I offer my prayers daily for those whose lives have been hurt or devastated by the actions of a member of the clergy or by any other persons, especially all abused children and other vulnerable persons. It is particularly tragic when the abuse is at the hands of a priest in whom their spiritual care and wellbeing has been entrusted.
BISHOP GAYMONE
People may object to my use of nicknames for bishops and priests, but our Lord used nicknames for the "den of vipers" in His day. I use the nicknames to actually spare the reputations of these men as the use of proper names would lead people directly from a Google search to this place. I do not believe that priests, prelates, and politicians are entitled to the same level of privacy as ordinary citizens. I even spare celebrities and refrain from gossip about famous people because they never forfeited their rights to privacy. But our leaders need to recognize that they are held to a higher standard. This is why I have never aspired to public office.
I begin with the quote from Bishop Gaymone because I see the cynicism in it now. People have accused Gaymone of sexual abuse, but the Vatican cleared him of all these charges and allegations. Additionally, when he came to our diocese, he had the task of dealing with the sexual abuse issues here. I believed that Gaymone was one of the good guys. Then, he allowed a pervert priest to come from another diocese where he had gotten into some trouble there. His move to our diocese amounted to giving cover to this guy until the heat blew over. Unfortunately, that priest got into trouble here propositioning a teenager on the Grindr app and was looking at jail. He got off on the technicality that Grindr demands that all users be 18 years or older.
Why would a bishop do this after all of the crap that had happened preceding this? Clearly, this priest is unfit for the priesthood. I came to the conclusion that Gaymone was doing a favor for the "network" by taking this guy into his diocese. From that day forward, he earned the nickname I use to identify him, and I ceased giving another penny to his Bishop's Appeal. Gaymone is now in forced retirement.
Pope Francis appointed our current bishop who I refer to as "Bishop Voodoo" after watching him preside over an "encultured" irreverent Mass at his parish. The video of that got scrubbed, but I recall some dancing and raucous music. I suspect Bishop Voodoo was selected because he would help aid and abet the illegal immigration efforts requested by the Democrat Party. Regardless, I consider Bishop Voodoo to be one of the bad guys.
One of the first things Voodoo did was change the name of the Bishop's Appeal to the Catholic Appeal. This little marketing move is the hierarchy bowing to the reality that the reputation of the bishops has diminished the giving. Somehow, changing the name is supposed to fool us into giving. It hasn't. From what I heard, the participation rate for the appeal in the diocese is only 14%.
Ever since Gaymone, my plan for giving has been to employ the Blue Envelope Strategy. This is where I put the bulk of my donation to the parish in the blue envelopes provided for the building and maintenance fund. I put "building fund only" on my checks. I give to nothing else especially those dreadful second collections. I give a dollar to the weekly collection to cover the expense of the host and the power bill. We also give to Christmas and Easter flower collections. That's it.
If the diocese decides to embezzle from the building fund, I can't do anything about that except cease all giving. So far, I have heard nothing to indicate this is going on. The secret to ending this corruption is to stop paying for it. The easiest way is to not give to the Bishop Voodoo Appeal.
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Complicit Clergy