New York Times Slams Cardinal Timothy Dolan

In a previous blog post I noted how Cardinal Timothy Dolan - a/k/a Porky Pig on this blog - worked to hide $57 million in church funds form victims of sexual abuse by priests aided, abetted and protected by the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy.  And not surprisingly, (i) Dolan lied about his activities in the past, and (ii) Dolan's actions were blessed by the Vatican in a matter of a few days.  The New York Times has rightly joined in the condemnation of Dolan and the Church's larger moral bankruptcy.  Here are editorial excerpts:

Tragic as the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church has been, it is shocking to discover that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, while archbishop of Milwaukee, moved $57 million off the archdiocesan books into a cemetery trust fund six years ago in order to protect the money from damage suits by victims of abuse by priests. 

Cardinal Dolan, now the archbishop of New York, has denied shielding the funds as an “old and discredited” allegation and “malarkey.” But newly released court documents make it clear that he sought and received fast approval from the Vatican to transfer the money just as the Wisconsin Supreme Court was about to open the door to damage suits by victims raped and abused as children by Roman Catholic clergy. 

The release of about 6,000 pages of documents provided a grim backstage look at the scandal, graphically detailing the patterns of serial abuse by dozens of priests who were systematically rotated to new assignments as church officials kept criminal behavior secret from civil authority. 

It is disturbing that the current Milwaukee leader, Archbishop Jerome Listecki, said last week that the church underwent an “arc of understanding” across time to come to grips with the scandal — as if the statutory rapes of children were not always a glaring crime in the eyes of society as well as the church itself. 

The documents showed how the Vatican slowly took years to allow dioceses to defrock embarrassing priests. Yet the same bureaucracy approved Cardinal Dolan’s $57 million transfer just days after the Wisconsin court allowed victims’ damage suits. 

I ask again: how can any moral person give these foul men any respect or deference?  They belong behind bars and a full blown government investigation of the Catholic Church should be commenced.