Burn of the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Well, I hear he is asking some Cardinals to contribute to their living expenses … So that might help. 😀
Assuming it is even half true, it seems akin to praising the reign of Henry VIII for the octagonal Tudor tower.
Does the Holy See have a comprehensive balance sheet and statement-of-income? Is it audited? Have summaries been made public? Has the Holy See liquidated its interest in corporations not publicly traded? Has it liquidated its interest in real estate outside the Archdiocese of Rome? Has it limited its lending to the purchase of bonds and paper? Has it ensured that the trustees of its funds are financial professionals and not clergy or religious? Has the Institute of Religious Works been shut down?
While we’re at it, when is the Holy See going to reduce the Pope’s travel schedule to one resembling that of the venerable Pius?
Odd how David Gibson makes his (ludicrous) assertion without providing a single example to back his claim.
I suppose Gibson might have offered up Francis’ appointment of the late Cardinal Pell to investigate and recommend reforms of the murky Vatican finances. Alas, it turned out +Pell was given a fool’s errand, and his honest efforts to clean things up were hamstrung at every turn by Francis’ cronies Cardinals Parolin and Becciu.**
To me, it looks as though Cardinal Pell, widely respected as an upright man, was used to give a veneer of respectability to Vatican finances, while no serious reform was either contemplated nor permitted.
** Cardinal Becciu is currently facing a seven-year prison sentence in his corruption trial, and has been stripped of many of his privileges, including the right to participate in the next conclave. It was rumored that Becciu helped engineer the charges against Cardinal Pell that saw him removed from his position cleaning up Vatican finances and returned to Australia to spend three years in prison before his name was cleared. Certainly the timing of +Pell’s legal troubles worked perfectly for Becciu.
Clinton they came after Pell when it was apparent he was getting close to the extent of the financial corruption. Smear him with historical sex offences against minors (of which the Victorian police were actively “seeking victims” in the media) and you have removed any attempt at getting to the truth. It was deliberate and cunning. And we all saw it in plain sight.