BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY

We have been told that the Maynooth seninarian, Mr Stephen Wilson is to be ordained to the diaconate today at 3 pm in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh.

Yesterday I sent the email below to Archbishop Eamon Martin.

I copied it to the Papal Nuncio in Dublin and to the chancellor, vicar general and diocesan secretary of tge Armagh archdiocese.

I have absolutely no personal grievance against Mr Wilson. I have never met him and as far as I know, he has never done me the slighest wrong.

I wish him no personal harm or disadvantage.

Below, is an excerpt from the Roman Pontifical on the ordination of deacons:

The bishop asks: “Do you judge them to be worthy”.

He is answered, very often by the president of the seminary, in this case Michael Mullaney:

“After inquiry among the people of Christ, and upon recommendation of those concerned with their training, I testify that they have been found worthy”.

In my opinion, the recommendations of the president or staff of Maynooth cannot be relied upon.

And I know that a number of “the people of Christ” have communicated with Archbishop Eamon Martin on this matter and they did not recommend this man either. Quite the contrary.

THE KERRY EXAMPLE

The Kerry clergy will tell you that they believe that Ray Browne ordained Fr Sean Jones (King Puck) to spite me and the blog.

Is Eamon Martin doing the same?

Is he ordaining Stephen Wilson to spite someone or something?

If so, what a dreadful reason for an ordination.

This matter is far from ended!

ST. BRIGID OF KILDARE AS BISHOP?

February 1, 2017

Rev. Brenda Griffin Warren —

Many of us are familiar with the early Irish saint, Brigid (Brigit, Bridget, Bride), one of Ireland’s three patron saints along with St. Patrick and St. Columba. Brigid was a Christian Abbess and founder of several monasteries including the famous  Kildare (Cill Dara meaning “Church of the Oak Tree”), which was a double monastery of men and women serving equally together. Yet, are we aware that Brigid was also possibly an ordained Bishop?

On this feast day of St. Brigid, February 1, I would like to focus on Brigid’s possible call as a Bishop. There are at least six  separate Lives of Brigid. One of the first was written by Cogitosus about 650AD. He described the large double monastery of Kildare in which men and women lived and worked as equals with Brigid as the Abbess. Even though Cogitosus claimed that Kildare in the 7th c. was “head of almost all the Irish churches with supremacy over all the monasteries of the Irish and a paruchia which extended over the entire island of Ireland,” he did not mention Brigid being ordained as a Bishop.

Brigid’s journey towards possible ordination as a Bishop is intriguing. It is said that when generous and compassionate Brigid gave away her father Dubthach’s sword to a leper, her father was so angry that he tried to sell his daughter to the king. The King declined her father’s offer and would not bargain for Brigid because “her merit was higher before God than before men.” Her father gave Brigid her freedom but he still tried to marry her off, but she refused to accept any proposal. Eventually her father agreed to let his daughter go see the aged Bishop Mel in Ardagh who had been a disciple and possibly a nephew of St. Patrick.

There are four similar accounts of Brigid’s ordination as a Bishop. One version of Brigid’s ordination as Bishop is found in the early 9th c. Bethu Brigte, a biography of Brigid that was likely based upon an earlier Life of Brigid.

According to sections 17-19 of the Bethu Brigte, Bishop Mel ordained Brigid as a nun and some say that he also by mistake read the wrong prayers which ended up ordaining Brigid as a Bishop.  Afterwards, Bishop Mel was asked why he had read the incorrect prayers making Brigid a Bishop. He replied that the Holy Spirit had taken the matter out of his hands. Section 19 about this ordination incident reads:

“The bishop being intoxicated with the grace of God there did not recognize what he was reciting from his book, for he consecrated Brigit with the orders of a Bishop. This virgin alone in Ireland, said Mel, will hold the Episcopal ordination. While she was being consecrated a fiery column ascended from her head.”

The 11th c. The Irish Liber Hymnorum, vol 14, p. 192, edited by John Henry Bernard and Robert Atkinson records:

“It came to pass that Bishop Mél conferred on Brigit the episcopal order, although it was only the order of repentance that she desired for herself. And it is then that MacCaille lifted up a veil over Brigit’s head ut ferunt periti; and hence Brigit’s successor is always entitled to have episcopal orders and the honor due to a Bishop.”

(note: MacCaille was likely a brother of Bishop Mel and a priest)
Another closely related version of the ordination of Brigid as Bishop comes from the early 15th c. Irish Book of Lismore:

“For humility Brigit stayed so that she might be the last to whom a veil should be given. A fiery pillar rose from her head to the roof-ridge of the church. Then said Bishop Mel: “Come, O holy Brigit, that a veil may be sained on thy head before the other virgins.” It came to pass then, through the grace of the Holy Ghost, that the form of ordaining a Bishop was read over Brigit. Mac-caille said, that a bishop’s order should not be conferred on a woman. Said Bishop Mel: “No power have I in this matter. That dignity hath been given by God unto Brigit, beyond every (other) woman.” Wherefore the men of Ireland from that time to this give episcopal honour to Brigit’s successor.”

In another early 15th century Life of Brigit, translated by Whitley Stokes that is very similar to the record in the Book of Lismore, we read:

“Brigit, and certain virgins with her, went to Bishop Mél, in Telcha Mide, to take the veil. Glad was he there at. For humbleness Brigit staid, so that she might be the last to whom the veil should be given. A fiery pillar arose from her head to the ridgepole of the church. Bishop Mél asked: ‘What virgin is there?’ Answered MacCaille: ‘That is Brigit,’ saith he. ‘Come thou, O holy Brigit,’ saith Bishop Mél, ‘that the veil may be sained on thy head before other virgins.’ It came to pass then, through the grace of the Holy Ghost, that the form of ordaining a bishop was read over Brigit. MacCaille said that ‘The order of a Bishop should not be (conferred) on a woman.’ Dixit Bishop Mél: ‘No power have I in this matter, inasmuch as by God hath been given unto her this honour beyond every woman.’ Hence, it is that the men of Ireland give the honour of Bishop to Brigit’s successor.”

It is wondrous how the Spirit of our living God works in ways we cannot dream or imagine!  It is of great comfort to know that the Spirit can even work through our human foibles as in the reading of the wrong ordination rites to bring forth the good and glorious plans of God.

Bishop Brigid’s remains were first interred at her Kildare Church, but when the Viking raids began they were taken further inland for safety to Downpatrick, Ireland. She was buried with the remains of Bishop Patrick of Ireland and Bishop Columba of Ireland and Iona. Together, these three great Celtic patron saints and Bishops of Ireland are still keeping watch over their flock to this day.
For further reading on St. Brigid and other Celtic and Anglo-Saxon saints, www.saintsbridge.org.

Prayer to Saint Brigid

Saint Brigid.
You were a woman of peace.
You brought harmony where there was conflict.
You brought light to the darkness.
You brought hope to the downcast.
May the mantle of your peace cover those who are troubled and anxious, and may peace be firmly rooted in our hearts and in our world.
Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all God has made.
Brigid you were a voice for the wounded and the weary.
Strengthen what is weak within us.
Calm us into a quietness that heals and listens.
May we grow each day into greater wholeness in mind, body and spirit.
Amen.

PAT SAYS

We have Brigid as abbess and bishop as a patron of The Oratory Society

PICTURES FROM WESTMINSTER – NEE PAPAL NUNCIO PRESENTING HIS CREDENTIALS TO THE QUEEN VIA INTERNET LINK:

The Boy in the Presbytery will release on June 25, 2021. 

When a priest promised Anne Levey he would help put her young son Paul back on the straight and narrow, she thought her prayers had been answered. Little did she know the reason her 12-year-old son was rebelling was because the priest—Gerald Ridsdale—was sexually abusing him.

But the predator—who had offended before—used the woman’s blind faith in the Catholic Church to his advantage.

Paul was sent to live with his abuser in the Mortlake presbytery. There he was sexually abused by the priest almost every day for about a year. Years later this secret that haunted Paul’s every waking minute was revealed. But if he thought his nightmare was over, he was wrong. Paul would go on to find out that many high-ranking leaders in the Catholic Church knew Ridsdale was a child molester, and yet they did nothing to stop the evil man from snatching Paul’s innocence and turning his life into a living hell. Sadly, it was a story all too common—the Catholic Church became a playground for paedophiles, a safe haven for them to commit atrocious acts. Now Paul is sharing his story in a bid to end the silence.

RIDSDALE BIO WIKIPEDIA

Gerald Francis Ridsdale (born 20 May 1934), an Australian laicised Catholic priest, was convicted between 1993 and 2017 of a large number of child sexual abuse and indecent assault charges against 65 children aged as young as four years. The offences occurred from the 1960s to the 1980s while Ridsdale worked as a school chaplain at St Alipius Primary School, a boys’ boarding school in the Victorian regional city of Ballarat. Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that senior figures in the church knew about Ridsdale’s abusing children but protected him. Ridsdale was ordained at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat in 1961. The first complaint about his behaviour towards children was received by the church that same year. Ridsdale held 16 different appointments over a period of 29 years as a priest, with an average of 1.8 years per appointment.

DIOCESE COVERED UP FOR RIDSDALE:

On 13 September 2019, the Diocese of Ballarat released a statement admitting that high-ranking clergy in the diocese knew of sex abuse claims against Ridsdale and afterwards made efforts to shield him from prosecution.[19] This confession came in the wake of a civil lawsuit filed against the diocese by one of Ridsdale’s victims.[19]

GEORGE PELL JOKED ABOUT RIDSDALE ABUSING BOYS:

George Pell accused of joking about Gerald Ridsdale’s abuse of children

By Jane Lee

Updated December 7, 201

A survivor has told a royal commission he overheard George Pell joking about paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale “rooting boys again” more than a decade before Ridsdale was convicted of multiple counts of child sexual abuse.

Cardinal Pell – who will appear at the child abuse royal commission in Melbourne next week – was widely criticised for supporting Ridsdale at his first court appearance for child sex offences in 1993. Cardinal Pell was also present at at least one meeting of senior priests which decided Ridsdale should be moved to another parish, but maintains he never knew children were being abused while he was in Ballarat.

The survivor, known as BWE, told the commission on Monday he was aged between 10 and 12, and getting ready to serve as an altar boy for a funeral mass, when he overheard Cardinal Pell speaking to parish priest Father Frank Madden in the sacristy at St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1983. Cardinal Pell, he said, was officiating the mass because the deceased woman was either his former parishioner or close friend.

RIDSDALE AT ROYAL COMMISSION – SESSIONS 1,2 AND 3.

“After they had exchanged pleasantries, Father Madden said ‘How’s everything your way?’ or words to that effect. George Pell responded by saying ‘Haha I think Gerry’s been rooting boys again’.”

PAT SAYS

****BUY THE BOOK AND SUPPORT VICTIMS OF ABUSE****

We should buy this book to support victims.

This is a horrible story – but only one horrible story among hundreds and thousands of similar horrible stories across the global RCC.

What could be worse than the global sexual assault and rape of babies by priests and religious?

Why is the RCC not a global pariah?

Bishop Tom Deenihan has announced new clerical appointments in the Diocese of Meath for this year. The changes will be operative from 3 July 2021 .

The Bishop thanked Fr Jim Lynch, who will retire as Parish Priest of Beauparc, for his service to the Diocese over the past fifty-one years.

Prioritising Pastoral Development for the Diocese going forward as restrictions lift, Bishop Deenihan has appointed Fr Derek Darby, who had been combining the roles of Episcopal Vicar for Pastoral Development and Parish Administrator of Mullingar, as full-time Vicar for Pastoral Development.  The Bishop wishes to see a Pastoral Council in each parish and supports in place for them in the future.

Bishop Deenihan said that it was increasingly difficult to keep priests in all parishes at this time.  “In this year’s appointments”,  he said, “it is clear that the Diocese is becoming increasingly reliant on priests from Romania, Africa, and Poland. In addition, there has been a reduction in clergy in some parishes, and there is also a need to encourage collaboration between parishes.  All this highlights the need for vocations promotion and support in the Diocese and I thank the vocations promotion team for their work in this regard.”

Bishop Deenihan thanked the priests involved in the appointments for their generosity and expressed the confidence that as restrictions lift and as public worship recommences in the church, there would be a collaboration in parishes to make our churches safe as places of prayer and sacrament in the weeks ahead.

Fr. Jim Lynch, PP Beauparc, to retire.

Fr. Derek Darby, Adm Mullingar and Episcopal Vicar for Pastoral Development, to Pastoral Development and Planning full-time for three years term.

Fr. John Conlon, PP Duleek and Adm Donore, to be PP St. Mary’s Drogheda and Adm Holy Family Drogheda.

Fr. Michael Meade, PP Summerhill, to be PP Kilcormac.

Fr. Phil Gaffney PP St. Mary’s Drogheda, to be Adm Mullingar.

Fr Declan Kelly, PP Stamullen, to be PP Kilcloon and Adm Moynalvey.

Fr Stan Deegan, PP Kilcloon, to be PP Killucan.

Fr. Séamus Houlihan, PP Kilcormac, to be PP Tubber.

Fr. Brendan Ferris, PP Ardcath & Curraha, to be PP Stamullen.

Fr. David Brennan, PP Moynalvey, to be PP Beauparc.

Fr John Nally, PP Ashbourne, on loan to Diocese of Waterford and Lismore for three years.

Fr. Michael Kilmartin, PP Longwood, to be PP Ashbourne.

Fr. Mark English, PP Killucan, to be PP Duleek and Adm Donore.

Fr. Joe Campbell to be CC Tullamore.

Fr. Kevin Heery, CC Mullingar, to be CC Ardcath & Curraha.

Fr Noel Weir, Adm Pro Tem Rosemount, to be CC Navan.

Fr. Conor Magee, CC Mullingar, to be CC Multyfarnham.

Fr Janusz Ługowski, Polish Chaplaincy, to be CC Moynalvey in addition.

Fr Louis Illah, CC Navan, to be CC Longwood.

Fr. Andrei Stolnicu, Diocese of Iasi, to be CC Mullingar

Fr. Vincent McKay CSSp, to be CC Summerhill.

Fr Paul Crosbie, PP Trim, to be Adm Summerhill in addition.

Fr. Thomas Gilroy, PP Kinnegad, to be Adm Longwood in addition.

Fr. Gerry Stuart, PP Ratoath, to be Adm Ardcath & Curraha in addition.

PAT SAYS

Meath was always well off for priests – but now its running low too.

Last week DERMOT FARRELL announced that Dublin only had two seminarians!

When I enterered Clonliffe for Dublin in 1970 there were 120 OF US FOR DUBLIN ALONE!

At that time Ireland had 9 seminaries for the training of secular priests:

Maynooth

All Hallows

Clonliffe

Wexford

Kilkenny

Waterford

Carlow

Thurles

Belfast

Now, theres only Maynooth – and its on its knees.

I see that Deenihan, in spite of his own shortage, is lending Phonsie a priest.

THE ANSWER?

Married priests?

Women priests?

Part time priests – working full time in other jobs,?

Deacons and Deaconesses?

Lay ministers for Communion, Marriages and Funerals.

The church of the future will look nothing like the church of today.

Hopefully, the involvement of laity will lead to less corruption?

In fact, the priesthood, as we know it, may disappear completely ???

This week, the Vatican took a few shots across the bows of the USA bishops, some of whom want to ban people like President Joe Biden from receiving Holy Communion.

In the Biden case, it is because he does not accept a total abortion ban.

Personally, I have been refused Holy Communion publicly twice in my life.

The first time was in Belfast in 1987 when I attended Mass celebrated by the SSPX founder Archbishop Le Lefebvre.

He told me it was because I “was a public sinner and disobedient to the church” 🤡

The second time it was by Phonsie in Waterford at Monsignor Shine’s funeral.

CAREFUL!

I think that we should be very careful about refusing Holy Communion to anyone.

In the end, God is the only one competent to decide whether a person is worthy or not.

We judge by externals.

God tells us he judges by what is in the heart.

Those who outwardly appear to be sinners, might not be.

And those who outwardly appear to be saints might not be either.

Of course, we are allowed to judge people’s actions as being good or bad actions, genuine or hypocritical actions rtc.

But we do not always get it right when we judge motivations and intentions.

I’m sure if there had been Holy Communion in Jesus’ day the Pharisees etc would have refused it to him.

The American bishops want to refuse Biden Communion over the abortion issue.

And, quite rightly, the Vatican has told the bishops not to reduce the wide Catholic faith to the “Life Battle”.

It seems in many RC quarters the abortion issue has become the RC touchstone.

The Life issue is indeed very important.

But it is not the whole of morality.

In a few weeks time – on June 6th I will be 45 years ordained.

I was ordained on the Feast of Pentecost in 1976 by Michael Russell, the bishop of Waterford and Lismore in Waterford Cathedral.

My friend Monsignor John Shine always told me: “every time I meet Bishop Russell he always asks for you”.

I am more happy to be a priest now than I ever was and I’m very grateful to God that he gave me the grace of perseverance.

A small number of those I was in seminary with have died. RIP.

My ordination class consisted of six of us.

One, Joe Seery, of Ennis has died. He had big problems in priesthood.

One, although a deacon, never got ordained after a pastoral placement in his diocese of Westminster.

Two, Joe McCarthy and John Flynn left the priesthood and married or took lady companions.

Another one, Oliver Curran is a very conservative pastor in a southern diocese in the USA.

And then there’s me.

My spirituality has undergone a total change in those 45 years.

My early spirituality was all about Calvary and suffering. It was a dark, painful spirituality that left me joyless.

But since undergoing therapy in my late 30s and early 40s – a therapy with a profound spiritual aspect to it, I have moved away from Calvary towards an Empty Tomb spirituality.

That has brought calm, depth, joy and optomism with it.

I have abandoned all legalism and have embraced, instead, a spontaneous and charismatic spirituality.

In practical terms I no longer believe:

1. That Roman Catholicism is the one true church / religion.

2. That any man is the vicar of Christ.

3. That proesthood should be all male.

4. That imposed celibacy is of God.

5. That sexual morality is the primary form of morality.

6. That contraception, homosexuality and masturbation are sinful.

7. That virginity is superior to marriage.

MY EXPULSION BY DALY:

Looking back I no longer see my expulsion from the clerical club by Daly was a disaster.

I believe that God used Daly to set me free.

I certainly have been a happier and freer priest in the 35 since the Daly thing happened.

When faced with a decision I no longer have to worry about bishops, canon law, diocesan regulations etc

I simply have to ask myself: “What would Jesus do? What would Jesus want me to do”?

I feel I’ve kept the baby and thrown out the dirty water.

I can concentrate on:

1. My relationship with Jesus.

2. My love of the Mass and the Sacraments.

3. My inspiration by Scripture.

4. Serving people as best I can.

5. Having freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

I am no longer a slave in the Babylon of Roman Catholicism.

I have the freedom of the sons and daughters of God”.

Has my journey been difficult at times?

Big time.

Would I want to do it all again?

No!

Have I made mistakes?

Barrells full.

Am I hopeful about the rest of the joyrney?

Yes.

What is the reason for my hope?

A man called Jesus of Nazareth.

As we have seen on this blog for many years now there is a great cost to living a double life.

The leading of a double life by seminarians has led to the demise of the Irish College in Rome and the near demise of Maynooth.

We have watched the various characters go “off stage” – Gorgeous, Horny Andy, Chris Derwin, Rory, McCamley, McVeigh, Ger Fitzgerald, etc.

In many of these cases the problem was the breaking if the 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not be caught”.

That of course means there are many actors out there who have not being caught – YET!

For some of those, their time will come.

Others may succeed in “fooling all of the people all of the time”?

But what a repugnant achievement?

But living a double life is not healthy for anyone.

Apart from all the people and lives you destroy by being a phoney – even if others dont know you are a phoney, the person in the mirror knows – and more importantly God knows.

Knowing you are phoney, and living as a phoney, eats away, whether or not you like it, at your self respect.

And the longer you live as a phoney, the more your moral integrity rots away. In the end you are, as Jesus said, “a whitened sepulchur” – white on the outside and inside full of rottenness and decay.

Living a double life and being a phoney, leads to a very quickly developing cancer of the soul and spirit.

The double life and phoniness is the exact contradiction of who and what God is – the God whose primary quality is ONENESS.

The person living the double life is split – a true schizophrenic. Schizophrenia as a condition is absolutely destructive of the quality of life – the healthy life, the human life, the spiritual life.

Jesus own words address this: “Be ye one as the Father and I are one”.

THE GREAT CHALLENGE OF LIFE

The great challenge of life, for all of us, is the challenge to be an integrated human being.

That most certainly does not mean to be perfect. Far from it.

Being an integrated human being is about being intensely aware of one’s strengths, one’s weaknesses, one’s contradictions and being able, consciously, to hold all these eggs in the one basket and to be stable, enduring and open.

Living an integrated life is a process, a journey.

Many years ago an old nun gave me a poster. The poster showed a little chicken which has just emerged from the cracked shell. The writing on the poster read:

“JESUS SETS YOU FREE TO BECOME ALL YOU WERE MEANT TO BE”.

“Lord, save us all from the satanic temptation to be a phoney living a double life. Lord, give us the grace to possess some of the oneness and wholeness of God”.

Christine Niles  CM May 3, 2021

Lawsuit charges LA archdiocese with cover-up

UPDATE, 5/7/2021: In response to ChurchMilitant’s query, the spokeswoman for the archdiocese of Los Angeles sent an email stating, “It is our understanding that the recent civil suit is being withdrawn.”

Church Militant contacted Peter Schweitzer, spokesman for Saunders Law Firm, representing the accuser, to ask him to confirm whether the lawsuit is being withdrawn, but received no response as of press time.

Filed April 19 in Los Angeles Superior Court, the plaintiff, under the alias John Doe, is suing “The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles,” which includes Cdl. Roger Mahony and staff of the archdiocese.

The lawsuit alleges Mahony “repeatedly sexually assaulted, molested and abused” Doe in 1986, when he was 17. The plaintiff also accuses the archdiocese of knowing about the archbishop’s abuse and covering it up.

Doe describes himself as being raised in Mexico and moving to Los Angeles when he was still a minor in 1986. There his family attended St. Vibiana Catholic Cathedral, the former cathedral of the archdiocese before it was replaced by the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. 

It was at St. Vibiana where Doe first met Abp. Mahony, who took a special interest in the boy, becoming a “trustworthy mentor” and gaining the boy’s “trust and confidence as a spiritual guide” and “authority figure.”

“Archbishop Roger Mahony’s conduct constituted ‘grooming’ of Plaintiff and culminated in his sexual assault and abuse of Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states, going on to graphically detail the incident:

Archbishop Roger Mahony’s sexual abuse of Plaintiff included, but was not limited to, repeated groping and fondling of Plaintiff’s genital area, and culminated in oral copulation in the bathroom of St. Vibiana’s rectory approximately two weeks prior to Plaintiff’s 18th birthday while another member of the clergy stood guard at the door and eagerly watched.

The lawsuit also notes Mahony’s homosexual interest in Doe: The archbishop “sexually abused Plaintiff for sexual gratification which was, at least in part, based on Plaintiff’s gender, who was a minor boy at the time.”

Cdl. Roger Mahony given a copy of the sex abuse lawsuit on May 1, 2021 (this video is unaffiliated with the law firm bringing the suit)
 

Doe claims the abuse has resulted in “PTSD, severe anxiety, depression, lost interest in activities, an inability to concentrate, feeling of self-blame, feelings of estrangement from friends and/or family, hypervigilance, a lost sense of worth, a sense of being tainted, suicidal ideation and a loss of sexual desire.”

He’s seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.

Other Victims and Archdiocesan Cover-Up

Doe believes Mahony has other victims, and that the archdiocese kept this from authorities.

“Archbishop Roger Mahony is believed to have previously sexually assaulted other young victims other than Plaintiff prior to the time he sexually assaulted the Plaintiff,” the complaint notes.

Mahony’s name appears on the L.A. archdiocese’s list of publicly accused priests, with the accompanying status of “Exonerated/Retired/Full Faculties to Minister.” He had been accused by two youths between 1970 and 1993 of abuse, but none of the allegations were substantiated.

Doe accuses the archdiocese of “actively shielding” Mahony from taking responsibility for his alleged crimes and “failing to report” him to civil authorities. 

“Although Defendants knew that Abp. Roger Mahony was a pedophile and had sexually assaulted other minors, Defendants accepted, ratified and even encouraged Abp. Roger Mahony’s lewd and predatory conduct, and continued to allow him access to children, including but not limited to Plaintiff.”

Track Record of Cover-Up

This accords with the track record of the L.A. archdiocese under Mahony’s leadership from 1985–2011, when Mahony and his team gained a notorious reputation for covering up sex abuse and protecting predators, including sending priests out of state to escape prosecution.

His actions led to the single largest sex abuse payout in U.S. history: $660 million in 2007. The archdiocese has since shelled out millions more.

Records show Mahony actively blocked investigations, including refusing to hand over to investigators a list of altar boys who had served with visiting Mexican priest Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera in 1988.

Authorities eventually obtained the list through parish families, and Rivera was convicted of abusing 26 altar boys during his 10 months in Los Angeles.

Fr. Michael Baker

Mahony was sued last year by a victim for reinstating a known predator to priestly ministry. Archdiocesan records show Fr. Michael Baker privately confessed to Mahony in 1986 that he had molested two boys;

instead of reporting him to police, Mahony sent him out of state to a rehabilitation center before placing him back in active ministry, where he went on to abuse more children. Baker was eventually convicted in 2007 of child sex crimes and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He is believed to have as many as 23 victims.

Other instances of Mahony’s protection of predators are too numerous to recount.
In 2003, after California’s bishops followed Mahony’s lead and refused to take part in a survey of sex abuse in each diocese, Frank Keating, then-chairman of the National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, compared the hierarchy to the mafia.

“To act like La Cosa Nostra and hide and suppress, I think, is very unhealthy,” said Keating. “To resist grand jury subpoenas, to suppress the names of offending clerics, to deny, to obfuscate, to explain away; that is the model of a criminal organization, not my Church.”

The comments drew a special rebuke from Mahony.

“This is the last straw,” the cardinal told the Los Angeles Times in 2003. “To make statements such as these — I don’t know how he can continue to have the support of the bishops.” Keating eventually left his role as head of the National Review Board, accusing Mahony of listening “too much to his lawyer and not enough to his heart.”

Steve Cooley, then-L.A. district attorney, agreed with Keating that Mahony was less than cooperative during the D.A.’s investigation: “We share his frustration.” In spite of Mahony’s promises of transparency, he refused for months to open up personnel files on abusive priests, stymying the criminal investigation.

Leon Panetta, also a member of the National Review Board, later going on to head the CIA, said of Mahony that he “has done tremendous damage to his reputation and the archdiocese,” recalling a meeting where the cardinal showed up with “more lawyers in the room than I’ve ever seen.”
Mahony has not yet publicly responded to the lawsuit.

PAT SAYS

Mahony’s name has been doing the rounds for decades in connection with abuse and the cover-up of abuse.

As the article says Los Angeles has already paid out staggering figures in compensation.

All of these bishop abusers were covered up for by all the other bishops.

In return, abusing bishops covered up for abusing priests.

It was a well understood and accepted ring of paedophiles and paedophile cover-up.

All kinds of cover-ups continue to this day.

The episcopal club and the clerical club must be protected at all costs.

The Roman Catholic Church is being dismantled from within.

After receiving serious threats from unsavoury elements in Cloughleigh estate, Ennis, which were reported to the Garda, the former lover of Fr Ger Fitzgerald was advised by Killaloe to flee to a woman’s refuge!

Previously the diocese has offered to help her relocate for her own safety as they were convinced she was in real danger.

The woman had to leave her permanent home after her affair with the priest became public and misguided “supporters” of the priest decided to do her harm.

A REFUGE?

In advising the woman to flee to a woman’s refuge, in a different county, Fintan Monahan was actually admitting:

1. That the woman was a victim.

2. That the woman had been “abused” by her priest lover.

3. That it was a domestic case.

CHURCH RESOURCES:

We all know that every diocese in Ireland is very well off.

Why then wash their hands of the woman and hand her over to a women’s aid organisation and not help her themselves from their own resources?

Is there not a spare bedroom in the bishop’s palace to offer her temporarily?

Is there not a room in the presbytery of some gay priest (to avoid temptation) the woman could have used temporarily?

Could she not have stayed with some nuns?

Could she not have stayed with some church going Catholic matron?

Was it really necessary, really kind, really Christian, to offload her on women’s aid and do a Pontius Pilate on her?

GER AND WOMAN – DIFFERENT TREATMENT:

This is how Fintan Monagan and Killaloe are treating Ger Fitzgerald:

1. Sabbatical / Holiday for 3 to 12 months – two thirds ofvwhich will be oaid for by the diocese.

2. Still receive his € 2,000 a month salary.

3. Entitled to up to €/$ 30,000 for treatment, therapy or counselling.

4. Be given a new assignment if he wants it.

WHAT THE WOMAN GETS:

1. Referral to a women’s refuge.

AND AT THE END OF IT ALL

Not even an applogy from Ger, Fintan or the diocese!!!

Is this the NEW, CHANGED, MORE COMPASSIONATE, “WE HAVE LEARNED OUR LESSON” church, the Vatican and the bishops keep telling us about ???

I dont think so.

They’re all just as bad as ever.

As my Dad used to say:

“Shooting is too good for them. Its a kick in the arse they need”.

Tonette Orejas  Philippine Daily Inquirer May 04, 2021

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—A five-minute video showing a furious man confronting a Catholic priest for coveting his wife began circulating in Pampanga since Monday (May 3).

In the video, the man whacked a family portrait in front of the priest during the confrontation in the social hall of the church where the priest serves.

The video has been shared on Facebook’s Private Message.

The priest was heard saying “I’m sorry.” The man shouted back: “You ruined our family.” He accused the priest of taking advantage of his wife.

The man recited with sarcasm one of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.”

The man’s son warned the priest that he would face investigation, hinting that a case for adultery was coming.

The man said his Catholic faith was not shaken but likened the priest twice to a “snake.”

Several persons milled around the priest in an apparent move to protect him. The priest was silent all throughout the clip.

The identities of the priest and the woman, although confirmed by Church sources, are being withheld pending investigation and to protect the man’s family.

“I am in contact with the priest and the family involved, We pray for God’s assistance and guidance,” Archbishop Florentino Lavarias told the INQUIRER when sought for comment on Tuesday.

PAT SAYS

While the RC Church has a massive problem with sexually active gay bishops, priests and seminarians, it still has a problem with priests having affairs and sex with women – as we saw in the Ennis Ger Fitzgerald case.

I think in places like Africa, Asia and South America there are more heterosexual priests than there are in the West.

I think many Irish missionaries in the past had relationships with women.

And I imagine there are many Murphy, Brady, O’Brien children in the African bush, the forests of South Anerica and the rice fields of Asia?

The compulsary celibacy rule has NEVER worked and is still not working.

It is a hypocrisy to keep the rule on the books.

But as long as it is on the books, priests are bound by it.