LA Times photo
Posted on 09/09/2007 4:11:34 PM PDT by NYer
In order to raise the cash to make its pederasty payment, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is selling a convent that currently provides a residence for three nuns. The anticipated selling price is a drop in the bucket of the roughly $250 million needed to keep the archbishop out of the witness box meet the Archdiocese's liabilities in the sex-abuse settlements, and the convent is one of about 50 non-parish properties to be sold. The sisters have been asked to vacate the house by the end of December.
From the point of view of the archdiocesan business office it's not an unreasonable maneuver. Spokesman Tod Tamberg says that, while the Archdiocese owns the Santa Barbara property, it has been made available to the sisters rent-free. By the same token, these nuns appear to be engaged in fairly humble, under-the-radar ministry; they wear traditional religious garb, moreover, which suggests they're unlikely to make things awkward by attracting the kind of high-profile defender the Archdiocese takes seriously.
The Archdiocesan spokesman says the good sisters just have to take one for the team:
"The pain is being spread around," Tamberg said. "We're losing our headquarters here, and none of the employees got a pay raise this year. This is just part of making it right with the victims, and we all have to share in the process even though none of us -- the nuns, myself -- harmed anybody. All of us as a church have to pay for the sins of a few people."
Well, no. Not everyone has paid. Most particularly, the persons whose duty it was to keep the victims from being victims in the first place have not paid. No episcopal head has been separated from its miter; no senior ecclesiastic (apart from those who attracted the attentions of law enforcement agencies) has been dismissed because of bad decisions he made -- and there were plenty of bad decisions.
Remember that story in the LA Times on the appalling history of LA's archdiocesan seminary, St. John's Camarillo? It noted that "about 10% of St. John's graduates reported to have been ordained in the Los Angeles Archdiocese since 1950 -- 65 of roughly 625 -- have been accused of molesting minors." Take a minute to ponder the significance of that number. It represents not just students who happened to attend St. Johns, but graduates. Not just graduates, ordained graduates. Not just ordained graduates, graduates ordained for Los Angeles. And this ten percent refers not to the number of accused abusers in total, but of those accused of abusing minors.
The 2005 article cites a former student who claimed that this same institution given to indiscretions with minors was -- by the sheerest coincidence -- simultaneously burdened by a problem with same-sex unchastity: "Luis Godinez, who briefly attended St. John's in the late 1980s, said he left because he was offended by the promiscuity on campus. He said he often could not use his dorm bathroom at night because it was occupied by men having sex."
Incredible. With a record like that, you might think the responsible bishops would be yanked and dispatched to a monastery in the Orkneys, that every administrator and faculty member would be sent packing, that the seminary itself would be dismantled. So tell me: can you think of a single rector, dean, or professor whose career has suffered, much less ended, because of his role in the St. John's fiasco? "The pain is being spread around," says Tamberg. Can't see the trail of tears leading out of Camarillo, Tod my man, and the same goes for your own boss.
In fact, with the exception of nuisances shared with lay functionaries ("none of the employees got a pay raise this year"), it isn't clear that any hardship has been visited by the Archdiocese on its own senior clergy as a consequence of the payout. Cardinal Mahony has famously described himself as a pioneer in tackling the sex-abuse problem. The frightening possibility is that he actually believes the line, and feels he and his intimates deserve to be rewarded for their accomplishments. He provided us, after all, with forward-thinking clergy like Liuzzi & Stoltz, did he not? Surely that's worth a convent or two.
"We're just so hurt by this," [Sister Angela] Escalera, the order's local superior, said this week. "And what hurts the most is what the money will be used for, to help pay for the pedophile priests. We have to sacrifice our home for that?"
Let's see that smile, Sister A. God loves a cheerful giver.
LA Times photo
Yes, it is truly disgusting. Our little parish is financially hurting. I don’t know how much we give to the LA Archdiocese, as a parish, but it is TOO much. They build the Taj Mahoney with it, toss the nuns out (happened up here in Pasadena too) (especially the ones in habits/ cannot have orthodox Catholics here in Los Angeles) and those who allowed this to happen — Cardinal Mahoney most particularly — don’t miss a beat.
Wasn’t it Augustine who said ‘the road to hell is paved with the skulls of bishops.’??? hmmmm.
Mahoney my not be the worst member ever to serve in the episcopate but he is close.
The LA and OC Dioceses are in terrible shape. They have been a haven for liberal activism and homosexual priests.
I am sorry that your parish is hurting. I understand. My home parish in the SF Valley is also struggling. It is tragic that there have never been any accusations against any of the priests at our Parish. However, they have named a modernist as Pastor and sure enough attendance is dropping.
It is almost as if our Bishops are trying to kill the Church in the US.
Hang in there! It is the same here in upstate NY and several other US dioceses. You are not alone! These bishops are rapidly approaching the end of their tenure and will soon (perhaps not soon enough for us) be retired. In the meantime, pray for them and their conversion of heart.
How sad for the order of nuns who might be getting new postulants.
“With a record like that, you might think the responsible bishops would be yanked and dispatched to a monastery in the Orkneys, that every administrator and faculty member would be sent packing, that the seminary itself would be dismantled...”
...until one realizes that the present Pope rewarded Cardinal Law of Boston, one of the most egregious offenders of the faith in the pedophile priest scandal, with a high post in Rome. Unbelievable.
A few people?
From the Jay Study
The study said that 4,392 clergymen—almost all priests—were accused of abusing 10,667 people, with 75 percent of the incidents taking place between 1960 and 1984.
Some of the allegations were undoubtedly false, but the scandal involved more than just "a few people."
Bishop Olmstead? A good man.
He does sit on a lot of committees, but none are really a "high post" -- might be more along the lines of separating him from his network and having him where he can keep an eye on him. "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."
4,392/1,000,000,000 = ?
Yes, there are many (feisty) conservative Protestants coming into the church — we number among them. We met the ‘liberal blather’ at our RCIA and knew enough theology to challenge them and speak the Truth. Had a lively discussion with the main priest one morning, who coughed up the furball that he NEVER would ‘hire’ a new priest out of the seminary — ‘They are all conservative, and that means, of course, that they are not creative.’ This engendered a lively discussion about, oh, CS Lewis and other conservative creative thinkers.
This man is close to retirement. It will not be long before the old order is gone, even in Los Angeles — and it won’t be a moment too soon.
That is one ugly church.
When we were Episcopalian, one of the priests turned down the offer of a friend and mine to teach a Sunday School class on C.S. Lewis because in his words, "I think this parish has gotten beyond Lewis."
I blasted him where he stood, starting with, "Well, for outright fatuity, that beats anything I've heard all week -- maybe all year." Things went rapidly downhill from there, but I was fighting mad and he had trouble getting a word in edgewise (never set a courthouse lawyer off!)
Yes, it’s an ugly Church, but it would make a lovely art gallery. I understand it is architecturally significant and what better way to utilize it than to make it into an art gallery/performance hall/jazz bistro. Go here for comparisons:
http://dallasmuseumofart.org/Dallas_Museum_of_Art/index.htm
If the Diocese sold this monstrosity it could buy back the original Cathedral from the developer who has fixed it up and repaired it (for far less than the Diocese estimated). Mahony’s legacy to himself is the ultimate in selfishness. How many people has he trampled on to satisfy his desires? These poor nuns are just the latest victims. I find it a real “coincidence” that they are traditional and wear the traditional habit, and they are the ones being asked to leave their home. Mahony’s treatment of Mother Angelica was shocking, so I’m really not surprised that they are the ones being picked on. (Actually, I guess what’s surprising is that they were allowed in his Diocese at all! They must have been there first.)
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely” and Mahony is a prime example. May he have a conversion of heart before it’s too late!
It is impossible to "realize" a falsehood.
Dynamite the hideous thing ... then build a Cathedral on the land.
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