Month: Sep 2020

By Phil Lawler Sep 25, 2020 Catholic Culture org

     

At last, decisive action to address fi­nancial corruption at the Vatican! At la­st, a ranking prelate has been held acco­untable!
After years of promising reforms and accounta­bility—while leaving effective power in the hands of those who opposed reform—Po­pe Francis has final­ly broken the patter­n.

Consider the aston­ishing damage that Cardinal Giovanni Ang­elo Becciu had done to the cause of refo­rm before he was finally forced to resign himself:

Becciu had stymied the reforms proposed by Cardinal George Pell, blocking an ind­ependent audit and successfully undermin­ing the authority of the new Secretariat for the Economy.

Becciu had forced the abrupt departure of the Vatican’s audi­tor general, Libero Milone, threatening him with a criminal complaint when he so­ught to investigate Becciu’s financial dealings.

Becciu had helped to drive Ettore Gotti Tedeschi out of his post as head of the Vatican bank, to pro­mpt Rene Bruelhart to resign as president of the Financial Information Authority, and to put Domenico Giani in an unte­nable position that forced his resignati­on as head of the Va­tican Gendarmerie.

Now that Becciu has resigned, and lost his privileges as a member of the Colle­ge of Cardinals, it might be wise to rev­isit some of those earlier personnel mov­es. How did he thwart so many would-be reformers? How did he gain enough influen­ce to survive for so long, even as the questions multiplied about his financial dealings?
In many respects the Becciu case mirro­rs the case of Theod­ore McCarrick, the last prelate to be st­ripped of his privil­eges as a cardinal. Becciu’s offenses are less appalling, and his punishment is less severe. (He is not laicized, and the Vatican announceme­nt pointedly gave him the title of cardinal, even th­ough he is stripped of the privileges of membership in the College.) In both cases the Vatican’s disciplinary action leaves the Catholic world wondering: Who were his sponsors and protectors? And when will we know the full truth about his use and abuse of ecclesiastical power?
The Vatican’s terse announcement of Be­cciu’s resignation gave no clues whatsoe­ver about the cause of his downfall. (Pe­rhaps the immediate cause was an article that the Italian jo­urnal L’Espresso reportedly had readi­ed for publication, detailing the Ital­ian prelate’s questi­onable transactions.) But for months Bec­ciu had been the foc­al point of investig­ation into at least two major financial scandals. Nearly a year ago, in an analysis of the Vatican’s financial troubles, I wrote: “Cardinal Angelo Becciu is in deep trouble.” The Catholic News Agency, which has done exc­ellent work probing the details of the financial scandals, has now produced an excellent summa­ry of the case against Becciu.
Becciu was not just another Vatican of­ficial who dabbled amateurishly in finan­cial affairs. (There are many others in that category, sad to say.) He was the sostituto: the Vatican’s equi­valent of a chief of staff, the custodian of all paperwork flowing through the Roman Curia, the po­werful prelate who meets virtually every day with the Pope. He had effective con­trol over the procee­ds from the Peter’s Pence collection, and when he invested those funds, although he was not authoriz­ed to do so, his decisions went unques­tioned—until those pesky reformers began to ask where all the money was going.
Even then, when Va­tican investigators raided Becciu’s form­er office at the Sec­retariat of State la­st October, looking for answers to their questions, the net results showed Becci­u’s enduring clout. Within a few weeks, Bruelhart had resign­ed as head of the Fi­nancial Information Authority, which had been questioning the transactions; Gi­ani had resigned as head of the Vatican Gendarmerie, which had conducted the rai­d. And Cardinal Piet­ro Parolin, the Vati­can Secretary of Sta­te, had issued a sta­tement of support for the embattled Ca­rdinal Becciu.
By that time, howe­ver, Cardinal Becciu was no longer the sostituto. He had been given a cardinal’s red hat and promoted to a new post as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Sai­nts. And therein lies another interesting tale.
When Cardinal Pell conducted the first rigorous analysis of Vatican finances, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints came in for special scrutiny. The Secr­etariat for the Econ­omy found a near-tot­al lack of control over the use of funds collected from the faithful to promote the causes of sain­ts. In 2016 the Vati­can issued new rules, specific to that congregation, to addr­ess the situation. And two years later, in an ironic move, the archbishop who as sostituto made a series of questionable financial transactions became the cardinal headi­ng the congregation with a history of qu­estionable finances.
To be fair, there is no reason to susp­ect that Becciu took new liberties with the finances of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The Vatican had alrea­dy imposed controls on spending; the abu­ses were, we trust, addressed. But quest­ions about that offi­ce, and every other office inside the Vatican, will persist until we know the truth about the curi­ous career of Cardin­al Becciu, and the Vatican culture that supported him.

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journali­st for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic ma­gazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead an­alyst at CatholicCul­ture.org. 

PAT SAYS

Becciu had his hands deeply in the till.

He was giving money from Peter’s Pence to his two brothers.

He was involved in luxury property dealing.

We will probably never know how much he pocketed for himself and others.

He obviously does not believe in the 7 th Commandment: ‘Thou shalt not steal”.

And he is not the only one.

The recently retired Cardinal Bertone extended his Vatican apartment and spent £ 50,000 on his kitchen.

Do they think they’re going to live forever?

By this stage in history we have established that the RCC is one of the most corrupt organisations ever.

If you give them money they will take it and spend it as they like.

I would never financially support anything to do with the RCC.

I support about ten charities every month.

But I make sure none of them are connected with the RCC.

Peter’s Pence is used to supply the pope and his hench men with a luxury lifestyle.

THE ORATORY

Bishop Pat Buckley
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Email: www.bishopbuckley1@outlook.com

LIVE MASS FROM THE ORATORY
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Anglo Irish Rome writes……

If the mood is grim at Westminster Cathedral Clergy House (which it is) don’t start me on Archbishop’s House next door.

A recent visitor told me that it had “all the charm of Hitler’s Bunker in April 1945”! A casual visitor from Clergy House (if he could get in – the first thing Elsie did upon arrival was to change all the codes on the locks, at Mother Wragg’s insistence, mind you) would find the elderly inhabitants downcast.

Mother Carmel has not been at all well recently, even though she succeeded, after months of bickering and whining into Vinny’s ear, in having Bishop Mark Jezebel hoofed out from under her feet and dispatched back to his monastery without so much as a “goodbye”.

She grew to see him as a threat, for some reason.  

The Archbishop is lachrymose! Like all the inhabitants of Ambrosian Avenue, all but one of whom have been carried out the door feet first in a box, perhaps he has come to see that his time is up and that soon he will be a footnote in the history books and remembered for his shambolic performance on that stand at IICSA.

He has never recovered his pep, and the man described as “Tony Blair in a cassock” has for the past two years lost his sureness of touch.

This also explains the hapless appointments that he has made and the disastrous mishandling of the bullying and intimidation suffered by the former Master of Music, Martin Baker – a talented, if someone touchy, maestro who was literally hounded from his position by the alpha male headmaster of the choir school.

Recently Vincent has been sharing how much he is looking forward to his retirement in November and how he hopes the Holy Father will let him go.

I can tell you that his priests are counting the days. There is certainly no love lost between them and the man who was supposed to be their “Father in God”.

Perhaps they knew that at the first hint of trouble they would be thrown under the bus without a hearing, something that has happened to one senior priest within the last month. Oh, shall we hear him sing again?

That brings us neatly to the name on everyone’s lips. Martha Roach! 

Now what a case we have there.So convinced that he is that he will be succeeding Elsie he has already had his minions in to measure the windows for new curtains, (best Roman damask, naturally)!

His ascent to the archepiscopal throne seems assured. He is a great friend of the current Pope, and if anyone doubts his influence just look at the meteoric rise of his apprentice and fellow Leeds diocesan John Wilson, who was appointed as Archbishop of Southwark two years ago at the tender age of 50.

Elise didn’t see that “Exocet” coming, even though he sits on the Congregation for Bishops. How could he as Wilson’s name was not on any Terna and he was appointed directly by Papa Bergoglio on the recommendation of Martha, who is the pope’s point man in the never ending “war” with Divine Worship and the strange (to say the least) Cardinal Sarah, no friend of the current pontiff.

Roche, of course was manoeuvring his own man into position, in order to assure his own succession to north of the Thames.

It remains to be seen if this epitome of Roman wheeling and dealing achieves his longed-for home in Westminster.

His naked ambition has distressed many, and on the way up he has made enemies.

Perhaps with the very public beheading of Cardinal Beccui, Papa Bog-roll-io may not be eager to appoint a man who has, at least, been alleged to have bankrupted his diocese not one, but twice?

The first time (he had been bishop’s secretary then) he was packed off to Rome for “further studies”.

Then he did little studying, but plenty of smooching around anything in red or purple that could possibly notice and promote him – and it worked.

I suppose that’s the way it has always been done? Not so easy to explain though was his close friendship with a certain student who went on to be ordained for a diocese in the land of dragons, even though he was as English as Martha. That didn’t end well (for the priest, that is).

The greasy joe Italian rector of the seminary took the wrap for that fiasco, and Martha got the hat that Truffles was so sure was heading his way.

Now that’s a story that needs telling one day.

PAT SAYS

Our Anglo Irish Rome correspondent is steeped in the knowledge of Westminster matters.

Could Martha Roach (aka Cock Roach) get Westminster at the age of 70 with just 5 years to serve?

Maybe?

It seems to me that Westminster is imploding.

Elsie is going downhill fast and it seems Elsie’s departing gift to the clergy is to piss them off as much as possible by handing over all the crown jewels to the Ex Anglicans and the Neocats.

This is Elsie’s final two fingers to the Westminster clergy.

Mother Wragg is unwell too and seeking to dump on everybody as well.

Hence the eviction of their lodger Bishop Jabale, formerly of Menevia.

There is also the rumour that a Neocat altar and a Neocat immersion pool may appear at the cathedral?

Over the weekend I received leaked information from a senior Meath priest who is very concerned, with other Meath priests, about the handling of the Silverstream issue.

I thought I should give the monk who suffered at Kurby’s hands the right to comment.

I tried to contact the monk. He was completely unwilling to communicate with me. He refused all communication with me, told me had nothing to say to me and not to contact him ever again? Wow!

Fortunately, my Meath contact is both knowledgeable and on the ball.

My Meath source provided me with a summary of the complaints:

After years of enduring the Prior’s sexual harassment (physical and verbal), emotional abuse, and spiritual quackery (he claims direct revelations from Christ, which he has put in a wildly popular anonymous book called In Sinu Jesu), I finally wrote a letter of concern to the Bishop of Meath.

I have also witnessed countless acts of tax fraud, in the form of paying workers “under the table” (much of our monastery was renovated this way), the maintenance of a “slush fund” by the Prior (a special drawer in his desk full of thousands of euros taken directly from cash donations of the faithful, candle money, Mass stipends, etc.).

I have also witnessed one incident of the Prior paying of an extortioner who threatened to tell the Bishop (this would have been Smith at the time) that the Prior and I were romantically involved.​ The extortioner was a volunteer worker who, I can only imagine, must have seen one of the Prior’s romantic moves towards me.

To clarify about the sexual harassment, this mostly took the form of the Prior wanting to take my arm​ and sometimes hold my hand to stroll about the more secluded areas of the property; the embraces that were so tight and uncomfortable that I often felt as if he might break bones;​ the constant (and I mean multiple times a day) unannounced visitations to my cell (where he caught me more than once in a state of undress); wanting on occasion to help me get undressed and ready for bed; and the repetition of phrases like “My Benedict”, “my monk”, “my priest”.

Only a few times did the harassment​ take the form of something genital, namely, the Prior showing me his genitals “accidentally” when, for instance, I visited him when he was sick (opening up the covers, and “whoops!”) or one occasion on which he wanted to show me an insect bite on his thigh; he raised up his underwear way too high, thus revealing his genitals.

He would also sometimes tell me stories about sexual things that happened to him in the past, e.g. times when as a monk he was sexually promiscuous (he was not proud of it), and even one occasion in which he had an affair with a woman who later hinted to him that she may have become pregnant (this affair, he told me, was to affirm to himself that he is not gay).​

On one particularly egregious occasion (I was an aspirant at the time), fearful that I had decided not to join (there were no other prospects), he sat me down for about an hour to recount to me in very specific, vivid, graphic detail his own violent sexual past, that is, his serial rape by his uncle and his friends from a very early age (5 I think) until adolescence.​ When I say graphic and vivid he was describing almost mechanically horrendous sexual acts performed upon a young boy’s body.​ These were not all normal male-to-male acts; he described things that were incredibly perverse and degrading.​

This was a watershed event in my life. Why I returned after this event, I will not fully understand, except that Kirby exploited some serious emotional weaknesses in me. What it produced in me was a kind of misguided compassion (a feeling that I had to help this broken man fulfill his God-given mission to begin a new family of “Eucharistic Benedictines”) combined with an extreme shock and disgust and aversion which I could only keep bottled up for so long. This was 10 years ago.

Why I endured the constant harassment and emotional manipulation is, again, a mystery, except that I genuinely believed in his vision, and the idea of being on the “ground floor” of it was too good to pass up. I knew all of this was wrong, but mostly I submitted to it out of fear of an overly emotional reaction, and because of his excuse that these things were very “Mediterranean” and only rigid “Anglo-Saxon types” are bothered by them (Kirby is half Italian and plays up that side very much).

I have never believed in his private revelations, and have told him from the beginning that I am “agnostic” on that particular topic (something that always “hurt [him] deeply”).​ You can imagine, though, the extremely abusive potential of a man like this, claiming the aura of a mystical soul chosen by Jesus, having pervasive spiritual authority over young, impressionable men.

The particular event which caused me to write my 30 April letter to Bishop Deenihan happened on the night between 25-26 April. The Prior and I were talking fairly late in his cell (totally unacceptable but this was often our practice). I told him I had to leave, I could not take it anymore, etc. I said unless he renounced, personally and also spiritually as the head the community, his way of relating toward me, I could not possibly continue there another day. The reaction was explosive. He began to pursue me physically all over the monastery, all the while madly texting me over and over things like “Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?” I was able to hide myself in the graveyard of the Visitation sisters, where I began to text my father in America to ask what to do. I was in genuine fear for my physical safety.

PAT SAYS

I think that Bishop Dennihan and the visitation team that includes two abbots – Coffey of Glenstall and our “friend” Purcell of Mellary, need to make an URGENT public statement on all these matters.

Kirby should not return under any circumstances.

And the closure of Silverstream and the despatch of the monks to other monasteries, should be top of the agenda

The Garda and the Charity Commissioners need to continue their investigation.

Our Westminster Correspondent Writes…

Huge changes are already afoot at Westminster Cathedral with the surprise appointment of Polish-born Neo Catechumenate poster boy Fr Slawomir Witon, to succeed the late Canon Christopher Tuckwell who died earlier in the year.

Swavek was a great favourite of Cardinal Spud Murphy O Connor, when he was Archbishop and with his successor Elsie Nichols, and was up close and personal to both of them acting as Archbishop’s MC, guiding their every step.

His appointment has sent shock waves through the prissy queen brigade who have so dominated the Cathedral scene for the past years, and in particular the former Anglican clergyman who runs the sacristy and his lay side kick Hawker.

Apparently, they have already told friends that their days are numbered, and are bemoaning the fact that one of their number wasn’t appointed. This seems to be good old-fashioned class snobbery (“does he know how to use his knife and fork?” was one comment overheard from the waspish priest, rather than the fact the 6’4″ tall administrator to-be is that most rare of things among the clergy of England and Wales, heterosexual!

He has his work cut out for him, what with the bitching of those fools to deal with (by the way, the sacristan Hawker and the priest are great friends of recently ordained Fr Alex Balzanella and are doing their level best to get him appointed to the cathedral when he finishes his studies in Rome – what a power base that will be!).

Along with falling numbers, no money and the continuing war between the choir school and the music department.

Fr Witon has a reputation for being a bit of a bruiser and so maybe that was at the forefront of Elsie’s mind when passing him the (poisoned?) chalice? Time will tell. But one thing is for sure already, heads will roll.
Ends.

PAT SAYS

Westminster seems to be an awful mess these days between ex Anglicans, Newocats etc.

And Elsie has allowed everything to drift.

There is a lot of tension and unhappiness among the priests.

Many of the priests are of The Antique Disposition.

There seems to be different factions warring in the cathedral.

A wholly dysfunctional and unhappy situation.

VLAD THE IMPALER TO WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

Vladimir (or “Vlad”) is the Canary Wharf Multifaith Chaplaincy’s dedicated Catholic Chaplain for professional workers on the Estate.

In addition to his work with the Multifaith Chaplaincy, Vlad is Catholic Chaplain for sport, CEO of The John Paul II Foundation for Sport (which he launched in 2011) and is a trustee of The Passage, CaAPA and Genesis. A social entrepreneur, Vlad founded and directed two different pilgrimages to Lourdes and founded the Spiritual Peer Educational Centres SPEC, LOFT and SPECeast.  He supports anyone who asks for help and in particular helps Catholics.

Vladimir was born in Prague in 1939 and came to London at the end of World War II. He studied Civil Engineering at Imperial College London and received his Doctorate in Divinity (summa cum laude) from Lateran University in Rome.

Vlad has led retreats, lectured and spiritually guided people ever since his priestly ordination in 1969. He speaks English, Czech, Spanish, Italian, French and Latin. He enjoys friendship,  prayer and writing. He keeps as fit as possible and does press-ups daily to the total of each year of his life since conception.

Below is the Abbot General’s email to me.

Below you will see my attempt to telephone the Abbot General who was staying at Mount Mellary. I got through to an answering machine and did not leave a message. Instead I sent the AG another email.

The AG rang me from the Mount Mellary number. For some reason it came up as “potential fraud” on my mobile but my new mobile seems to regard unknown numbers as potential fraud.

As you can see the AG and I spoke for 18 minutes and 36 seconds – not a short call by any means.

It was during this conversation the AG surprised me by telling me of the incident involving Fr Purcell in Roscrea. I said to the AG: “I’m a bit shocked you are being so honest with me”.

He replied: “Well I am talking to a bishop”.

He then told me that he had already asked the Cistercian Procurator General to send him Fr Purcell’s file which is kept in the Generalate.

In all of this I have been acting in good faith.

I have had a lifetime connection to the Cistercians especially at Mellifont Abbey.

I had cone to regard the Cistercians as special and an example for the rest of us priests to emulate. For that reason I expect more from a Cistercian monks and priests than I do from other priests.

Of course I do understand that like all of us they are sinners and human beings.

The Church is very corrupt and has gone astray and I regarded the Cistercians as the prayerful power house of possible purification and renewable.

I would truly be shocked to discover that the Cistercian bottom line is the bottom line of the rest of the RCC – “mental reservation”, plausible deniability, slight of hand, now you see it and now you don’t politics.

A priest friend of mine calls the RCC indoctrination we all got as “the medicine”.

He always says to me: “You’ve taken too much of the medicine”.

Maybe I have? Maybe part of me is still very niaive ?

But as I said the other day:

“If the Cistercians are at it – then there’s no hope”. 🤤

What next?

The Dali Lama found dead in a gay sauna !!!!!!

PICTURE AFTER MASS YESTERDAY

Head of the Vatican’s saint-making office renounces his rights and will not be able to vote for a new pope

Reuters Thu 24 Sep 2020

A powerful Vatican cardinal caught up in a real estate scandal resigned suddenly on Thursday and gave up his right to take part in an eventual conclave to elect a pope, in one of the most mysterious episodes to hit the Holy See in years.

A brief statement, issued unusually in the evening, said that Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, head of the department that decides who will be the saints of the Roman Catholic Church.

But perhaps more significantly, the statement said the Becciu, 72, had “given up the rights associated with being a cardinal”.

The one-line statement gave no details and no reason for the move, but the most important right of Roman Catholic cardinals under 80 is to take part in a conclave to elect a new pope after the current pope dies or resigns.

The relinquishing of that right indicated that the reason for Becciu’s resignation was particularly serious. The last cardinal to give up that right was Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Scotland, who resigned over a sex scandal in 2013.

Becciu was until 2018 deputy secretary of state, one of the most powerful positions in the Vatican. During his tenure in that office the Vatican became embroiled in a controversial deal in which the Secretariat of State used Church money to purchase a luxury building in London as an investment.

That investigation led to the suspension last year of five Vatican employees, the resignation of the Vatican’s police chief and the departure of the former head of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF). Becciu has denied all wrongdoing in the London property deal and defended the purchase, saying the property has increased in value

In June, Vatican police arrested Italian middleman Gianluigi Torzi who was part of a controversial deal, and charged him with extortion, embezzlement, aggravated fraud and money laundering, the Vatican press office said in a statement.

He was later released but the investigation is continuing. Vatican sources said they expected Vatican magistrates to hand down indictments soon.

PAT SAYS

This Becciu boyo must have done something really BIG to get sacked from his job and deprived of a cardinal’s rights.

We will probably never know the full story.

And you will find that he is guilty of far more than financial misconduct.

These guys are capable of murder plus.

And the Vatican is the only secret “state” in Europe.

Becciu should have a public trial, a public sentencing and imprisonment.

Instead he can still be called cardinal, be provided with a pish home for life and a good salary / pension.

How is that justice?

How is that truth and transparency?

Becciu is another big reason to starve the RCC of all the funding we can.

We can see what the College of Cardinals really is: Brady O’Brien, McCarrick Pell and so on……..

Sep 23, 2020 by Christopher White NCR

A monastery in Ireland founded by a U.S.-born Benedictine monk — whose popular, though scrutinized, theological writings have been heralded by a number of leading traditionalist church prelates, including Cardinal Raymond Burke, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò and Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland — has been subject to a canonical visitation.

NCR has obtained a copy of the visitation decree of Silverstream Priory. Signed on May 2 by Bishop Thomas Deenihan of Meath, Ireland, and Vicar General Fr. Declan Hurley, the decree says those overseeing the visitation would be “paying special attention to concerns recently raised regarding the community dynamic.”

A five-page report on the visitation, also obtained by NCR, enumerates concerns about the financial management of the monastery and the structure of its community life.

Silverstream was founded in 2012 in the Meath Diocese by Prior Mark Daniel Kirby, who moved to Ireland from Tulsa, Oklahoma, with another professed monk after being unable to find a suitable property to establish his community in the United States.

Martin Long, director of the Catholic Communications Office of the Irish bishops’ conference, framed the visitation as a routine event. He also told NCR that the diocese had received a sexual misconduct complaint against Kirby but that the allegation was not related to the visitation and that the priest has denied any wrongdoing.

“Silverstream does not belong to a monastic congregation. Before 2017 it was an ‘association’ and not an Institute of Consecrated Life,” Long told NCR in an email. “It is usual for a monastery to have a visitation at least every four years and, earlier this year, Silverstream had its first visitation as a Diocesan Institute of Consecrated Life.”

Mercy Sr. Sharon Euart, a noted canon lawyer who is the executive director of the Resource Center for Religious Institutes, said that a visitation has historically been used “as an administrative tool to address a problem in order to remedy the situation.”
“A visitation is often a response to a concern or a complaint in order to correct a situation,” Euart, who is also a former associate general secretary of the U.S. bishops’ conference, told

“Generally, a visitation may occur when the bishop or superior such as a dicastery of the Holy See has become aware of a situation that may need to be changed for the good of the community and/or church,” she continued. “Visitations have been made to dioceses, seminaries, religious institutes or monasteries.”

Euart said that following a visitation, the findings will either stay with a diocesan bishop or will go to the Holy See if further action is needed.
According to the decree, a three-person team consisting of Benedictine Abbot Brendan Coffey of Glenstal Abbey, Trappist Abbot Richard Purcell of Mount Melleray Abbey, and Msgr. Gearoid Dullea of the Diocese of Cork and Ross were assigned to conduct the visitation, which took place June 9-12.

In their report, the three visitators say they are “very concerned about your current financial situation and the economic viability of the monastery.”
“Your income last year was only 50% of what it was in each of the three previous years, but your expenses have been increasing by 20% each year, over the last four years,” they state.

The report says that over 2.5 million euros ($3 million) have been spent purchasing and renovating property at the monastery from 2016 to 2019. It also says that the visitators spoke to the monastery’s auditor, who expressed concern “about your tendency to spend all the money you have and not put anything into reserve.”

The report states that going forward, Silverstream must produce an annual budget that is voted on and approved by the monastery.

Long told NCR that at present there are 15 members of the Silverstream community, 13 of whom are currently in residence.

“The role of Superior and that of Confessor, in particular, need to be kept separate,” the visitators wrote. “It is very unwise for any Superior to hear the confession of his subordinates,” they state, adding that Pope Francis has recently reiterated this position.

Among the other concerns outlined in the report are the need for recorded minutes from chapter meetings and votes, and the need to improve the communication between the monastery and the diocese when it comes to safeguarding children and the required annual child protection audit.

In recent months, Kirby’s writings, which inspired the formation of the monastery, have come under scrutiny. He is the alleged author of In Sinu Jesu: When Heart Speaks to Heart: The Journal of a Priest at Prayer, a popular spiritual bestseller that, although published anonymously as written by “A Benedictine Monk,” is a compilation of his own private revelations and meditations on his personal blog.

NCR has also confirmed with a source close to Silverstream that Kirby is the sole author of the text, which is sold out in the monastery’s bookstore and promoted as authored by a member of its community. The text has been praised by Viganò, a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. and one of Francis’ leading critics. Viganò called it “a great consolation.”

In a 2013 interview, Kirby discussed the monastery’s “commitment to the traditional forms of the sacred Liturgy, celebrated worthily, in Latin and Gregorian chant.”

“Like all Benedictine monks, we open the sacred Scriptures daily, in lectio divina, to discover there, shining through every page, as if through the ‘lattice-work’ of the text (Cant. 2:10), the adorable Face of Christ,” he said at the time.

According to Long, Kirby remains a priest in good standing and is currently on sick leave in Dublin and has resigned his post as superior.

Kirby, said Long, “has suffered from long-standing health issues and has tendered his resignation as Prior of Silverstream on the basis of his poor health. His resignation has been accepted and it is expected that Dom Mark will return to Silverstream Priory as a member of the community in due course.”

Long told NCR that the sexual misconduct complaint against Kirby was made by a monk who no longer resides at Silverstream.

“This was referred to the civil authorities and Father Kirby has denied any wrongdoing,” said Long. “No further action has been taken by the civil authorities to the best of our knowledge.”

Deenihan, the bishop of Meath, has appointed Coffey, who led the visitation, to serve as administrator of the monastery. According to Long, no member of the community has the required number of vowed years to make them eligible to serve as superior.

Long, who responded to NCR on behalf of Coffey and Deenihan, confirmed that the visitation remains open “until the bishop decides to close it.”

[Christopher White is NCR national correspondent. His email address is cwhite@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter: @CWWhite212.]

PAT SAYS

This week the Silverstream scandal hit the international media with an article published by the National Catholic Reporter.

This article relies heavily on the propaganda put out by the Irish Catholic Bishop’s Conference propagandist Martin Long.

Long tries to make out all is well 😆

But he does not address:

1. The copious statements made by the whistle-blower monk to the Garda, Tom Dennihan and the Charity Commission.

2. The allegations of sexual impropriety by Kirby.

3. The missing money.

All that is yet to come.

And it will be published on this blog in the very near future.

When I had my conversation with Abbot General Eamon Fitzgerald about the allegations against Richard Purcell he asked my advice as to what he should do.

I advised him to take the following steps:

1. Inform Richard Purcell of the allegations against him.

2. Ask Richard Purcell to step aside pending the outcome of the investigation.

3. According to OCSO rules- contact the Father Immediate of Mount Mellary – Abbot Andre Barbeau of Canada and ask him to begin his investigation and report back to the Abbot General and his council in Rome.

Of course, none of this would be necessary if Purcell did the honourable thing and resigned.

At present the OCSO’s seem to have taken no action and as far as I know Purcell is still in place.

I do know, from a monk contact, that the Cistercians are talking among themselves and saying that they are not taking the accusations seriously because they came from me.

Thats the easy thing to do – shoot the messenger and ignore the message.

But how does that fit in with the Cistercian 900 years of devotion to God, the truth, justice, poverty, chastity and obedience?

Must we now come to the conclusion that the Cistercians are just as corrupt as the rest of them?

If that is true – it makes me sad.

If enclosed monks are just as bad as the rest of then there is no hope.

AND

The Abbot General knows about and told me about Purcell’s sexual activity in Roscrea. He said to me: “We were hoping that incident was a one off”.

Now he knows it is not.

The RCC tells us they have learned the lessons of abuse and cover up.

Yet they continue the abuse and cover up?

The only commandment the RCC believes in in the 11 th:

“Thou shalt not be caught”.

And Purcell along with the Dominicans, Redemptorists  the diocesans and all the others will continue to patronise gay saunas and have sex  basically, with anything that moves, including anal sex with priests at midnight in a monastery kitchen.

When a monk behaves like that at midnight how does he feel for hours later praying the first office of the day in choir?

Is he remorseful?

Does he not give a damn?

Or, or, is he an atheist?

BALLS AN ELLA

From our Westminster correspondent

“Westminster Archdiocese has its very own version of “Gorgeous George” in this newly minted member of the clerical club, Fr Alex Balzanella. Truth is that he has set many a heart aflutter, both male and female, clerical and lay, for many years since first coming to notice as Elsie’s Communication’s officer in Archbishop’s House.

That’s where it all began, and his office could often be found being stalked by the same litany of characters – mostly old queens, who hung around the young buck like a bad smell.

Talking of “hung” his choice of tight-fitting chino’s left very little to the imagination – no doubt causing several of the sisterhood to reach for the blood pressure tablets, as well as enjoy the view. Mother Carmel was deputed by His Eminence Elsie to have a quiet word about his “inadvertently” being an “occasion of sin”.  

His ascent has been effortless since those lowly days and there is no doubt in the diocese that once finished his “further studies in Rome”, the papal diplomatic college is the next stop, his being too good for parish work.  The question is though, will it make him as happy as he was before signing on the dotted line? Let’s hope so. “

Mike Pompeo Attacks Pope Francis & The ‘Moral Authority’ Of The Vatican Amidst Potential Deal With China

September 19, 2020 Anna Harnes The Inquisitr

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has hit out at Pope Francis following the news that diplomats from the Holy See are meeting later this month with members of the Chinese Communist Party to renew a two-year-old agreement between China and the Vatican.

Though the Middle Kingdom nominally adheres to the principle of religious freedom, it is officially an atheist state and has routinely been accused of cracking down on faith-based organizations.

“Two years ago, the Holy See reached an agreement with the Chinese Communist Party, hoping to help China’s Catholics. Yet the CCP’s abuse of the faithful has only gotten worse. The Vatican endangers its moral authority, should it renew the deal,” Pompeo wrote in a tweet.

In a longer statement published on First Things, Pompeo also criticized the Holy See’s decision to “legitimize” Chinese priests and bishops who were simultaneously involved with the CCP, claiming that they had “unclear” loyalties.

Pompeo cited the plight of Father Paul Zhang Guangjun, who was tortured and has since disappeared after refusing to join the CCP-run Patriotic Catholic Association. Similarly, Bishop James Su Zhimin was arrested in 1997 and last seen in 2003.

The secretary of state also explained the link between religious freedom and protesters in Hong Kong, naming Martin Lee and Jimmy Lai in particular.

Pompeo noted that it is not just Catholics who have suffered under China’s restrictions on religious freedom. He added that credible reports detailed that the minority Uighur Muslim population in the Xinjiang province has been subjected to forced sterilizations, forced abortions, labor camps, and reeducation programs.

As was similarly reported by The Inquisitr, several sources claimed that the Asian nation had started a new program that offered rewards to those who reported home churches in their communities. Bounties on the underground churches have reportedly tallied as high as $14,000.

Pompeo continued his missive with the hope that the Pope would reconsider making an alliance with China, bringing up Catholicism’s power in helping end communism in Eastern Europe and fascism in South America in the 20th century.

Pompeo ended his statement by citing both the leader’s own words as well as the Gospel’s.

“Pope Francis said in 2013 that ‘Christians must respond to evil with good, taking the Cross upon themselves as Jesus did.’ History teaches us that totalitarian regimes can only survive in darkness and silence, their crimes and brutality unnoticed and unremarked,” he wrote.

“I pray that… the Holy See will heed Jesus’s words in the Gospel of John, ‘The truth will set you free,’” he concluded.

PAT SAYS

The Vatican is not undermining its moral authority over the deal with China

WHY?

The Vatican HAS NO MORAL AUTHORITY!

That moral authority has disappeared with:

1. The child abuse scandals.

2. The sexual abuse if nuns by priests.

3. The Vatican is ONE BIG GAY SAUNA.

4. The torture of women in the Magdalen Laundries.

5. The burial of babies in septic tanks.

6. The massive financial scandals.

7. Papal Nuncios feeling up young men.

8. Bishops abbots and monks frequenting gay saunas.

9. Priests fathering and abandoning their children.

10. Seminaries becoming gay knocking shops.

CHINA and THE VATICAN are both alike.

They both run totalitarian states.

They both deny human rights.

China supports political terrorism.

The Vatican supports spiritual and social terrorism.

The Italian Government should revert the 1929 Corcordat making the Vatican an independent state.

The international community should send all Vatican diplomats packing.

Connla Young The Irish News 21 September, 2020

A victim of Malachy Finegan is to launch legal action against Pope Francis and Catholic Church authorities in Ireland.

The priest has been accused of sexual abuse across Co Down, including at St Colman’s College in Newry where he taught from 1967 and was president for a decade.

At least 12 young boys are thought to have been sexually abused while he was at St Colman’s, while many more were physically abused.

Finegan, who died in 2002, was also a parish priest of Clonduff in Hilltown in Co Down, where it is alleged he carried out further serious sexual abuse.

Concerns have also been raised that he may have been an RUC informer.

It emerged last year that the Public Prosecution Service had decided not to prosecute in eight cases following a police investigation linked to the activities of the former cleric.

The Irish News has now learned that one of his victims is to launch legal action against the Diocese of Dromore, the Archdiocese of Armagh, the Bishop of Rome and the Holy See, arising out of allegations of abuse.

Solicitor Kevin Winters, of KRW Law, said the outworking of a PSNI and Police Ombudsman investigation “has resulted in a huge loss of confidence that anything will ever be done to expose just how much the Church knew about Finegan’s activities”.

The solicitor revealed that he is “in ongoing communication with the PSNI on a number of issues arising from the investigation”.

Last year Catholic church authorities said a mosaic tribute to Bishop Francis Brooks, who died in 2010, was to be removed from Newry Cathedral following criticism of his handling of Finegan.

Images of the bishop, which were displayed in St Colman’s College where he was principal prior to Finegan taking over in 1976, were also removed.

Mr Winters said the response doesn’t go far enough.

“Removing photographs from walls and digging up mosaics are mere token gestures which go nowhere near remedying the justice deficit here,” he said.

“This case is being taken in order to try and address the real disappointment and frustration felt by many who took part in the criminal inquiry.”

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, has previously apologised “unreservedly for the hurt and damage caused to victims by Fr Finegan, or any other priest or church representative”.

PAT SAYS

It is good that this victim is taking this case against the Vatican and the Irish Church.

It will be a tough case but he has very good lawyers.

Managing to corral the Irish Hierarchy and evil Rome into the guilty corral will be difficult but will be achieved after a number of cases are brought against them.

Its a case of slowly, slowly catchee monkey.

Breaching the walls of the establishment is sadly, a huge task as they have all the money and power and influence behind them.

It will not be achieved by the first attack or the second.

It will be achieved as a result if multiple failed attempts by vulnerable but brave people.

The RCC is literally AN AXIS OF EVIL.

It has Satan and all that is evil on its side.

But in the end TRUTH, GOODNESS, JUSTICE will prevail.

“Good for ever on the scaffold,

Evil always on the throne.

But God stands within the shadows.

Keeping watch upon His own”.

Lord Jesus, who raises the lowly and the poor, and who casts down the mighty from their evil thrones, look upon this victim and all victims, and be their champion in their battle with the aligned forces of evil and deliver your Divine Justice for them in the Name of Your Blessed Cross. Amen.