumed.)
However, after the Famine the tradition seems to have died out here, but Irish migrants who ended up in such places as Newfoundland, Canada and Australia brought the tradition with them.
Lehane says perhaps the most enduring legacy of Sheelah is the so-called “Sheelah’s Brush.” This is the name given by Newfoundlanders and Atlantic Canadians to a winter snowstorm that falls after St Patrick’s Day.
Sometimes referred to as “Sheelah’s Broom” – or if the snowstorm is mild with only a bare covering of snow, “Sheila’s Blush” – it is still referred to respectfully by meteorologists and fisherman in that part of the world.
Undoubtedly some media commentators will pick up on the obvious relevance of Patrick’s wife to the whole discourse about Catholic celibacy – and the perceived connection between that peculiar diktat of the traditional church here and the many sex and paedophile scandals that have decimated the Catholic faith here in Ireland.

The Hill of Slane is strongly associated with St. Patrick, but there is no mention here of St. Sheelah, his wife.
A somewhat obscure and tenuous but perhaps very important connection is made by Lehane between Saint Sheelah and the “hugely interesting archaeological manifestation that also bears her name” – the Sheelah-na-Gig.

“Sheela-na-Gig is a basic medieval carving of a woman exposing her genitalia. These images are often considered to be quite grotesque. They are quite shocking when you see them first. Now we look at them very much as examples of old women showing young women how to give birth. They are vernacular folk deities associated with pregnancy and birth.”

And Lehane believes that the tradition of Sheelah could and should be revived and embraced in Ireland.

“Sheelah represented, for women in particular, a go-to person because she represented the female. The Sheela-na-Gig is a really important part of medieval folk tradition. She is an important folk deity. The figure of Sheelah was perhaps much bigger than suggested by the scant mentions we find in the old newspaper accounts. She would have been massively important. She represents a folk personification, allied to, what can be termed, the female cosmic agency, and being such, would have played a major role in people’s everyday lives. It is a pity that the day has died out. But maybe we will revive it.”

A revival and reactivation of Sheelah

My own view is that the revival of the tradition of a female deity equal in status to Patrick might very well be important to the spiritual well-being of a country which has been very heavily influenced by patriarchal religious zeal for centuries, an influence that is seen by some as a contributory factor in many of Ireland’s ills. The symbolic importance of Patrick (who was, ironically, a Romano-British immigrant to these shores) cannot be understated in the milieu of a nation defined for so long by its trenchant support for the male-dominated Roman church.
Now we have the chance to reconcile the tradition of an almost-forgotten woman into the complex folk fabric of a fractured cultural history – a history that, it must be borne in mind, was vibrantly aware of the necessity for accessibility to the feminine deity in most of its past eras. The patriarchal influence of Rome did not decimate the ancient divine feminine – rather it forced upon us some sort of collective obeisance to the supremacy of the omniscient and jealous male god of the old testament, forcing the old indigenous female deities such as the Cailleach and Sheelah into the shadows.
There was “suspicion and even hostility to the feminine which many leading Christian thinkers and writers expressed in the early medieval period”, according to Gearóid Ó Crualaoich in The Book of the Cailleach.
The female wasn’t altogether banished, but rather was revealed in a guise that was somewhat familiar, with reflections of the ancient goddesses of old but very much dressed in the raiment of a woman whose power was contingent upon the emanations of the Catholic patriarchy. Thus, Brigid the prehistoric goddess survived as the saint who became known to us as Muire na nGael, the Mary of the Irish, and indeed the Catholic Church had allowed Mary to become a co-redemptrix with Jesus. The presence of this ancient goddess, albeit in diluted form, in the church of Rome was probably one of the factors that had helped the church to become established in the first place.

National celebrations

Further to the potential revival of the tradition of Sheelah here is the possibility that incorporating her into our national celebrations could become a hugely significant act. We have here the very vivid and exciting possibility of activating or reactivating a feminine energy that is, as CG Jung might have suggested, of supreme importance for the ultimate rehabilitation of the modern human soul through the reconciliation of the masculine and feminine elements in life.
Can one yet countenance the notion of a Saint Patrick’s Day AND a Saint Sheelah’s Day? A national holiday for Ireland, spanning two days, recognising the male and the female, and allowing both to hold equal court in the hearts and minds of Irish people and their descendants and friends all around the world?
One of the ironies of the story about the disappearance of Sheelah from popular folk memory is that she hasn’t vanished at all. The Sheelah tradition simply moved abroad with the forced migrations resulting from mass starvation. Many of those who stayed behind perished. Sheelah’s story might have perished with the Famine also (even if Patrick’s story only became more ubiquitous) except for the fact that her flame was kept burning abroad, in distant lands, by those who left these shores. The supreme irony is that Patrick – who was married – brought the tradition of Jesus to these shores, from a distant land, and that even though that tradition eventually transmogrified so that it espoused celibacy for its all-male clergy, Patrick himself had a wife.
It could only happen in Ireland.

PAT SAYS

I find this story of Sheelagh important and inspiring.

The sanitized story of St. Patrick the RC church is not an accurate picture of the 5th century Patrick.

Patrick, in my opinion, is not a total myth. I believe there was a person, or collection of persons, leading to the development of today’s St. Patrick.

He was certainly not the kind of RC archbishop of Armagh Amy Martin is.

A 4th century man bears little resemblance to a 21st man.

Religion and Christianity in the 4th century would bear no resemblance to its 21st century form.

It’s good to remember St. Patrick but it would be good to remember his wife St. Sheelagh as well.

I will offer Mass today in honour of Paddy’s wife, Sheelagh.

Archbishop Francis Chullikatt is alleged to have maintained an inappropriate romantic relationship with a woman.

An archbishop who served as the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations is accused of financial and professional misconduct, including the use of Vatican staff and influence to assist and support financially a woman with whom he had a romantic relationship.
Sources say that although Vatican officials were informed of the man’s conduct, he was quietly reassigned to a new diplomatic post without facing sanctions.
Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, 65, now apostolic nuncio to Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, is alleged to have maintained an inappropriate romantic relationship with a woman during his time as the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations in New York, a post he held from July 2010 until June 2014.
Errant texts
Three priests who were members of the diplomatic staff at the Vatican mission in New York told CNA that Chullikatt would frequently send the woman “inappropriate” and “romantic” text messages from his phone, and that the Holy See’s mission staff assisted her in obtaining a visa to come to New York.
One priest-official said this was “the most unfortunate part of the story having to do with Archbishop Chullikatt.”
Former staff members told CNA that on several occasions, Chullikatt mistakenly sent these text messages to staff members, who were left confused and concerned.
“The messages were, frankly, very inappropriate in content and clearly romantic in nature,” one priest told CNA. “At least three members of the mission staff received them that I know of, including me.”
“The first time this happened, he managed to send it to a member of staff who didn’t know what to make of it. As [the recipient] was a layman, it was doubly concerning to us,” the priest said.
Another former official said that every time Chullikatt mistakenly sent a romantic message to the wrong person, he would “abandon his phone and get a new cell phone or a new cell phone number.”
Another priest said the archbishop was obliged to change his phone “ridiculously often.”
A third priest who also served at the Holy See’s mission to the U.N. during Chullikatt’s time also recalled the messages.
“I cannot think how he managed to keep doing this,” he told CNA. “I can only surmise he must have been drinking when he would send them to the wrong people.”
“They were of an obviously romantic character, really outlandish, and usually sent very late at night.”
As romantic messages continued to be sent to priests, lay employees, and religious sisters, it became apparent who their intended recipient was.
According to multiple sources, the woman is a consecrated virgin who Chullikatt met during a previous diplomatic assignment. Staffers say they were expected to assist her in securing a visa and coming to the U.S., and later, in finding employment.
The office of the Holy See’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to requests from CNA for comment.
One former official at the mission, also a priest, told CNA that the woman had served as the archbishop’s interpreter during a prior diplomatic posting.
“That was my understanding of how they met,” the former Vatican diplomat told CNA.
A woman of the same name, also a consecrated virgin was previously an auditor at a special assembly of the synod of bishops in Rome, and was identified at that time as a university professor.
CNA did find reports that the woman studied for three months at a U.S. university in 2008 or 2009, apparently while working toward a Ph.D.
The university where the woman reportedly teaches did not respond to a request for confirmation. CNA was unable to contact the woman directly.
After she came to the U.S., the woman was, according to multiple accounts, a regular visitor at the mission’s offices.
“She was around, we all knew of her. She was a very significant figure in Chullikatt’s life, I think we can put it that way,” a priest-official told CNA.
The priest told CNA that the woman would visit Chullikatt at the mission in New York “quite frequently,” and that he behaved with “impunity.”
“She was there, that was it,” he told CNA. “In any normal situation, let alone one like this, you would expect there to be some sort of backstory given – we met in school, she’s a family friend, something – but he gave no explanation, he just carried on.”
Financial questions
The same priest said the nuncio’s relationship with the woman was part of a pattern of dysfunctional and unprofessional conduct during his time in New York. Another priest said the relationship fit a pattern of “indifference” to immorality, which included financial impropriety.
A March 11 report from Crux alleged that Chullikatt had mistreated staff at the Holy See’s mission to the U.N. and imposed arbitrary wage cuts on the salaries of lay staff members. The priests who spoke with CNA confirmed those allegations
“I would say that swinging cuts [to salaries] were a mark of his tenure,” one priest told CNA.
“He treated staff as inferiors, across the board. There was no spirit of collaboration, no sense of working ‘with’ anyone.”
The priest also told CNA that in additional to subjecting employees – both priests and lay people – to frequent and “humiliating” outbursts of temper, Chullikatt was also known to dismiss staff at a moment’s notice.
“It was alright for us priests, I suppose,” he told CNA. “We always have a diocese to go home to, but for the lay staff, they were often left stranded with no means of support.”
One priest told CNA that Chullikatt would often bemoan the salaries paid to lay staffers, suggesting that they ought to volunteer their time without concern for being paid. Because they were paid, a priest said, Chullikatt questioned their loyalty.
A source recalled a particular instance in which a lay expert was recruited by the mission for a three month contract.
“This man was a tenured professor who arranged to take three months of unpaid leave from his post to serve the Church. Chullikatt sacked him within two weeks, leaving him without a salary for the rest of his sabbatical.”
“There was only ever room for one opinion, one voice in the room with Chullikatt – even adult conversation was impossible with him, let alone professional collaboration.”
Terrence McKeegan, a former legal advisor to the Holy See’s mission to the U.N., told CNA that after he signed a one-year contract to work for the mission, Chullikatt arbitrarily cut his wages.
“On or about December 10 of 2013, I myself was informed by the nuncio that starting in 2014, he would only pay me half of the salary we had contractually agreed upon,” McKeegan told CNA.
McKeegan also noted that, beyond his contracted position, he was expected to serve, unpaid, as legal advisor to the non-profit Path to Peace Foundation, a legally distinct U.S.-based private foundation affiliated with the U.N. mission. McKeegan said he was not given access to records for the foundation, or invited to attend meetings.
The foundation, he said, helps fund mission operations and staff salaries. It also, according to its tax filings, has funded scholarships, seminars, and a U.N. internship program founded by Fr. Thomas Rosica.
“Surreal” conditions
One priest told CNA that may lay employees were reticent to complain because some were in the U.S. only on diplomatic passports, and because many of them love the Church and wanted to support the U.N. mission.
Former staff members said that the imposition of arbitrary cuts to wages and the dismissal of staff were linked to Chullikatt’s relationship with the woman he maintained a relationship with.
“I would say his need to be tight-fisted with the mission’s finances was, at least partly, because he had a secret need. I believe he was supporting this woman: room, board, everything,” one priest, who was directly involved in the mission’s finances, said.
The priest recalled an example in which the archbishop budgeted money for “bonuses” for the mission’s staff, but then only distributed a portion of the money.
“The rest? Well, [Chullikatt] knows where it went,” he told CNA.
Another priest, who also was involved in the mission’s financial administration, also told CNA that Chullikatt was supporting the woman financially.
McKeegan spoke to CNA about what he called the “surreal” working conditions under Chullikatt.
In a statement, McKeegan said that in his time in New York he heard “voluminous allegations of highly improper and scandalous behavior by Archbishop Chullikatt.”
“I know that the longest-tenured cleric on staff had already brought many of most serious allegations against the nuncio to the attention of then-Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Dominque Mamberti, in a meeting they had around Mamberti’s visit to the U.N. in late September of 2012,” McKeegan said.
Report to Rome
Concerns about Chullikatt’s behavior, regarding both the woman and the office finances, were reported in a “dossier” of complaints delivered to the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in December 2013, former staffers told CNA.
This dossier included a letter signed by McKeegan detailing numerous instances of financial malpractice by Chullikatt, including the unjust treatment of staff and the near-systematic withholding of agreed salaries.
“I was, and still am, absolutely certain of the serious moral violations that were being committed by the nuncio regarding the withholding of just wages,” McKeegan’s letter said.
“However, based on my experience with high-ranking officials in the Church, I knew that even sins that cry out for vengeance would likely go unheard in Rome, so I stressed in my letter to Archbishop Parolin that the unjust withholding of Mission staff salaries could constitute potential criminal violations of US visa and labor laws.”
According to one staff member familiar with the delivery of the complaints in Rome, direct mention was made of allegations that Chullikatt was supporting the woman financially, and that he had directed mission staff to arrange a visa for her to travel to New York.
In January 2014, Chullikatt was summoned for an extended meeting in Rome, for what a former senior mission staffer called “a dressing down.”
Chullikatt remained in Rome for nearly two months, while his absence from New York went unexplained to staff.
“He was supposed to be removed then and there,” one priest said, “but he was able to run around to enough of his friends in Rome to stay on [in his position] a little while longer.”
One staff member told CNA that Chullikatt had “exploited” the pope’s well-known disposition toward mercy, in order to avoid being removed from his position.
Another staffer told CNA that Chullikatt demanded a stay of his removal, insisting that members of the Spanish royal family were scheduled to visit the U.N. in June at his personal invitation, and that he needed to be in place to welcome them.
In June 2014, Queen Sofia of Spain visited the U.N. in New York. Chullikatt’s resignation from the U.N. position was accepted July 1 of that year.
“He used that time [between December and June] to clear out the opposition to him, dismissing staff and generally making life even more miserable before he went,” one former mission staffer told CNA.
During the final six months of Chullikatt’s tenure, several mission staffers were dismissed from their posts. Sources told CNA that Chullikatt waged a “vendetta campaign” because of the complaints to the Secretary of State.
The pontifical secret
Several staff members told CNA that Chullikatt would remind them that their obligation to maintain “pontifical secrecy” included his behavior. This, they said, prevented staff from speaking out.
One former priest diplomat told CNA that “I’m sure he thinks everything we saw and had to endure is covered by the secret.”
“In reality, it refers to the sensitive diplomatic work undertaken on behalf of the Church. It certainly doesn’t cover the fact that he’s a nasty little man.”
The pontifical secret, which was defined by Pope St. Paul VI in the 1974 instruction Secreta continere,obliges clerics, lay employees, and even volunteers to keep confidential information obtained in service to the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Violation of the secret can be punished with an excommunication.
But the former priest-officials of the U.N. mission told CNA that the secret is formulated without clarity, and can lead employees and volunteers to think they are beholden to keep confidential things they ought to report. They told CNA that Chullikatt’s situation is evidence it would be to the Church’s benefit to reform its policies governing the pontifical secret.
In recent months, Cardinals Blase Cupich and Reinhard Marx have both called for reforms to those policies.
“Pontifical secrecy shouldn’t protect bad people and their bad behavior,” one former priest-official of the U.N. mission told CNA. “It should protect properly professional and confidential information.”
Kazakhstan
After he resigned from his role New York, Chullikatt spent nearly two years without an assignment before being sent to Kazakhstan in June 2016 – a post one former member of the Vatican diplomatic corps characterized as “the back end of beyond as far as the diplomatic service goes.”
One former official of the U.N. mission told CNA simply “he doesn’t deserve to be anywhere.”
McKeegan described the handling of the allegations against Chullikatt, and his eventual rehabilitation as part of an “all-too-familiar pattern.”
“Rome followed a very specific playbook with its handling of Archbishop Chullikatt. Although giving the impression (never directly but via back channels and rumor) to the whistleblower or accuser that Rome was dealing with the problem, the Vatican was instead maneuvering to protect yet another high-ranking official who had “played ball” with the corrupt leadership in the Church.”
“Archbishop Chullikatt was quietly given a sabbatical. This sabbatical period was not used by Rome to fully investigate the serious allegations against him, of which my letter only constituted a small portion, but rather to wait out mission staff accusers like me to give up in frustration,” McKeegan said.
Another former senior member of the mission’s staff told CNA he was unsurprised that the allegations went without formal response, and that Chullikatt had been restored to the diplomatic service.
“You have to understand the culture of the diplomatic service, and the curia more widely,” he told CNA.
“There is a powerful incentive to keep a problem like Chullikatt under wraps. You aren’t just touching one man by speaking out, you touch a whole genealogy of those who have covered for him, and those who he’s covered for and been promoted by in turn,” the priest said.
The Vatican press office acknowledged receipt of questions from CNA regarding the allegations against Chullikatt, but did not respond before deadline.
Despite repeated attempts, Chullikatt could not be reached for comment.

PAT SAYS

The only good aspect of the Chullikatt case is that was into a female adult – and not children!

He gives the distinct impression that he regards himself as superior to all others and is happy to treat others in a bullying – and certainly un-Christian manner.

The woman in question – “a consecrated virgin” does not seem t have objected to the nuncio’s attention.

But the priests who worked at the mission found it all very disturbing.

So did the people whose wages he cut!

And yet, I’m sure he lacked for nothing.

If he was in any other job he would have been sacked.

Instead, the Vatican just packed him off to a remote nunciature.

Who are these guys?

What makes them so corrupt and so nasty?

This short film of happenings on Bloody Sunday is shocking.

Soldiers referring to the innocent civilians they had shot as “stiffs”!

I knw the soldiers were being stoned – but you don’t react to protestors with live rounds.

I think it’s disgraceful that onle 1 of the 17 soldiers is being prosecuted.

I’m afraid the British have caused and left mayhem in every country they have been in.

They would be quite entitled to shoot armed paramilitaries – but not civilians on a civil rights protest.

I am neither a Republican on Nationalist – and I’m certainly not a Unionist.

I would like to see a “New Ireland” where people of all types could live together in peace.

Part of creating that is to address the injustices of the past – on all sides.

Terrorism is evil — whether the terrorism of paramilitaries or the terrorism of the state.

In fact state terrorism is worse – because we expect more of the state.

The Brits have left a nasty trail in Ireland.

But that does not mean we can kill British soldiers.

But we should hold them accountable when they murder the innocent.

SYDNEY — A man Cardinal George Pell was convicted of sexually assaulting said he is finding it hard to “take comfort” in the cardinal’s six-year jail sentence because a request to appeal the conviction is due to be heard June 5.

The father of the other victim, now deceased, expressed his disappointment with the sentence, which could see the cardinal freed on parole after three years and eight months.

Judge Peter Kidd, who imposed the sentence March 13, said was it shorter than usual due to Cardinal Pell’s age, 77, and ill health.

The cardinal was convicted of abusing two 13-year old choirboys in late 1996 and early 1997 in the sacristy of Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The surviving victim, referred to as “victim J” in the judge’s sentence, said in a statement read by his lawyer, “I respect what the judge said. It was meticulous, and it was considered.”

But, he said, “it is hard for me, for the time being, to take comfort in this outcome.”

“I appreciate that the court has acknowledged what was inflicted upon me as a child. However, there is no rest for me. Everything is overshadowed by the forthcoming appeal,” the statement said.

The victim, who has never been named, also rebutted criticism of the guilty verdict, saying he had spent more than two days giving evidence and was cross-examined by Pell’s defense lawyer – vigorously, sources told Catholic News Service – while the cardinal did not take the stand at all.

“A jury has unanimously accepted the truth of my evidence; Pell chose not to give evidence; the jury did not hear from him,” his statement said.

The father of the deceased victim, who is suing Pell, described the sentence as a “joke” in a statement issued by his lawyers.

“Today we witnessed history with one of the world’s most senior Catholic figures jailed for child sexual offenses,” said Lisa Flynn, representing the father’s law firm. “Our client is disappointed with the short sentencing and has expressed sadness over what he believes is inadequate for the crime.”

Victims of abuse have been “waiting to feel heard,” she said. “Pell’s sentencing moves that progress forward, even if only a few small steps. I admire the courage of my client to keep fighting on behalf of his deceased son. To him, this battle is not over,” Flynn added.

“The criminal justice system has only partially satisfied our client’s pursuit for justice today,” she said. “It’s now on us as his civil litigators to keep pushing for more just outcomes.”

Flynn said her client is suing the cardinal “knowing that civil action has the power to disrupt an institution and impact meaningful change to prevent more tragedies from occurring.”

Pell was present for the sentencing; he wore and open-necked black shirt with a beige blazer, but no clerical collar.

The assembled victims, supporters, legal teams and media respected the judge’s call for silence throughout the proceeding; he spent more than an hour explaining the reasoning behind his sentencing.

The cardinal displayed no emotion and avoided eye contact during proceedings, before using a handrail to help him stand to hear the final sentence, reporters in the courtroom noted. After sentencing, the cardinal was ordered to sign the Victoria state sex offenders’ register before he was taken away in a prison van.

Victims’ rights advocates outside the court cheered the verdict but said only a small piece of justice had been done and thousands more victims were waiting for justice.

The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Melbourne Archdiocese declined to comment on the sentence.

“I would just ask Australians today to get around those who have been victims of child sexual abuse,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Melbourne only minutes before the verdict.

“Let them know we know it happened, that we want to help you be stronger and to survive what is the most abominable you could think that could happen to an individual with a breach of trust,” he said.

Bill Shorten, leader of the opposition Labor Party who will face Morrison in an election in May, said, “We can never underestimate the courage and resilience it takes for a survivor of child abuse to seek justice.”

Noting that the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that survivors were rarely believed, Shorten said, “instead, against the weight and power of both church and the state, they were marginalized, shamed and re-abused.”

PAT SAYS

I can understand the victim being unsettled about the sentence and nervous about the appeal.

His is a very subjective view and has been informed by all he has suffered.

Good law has to be able to step back from emotion and make a balanced judgement.

I was very impressed bu Judge Kidd’s sentencing remarks. It was a very balanced judgement addressing every angle. The sentence was appropriate, not vengeful.

Pell should be punished. But he should not be screwed into the dust. Even a paedophile is a human being – although a flawed one who has done evil.

I think he is guilty.

I do not think his appeal will succeed.

He must now live as a disgraced man and prepare himself to meet the God who commanded all of us not to hurt the “little ones”.

DISGRACED CARDINAL PELL HIRES $ 25,000A DAY LAWYER FOR APPEAL.

Disgraced Cardinal George Pell ‘hires $25,000-a-day celebrity barrister’ as he prepares to appeal child sex abuse convictions

By Mark Brook and Daniel Piotrowski for Daily Mail Australia10:46 14 Mar 2019, updated 10:46 14 Mar 2019

Disgraced Cardinal George Pell has hired a new celebrity barrister in a bid to appeal his sentence, which he claims the judge and jury got wrong.
Top lawyer Bret Walker SC has reportedly been hired for about $25,000 a day to argue for the cardinal’s freedom, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Walker, who is thought to charge as much as $25,000 a day, has represented high profile clients as Barnaby Joyce and billionaire Gina Rinehart’s children.
Pell, the highest ranking catholic official to be convicted of child sex abuse, was on Wednesday sentenced to up to six years’ jail by the Victorian County Court.

Disgraced Cardinal George Pell has hired a new celebrity barrister in a bid to appeal his sentence, which he claims the judge and jury got wrong. Cardinal Pell was described by Chief Judge Paul Kidd as ‘breathtakingly arrogant’
His crime – the rape and molestation of a 13-year-old boy, and abuse of another – was described by Chief Judge Paul Kidd as ‘breathtakingly arrogant’.
Judge Kidd acknowledged Pell may die in jail and, if he ever walks free, will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. His conviction was announced earlier this year, Pell’s then barrister, Robert Richter QC, quickly sought to appeal the jury verdict in a higher court.

PAT SAYS

Where is George Pell getting $25,000 a day to pay this lawyer.

How much will this cost between now and June?

Who is paying?

YESTERDAY was a historic day when we say an RC cardinal – the third in line in the global church – being sentenced to 6 years in prison for sexually abusing boys.

And not only did it happen – it was broadcast live all over the world.

From the time I watched the Ballarat swimming pool victims being interviewed I believed that Pell was guilty.

I know others disagree – and I may be proven wrong by the appeal.

I believe the appeal will uphold the conviction and the sentence.

A commentator said recently that this sexual abuse crisis is more serious for the church than the Protestant Reformation.

I think they are right.

The RC hierarchy has spent 2,000 years preaching virginity and celibacy to laity and priests.

And at the same time popes, cardinals, archbishops and bishops have been having all the sex they want and were and are laughing at us behind our backs.

If they want sex with a woman, a man or a child – they will have it – whether we like it or not.

In fact RC moral theology was built on sex as evil – and the more they told the rest of us to avoid this evil – the more sex they were getting themselves!

We are living in the era that will see the collapse of the RC institution.

What will be left? We have no way of knowing.

When I was born the RC Church governed most of Ireland and most of her people.

Today – 66 years later – the RC Church is a byword for corruption, evil and sexual vileness. 

Thank God, we have lived to see this day of exposure.

Bishops Bransfield, Bennett restricted from exercising ministry
Catholic News Agency
11 March, 2019

Bishops Michael Bransfield and Gordon Bennett are accused of sexual misconduct
Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore announced on Monday restrictions on the ministry of both retired West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield and retired Bishop Gordon Bennett, S.J.

The restrictions against Bransfield are the result of a months-long preliminary investigation conducted by Lori, into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, as well as financial improprieties.
“Pending the assessment of the findings of the Holy See, as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, I have directed that Bishop Bransfield is not authorized to exercise any priestly or episcopal ministry either within the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston or within the Archdiocese of Baltimore,” Lori said in a March 11 press release.
Lori was appointed apostolic administrator of Wheeling-Charleston in September, five days after Bransfield turned 75 and submitted his resignation to the Holy See. Wheeling-Charleston is the only diocese in West Virginia.
Shortly after Bransfield’s resignation, Lori announced that Pope Francis had directed him to open an investigation into claims the bishop had engaged in repeated “sexual harassment of adults.”
Lori said in September that a hotline for the investigation received more than three dozen calls during his first two weeks as apostolic administrator of the diocese.
In the March 11 press release, the Archdiocese of Baltimore said the investigation was led by Archbishop Lori as well as five lay experts, including one who is not Catholic. The team interviewed 40 people, including Bransfield, as part of their investigation. The results have now been sent to the Holy See, where a final decision about Bransfield will be made.
In 2012, Bransfield was accused of covering up sexual misconduct by other priests, as well as molesting a minor. Bransfield denied these allegations, calling them “completely false,” and the alleged victim came forward to say that he was never abused by Bransfield.
The archdiocese also announced in the release that “similar restrictions were warranted” concerning former Archdiocese of Baltimore auxiliary Bishop Gordon Bennett, S.J. Bennett was an auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese from 1998 until 2004, when he became the bishop of Mandeville, Jamaica. He retired, reportedly due to health reasons, just two years later in August 2006, at the age of 60. The ordinary retirement age for bishops is 75.
Lori’s press release revealed that in May 2006, the archdiocese received an allegation of “sexual harassment of a young adult” by Bennett, which it reported to the apostolic nunciature. The bishop resigned from his Jamaican diocese three months later.
Upon the announcement of Bennett’s retirement, Fr. John P. McCarry, S.J., provincial of the Jesuit California province, informed province members that Bennett would be moving to California “for medical assessment and treatment for fatigue and depression.” Bennett is a member of the Jesuit California province.
Bennett will no longer be permitted to do any sort of priestly or episcopal ministry within either the Archdiocese of Baltimore or the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.
In January 2019, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced a series of new protocols to investigate allegations against a bishop within the archdiocese. These protocols were developed by the archdiocese’s Independent Review Board, which will investigate claims that a bishop of the archdiocese engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior or abuse towards a child, as well as claims of sexual harassment or misconduct with adults, or if bishops “engaged in activities that constitute seriously negligent supervision or improper cover-up” of the sexual misconduct of others. Bishops within the archdiocese also signed a code of conduct.

PAT SAYS

In the beginning we thought the Christian Brothers were the sexual abusers of chi;ldren – and the nuns just beat girls up.

Then we learned that priests all over the world are guilty of sexual abuse.

Now we are learning that bishops, archbishops and cardinals were just as bad as the Brothers, Nuns and priests.

TODAY in Australia Cardinal Pell will be sentenced on TV.

It seems that sexual abuse goes all the way from the bottom to the top and all the way from the top to the bottom.

Clerical sexual abuse is now a PANDEMIC.