Latest Travesty in Wheeling: Diocese Uses Statute of Limitations to Avoid Accountability

God save Wheeling from this man!

Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Wants Former Bishop Michael Bransfield Case Dismissed

No surprise really. Protecting the money is what church lawyers get paid for. 

Will the diocese's next move be to try to recall Bransfield and give him back his job (and his private chef, etc.)? Let's face it, many (perhaps most) of the U.S. bishops couldn't care less about right and wrong or the people in the pews. What do they care about? Well, in my opinion, many are good little Church politicians who care about the same thing worldly politicians care about.

MONEY...

POWER...

REPUTATION...

Do I sound a little cynical? I hope not. I hope I just live in the real world where one draws conclusions by observing people's actions. The bishops' actions reflected in the priorities and statements from their bureaucracy [the USCCB] show just how much they care about money, power, and their reputations. They love seats at the table with the powerful (Think Cardinal Dolan and his many egregious appearances with pro-abort, pro-sodomy politicians). They trade truth for political correctness and media approval. (Consider their leaping on the bandwagons of open borders and climate change and pulling P.R. stunts at the border.) 

I'll address just one issue here related to the bishops' apparent desire to keep the federal money rolling in: their promotion of open borders and illegal immigration. It is more in line with Democrat politics than biblical admonitions. 

Government's primary responsibility is the protection of the common good of its citizens. To overwhelm a country with an invasion of illegal foreigners undermines the common good of its own people. We are told ad nauseum that there is strength in diversity, a proposition which is demonstratively untrue. How much strength exists in the diversity of Israel with its populations of Christians, Jews, and Muslims? Look at the diversity of the former Yugoslavia with the constant warfare between its "diverse" populations. Look at South Africa, the Sudan, or Rwanda. Good grief, the more diverse a population, the fewer shared values, the more conflict, war, and division!

Why do the bishops support open borders, sanctuary cities, etc? Because it lines the pockets of their "charitable" organizations and swells the pews of churches shrinking because of the sex abuse crisis. 

The bishops seem to care very little for the welfare of the natural born population and those who immigrate legally. They actually assist and encourage illegals to break laws and act immorally, essentially stealing what they have no right to. 

There is no such thing as government charity. The only money the government has is taken by threat from its citizens. And certain of its functions are legitimate. Redistributing income is not one of them. Yes, we all have a moral obligation to assist the poor. We have no moral obligation to let a thief break into our home or an illegal alien break into our country.

Note that none of the bishops "welcome the stranger" to take up residence in their own mansions. They all lock their rectory and church doors as well. Some have signs in the parking lots warning people they will be towed. (Been to the Cathedral in Arlington lately?) But they will condemn you for wanting to have a sensible immigration policy that ensures manageable numbers of legal immigrants who can be assimilated without creating chaos.

As for the economic and medical impact on Americans, here are just a few examples of that disaster:

• Endangering the health of the citizenry: We are seeing the rise of diseases almost eradicated in the U.S. Antibiotic resistant infections, increase of diseases like measles, parasites, etc. Those entering legally are screened for infectious diseases. Those entering illegally are not. Walter Williams described the health risks to Americans in a 2018 article:

The CDC specifically cites the possibility of the cross-border movement of HIV, measles, pertussis, rubella, rabies, hepatitis A, influenza, tuberculosis, shigellosis and syphilis. Chris Cabrera, a Border Patrol agent in South Texas, warned: "What's coming over into the U.S. could harm everyone. We are starting to see scabies, chickenpox, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections and different viruses." 

Some of the youngsters illegally entering our country are known to be carrying lice and suffering from various illnesses. Because there have been no medical examinations of undocumented immigrants, we have no idea how many are carrying infectious diseases that might endanger American children when these immigrants enter schools across our nation. 

[N.B. Who gets blamed for the increase of infectious diseases? Not the illegals, but homeschoolers who often follow a delayed or reduced schedule of vaccinations.]

•  Bankruptcy of Hospitals and Communities: A 2005 article in the American Journal of Physicians and Surgeons described the medical impact of illegal aliens on hospitals which have closed their doors in record numbers.

What is unseen is their free medical care that has degraded and closed some of America’s finest emergency medical facilities, and caused hospital bankruptcies: 84 California hospitals are closing their doors. “Anchor babies” born to illegal aliens instantly qualify as citizens for welfare benefits and have caused enormous rises in Medicaid costs and stipends under Supplemental Security Income and Disability Income

The author called for four proposals to "prevent medical cataclysm:" close the borders, rescind the citizenship of anchor babies (The Founders NEVER intended for the children of illegals or even legal visitors to be granted automatic citizenship because they were born here!),  prosecute those aiding and abetting illegals, and granting no new amnesties. In many cases the opposite has been done and the disastrous consequences are self evident and growing. In 2014 Becker's Hospital Review reported that the annual cost of healthcare for illegals was $346 BILLION EVERY YEAR. Can you imagine what it is today?

• Economic Impact on Public Education: A 2016 FAIR [Federation for Immigration Reform] Education report [The Elephant in the Classroom] described the impact of massive illegal immigration on local schools. Because of the Federal government's unfunded mandates, the cost of providing an education to LEP (Limited English Proficiency) students (mandated by Congress) is massive, estimated at $59.2 BILLION annually, a cost primarily born by local and state taxpayers. The large number of students requiring EASL (English as a Second Language) strains the schools and the poor performance of students tempts schools to manipulate and cheat to get good results. Here's just two troubling paragraphs from the 30 page report:

In 2015, one New York City student expressed shock when her public school handed her a diploma that she “didn’t deserve” and pushed her out the door. Schools across the country are adopting lax policies that include accepting late work, allowing students to retake failed tests and doling out inflated grades that reward student effort rather than reflect mastery of the material. As this disconcerting development becomes more prevalent around the country, critics complain that students quickly learn how to game the system to graduate, despite having learned little during their years in school. “Many students have already started to figure out that they don’t have to do very much but they can still pass,” said one teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia.21  

In addition to padding graduation statistics, school districts have found another way to gloss over the LEP problem: cheating. Educators in Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. changed answers on tests to boost results. Several teachers and administrators went to prison over the Atlanta scandal (three received seven year sentences). Like many districts across the country, including Montgomery County, Maryland, school officials in El Paso, Texas, manipulated standardized test scores by excluding LEP and learning disabled students, whose poor performance pulls down score averages. Due in part to his role in fudging the numbers, El Paso’s former school superintendent received a 42-month federal prison sentence. And in Nashville, state education officials are investigating charges that some high school administrators pulled “struggling students from classes with End-of-Course exams, allegedly so that those students’ scores would not be counted in scores used to judge the schools.” One teacher testified that as far back as 2010, “immigrant students were pulled from English II—which counted against the scores for the school—and put into English IV, which did not count.” As one bold Nashville teacher put it, government officials and their education lackeys want it all: “a welcome mat rolled out for immigrants, who require numerous supports, and high graduation rates and test scores.

When I read about the Diocese of Wheeling's effort to dismiss the suit against Bishop Michael Bransfield on a legal technicality, I thought of all the other disgraceful efforts of our pathetic bench of bishops in the U.S. to avoid accountability for their egregious behavior. Absolving and protecting themselves is what they did in 2002 at Dallas when they shifted blame for sexual abuse to pastors and parents. That's what the VIRTUS program was all about -- making religious ed teachers the mandatory reporters responsible to catch sex abuse (and be held accountable if they didn't.) Even worse, then the bishohps put in classroom bad touch sex ed to make the children responsible for protecting themselves. It was shameful!

As a Catholic, I'm embarrassed to call some of our bishops "father." They have abused not only minors and young adults, but the flock in the pews. Some, like Bransfield are frauds and con men, who use Church money to feather their own nests. Bransfield treated the Diocese of Wheeling like the goose that laid the golden egg. How many others do the same?

It makes me think of the old adage, "With friends like these, who needs enemies?" Perhaps thinking about this will make all of us commit to praying and sacrificing for our bishops more faithfully, especially those who strive to serve Christ with honor and integrity.

Another adage says, "You get the leaders you deserve." I hate to think the Catholic faithful deserve bishops like McCarrick, Cupich, Wuerl, Gregory, Bransfield, and a host of others who appear to stay up nights thinking of ways to undermine the Church. I guess each of us should examine his own conscience and ask the Lord to show us how we have contributed to the dismal state of the Bride of Christ.

May God have mercy on us!