Running Off At The Keyboard

E-MAIL FROM REV. WEEKS, OSB

August 28, 2004

I recently read some of the propaganda and lies you have on your pages concerning my person. I wonder why you did not follow up by telling your audience that all charges were dropped by the Alameda County District Attorney?

I have nothing to do with Gnostic Churches or associations.

I am not a member of the White Robed Benedictines

I know that there is noting I can do about your accusations and innuendoes, but someday you will have to answer for them.

Weeks, OSB

==================================

Apparently he missed my blog on Monday, August 2, so here it is again.

UPDATE ON CHARGES AGAINST REV. WEEKS

In March/April, 2004 I linked a number of stories about Rev. Weeks. After yesterday's email, I looked online this morning for more information. I found this about the arrest and charges. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

OAKLAND/Sex charges against priest are dropped/Insufficient proof alleged victim had affair as a minor By: Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer - San Francisco Chronicle -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, April 21, 2004 (SF Chronicle) Alameda County prosecutors dropped molestation charges Tuesday against an Oakland priest who briefly had given shelter to convicted sex offender Cary Verse.

Deputy District Attorney Tim Wellman said there "was insufficient evidence" to prove the alleged victim was a minor when he had sex with The Rev. Donald Weeks.

At Wellman's request, Judge Winifred Smith dropped all 24 counts of oral copulation with a minor that had been filed against Weeks on March 30.

Wellman said that Weeks might have had a sexual relationship with the alleged victim in the 1990s, but "we felt we could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that sex occurred while the victim was still a minor."

Weeks, who is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, was arrested at his St. Patrick's Abbey in East Oakland on charges he had oral sex with the boy from April 1994 to March 1996.

The alleged victim, now is now in his mid-20s, said he had met Weeks while he was a troubled teenager and had sex with him at least once a month for about two years.

But Weeks and his attorney, John Burris, said after court Tuesday that they had presented prosecutors with evidence showing the priest had been in San Diego until September 1996 and therefore had not had a sexual relationship with his accuser as a minor.

"Any reasonable investigation by the Oakland Police Department would have shown that it could not have happened in the location or the time period in which the allegations were made," Burris said. "There was no crime. There was no underage victim. This all could have been proven without arresting Father Weeks and ruining his life. ...

"Any reasonable investigation by the Oakland Police Department would have shown that it could not have happened in the location or the time period in which the allegations were made," Burris said. "There was no crime. There was no underage victim. This all could have been proven without arresting Father Weeks and ruining his life." Weeks told reporters that during the March 30 search of the abbey, police had violated its sanctity, scattering sacred relics and the wafers of bread that represent the body of Jesus Christ in Catholic tradition. Weeks and the abbey are affiliated with the Old Catholic Church, which broke away from the Roman Catholics in 1889.

Go to the website to read the rest of the article.

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Also indicates that charges against Weeks have been dismissed:

OAKLAND - Unlawful sex charges were dismissed this morning against the Rev. Donald Weeks, who drew a storm of controversy last month for allowing convicted sex offender Cary Verse to live at the monastery and halfway house he directed.

Deputy District Attorney Timothy Wellman told an Alameda County Superior Court judge this morning there was "insufficient evidence" to support the 24 counts of oral copulation with a minor that had been filed against Weeks, 60.

The decision prompted defense attorney John Burris to say Weeks' March 30 arrest was the result of a "targeted, selective police investigation aimed at ruining" Weeks' ability to operate St. Patrick's Abbey. , Weeks directed for five years the transitional housing facility for recovering addicts, parolees and others. ...

Burris [Week's attorney] said the dismissal came after he submitted documents showing allegations at the center of the case could not be true.

A 26-year-old man who accused Weeks of engaging in sexual acts with him when he was a minor told police investigators that the illegal acts took place in 1994, 1995 and early 1996 at Weeks' prior residence on 73rd Avenue in Oakland, Burris said.

But Burris said he was able to show that Weeks lived elsewhere during this time period and did not move into the 73rd Avenue residence until August 1996 - when the accuser was 18.

==========================================

Incidentally, Opus Bono Sacerdotii still seems to have him on their website in spite of the fact that he is neither a Roman Catholic nor an Eastern Catholic priest in communion with the Pope.

CHESS AND GNOSIS

For those of you who read Harry Potter, remember the chess game at the end of book 1? You might like to take at look at this website.

E-MAIL FROM LEE PENN

Most of my list members are conservative ... but who knows where e-mail goes after it is sent? Pass this on to anyone who needs to see it.

First, an article from miguel de Portugal, written in 2003; the same situation applies now:

NO to Anarchy

And links to two articles from the libertarian antiwar site antiwar.com:

First this:

Rage Against the Machine- by Justin Raimondo

then this, about the Commie-led protest groups:

LA Weekly: Features: Give Protests a Chance

At the end of the story ....

Quote:

"Goldberg, Kollenberg, Philips, Wallace and thousands of others like them who conduct peace vigils and living-room anti-war talks all over the country will be marching over the next few days in New York, oblivious to any calls to get the U.S. out of Korea or to free Mumia. They will be there to call for an end to the Bush administration, and to the war, even if they follow a banner unfurled by members of the Workers World Party. They may be the answer, even if ANSWER is not.

“I find I talk to everybody now,” Kollenberg explained. “Whether it’s the termite man or the person I’m sitting next to on the plane. People are against the war, and we have to do what we can to get the message out.”

Let us pray.

Kyrie eleison.

Lee

YESTERDAY'S OLD WOMAN JOKE

Here is what the old woman is really crying about in yesterday's old woman joke...

When I went to lunch today, I noticed an old woman sitting on a park bench sobbing her eyes out. I stopped and asked her what was wrong.

She said, "I have an old husband at home. He still arranges an evening out and gets the tickets himself. He compliments me when I get dressed up, sometimes even with his eyes."

I said, "Well, then why are you crying?"

She said: "He helps me carry in the groceries and still notices when I wear new clothes or get my hair cut. He doesn't think a garbage disposal is a Christmas present."

I said, "Then why are you crying?"

She said, "He tells me dinner was good even if I burn the peas. He kisses me goodnight and doesn't mind if I tease him mildly about what we didn't do. He does small household chores for me without being asked, when he knows I'm running late."

I said, "That's certainly no reason to cry!"

She said, "He changes the light bulbs and the empty roll of toilet tissue. He laughs at my jokes about the stupid things he did before I 'saved' him. He gives me the remote."

I said, "Why in the world would you be crying?"

She said, "I can't remember where I live."

FREEMASONRY, A & E, AND THE HISTORY CHANNEL WORKING TOGETHER ?

Check out this Masonic Videos website.

ON THE LIGHT SIDE

A friend sent me

THE SENILITY PRAYER

Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.


My friend also included another little gem that should only be read if you are female and past 55!

When I went to lunch today, I noticed an old lady sitting on a park bench sobbing her eyes out. I stopped and asked her what was wrong.

She said, "I have a 22 year old husband at home. He makes love to me every morning and then gets up and makes me pancakes, sausage, fresh fruit and freshly ground coffee."

I said, "Well, then why are you crying?"

She said, "He makes me homemade soup for lunch and my favorite brownies and then makes love to me for half the afternoon."

I said, "Well, why are you crying?"

She said, "For dinner he makes me a gourmet meal with wine and my favorite dessert and then makes love to me until 2:00 a.m."

I said, "Well, why in the world would you be crying?"

She said, "I can't remember where I live!"

E-MAIL FROM LEE PENN

You, dear readers, get to interpret Olasky's theology .... especially as it applies to those who are not Evangelical Protestants. You might also ponder his understanding of history and of current events.

Marvin Olasky: Born-again vs. perfect

Quote:
===============================================
My point, having lived through the 1960s-1970s confusion, is that the era was not one of uncommon resolution, at least not of the patriotic variety. I relished my high draft lottery number. George W. Bush played it smart like John Kerry and found a soft gig. He and I took different rotten paths -- he drank heavily, I became a communist -- but both of us could say the same thing: "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible."

The other thing both of us can and do say is that we did not save ourselves: God alone saves sinners (and I can surely add, of whom I was the worst). Being born again, we don't have to justify ourselves. Being saved, we don't have to be saviors.

John Kerry, once-born, has no such spiritual support, nor do most of his top admirers in the heavily secularized Democratic Party. It would be great if he could say: "I was young and vainglorious and often self-absorbed. I exaggerated and lied at times, and since then have thought it necessary not to disavow the fantasies I wove. But I do deserve credit for being there and serving my country in a mixed-up era in which I at times was also mixed-up."

Kerry can't say that because he evidently does not believe that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He and his handlers portray him as virtually perfect in the past and omniscient in the present. In and of itself, that's also not unusual: it's so hard for a presidential candidate not to get puffed up when laudatory remarks follow him as closely as Secret Service agents. But do we want a president who pretends that he can do no wrong and never has?

What's relevant now is that George Bush did not receive his party's nomination for what he did over three decades ago, but John Kerry did. That's why we need to get to the bottom of what the swift boat vets are saying. The original exaggeration is not the problem. The current cover-up attempt is, because that goes to the heart of what kind of president we could expect John Kerry to be.

=============================================

I find this column to be extremely revealing, and it deserves a wide audience.

Kyrie eleison.

Lee

GNOSTIC JESUS

Check out the pictures at Novus Ordo Watch. Especially this Gnostic Jesus. Here's an enlargement. Scroll down and over. Notice no cross. No signs of crucifixion except vague dark spots on hands and feet. Lots of streaming light. This is NOT Catholic.

REMEMBER MAY 4TH !

and stifle the youthful enthusiasm that threatens to repeat it.

But youthful enthusiasm is never stifled because it never entertains a moment of doubt.

Chaos magick waits in the wings again. Will it make a grand entrance? All that is needed is a magician hidden in the crowd with the wand of transformation. Bright young faces look to a charismatic leader and follow like children behind the Pied Piper, warm bodies easily manipulated by anyone unscrupulous enough to take advantage of them.

Lee Penn sent in the link.

GNOSTICISM: NEW LIGHT ON THE ANCIENT TRADITION OF INNER KNOWING

by Stephan A. Hoeller

Published in 2002 by Quest Books, a Theosoophical Publishing House, this book by Stephan Hoeller, Bishop of the Gnostic Catholic Church, is hailed in the Preface as "a concise and sympathetic presentation of the teachings and spiritual ambience of the Gnostic tradition". It traverses lightly a lot of familiar ground.

The most interesting and surprising concept to emerge from the book is one concerning a verification of the Catholic story of Adam and Eve and the serpent; though the objective of the book is not to affirm the Catholic version, but rather to present the Gnostic version.

On p. 27-28, Hoeller presents Eve as the messenger of the divine sophia, and states that most Gnostic literature sees her as superior to Adam. She is said to "bring man to life."

Hoeller defines Gnosticism by listing 14 principles of which he says "At least the first ten of the fourteen points may be considered wholly authoritative, even in a non-Christian Gnostic sense, and thus the absence of any of them from a person's worldview might disqualify him or her as a Gnostic." (p. 189) Among these first 10 essential principles is the following:

9. Among those aiding the slumbering sparks, a particular position of honor and importance belongs to a feminine emanation of the unity, Sophia (Wisdom). She was involved in the creation of the world and ever since has remained the guide of her orphaned human children.

To summarize: Sophia/Eve is superior to Adam/man, and was involved in the creation of the world.

Yet we are also told:

2. The manifest universe of matter and mind was created not by the original spiritual unity but by spiritual beings possessing inferior powers.

Thus Sophia, since she was "involved with creation" must be an "inferior power" who is nevertheless thought to be superior to man and a feminine emanation of "the unity" which is God.

Hoeller continues:

3. One of the objectives of these creators is the perpetual separation of humans from the unity (God).

There, in summary, is the Christian story of Eden told from the perspective of the entity behind the voice of the serpent. From a Christian cosmology, Eve, to whom Adam foolishly listened when he was presented with forbidden fruit, took her cues from the serpent who represents Satan. Eve has done the work of the beings who wish to oppose God. That is the Catholic belief. That, apparently, is also the Gnostic belief. Yet the Gnostics elevate Eve/Sophia to the status of Divine Feminine. The serpent, too, told Eve she would become like a God. These passages can be found on p. 187-189 of Hoeller's book.

There was one jaw-dropper in the book. Hoeller says:

Sophiology...received a monumental boost in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries largely through the work of Vladimir S. Soloviev, a Russian philosopher and poet who was deeply influenced by ancient Gnostic ideas. (p. 52)

The book, of course, is favorable to these ideas. I've found this reference to the impact on Soloviev made by the Gnostic concept of Sophia in other books. In fact, Soloviev had two encounters with this feminine spirit in his lifetime. But what makes finding this reference in Hoeller's book a jaw-dropper is this.

Not only does Hoeller mention this philosopher--Soloviev--whom John Paul II admires, but another philosopher as well...Nicolai Berdyaev.

George Weigel in his biography of the Pope on p. 568-569, says:

...Nicolai Berdyaev, Sergei Bulgakov, and Simon Frank. ...These thinkers...familiarized the Pope with the religious core of Russian culture and convinced him that Russia had much to give the world.

Hoeller says of Berdyaev:

In the Gnostic view, neither human society nor the natural world is salvific, because the reality of both is derivative rather than primary. Nikolay Berdyaev, a modern philosopher with many Gnostic affinities, expressed this cogently: "The natural world, society, the state, the nation and the rest are partial, and their claim to totality is an enslaving lie, which is born of the idolatry of men." (p. 78-79)

Another interesting bit of information to emerge from Hoeller's book...

In The Da Vinci Code Brown recounts the tale of Priory of Sion documents found in a library in Paris. According to the books that decode Da Vinci, those documents were placed there in 1956. Apparently other Gnostic documents have mysteriously appeared in libraries as well. Hoeller says:

Beginning in the late eighteenth century, three collections of original Gnostic writings appeared in various institutions in England and Europe. How they managed to remain concealed for some sixteen hundred years and then suddenly made their appearance is one of history's mysteries. (p. 195)

The three documents: the Askew Codex, the Bruce Codex, the Berlin or Akhmim Codex. From these documents comes The Gospel of Mary [Magdalene], the Pistis Sophia, The Gnosis of the Invisible God or The Books of Jeu, The Untitled Apocalypse.

The Gospel of Mary and the Pistis Sophia loom large in The Da Vinci Code.

In speculating on a possible source of the Nag Hammadi Library, Hoeller offers:

The exact location of the find has remained a matter of speculation. Some suspect that the discovery was really made in one of the many caves found in the mountain range that overlooks the Nag Hammadi valley, for it was in this area that the founder of Christian monasticism, the Coptic monk Pachomius, had established his large monastic community. Very likely the thirteen papyrus codices that comprise what has been named the Nag Hammadi Library constituted some of the less orthodox reading material of the monks at this monastery. When in the fourth century a wave of religious persecution swept through Egypt, the anxious monks may have decided to bury their heretical books. (p. 198)

Then there is a reference to the content of the Bruce Codex which:

...recounts an amazing visionary journey in which Jesus takes his disciples into the inner worlds and bestows spiritual initiations on them. The text is filled with diagrams and magical sigils accompanied by verbal formulas that are either in an unknown tongue, or represent examples of "glossolalia" (speaking in tongues). The treatise was puzzling to earlier scholars and at times has been derisively called magical. (p. 195-196)

Some additional ideas presented by Hoeller that may have impact on Catholic belief if they appear in other books modeled on TDVC:

In a section sub-titled "Bardaisan of Edessa: The Gnostic Statesman" is this passage:

The summary of Bardaisan's teachings in the Book of the Laws of Countries shows distinct features of classical Gnosticism. ...

Bardaisan was opposed to the Christian teaching of the resurrection of the flesh. In his view, the material body returns to matter. The soul, on the other hand, has a kind of conditional immortality...

Bardaisan is in many ways a seminal figure of what later came to be called the St. Thomas school of Christianity. Tradition holds that St. Thomas the Apostle was the first to bring Christianity to Syria, and he is considered the founder and patron saint of the Syrian Orthodox Church both in the Middle East and in India. Bardaisan was also clearly the first public leader of Christianity in Syria, having even brought about the establishment of Christianity as a state religion there. ...

The question remains: Did Bardaisan or his disciples interpolate these and other poetic pieces into the Acts of Thomas, or did Bardaisan receive many of his Gnostic teachings from the school of Thomas? In view of the picture of Thomas as the Gnostic apostle par excellence that emerges from the Nag Hammadi collection, the latter seems more likely. (p. 107-109)

This same group of St. Thomas Christians have been brought into the Catholic fold under John Paul II.

Anyone who reads Gnostic material soon discovers Valentinus. Hoeller says of this Gnostic:

Educated in Alexandria, in his prime years he transferred his residence to Rome, where he achieved high prominence in the Christian community between the years 135 and 160. Tertullian writes that Valentinus was a candidate for the office of bishop of Rome and lost the election by a rather narrow margin. Tertullian, who himself joined the heresy of Montanism, alleges that Valentinus fell into apostasy around 175. There is evidence, however, that he was never universally condemned as a heretic in his lifetime and that he remained a respected member of the Christian community until his death. He was almost certainly a priest in the mainstream church and may even have been a bishop. (p. 113)

...the myth of Sophia in particular, with all of its rich detail and dramatic elaborations, is largely the work of Valentinus. (p. 115)

Those who object to ligurgical dance will find this interesting:

The hymn ["Hymn of Jesus"] is a poem of undoubted Gnostic content that as noted in chapter 7, is sung by Jesus and the apostles while they perform a mystic dance on the night of Maundy Thursday. Sacred dances are notably absent from Christian ritual, and to the orthodox mind the image of Jesus dancing may appear sacrilegious even today. The Ethiopian Coptic Church, however, does include a sacred dance in its Eucharist. Who is to say whether this might not be a remnant of Coptic Gnostic practice, similar to the one described in the "Hymn of Jesus"? (p. 194)

Those are the major portions of the book that parallel Catholic beliefs. There are other minor points made that could disturb an unsuspecting Catholic who might find them in some future Gnostic novel. It's not going to serve us well to ignore this material in the hope it will go away. It's gaining strength daily, and the Church is going to have to find a way to address it, especially when the same philosophers are lauded by both pope and Gnostic bishop.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

AN OLYMPIC MOMENT

When you see the word "PLAY" click on it. (I found it funnier when run without the sound.)

WE ARE ALL PAGANS NOW

A reader sends in this article from Forward Newspaper, by David Klinghoffer in which he says, among other things:

The subtler influences of paganism are evident across the culture. You can't take a plane, train or subway without seeing at least one or two people reading Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," 72 weeks at the top of The New York Times best-seller list and counting, a book notable for its admiring treatment of pagan goddess worship. Besides Jesus' previously undisclosed genetic legacy - he had a wife and child - the other bogus secret related here has to do with how Christianity tragically displaced the wonderful ancient religion of the goddess.

In the course of the novel, Brown includes an awestruck rendition of the pagan Great Rite, the Hieros Gamos or "sacred marriage" - sexual intercourse performed before worshippers, between a man representing the god and a woman representing the goddess. Goddess spirituality, in Brown's celebratory view, is coming back. "The pendulum is swinging," his fictional hero, Harvard "symbologist" Robert Langdom prophesied. "We are beginning to sense the need to restore the sacred feminine."

In the "Why should you care" department, Klinghoffer offers this analysis:

You should care because a country like ours that doesn't regard its norms as absolutes - as good and true, and therefore worth defending - will lack the will to defeat those who would terrorize her.

Our concepts of good and evil are grounded primarily in our religious faith. A Christian culture takes its lead from the Commandments, and we have learned to take our definition of good and evil based on Scripture for granted. But other faiths can define them differently, as militant Islam is showing us. In fact, we, ourselves, can come to be defined as the personification of evil and subject to elimination.

A culture that does not have difficulty with the Hieros Gamos as religious rite has already come to redefine good in sexual terms that are not compatible with the Judeo-Christian ethic. The Pagans in our midst - the Wiccans in the park performing a ritual, for instance, sometimes including nuns unfortunately - are showing us that culturally we are no longer Judeo-Christian. What may come to be defined as "good" if Paganism eventually predominates can be discovered by reading history. It may come as a shock to a great many unsuspecting Americans.

E-MAIL FROM DR. BOND

Dear Friends,

Alan Hicks, the former headmaster of St. Gregory's Academy, has been hired by Gateway Academy, a Legionnaires of Christ school in Chesterfield, Missouri (a suburb of St. Louis). Hicks will be the principal of the high school.

It is nothing short of incredible that this man, who allowed the predator priests of the Society of St. John free access to the boys under his care, has been hired by another Catholic school. Hicks' role in the Society of St. John scandal in the Diocese of Scranton has been fully documented on our web site at http://www.saintjustinmartyr.org/news/notices_VIII.html. Concerned parties should also contact me for copies of the most recent documents filed in the sexual abuse federal lawsuit brought by a former student at St. Gregory's Academy.

We have the Fraternity of St. Peter to thank for the fact that another group of young Catholics will be subjected to the misdirection of Alan Hicks. Had the Fraternity fired Hicks for his negligence as headmaster at St. Gregory's Academy, other Catholic schools around the country might have had fair warning about Hicks. As it is, the Fraternity has apparently worked out an arrangement with Hicks that has allowed him to present himself as a legitimate Catholic educator. In an effort to cover its own institutional backside, the Fraternity has protected Hicks in hopes of reducing its own responsibility for the victims of sexual abuse. The Fraternity, like the Diocese of Scranton, has its eye on money, not souls.

One question remains: Does the administration at Gateway Academy realize whom they have hired? Perhaps they do. The school is not new to the problem of sexual abuse, for its former Dean of Students was charged with molesting his own children. Moreover, it is well known that the founder of the Legionnaires of Christ, Fr. Marcial Maciel, has been accused by nine men of sexually abusing them years ago as young seminarians.

Pax vobiscum,

Dr. Jeffrey M. Bond

SECOND PART OF LEE'S E-MAIL ON CARDINAL BERNARDIN

More data on the Cardinal who was, for a time, the most powerful influence on the RCC in the US.

There is a wide evidence trail here. Let those with the data come forward, and let those with the resources to investigate, do so.

From Bernardin to the Legionaries and beyond .... so many charges of hierarchical corruption remain open, and need to be definitively resolved. Let the trail be followed wherever it leads, to the left, or to the right ... or to the halls of the Vatican.

Lee
=========================================================
First, this post from the Catholic World News blog:

Catholic World News (CWN)
http://www.cwnews.com/offtherecord/offtherecord.cfm

"I am Joseph, your brother."Psychotherapist Richard Sipe, a frequent commentator on sexual misconduct by Catholic clergy, gave an address at a LinkUp conference last year in which he re-opened the controversy surrounding the late archbishop of Chicago (note: Bernardin was earlier Archbishop of Cincinnati; the Josephinum is a seminary in Columbus, Ohio):

A sad, and as yet unsolved, chapter of the sexual abuse saga in the United States is the story of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. This man probably did die a saint, as his close friends attest. Without doubt, he did many wonderful things for the Church in America.

In the media flurry that surrounded the allegation of sexual abuse, an impertinent reporter asked the Cardinal, "Are you living a sexually active life?" A simple "no" would have been sufficient. But the Cardinal said, "I am sixty-five years old, and I have always lived a chaste and celibate life."

However defensible in the arena of public assault, I knew that the statement was not unassailably true. Years before, several priests who were associates of Bernardin prior to his move to Chicago revealed that they had "partied" together; they talked about their visits to the Josephinum to socialize with seminarians.

It is a fact that Bernardin's accuser did not ever retract his allegations of abuse by anyone's account other than Bernardin's. If, as reported, three million dollars were paid in handling the scandal, certainly there are still informed people in Chicago who know at least part of the story. And the story is complex. It holds repercussions far beyond Chicago and one allegation.

I speak of this only as an example -- a clue -- to a mystery. This should not be sensational. Rather, it should be an occasion for the Church to divine an important pattern of its sexual operation.

While the verbs "partied" and "socialize" are ambiguous, Sipe makes it clear that he is using them to confute Bernardin's claim to have lived a chaste and celibate life; in context, they allege homosexual dalliance of some sort. Why is this significant? Because unlike most of Bernardin's detractors, Sipe has impeccable liberal credentials; he can't be dismissed as a right-wing muckraker -- indeed, he aligns himself with those who regard Bernardin as a saint. Moreover, Sipe claims to have had knowledge of his misbehavior antecedent to the public accusations against Bernardin, and this directly from the priests who misbehaved in his company. Any impartial student of the controversy would have to take Sipe's evidence seriously.

It is almost impossible to over-estimate the importance of Cardinal Bernardin to the U.S. Catholic Church; on that point his critics and admirers are unanimous. Like Bismarck or Stalin or Richard Daley, he created and presided over a bureaucracy whose impersonality became his personal tool, and the way the USCCB does business bears his stamp to this day.

What is the business of the USCCB? It does two things superlatively well: it foils or neutralizes Roman initiatives (disciplinary, educative, liturgical) aimed at the U.S., and it diffuses -- and thus eliminates -- episcopal accountability. The Marshall seminary visitation and the Vatican intervention against Hunthausen are examples of the first; the Women's Pastoral and the subterfuge behind The Many Faces of AIDS are examples of the second. The reflexive mendacity by which the episcopal apparat turned sex abuse crimes into a sex abuse cover-up can be attributed in equal measure to both.

And that is why credible evidence of Bernardin's unacknowledged appetites is important to the puzzle -- "a clue," as Sipe says, "to a mystery."

======================================================

Here is the link to Sipe's speech to a LINKUP conference in 2003, with relevant extracts. (LINKUP is a support group for survivors of clergy abuse):

Voice Of the Faithful
http://www.votf.org/Survivor_Support/sipe.html

The whole speech is very much worth reading. But here follow the Bernardin-related quotes:

"And the Catholic Church has cancer. And that cancer is its culture of deceit. Sexual abuse of minors by bishops and priests is but one symptom of the disease process."

and

"Sexual corruption is conferred from the top down - from men in power. Abuse would have no standing or durability if this were not so. Experience — fact — proves it. The complete extent of the pattern has yet to be exposed."

and

"Many bishops state in depositions that they were never aware of any problem before 1985 (the date of the Doyle, Peterson, Mouton Report). However, in 1992, the then President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the United States Catholic Conference, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, and I quote, that report "presented no new issue of which the NCCB was unaware or presented information that required some materially different response." A direct example of the cultural attitude: when Bishop John Ricard was Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore, one of his priests chided him for a misstatement. The bishop defended his action: "Look, Father, I only lie when I have to." He is not the only bishop to utter those exact words."

and

"A sad, and as yet unsolved, chapter of the sexual abuse saga in the United States is the story of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. This man probably did die a saint, as his close friends attest. Without doubt, he did many wonderful things for the Church in America.

In the media flurry that surrounded the allegation of sexual abuse, an impertinent reporter asked the Cardinal, "Are you living a sexually active life?" A simple "no" would have been sufficient. But the Cardinal said, "I am sixty-five years old, and I have always lived a chaste and celibate life."

However defensible in the arena of public assault, I knew that the statement was not unassailably true. Years before, several priests who were associates of Bernardin prior to his move to Chicago revealed that they had "partied" together; they talked about their visits to the Josephinum to socialize with seminarians.

It is a fact that Bernardin's accuser did not ever retract his allegations of abuse by anyone's account other than Bernardin's.

If, as reported, three million dollars were paid in handling the scandal, certainly there are still informed people in Chicago who know at least part of the story. And the story is complex. It holds repercussions far beyond Chicago and one allegation.

I speak of this only as an example — a clue — to a mystery. This should not be sensational. Rather, it should be an occasion for the Church to divine an important pattern of its sexual operation. The principle players must speak for themselves. But getting to the heart of the Church's sexual crisis is like solving a mystery. And it is important for her integrity that truth not be stifled by silence and subterfuge.

There are clues beyond victims. There are clues beyond documents. You who courageously have been willing to tell your stories provide many clues about the culture of deceit. Unfortunately, other clues have had to be wrested from unwilling testimony and uncooperative witnesses.

There have been a few heroic priests who have given witness to how the sexual system of the church works. One courageous bishop said years ago what we all know now — that one reason the American bishops have been slow to deal with sexual abuse of minors is because some of them have been involved themselves."

and

"Why is the fight so furious? Why is the struggle to keep FACTS buried so vigorous? Important clues exist in the genealogy of abuse. I have bean able to trace victims of clergy and bishop abuse to the third generation.

Often, the history of clergy abusers reveals that the priest himself was abused – sometimes by a priest. The abuse may have occurred when the priest was a child, but not necessarily.

Sexual activity between an older priest and an adult seminarian or young priest sets up a pattern of institutional secrecy. When one of the parties rises to a position of power, his friends are in line also for recommendations and advancement.

The dynamic is not limited to homosexual liaisons. Priests and bishops who know about each other's sexual affairs with women, too, are bound together by draconian links of sacred silence. A system of blackmail reaches into the highest corridors of the American hierarchy and the Vatican and thrives because of this network of sexual knowledge and relationships.

Secrecy flourishes, like mushrooms on a dank dung pile, even among good men in possession of the facts of the dynamic, but who cannot speak lest they violate the Scarlet Bond.

I have interviewed at length a man who was a sexual partner of Bishop James Rausch. This was particularly painful for me since Rausch and I were young priests together in Minnesota in the early 60s. He went on to get his social work degree and succeeded Bernardin as Secretary of the Bishops' National Conference in DC. He became Bishop of Phoenix.

It is patently clear that he had an active sexual life. It did involve at least one minor. He was well acquainted with priests who were sexually active with minors (priests who had at least 30 minor victims each). He referred at least one of his own victims to these priests.

What was his sexual genealogy? What are the facts of his celibate/sexual development and practice? Did those who knew him know nothing of his life? Perhaps so! But he was in a spectacular power grid of bright men. He was Bernardin's successor at the US Conference. Bishop Thomas Kelly at Louisville was his successor. Msgr. Daniel Hoye and Bishop Robert Lynch, among others, took over his job.

Let me be perfectly clear. I am not saying or implying in any way that these men were partners in "crime" with Jim Rausch. But I am saying that anyone who sets out to solve a mystery has to ask people who knew the principal, "What, if anything, did you know or observe about the alleged perpetrator?"

====================================================

Here is a link to two testimonies, one from the left and one from the right, on the power of Cardinal Bernardin:

http://www.mosquitonet.com/~prewett/bernardin.html
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~prewett/bernardin.html

====================================================
Here is a more recent post on the Catholic World Report blog. It contains many, many links. (If the links do not come through in the e-mail, go to the original blog site):

Catholic World News (CWN)
http://www.cwnews.com/offtherecord/offtherecord.cfm

My main dissent from Diogenes' commentary is that he focuses on "politically astute gay bishops." I agree with Sipe that the network of the Scarlet Bond is far broader, and includes heterosexual as well as homosexual violations of celibacy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a spectacular power grid

As noted below, Richard Sipe has voiced his conviction that the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was untruthful in his claim to have lived chastely and has suggested his success at escaping responsibility for his homosexual lapses may provide a "clue" to a larger puzzle. To his credit, Sipe appealed for an honest appraisal of the connection between the sexual misdeeds of churchmen in powerful positions and the cover-ups -- personal and institutional -- perpetrated by men they recruited, groomed, and promoted:

I have interviewed at length a man who was a sexual partner of Bishop James Rausch. This was particularly painful for me since Rausch and I were young priests together in Minnesota in the early 60s. He went on to get his social work degree and succeeded Bernardin as Secretary of the Bishops' National Conference in DC. He became Bishop of Phoenix.

It is patently clear that he had an active sexual life. It did involve at least one minor. He was well acquainted with priests who were sexually active with minors (priests who had at least 30 minor victims each). He referred at least one of his own victims to these priests.

What was his sexual genealogy? What are the facts of his celibate/sexual development and practice? Did those who knew him know nothing of his life? Perhaps so! But he was in a spectacular power grid of bright men. He was Bernardin's successor at the US Conference. Bishop Thomas Kelly at Louisville was his successor. Msgr. Daniel Hoye and Bishop Robert Lynch, among others, took over his job.

Let me be perfectly clear. I am not saying or implying in any way that these men were partners in "crime" with Jim Rausch. But I am saying that anyone who sets out to solve a mystery has to ask people who knew the principal, "What, if anything, did you know or observe about the alleged perpetrator?"

I think Sipe is right on both counts. We don't need to jump to a Grand Unified Theory of conspiracy in order to recognize corruption; ordinary self-interest can account for particular incidents of ad hoc collusion by which gay bishops who are sexually compromised take care of their own. By the same token, it is absurd to pretend that politically astute gay bishops in key positions of influence could have been unaware of the liabilities of the men they advanced, defended, and perjured themselves for.

To anyone who has paid attention to the major players in the Crisis, Sipe's roster of Bernardin cronies is striking. For a glimpse of the Southwest Triangle (Rausch, O'Brien, Moreno) go here, here, here, here, and here. For Robert Lynch's connections, go here and here. Thomas Kelly, whose archdiocese now has problems of its own, winked through Rudy Kos's annulment (in spite of his wife's insistence he was a pedophile), clearing his way into the Dallas seminary headed by Michael Sheehan, who later became Archbishop of Santa Fe. A power grid indeed!

It is beyond dispute that most U.S. bishops are unwilling to take corrective action against the Bernardin junta, and those who might be willing are incapable. Vatican intervention, such as the "new and serious" seminary visitation, is unlikely to effect more than marginal adjustments. By all indications Bishop Lynch will still be rubbing-down triathletes, in excellent episcopal standing, when Always Our Children goes into its 11th edition. Of course, this is not to suggest that the fullness of Catholic Faith isn't being implemented strenuously at every level of the hierarchy -- indeed we have Bishop Wilton Gregory's personal assurance to the contrary

=========================================================

I have Greeley's book Furthermore! beside me. I have reviewed the relevant material from the hard copy, and here it is.

Page 80, main text:

"But even in Chicago, the ring of predators about whom I wrote in the paperback edition of Confessions remains untouched. There is no evidence against them because no one has complained about them and none of their fellow priests have denounced them. [47] Those who have been removed are for the most part lone offenders who lacked the skill to cover their tracks. The ring is much more clever. Perhaps they always will be. But should they slip, should they get caught, the previous scandals will seem trivial. Others like them still flourish all around the country."

Footnote 47, on p. 80:

"They are a dangerous group. There is reason to believe that they are responsible for at least one murder and may perhaps have been involved in the murder of the murderer. Am I afraid of them? Not particularly. They know I have in safekeeping information which would implicate them. I am more of a threat to them dead than alive."

Andrew M. Greeley, Furthermore! Memories of a Parish Priest, Tom Doherty Associates, 1999.

On the dust cover of the book, Greeley gives his e-mail address: agreel@aol.com

The same e-mail address is listed on Greeley's web site:

Father Andrew Greeley's Web Page
http://www.agreeley.com/

=========================================================
Here, to finish this collection, is a link to an investigative article by Stephen Brady of Roman Catholic Faithful. Beneath the overheated and partisan rhetoric, the awful facts remain .....

THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE BERNARDIN LEGACY - RCF
http://www.rcf.org/docs/beginningoftheend.htm

=========================================================

E-MAIL FROM LEE ON CARDINAL BERNARDIN

(Lee sent this out to his list while my computer was down, so some of you may already know about it. Let me apologize in advance for not making the links active. In the interests of getting the post up, I've opted to save time and just post it the way Lee sent it. - ct)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For your information, a collection of stories alleging the existence of a ring of priestly murderers and ritual abusers in the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.

Please circulate this information widely. Maybe if there is sufficient hue and cry, someone will talk.

Even if these allegations come from "right wing" sources ... they still need investigation. What decent person, left or right, can countanance murder and rape, or conceal evidence of crime?

Anyone who has relevant evidence should bring it forward.

NOW!

Lee

==========================================================

First, this:

Catholic Citizens

=========================================================
ATTORNEY CHALLENGES CHICAGO PRIEST - AUTHOR TO EXPOSE "RING OF PREDATORS"

8/15/2004 9:01:00 PM

By Matt Abbott - www.christiannewstoday.com

The clergy sex abuse scandal that has shaken the American Catholic Church in the last few years continues to make news nationwide and here in Illinois.

Sheila Schreiber-Parkhill, a noted Catholic attorney who currently resides in Bismarck, North Dakota, has challenged priest-author and sociologist Father Andrew Greeley to reveal the information he claims to have in “safekeeping” about the activities of a clergy sex/pedophile ring that may have been involved with the 1984 unsolved murder of Chicago musician and professor Francis E. Pellegrini.

The following is a significant portion of the letter that Parkhill e-mailed to Greeley on May 6 regarding the aforementioned matter. To date, Greeley has not responded.

Dear Father Greeley:

I have followed your career and writings for many years now, reading the many stories you’ve written about the sexual abuse crisis in our Church, the problems, the solutions, stories you have written denouncing the bishops and their cover-ups. “Are the bishops sorry at all?”, you asked 8/3/2003. They all sound so right, so self-righteous and yet, when it comes to your personal life, doing the right thing yourself, your silence is deafening!

I had to laugh when I read that Bishop Wilton Gregory said: “I can assure you, known offenders are not in the ministry.” Yet you and I both know that is not true. We both know of at least six. While I do not yet have the proof in my hands, you do.

For over a year now I have been investigating the Boys Club in Chicago.

In light of the arrest of Father Gerald Robinson of Toledo [see http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=1891776], isn’t it time you do something about the Chicago Boys Club, including the priest, now bishop, whose name has been included with it? They are still in the ministry, active in parishes. Some of those parishes have schools. They have not yet been exposed. You have made it clear to all that you know who they are. Knowingly allowing evil conduct to evade justice is to cooperate with evil.

In your autobiographical books, ‘Confessions of a Parish Priest’ and ‘Furthermore! Memories of a Parish Priest,’ you clearly acknowledge that you know who they are:

".....But even in Chicago, the ring of predators about whom I wrote in the paperback edition of 'Confessions' remains untouched. There is no evidence against them because no one has complained about them and none of their fellow priests have denounced them. Those who have been removed are for the most part lone offenders who lacked the skill to cover their tracks. The ring is much more clever. Perhaps they always will be. But should they slip, should they get caught, the previous scandals will seem trivial...."

That statement remains as true today as when you wrote it, because we are talking, not only about sexual encounters with children. [That is] truly evil. But we are also talking about ritualistic and satanic abuse of children, the ultimate evil, murder, and credit card theft and fraud.

You say:

“There is no evidence against them because no one has complained about them and none of their fellow priests have denounced them.”

You are one of their fellow priests. You were in Chicago at the time. You know who they are.

If you don’t denounce them, do you think you are any different from the bishops you denounce? Are you not even worse because you hide the proof of evil predators’ guilt in safekeeping? Who is being kept safe? You? Remember these are satanic ritual abusers. Do you not think about the potential for other victims, children whose violation you have the power to prevent? As for those who have already been violated, you have the power to bring these predators to justice.

You announce to anyone and everyone who reads your books: "They are a dangerous group. There is reason to believe that they are responsible for at least one murder, and may perhaps have been involved in the murder of the murderer. Am I afraid of them? Not particularly. They know that I have in safekeeping information which would implicate them. I am more of a threat to them dead than alive."

I know that some of the information you obtained came from connections with the Chicago police department....and some from the priest who wrote the letter to [the late Joseph] Cardinal Bernardin about the group and their activities. I know that you worked closely with that priest and that he gave you some of that information because he lived with one of them and found out what was going on. I believe you have a copy of that letter which contains the names of the perpetrators, among other things, in safekeeping.

I know that you knew at least one of those murder victims, Frank Pellegrini from the University. I know the police talked with you during the investigation. One of them told me you wouldn’t give them any information. I know that you know that Pellegrini wrote a letter to Vicar of Priests Tom Ventura revealing the sexual conduct and his plan to go to the authorities with the information. But before he could do that, he was found murdered - a satanic murder. (It has been reported that Father Ventura left the priesthood in 2002.)

You trumpet the fact that you have in safekeeping information which would implicate the members of the Boys Club! Why don’t you, and Father M, shall we call him, give it to the bishops. Give it to Rome. To [Joseph] Cardinal Ratzinger [of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]. Give it to the police in Chicago and in Tucson. Give it to the FBI Task Force before it appears in the newspapers, along with the fact that you knew and did nothing except brag that you knew! If you do the right thing, you will be protected! You will be a hero! Stories will be written about you and your courage, that you stood up against true evil….

If you do not come forward and expose these predators yourself, when it does come out, will you be charged as a co-conspirator, an accomplice after the fact, withholding state's evidence, obstructing justice? The statute of limitations doesn’t apply. “There is reason to believe that they are responsible for at least one murder, and may perhaps been involved in the murder of the murderer.”

Yes, you are right, “the previous scandals” certainly “will seem trivial,” but more than that, the scandalous fact that you knew, you know, and don't expose them yourself will crowd all else out! Your own words in your own books will be damning evidence against you. In the end this will ruin your life, your reputation and all that you have been able to accomplish. It will shame your family.

But even more important is your answer to this question: Do you believe? Remember what He said about the children and the millstone? You have it within your power to protect other children from abuse! To bring the offenders to justice for those who have already been abused! Release the information that you have!

I look forward to your response. In the meantime, I will pray for you.

Parkhill’s investigation and letter is the most recent attempt to crack this bizarre case. In 2000, several Chicago businessmen, including Catholic activist Michael Tario, teamed up with Stephen Brady, founder and president of the Petersburg, Ill.-based Roman Catholic Faithful (www.rcf.org), a lay watchdog group, to investigate and expose the Boys Club.

This reporter has also investigated and written about the matter. In 2001, I asked Cardinal Francis George about Greeley’s allegation. The cardinal responded that he had asked Greeley twice about it, but that Greeley didn’t provide him with any evidence.

Greeley merely told the cardinal to talk to two priests, whose names the cardinal did not reveal.

###

Matt C. Abbott is the former executive director of the Illinois Right to Life Committee and the former director of public affairs for the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League. He is also a contributor to Cruxnews.com, RenewAmerica.us, MichNews.com, IllinoisLeader.com, AmericanDaily.com, ChristianNewsToday.com, Catholiccitizens.org, "The Wanderer" Catholic newspaper, TCRNews2.com, Catholic.net, Catholic.org, and CatholicExchange.com.

He can be reached at mattcabbott@CatholicExchange.com .

============================================================
Here are some of the relevant quotes from Greeley's book Furthermore:

HaloScan.com - Comments http://www.haloscan.com/comments/chezami/109316314604490408/

In the comments box on Mark Shea's blog, I. Shawn McElhinney quotes some passages from Greeley's work:

[".....But even in Chicago, the ring of predators about whom I wrote in the paperback edition of 'Confessions' remains untouched. There is no evidence against them because no one has complained about them and none of their fellow priests have denounced them. Those who have been removed are for the most part lone offenders who lacked the skill to cover their tracks. The ring is much more clever. Perhaps they always will be. But should they slip, should they get caught, the previous scandals will seem trivial...."]

That quote is from Furthermore and can be found on page 80. (The book is copyrighted 1999.) The second quote about "they are a dangerous group" is a footnote of the above text.

==========================================================
Here is the relevant part of a 2002 article from World Net Daily:

WorldNetDaily: Sex scandal death knell for Church? http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28294

Murder tied to priests' club?

While the threats against Brady are unsettling, there are indications that those who delve too deeply into the connection between clerical homosexuality and child abuse – finding perversion slipping into an abyss of satanic ritual – may pay for their curiosity with their lives.

In the late 1980s, two young Chicago private investigators, Bill Callaghan and Hank Adema, agreed to assist a "friend of a friend," whose child had been molested by a priest of the Chicago Archdiocese.

The parents of the abused child sought help after the Archdiocese under Joseph Cardinal Bernardin threatened to counter-sue following their original allegations. Before the scandal of clerical child abuse came to the public's attention through the efforts of the mass media, it was common practice for a diocese to file a libel suit against parents who charged diocesan clergy with abusive behavior.

As their investigation into the background of the abusive priest proceeded, Callaghan and Adema discovered the existence of a homoerotic group, made up mostly of priests, calling itself The Boys' Club.

During their inquiry into the membership and activities of The Boys' Club, a woman identifying herself as the girlfriend of a murdered church organist contacted the investigators and stated that she had information that would be useful to them.

The woman's friend was one Frank Pellegrini, once the organist and choir director at All Saints-St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church on Chicago's South Side. Pellegrini had also served as chair of the Sociology Department of Loyola University of Chicago.

According to the information obtained from the girlfriend, Pellegrini had a homosexual relationship with one of the priests involved in The Boys' Club, but was in the process of leaving the priest-lover and marrying her.

Before completely severing ties with the priest, however, Pellegrini discovered that The Boys' Club was involved with far more than homosexual relations. Tied closely with their sexual exploits was ritualistic satanic worship and the regular abuse of young children from low-income, ethnic families.

Pellegrini informed the Chicago Archdiocesan Chancery, and scheduled a meeting with one of the archdiocese's top officials. The day before the meeting, Pellegrini was brutally murdered in his home, which showed no signs of forced entry.

Callaghan, who spoke with police personnel originally working on the case, stated that Pellegrini was found with his hands tied with barbed wire and had been stabbed repeatedly.

Even Pellegrini's dog was slashed, leaving it seriously wounded but alive.

In the opinion of police detective/profilers working on the case, the brutality and manner of the killing indicated that it was carried out either by a woman or a homosexual, Callaghan stated.

Pellegrini was stabbed 47 times – the same number of years he had lived.

Just after Pellegrini's body was discovered, and while police were still on the scene of the murder, police observed two unusual incidents, Callaghan reported.

The first involved the arrival of then-Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago – and one of the most powerful men in the American Catholic Church – Joseph Bernardin. Although there was never an indication that Bernardin met Pellegrini, he arrived at the murder scene and quizzed police personnel on the progress of the investigation.

Left unanswered was how Bernardin learned of the killing and why he should personally visit the scene of a relatively unimportant individual whom he had no reason to know.

The second incident involved Pellegrini's dog. As the police conducted their investigation at the scene, the dog remained quiet, still suffering from its wounds. When the dog saw priests come into the apartment, it suddenly became aggressive and barked wildly.

The Pellegrini murder occurred in 1984 and was "reopened" with federal funds in the early 1990s, but many of the investigation's informal police notes have been "lost," and important leads in the case have never been fully followed up, according to Callaghan. The Pellegrini case, at present, remains one of the many hundreds of unsolved Chicago murders.

Although Callaghan never met Pellegrini, nor participated in the original investigation, he and Adema found that whatever secrets the case entailed posed a direct threat to their own lives.

As Callaghan and Adema pressed on with their investigation on behalf of their client, they learned of a warning, which came through contacts in the Chicago Police Department.

Callaghan learned that mob informants had stated that a contract had been offered on his life, and on that of Adema, by an individual closely tied to the Pellegrini case.

Although no one in the local underworld was interested, there did exist the real possibility that the contract could be accepted by "a black or biker gang," Callaghan revealed.

The full extent of The Boys' Club influence in Chicago – and beyond – still remains unclear, as does the extent of ritual abuse associated with clerical assaults on children.

Hush money?

There is, however, ample evidence that ritual abuse does occur, and it is most obvious in the case of "Agnes."

In the opening pages of his best-selling book, "Windswept House," The Rev. Malachi Martin describes a satanic ritual carried out on a young girl. Although Martin used a degree of literary license in the description of the event, there is a real individual behind the story and an actual instance of satanic abuse.

"Agnes," a pseudonym for her actual name, met Fiore some years ago for assistance with spiritual guidance and counseling for the long-term effects of cult abuse she had suffered at age 11.

Agnes has consented to and passed several polygraph examinations and is now married with a family in a Southern city. She has made her accusations in sworn affidavits, written statements to Vatican officials and has directly confronted those whom she has accused.

Among those Agnes has implicated in the attack upon her was a young, rapidly advancing priest named Joseph Bernardin.

Agnes states that in the fall of 1957, in Greenville, S.C., with her father present, Bishop John Russell of the Charleston Archdiocese and his chancellor, Bernardin, raped her as part of a satanic ritual, which included, as a RCF report stated, "a perverted, sacrilegious use of a [consecrated] host."

According to Catholic teaching, a consecrated host is the true and total body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

Agnes also became acquainted with Steven Cook, another individual who accused Bernardin of abuse. Cook accused Bernardin of coercing him into homosexual acts while he was a seminarian and Bernardin was archbishop in Cincinnati, Ohio.

While the media consistently have reported that Cook "recanted" his accusation against Bernardin, Cook, who was dying of AIDS, simply stated that he could "no longer trust his memory."

Callaghan interviewed Cook as part of his own investigation, and verified that Cook did not "recant." He learned that the dying homosexual, formerly of very modest means, suddenly had developed considerable financial resources. Estimates of the value of the newly established estate range from $250,000 to several million. After Cook's death, the money was divided between his mother, his sister and his male lover.

Bernardin, who said he had never met Cook, also left the dying man a costly chalice, which Bernardin had used to offer Mass in Cook's Philadelphia apartment. In addition to Cook and Bernardin, Cook's homosexual lover was also in attendance at the Mass. Cook made no secret of his homosexuality, and there is no indication that Cook would have hidden the identity of his male lover.

Giving Holy Communion under such circumstances, according to traditional Catholic teaching, constitutes sacrilege.

Bernardin also was implicated in an alleged incident of abuse perpetrated against seminarians attending the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, Minn., in the 1980s.

According to a Boston Globe report, Bernardin, along with several "top prelates," were accused of "coercing seminarians at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary … into having sex."

The rector of the seminary, the Rev. Robert H. Brom, was also implicated in the sex-abuse charges. At the time the seminarian made his allegations, Brom served as Bishop of Duluth, Minn. Brom now is bishop of San Diego, Calif.

The Winona seminarian later retracted his charges, but he received a settlement payment of "less than $100,000," according to the Globe report, which quoted Archbishop Roger L. Schwietz, of Anchorage, successor to Brom as bishop of Duluth.

The circumstances of the seminarian's retraction, however, recently have come into question. In a sworn affidavit, Mark Brooks, a friend of the seminarian who received the settlement payment, claims that the retraction of the charges against the bishops is false, according to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune. The retraction was issued, according to Brooks, because the seminarian "needed the money."

Brooks' affidavit was filed in San Diego Superior Court in connection with a press investigation of abuse allegations against Brom.

In the mid-1980s, the Diocese of San Diego settled a lawsuit initiated by Brooks claiming abuse. The Diocese settled for an undisclosed sum.

=======================================================

NEW SIDE OF BISHOP BURKE

is being reported by River Front Times. The story was linked at Crux News.

This one has to be read in its entirety.

WELL, THEY SAY IT'S FIXED...

New fan. And something called a "bios," or some such name that was described as "a little piece that puts in all the latest updates," was installed.

It runs s - l - o - w - l - y, but dealing with Best Buy is an exercise in temperance and I'm not ready for another one. Not yet, anyway. I'll give it a few days. Maybe it has to warm up to me again. I'll try to remember not to swear at it. Or perhaps I should try a string of the best ones so it remembers I'm the entity with the power to send it back to Best Buy for another "treatment"! Then again, maybe if I just lay a hammer in front of the monitor...?

Anyway...


E-MAIL FROM LEE PENN

This column is not high theology ... just some common sense from a libertarian writer on the question of anti-Semitism.

Stop Writing Me About the Jews by Fred Reed

As you might guess, I approve of what he says.

Lee


AND ANOTHER E-MAIL FROM LEE

A long and worthwhile article. Open question to ponder: how do we, in 2004, avoid repeating the errors of the Churches in Europe? How do we detect and resist the idolatries of the Left and of the Right alike?

IDOLATRY: THE IMPACT OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM

Lee

QUESTION FOR THE DAY

The Betania seer died just recently. She suffered from a Parkinson-like affliction which has been said to be a portion of the Pope's illness that she carried for him.

Has his health deteriorated noticeably since her death?

LIFE WITHOUT CYBERSPACE

Wow! There is a real world out there. You know...the one there is never any time for when you blog.

Seriously, I may start taking weekends off.

Still, living in ignorance has its drawbacks. I've just gone through my email, sort of, since using AOL on the library computer has serious limitations. It isn't possible to cut and paste anything, so URLs in emails can't be pasted into the address bar. Also, if I click something in an email, it's a bit of a nuisance to get back to the mailbox, consequently I haven't done it.

There was some good stuff from Lee Penn on Cardinal Bernardin that I can't blog because of the limitations of using the library computer.

Then there is the pile-up of email. There were over 140 emails in the screen name I use for research, and no possibility of multiple deletions. I had to open every one of them. Even the spam. Not fun. By the time I got to my blog email, I was sort of burned out and haven't read it yet. Sorry about that.

On the plus side, I've had time to read through most of Stephen Hoeller's book on Gnosticism. Very informative. Especially the overlap with Catholicism, and some of John Paul II's statements. But more on that when I have a computer again...hopefully a week from this coming Thursday. If Best Buy keeps their promise.

Incidentally, Best Buy is being sued by the State of Ohio for failure to honor their repair contracts, or so my husband tells me. I didn't read the article. Sometimes you're better off not knowing...

The library computers are Dells. Very nice working with a Dell. My HP is 19 months old and there have been multiple problems with it. Should have bought a Dell? Maybe what I really need is a magic wand!!