SEND THE BISHOPS A ME$$AGE
THE ONLY LANGUAGE THEY UNDERSTAND IS MONEY.
WITHHOLD DONATIONS TO THE CHURCH.
TELL THE BISHOPS WHY YOU ARE WITHHOLDING DONATIONS
Find more information at www.sendthebishopsamessage.com
Grace for Sale
Thinking of getting married in the church? Think again unless you've been a regular donator, fully registered at a parish. Want to have a priest say a prayer at your loved-one's wake? That'll cost you an additional 50 bucks. Need to send your children to Religious Education classes? The workbook plus the volunteer teacher will put you back $300 - each kid! Oh, and you have to sign up to babysit three sessions a year, too. Did your family just sacrifice thousands of dollars for the last capital campaign? Too bad. We need to pick your pockets again because collections are down. Didn't Jesus turn over tables for situations such as these? We will look into that further and put what we find out about it right here. If you have anything to add, feel free to send it to us.
New! John Paul II, VOTF, Diamond Bride Mother Angelica
Rolling in Dough but Morally Bankrupt
Bishops, Cardinals, Vicars, Monsignors, Pastors. They are all crying to the laity and the media about how poor they are. The church is so poor that schools and parishes must close. They threaten to close hospitals, food pantries, and adoption agencies if their federal taxpayers' money gets cut off. (They only claim separation of Church and State as a defense in criminal and civil cases. And they also make sure to have an ally or two on the U.S. Appropriations Committee.) They blame the sex abuse victims and their families for bankrupting the church and hurting all of their precious ministries. Remember, this corporation called the Catholic Church is given exemption from paying taxes in the United States. Of the millions the church hauls in every Sunday, not a dime of it goes to Uncle Same. Meanwhile, one recent estimate of the current wealth of the Catholic Church worldwide is $13 Trillion. Filled coffers. Empty hearts.
New! Taxpayer-Funded Earmarks to the Roman Catholic Church
Doling Out for a Truth Lockbox
By now, we've seen how the church hierarchy works. Just about whenever a civil suit against the church is filed by a survivor or two or more, the church attorneys show up at the first encounter with their checkbook wide open and pen in hand, ready to sign away millions of parishioners dollars in order to have the whole matter put to an end. If any Catholics want to place blame for the millions of dollars in settlements, they ought to ask their bishop why the church would rather settle for millions than to go to trial, give depositions, and release all relevant files.
Parishioners also might want to ask their bishop how much money - specifically - has been paid in attorney fees, court costs, and marketing campaigns. For some strange reason, this is a big and mysterious secret. Most victims and survivors will probably tell you that dollars - no matter how many - can never compensate for being raped and tortured as a child or adolescent. Many had regrettably gone to the church first with their reports of the crimes committed against them by their priest(s) - employees of the church - only to be further victimized, dismissed, demeaned, and shamed. Thanks to the Vatican and the bishops, the legal route is the only way for survivors or victims' families to try to get to the truth - to expose child sex predators and their enablers and to protect children from those predators. The hierarchy would rather play Hide-and-Go-Seek with the truth, at the expense of Catholic families who still donate, and at the risk to their children - all despite phony claims of "transparency and openness".
New! Settlements - A Short but Growing List
Wet Bars and Casinos
Here we will be tracking cases of theft by clergy that seem to crop up quite often. Recently, there have been reports of a pastor stealing thousands of dollars in parishioners' donation and, with part of the take, building a wet bar in the rectory. We have other reports of a pastor leaving parish grounds every day after morning Mass and heading to the riverboat casinos - with the staff secretary. We figure if the Catholic laity doesn't care about kids getting raped by their priest, at least they might be concerned about their pastor possibly skimming off the top of the Sunday collection basket and using their hard-earned money to wine and dine his girlfriends. Of course, not all priests are thieves and philanderers but unless there is a better system of accountability, transparency, and honesty, how do we really know? Please check back here for more details.
"The Second Greatest Scandal in the Church: Priests and Lay Leaders Stealing From the Sunday Collections" by Michael W. Ryan
"Post-Deposit Embezzlements: An Overview of Financial Vulnerabilities at the Parish Level" by Michael W. Ryan
Wet bar at church fuels finance audit of parish; Flossmoor pastor temporarily removed.
Catholic priest is indicted in $300,000 thefts from church, DuPage County prosecutor says.
71-year-old church usher charged with stealing from collections.
New! Visit CATHOLIC MISSING MONEY INDEX for a whole bunch more!!!
The 'Vow of Poverty'
Here we will explore the so-called "Vow of Poverty" and try to figure out why the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Conference is always held at some cushy hotel and why some priests are seen driving around town in their gold BMW and a car-load of middle-aged women following them. Please check back for more details.
Jesus Turning the Tables
We have seen several priests use this story from the New Testament in an attempt to justify the backlash they continue to inflict upon parishioners and others who call their actions into question. What they don't seem to get is that they are the ones using the church and the name of God for their own purposes and self-interests. If Jesus were to return to earth tomorrow, any reasonable person could surmise that He would be turning the tables on the Catholic hierarchy, not those who have been victimized by them.
Companions in Hope
P. O. Box 638
Geneva, Illinois 60134
mail@companionsinhope.com