Of Power and Pointy Hats: The Next Church Scandal is about the MONEY!

I like to read the Brits' view of things and here's  a U.K. story about Wheeling and the money scandal from the Catholic Herald. 

A new report gives a disturbing insight into the way that money circulates among Church leaders. How long can it continue?

Here's a bit from the article:

“The Devil always enters by way of the pocket.” It’s a phrase that Pope Francis’s often repeats. He has it on no lesser authority than that of St Paul the Apostle, who wrote: “For the desire of money is the root of all evils; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10).  

"If the allegations against Michael J Bransfield, the former Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, as well as those regarding the scores of clerics who benefitted from his largesse, are correct, it would suggest that too many in the hierarchical leadership of the Church do not believe St Paul in any meaningful sense of the word, or else have become so used to an unseemly cultural reality that their good sense has been almost totally eclipsed."  [Read more....]

The author of the article makes some points that the laity would do well to think about:

In late August last year, I argued in these pages that reform of the warped clerical culture bent to the preservation of corrupt power was urgently necessary. “The motor of the clerical culture we have right now,” I argued, “is the intrinsically perverse libido dominandi (will to power), rather than a perversion of the libido coeundi (sex drive).” The root of the problem is power.

Indeed, power is a power-ful motivator. You can see it in the increasingly expanding group of presidential wannabees in the Democrat party. Already the long knives are being sharpened and we will soon see the spectacle of candidates cutting each other to shreds all to gain the most powerful position in the free world. For two years we've watched Democrat lying leaders trying to take down President Trump. I think they hate him most because he shows how corrupt and power mad they are and threatens their stranglehold on the country.

But it is, indeed, a particularly sad spectacle when the power mad are the men in pointy hats. Money becomes a way to secure power. Certainly McCarrick was valued as a sure source of the big bucks from America. How many other prelates? Maciel certainly used money to bolster his long tenure of corruption. Does money help explain McCarrick's long tenure when so many knew exactly how corrupt he was? And how many other men in mitres are of the same ilk? What depths are still to be plummeted in the sex and money scandals? I'm afraid we will know all too soon. In the meantime, don't bankroll the bishops. Don't give to their bogus charities that support intrinsic moral evils. Find alternatives.

Above all, pray for Holy Mother Church!