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| Poor Michael He's whining that "Everybody's trying to destroy my reputation. These people are terrible to me." Poor baby. |
Records Show Bransfield Gave $350,000 to Powerful Bishops and Cardinals. Administrator Bishop Lori got $10,500. He's going to give it back. Lots of others on the list including some surprising names.
From the article:
During his 13 years as bishop in West Virginia, one of the poorest states in the nation, Bransfield spent $2.4 million in church money on travel, much of it personal, which included flying in chartered jets and staying in luxury hotels, according to the report. Bransfield and several subordinates spent an average of nearly $1,000 a month on alcohol, it says. The West Virginia diocese paid $4.6 million to renovate Bransfield’s church residence after a fire damaged a single bathroom. When Bransfield was in the chancery, an administrative building, fresh flowers were delivered daily, at a cost of about $100 a day — almost $182,000 in all.
Bransfield, 75, drew on a source of revenue that many parishioners knew little about, oil-rich land in Texas donated to the diocese more than a century ago. He spoke of church money as if it were his to spend without restriction, according to the report.
“I own this,” he is quoted as saying on many occasions.
...Checks totaling $9,175 were sent to his nephew the Rev. Sean Bransfield, vice chancellor of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, financial records show. His cousin Monsignor Brian Bransfield, general-secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, received $1,350, the records show.Investigators in Wheeling say there was almost no financial review of how diocesan funds were spent. This is the tip of the iceberg, folks. The next big scandal in the Church will be about the money.
I read the ComPost article. It's amazing how many Bishops and Cardinals who happily took "his" money "didn't know" about him.
ReplyDeleteEven worse reading was the comments. The open hatred of the Church is appalling.
I liked the line: "The next big scandal in the Church will be about the money.".
ReplyDeleteThe big money scandal has been publicly rumbling on the US Church for decades. Various interested parties have been desperately ignoring it for decades. Michael Ryan did an excellent article back in 2005. It is a bit dated, but still relevant. Yes, Donald Wuerl pops up in that story as well, in connection with one of his priests who relieved his parish of $1.3 million between 1972 and 1998. That was real money back then. Donald was merely the humble Bishop of Pittsburg at the time.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2005_01_06/2005_06_17_Ryan_TheSecond.htm
Often sexual and financial corruption go together like horse and carriage. Usually it is the pelvic urges pulling the carriage of monetary theft. An honest priest or bishop needs only a single man's income. But if he has a boyfriend or girlfriend who demands expensive presents, holidays, meals out, etc, he obviously needs a little extra from the collection. And if you are Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee and your boyfriend turns blackmailer, you need $450,000 asap. But sometimes the theft is just down to pure greed and a taste for the rich things in life.
http://www.culturewars.com/2002/Weakland.html
In the WAPO article it mentioned that Archbishop Lori did not include his name or the names of the 11 clerics in the diocese that he gave "gifts" too. Wow, isn't that transparent?! This is only the beginning of the corruption exposure in this diocese and in the country. I would imagine that every bishop right now is shaking in his boots if he is "dirty." The meeting next week in Baltimore of the USCCB will be one heck of a "dog and pony" show indeed. The biggest problem is the fallout that continues to occur for the laity and the good clergy. May God have mercy!
ReplyDeleteMeh, so what's new with this "business" model ?
ReplyDeleteVigano took his gifts too and he is still being hailed as a hero on many catholic blog sites who bewail that he is hiding out protecting his life. I think he is protecting himself from being subpoenaed in a possible Fed RICO case.
The cosa nostra has been operating like this for a very long time.
They murder bodies, the pederast clerics murder souls.
The Master almost made it to sainthood.......
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/secrets-of-the-vatican/transcript/
Disgusting.
ReplyDeleteCurious to me there were no whistleblowers all along. A LOT OF PEOPLE knew and said nothing about this scandalous use of funds. This money was left to the diocese by a sincerely generous person and STOLEN by a steward for purely selfish purposes. Such a Judas.
Chriss....whistle blowers be they priests or laity lose their jobs.
ReplyDeleteMy friend lost hers, a rectory housekeeper in PA lost hers , Betty Clermont, an accountant lost hers after reporting embezzlement by a priest and nun in Atlanta .
The priests and seminarians who outed sodomite activities were hung out to dry in limbo.
It takes a person willing to be martyred either financially or physically to whistle blow.
The spiritual martyrdom is actually worse and all Faithful Catholics who do it for love of the Truth get wounded.