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People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Cardinal Dolan really has some nerve lecturing Obama on morals -- His actions in Milwaukee, paying off pedophile priests, were dreadful

Posted on Friday, June 01, 2012 at 08:06 AM
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Cardinal Dolan and President Obama 


Cardinal Timothy Dolan has spent the last few months lecturing President Obama on morals and the need for Catholic organizations to have freedom of choice over birth control provisions in their health insurance.

Ignore for a moment the fact that 95 per cent of Catholic women use birth control anyway and consider instead the story yesterday from Milwaukee.

There, a long-lost diocesan document has turned up making it clear that then Bishop Dolan paid $20,000 on at least two occasions to pedophile priests in order to spur their departure from the priesthood.

These two pedos were not handed over to the police. They received a $20,000 reward and walked away Scot-free as far as Bishop Dolan was concerned.

The only defense of these actions I have seen is that the Catholic Church was not alone in covering up pedophile activity.

That is akin to saying Nazis were not the only ones who hated Jews. Child molesters of any stripe or religion must be stopped – we know that

But Dolan has now gone on to the highest office in the Catholic Church in America. If he were in General Motors after this week’s revelation, he would likely be fired and might well face a court for covering up and abetting the pedophiles.

In the American Catholic Church the matter is hardly noted.

Is that too harsh or am I missing something here?

The ones I feel most sorry for are the ordinary Catholics who desperately want to believe in their church but are finding with every passing week that there is something very rotten at the very top of it everywhere with the exception of a great man like Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in Dublin.

What gives this man Cardinal Dolan, who essentially excused the sexual abuse of minors the right to pontificate about morals?

Frankly, it would be laughable if it were not so sad.

Dolan is a huge star in New York, there are even whispers that he could be an outside candidate for pope in the next conclave.

He has an easy manner and a well-developed sense of public relations.

But let’s not lose sight of the fact that when it came to cover-up of one of the most grievous crimes imaginable, the abuse of innocent children, it appears Dolan was part and parcel of it.

He initially denied strongly he had made the payments saying it was preposterous to suggest he did.

There are many decent clerics in the Catholic Church who will never reach Dolan’s lofty heights but I bet they sleep easier at night.

Cardinal Dolan has lost all moral authority to lecture the rest of us, especially the president, on matters of morals.

 


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73 Comments

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PhlutiePhan | Oct 19, 2012, 01:53 PM EDT
There are sexual sins which belong to everyone. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Bill Clinton is a hero of the left for all of his peccadillos. Catholic priests are human and commit sins. 20K for someone with no income is nothing.

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eiriamach | Jul 05, 2012, 11:57 AM EDT
If it were libelous, hermitTalker, it would not still be here, I'm sure. O'Dowd probably has lawyers on retainer to guard against liability in such matters. But the FACTS are what they are: Cardinal Dolan lied about paying pedophile priests to consent to defrocking and about giving them pensions and health insurance to live on--elsewhere. Court records refute his denials. IF you have an alternative interpretation of Cardinal Dolan's strategy in getting rid of pedophile priests without sharing information about them with law enforcement or the courts (to protect children), then you're free to give it. If you can justify his lies about the payments, then let's hear it. But don't be surprised if most people find your interpretations unpersuasive. Patrick Roberts' interpretation of the known FACTS, however, is quite plausible and therefore not libelous and not slander.

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hermitTalker | Jul 05, 2012, 09:59 AM EDT
Why is this fake piece of slander still on here after a month. TRUTH and JUSTICE are as essential to journalism as they are to personal and business dealings. You know exactly what Cdl Dolan did in Milwaukee and it was not paying off anyone. Same with your anti-Orange POC today, anything to stir the troops.

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eiriamach | Jul 03, 2012, 09:28 AM EDT
Kweenie, see Matthew:7 -- "Don't pass judgment, so you won't be judged. Don't forget, the judgment you hand out will be the judgment you get back. And the standard you apply will be the standard applied to you" (Miller's SV translation). I offered an analysis of the way that immoral actions, such as Dolan's protecting pedophiles in Milwaukee and his pogrom against women and gays in NY, blunt the conscience. This analysis applies to leaders AND their uncritical, unthinking followers. You may reject my analysis, but when you go so far as to condemn me to hell for it, you transgress, and when you pile on lies about Obama being a murderer and guilty of genocide, you presume on God's judgment. People may reasonably reject my analysis of how moral blindness damages a human soul, but they'd be insane to accept your analysis of Obama's politics. So I'm content to take the advice of Matthew 7: "Don't offer to dogs what is sacred, and don't throw your pearls to pigs, or they'll trample them underfoot and turn and tear you to shreds" (7:6). When will you realize that such attacks do not silence people like me?

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KweenOHearts | Jun 18, 2012, 07:20 PM EDT
eiriamach: "Dolan's helping pedophiles made him insensitive--blind--first blind to justice for victims (the $20000 for pedophiles and the manipulated diocesan bankruptcy) and then blind to justice for all--the "common good" of Obama's health plan." ---- Wow... this has got to be amazing, world-class bias by an individual who neither knows AB Dolan personally, nor the in-depth details of the case. But that does not deter her; she dares to saturate every possible article, even mildly critical of the Catholic Church with her vicious blathering and opinions, always acting as though she has ALL THE FACTS!--- I think that in Gaelic her name means 'She that claims to know the heart and mind of those she intends to smear' -- So eiria... obama's actions, by your standards are nothing but "common good" right? Is that what you call his unqualified support for the killing of children up to the 9th month of gestation in those Planned Murderhood and George Tiller type abattoirs? Worse yet since those slaughterhouses, where the victims are somewhere around 75% black, are engaged in a form of genocide against 'his own people!' --- Oh wait, I forgot he is only half-black, so maybe that's why he doesn't give a crap! --- Hopefully when you get to the pearly gates [which sounds like at your age you're well on your way there], you'll find a less harsh judge than you have anointed yourself to be against those you hate. But on second thought....

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KweenOHearts | Jun 18, 2012, 06:43 PM EDT
It's been some 2 weeks since Roberts put out the story on IC and to this day there has not been a single attempt from whatever authorities handle these type of cases as to an upcoming indictment, arrest or even a reprimand for Archbishop Dolan. --- Which would lead anyone to believe that this was one more case of irresponsible reporting by Roberts, whose record on multiple occasions past has been notoriously bad in verifying facts, proper editing and even false reporting of facts. --- In this particular case, was there ever an actual intent at a cover-up from Dolan... or was Roberts, as per usual, merely sensationalizing another purported 'Catholic Church scandal' to boost his readership? --- Personally, given the silence so far from the more 'credible' press (if there's such an animal in the MSM), I'd be willing to bet this is just one more case of Catholic Church slamming by this website.

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eiriamach | Jun 04, 2012, 02:14 PM EDT
Another feature of Cardinal Dolan's career path is likely connected with his lies to the press about his payments to accused priests: his apparent lust for power. I'll quote the NY Times' 5/31/12 article "Timothy Dolan": "Indeed, since becoming head of the Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Dolan has struck an aggressive tone. The bishops are struggling to reclaim the role they played in the 1980s and into the ’90s as a nationally recognized voice on the moral dimension of public policy issues like economic inequality, workers’ rights, immigration and nuclear weapons proliferation. Since then, however, they have reordered their priorities, with abortion, homosexuality and other social issues eclipsing poverty and economic injustice." A concern for justice, in particular, might have helped Dolan avoid the mistakes he made in Milwaukee, as well as his current misdirection of the USCCB's political campaign. And certainly "economic inequality" has not diminished since the 1990s, and in the Church only the nuns seem concerned about it any more.

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LordStrisus | Jun 04, 2012, 01:07 AM EDT
As a resident of Milwaukee, and a Catholic, and a person who had for the longest time had the greatest respect for Cardinal Dolan, I am sicked by these reports. I do have to wonder if he, Dolan, knew a priest had the HI Virus, would he allow him to use a condom during the rape of a child? That is essentially his attitude by allowing these monsters to go out into the community. Why is sex between consensual adults, even married couples, not allowed if there are contraceptives involved, but rape of children is not looked to be an abomination by this man of God?

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skiadvocat | Jun 03, 2012, 10:28 AM EDT
"...He has an easy manner and a well-developed sense of public relations..." Yes, and he has an ego the size of his hometown, New York City. Along with his buddy, William Donohue, President of the Catholic League, he is considering opening up their own boutique law firm, Dolan and Donohue. U.S. Catholic Leadership.......Money talks and pedophiles walk.

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Mousemess | Jun 03, 2012, 08:44 AM EDT
dev4, Nil Oir. Wright ina mhinistir ag a aeanseipeal sin aige na bliana seo agus thit an t-Uachtaran Obama agus an t-Oir. Wright amach le cheile. Ta difriochtai mhora phearsanta i gcreideamh idir an da cheile. Rev. Wright is not a minister at that old church of his these years and President Obama and Rev Wright fell out with each other. There are big personal differences in belief between the two of them. Obama has a new minister and has dropped Rev. Wright some time ago.

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ProudCanadian | Jun 02, 2012, 06:59 PM EDT
Everyone here has missed the biggest person who has ccvered up everything. I'll give you a hint he is head of the Catholic church and actually runs his own country. Like I have said many times on here and I think most people are starting to believe it to, the Catholic Church must come out of the dark ages and stop trying to run peoples lives. Get with it RCC's.

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AGRIPPAMOM | Jun 02, 2012, 06:18 PM EDT
I love the comments defending Dolan's actions. These fools are missing one very big point: the priests involved walked away out into the world, where, as former priests, they were not only welcome parts of their communities, but all too likely to commit the same heinous crimes again. In fact, only a brain dead fool would tell you that they did. Instead of doing the right and moral thing, not only what was BEST FOR THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY, he put the community at risk BY SETTING THESE PRIESTS LOOSE ON UNSUSPECTING PEOPLE. Also, he lied repeatedly about covering this up. As for Obama's health care bill: it isn't unconstitutional. Sorry, Faux Noise viewers, it is perfectly within the bounds of congressional power to establish the healthcare mandate. You want to really go crazy? There would be no question at all if they'd gone the route of a universal mandate. The current Supreme Court, which is the most corrupt perhaps in history, might rule it unconstitutional, but that would not be shocking, given the number of equally decisions they've made showing where their allegiances lie (and no, it is not to the US Constitution, but to corporate America).

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dev4 | Jun 02, 2012, 01:49 PM EDT
your marching orders are issued from the white house i guess, any mention of rev wright in there

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Robbie69 | Jun 02, 2012, 11:41 AM EDT
Dolan was caught in a blatant lie. He vehemently denied that payments were made to pedophile-priests, and then the paperwork showed up exposing his deceit. But that is not even the worst of it! Dolan also transferred Milwaukee Diocesan funds to a "cemetery fund" so that the victims of child abuse would not be able to get to it, just before the diocese filed for Bankruptcy Court protection from creditors. This is fraud! Hiding assets from the Bankruptcy Court is illegal, and Dolan was part of the plot. I believe Dolan should be indicted for fraud and OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE in protecting pedophile-priets. When are we going to see church big shots held accountable for their actions?

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eiriamach | Jun 02, 2012, 10:51 AM EDT
hermitTalker, as William F. Buckley once said, "I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said."

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