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From watergate.com
Some skepticism that the revelation that Mark Felt was Deep Throat was not the end of the story.
- Felt had information which wasn't passed to Woodward and Bernstein. (That CREEP had been bugging the DNC offices)
- Information which they did publish attributed to Deep Throat was not in Felt's possession. (That conversations were erased from the secret Oval Office taping system.)
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:08 AM Permalink
Terri Schiavo non-update
It's 2 months and a few days since she died. No autopsy and no word on if or when her ashes were buried or will be buried.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:05 AM Permalink
Diocese strips accused priest of all duties : Lexington Herald-Leader
A priest [Rev. William J. Fedders] accused of abusing a Cathedral of Christ the King altar boy in the 1980s has been permanently stripped of his duties, but the Lexington diocese has not abandoned legal efforts to prevent the priest's alleged victim from receiving any financial compensation..."Incorrect" is the wrong word. The diocese lied.Asked why he had given reporters incorrect answers about Fedders' status, [diocesan spokesman Tom] Shaughnessy pointed to [Will L. McGinnis III McGinnis]' Supreme Court appeal -- which the court may or may not hear.
"The factor that explains it is that we were being cautious with respect to this discretionary review. So that was the explanation," Shaughnessy said.
It's a mess. Since the statue of limitations has expired, there's no possibility of trial to produce evidence and witnesses that would prove Fedder's guilt. So he's suspended because the diocese believes he did it but the diocese still needs to claim that he didn't do it because it would implicate the diocese in not suspending him when the accusation was first made.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:37 PM Permalink
Ky. Diocese Earmarks $120M for Abuse Victims : AP
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington agreed Friday to set up a $120 million fund to compensate hundreds of victims of child-molesting priests and other employees. It would be the nation's biggest settlement in the scandal that has staggered the church.
Do the math: with only 89,000 Catholics in the diocese, that's an assessment of $1348 per Catholic, or $5393 for a family of four.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:59 PM Permalink
Dawn Eden Returns
I had blogged earlier in the year that she had been fired from the New York Post.
She's become an assistant editor and columnist for the New York Daily News. Her column appears every Sunday. She last wrote on the blogs of school-aged children and their parents concerns.
She's a born-again Christian and a terrific critic of pop culture.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:37 PM Permalink
The Truth About the Crusades : Thomas Wood, Jr. : redstate.org
...Proper context for the Crusades must begin at the beginning, with the First Crusade (1096-1099). Yet - and here is the point - even the First Crusade was not the real beginning of the story.I managed to avoid seeing Kingdom of Heaven, I'll get the DVD.The real beginning came in the century following the death of Muhammad in 632. During that incredible hundred years, Muslims spread their religion by force throughout Arabia, and into the modern Middle East, including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, as well as into Egypt, north Africa, and Spain. Further progress into Western Europe was stopped cold by Charles Martel and his Frankish warriors at the battle of Poitiers/Tours in 732.
It is easily forgotten that some of these territories had been heavily Christian when the Muslims took them over. No one today thinks of Syria and Egypt as Christian centers, but in the seventh century they certainly were. The ancient city of Antioch had been home to a school of Christian thought second only to that of Alexandria, and Egypt had been the birthplace of Christian monasticism...
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 7:56 PM Permalink
St. Joseph's Chapel
Here is a link to the chapel on Google Maps - even if you know Manhattan, it is not easy to find.
It is in Gateway Plaza which is in Battery Park City. BPC was created from the landfill which was dug up in the 1970's to create the WTC.
The chapel was damaged on 9/11/2001 and recently a memorial has been dedicated to those who died and were injured on that day a few hundred feet away. It is part of the parish of St. Peter.
News Coverage:
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:28 PM Permalink
Proposal to have parish schools become in incorporated regional school associations
Diocese Test Run for School Altar-ation
A proposal to place parish schools in the Brooklyn Diocese under the authority of nonprofit corporations will be given a test run in three schools in the upcoming academic year — but not implemented throughout the diocese any time soon, officials said yesterday.The plan — which a diocese task force had suggested be fully operational in all 128 Catholic elementary schools in Brooklyn and Queens by September 2006 — calls for panels of pastors and lay people to oversee clusters of up to five schools in each of 30 regions
I think the problem has been for a pastor or parish who is committed to a school that's failing to keep up enrollment. It becomes a money pit. By enlarging the responsibility to a area that can sustain enrollment at several but not all schools, it is better in the long run.
This also creates more autonomy for a school group from the diocesan bureaucracy and perhaps setting the schools up for charter-school status which would enable tuition assistance for parents under our very limited charter school law in New York State.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:05 PM Permalink
Prodigal Looter Returns - Cops : New York Post
A man suspected of having burglarized a Long Island Catholic church three times last week was arrested early yesterday — outside the same church.I wonder why he thought he's find a lot of 'loot' there?David Crump, 38, was caught around midnight after a priest heard him outside St. Patrick's rectory in Bay Shore.
After the priest called police and described him, Crump was picked up nearby. The priest later identified the suspect from a photograph, police sources said.
Crump, a resident of Bay Shore, also broke into the rectory office last Monday and Tuesday, taking cash and property, cops said. No injuries were reported.
Crump is charged with three counts of burglary. Ed Robinson
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:59 PM Permalink
More Catholic Scandals
A former Roman Catholic priest from St. Paul was convicted Thursday of sexual misconduct and theft involving a former church employee and parishioner.Cops: Church officer took $500G : Asbury Park Press
The financial administrator for St. Benedict Roman Catholic Church has been arrested by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office on a charge of embezzling more than $500,000 in church funds in an 18-month period.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:54 PM Permalink
My Mark Felt/Deep Throat Post
The two great Watergate clichès apply:
- What did he know and when did he know it?
- Follow the money.
I found this article in The Washingtonian to have some interesting insights.
Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974. I was 20 at the time and in college. Everyone alive then and now is 30 years older. Joan Felt is not identified by age in press accounts but I imagine she's about ten years older than me.
I think there was a multi-sided competition between Woodward, Bernstein, and Joan (with the other members of her familiy) to get some publicity and cash out of the disclosure. At age 91, Felt is beyond facing earthly consequences for his actions.
I think the cheers of "hero" will disappate quickly. It seems clear to all now that he resented that Nixon did not pick a FBI lifer to replace the much-admired much-feared J. Edgar Hoover and that has to be factored into his motives.
The joyous Left will also see that Felt was convicted for authorizing illegal break-ins of domestic radicals (a euphemism for the Left) and pardoned by Reagan.
Once information was out there in 1973, Woodward, Bernstein, and Felt had to start lying about the identity of "Deep Throat". Along the way some people correctly guessed and that's a funny story in itself. They expected everyone to tell them the truth but reserved the right to lie for some higher purpose. I'm surprised everyone could keep their lies straight.
Felt should have gone up his chain of command, to the director of the FBI, to the attorney general, and then to the President, and failing that -- give a public press conference on the steps of the FBI Building. That would have been the right thing to do. What he did was betray his oath and engage in his own "cover-up".
On the other hand, Linda Tripp did the right thing as did many of the women who came forward with their stories of abuse at the hands of Bill Clinton. Linda Tripp's actions were heroic.
Perhaps the biggest story now is how the participants in 2005 were neogotiating among themselves to have a payday out of revealing the identity of "Deep Throat". What was the patriotic motive for doing so now anyway?
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 2:08 PM Permalink
Where's the separation of Church and State crowd on this one?
Mark Krikorian in NRO has this comment with which I totally agree:
Big Religion is weighing in on the McCain/Kennedy amnesty, not surprisingly siding with Big Business, Big Labor, Big Media, and Big Philanthropy in supporting the measure.A Nation That Should Know Better : Los Angeles TimesIn a column in today's L.A. Times, Cardinal Roger Mahony regurgitates, sometimes word for word, the talking points of the bill's sponsors, making economic and political claims that are, to put it politely, beyond the competence of the clergy.
You'd think the Catholic Church had enough problems to occupy its energies without becoming the chaplaincy for the open-borders crowd.
It appears fashionable these days, and almost politically correct, to blame hard-working immigrants, especially those from Mexico and Central America, for the social and economic ills of our state and nation. Anti-immigrant fervor on TV and radio talk shows, citizens attempting to enforce immigration laws and the enactment of restrictive laws, such as the Real ID Act, are evidence of this trend. Some of our elected officials are joining the parade, going so far as to call for the closing of our southern border.On the contrary, among politicial and USCCB elites, it is politically correct to deny that the United States has a right to control its borders and that illegal immigration presents a problem for citizens and legal immigrants of the United States.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:17 AM Permalink
The Scandals Keep on Coming...
The greatest scandal in the Church today is the sexual abuse of children, teens, and adults, 82% of which is boys as victims by priests as pereptrators facilitated by bishops.
This is a story of the second-greatest scandal is financial - where the lay employees of the Church are keeping up with the priests.
(The third-greatest scandal is the exclusion of good men from the seminary while some unsuitable men are allowed to become priests and about a dozen scandals in all.)
Note: the New York Post has gone to requiring free registration.
ARCH-DIOCESE 'CRIMINALS' : New York PostBy TODD VENEZIA
A stunning embezzlement scandal has struck the Archdiocese of New York, with two top administrators fired for allegedly pocketing at least $430,000 meant for needy children.
The leader of the archdiocese's Head Start program and one of her top lieutenants paid themselves huge secret salaries out of the federal funds earmarked for needy preschoolers, a church spokesman charged.
Both of the administrators have been fired, said archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling.
"The shame of this is these are excellent programs that have been doing a great job," he said.
"This is really a betrayal."
Zwilling identified the fired employees as Nora Feury — the executive director of the program, who has worked for Head Start for 40 years — and Ruth Ramos, the program's finance director.
Feury was making $90,000 a year as the executive director, but she allegedly paid herself a secret $250,000 salary out of accounts not listed in the budget, Zwilling said.
Ramos allegedly paid herself an improper $180,000 — triple her $60,000-a-year salary.
Neither woman has been charged with a crime, but Zwilling said the federal government is now probing the case.
The alleged scheme was discovered through a recent federal audit of the program.
Zwilling said a company hired by the archdiocese to do audits apparently overlooked the missing money.
The accused women could not be reached last night, but WABC/Channel 7 News, quoted a spokesperson for them as saying, "That allegation is absolutely false. There was no attempt to cover up any of those disbursements. Not true. "
Things from the usual pattern: the Church itself didn't discover the fraud. The auditors hired by the Church didn't discover the fraud.
There's a lame excuse that Nora Feury and Ruth Ramos didn't cover up those "disbursements".
More details and video here: WABC Eyewitness News
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:53 AM Permalink
So I get a statement saying that $20 credit we gave you is reversed...
My email to them:
I got a statement that a credit applied to my account was removed. Where did the credit come from? Why didn't I get a mailing when I was given this credit? What's the point of sending only one mailing telling me that the credit was reversed?Their reply:
There was a $20.00 promotional credit that posted to your account on 03/31/2005. The credit stated that your must make a purchase on this account by 05/15/2005 in order to retain this credit. When the card was not used by that date, the credit was reversed. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:44 PM Permalink
Memorial Day Mass
Each year the number of Catholic War Veterans decline. Some have moved, others have died. The president (or is it commander?) of the post gave an appropriate speech which I would not have remarked on here except that he said something unexpected:
The dead veterans still need our prayers some of them may be in purgatory.It's true, but it's something that isn't heard often enough.
I hope the doctrine of purgatory gets explained at my funeral Mass, unless, of course, it is a martyr's death.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:17 PM Permalink
Eleven-Year-Old Held In Stabbing Death Of Nine-Year-Old Friend : NY1
Police are investigating the stabbing death of an 11-year-old Brooklyn girl – who allegedly died at the hands of her nine-year-old friend. Police say Queen Washington was stabbed once in the chest with a steak knife Monday afternoon. They say the two girls were left alone in the younger girl's family's East New York apartment at 185 Wortman Avenue, as the nine-year-old's mother stepped out for about 10 minutes.
In a TV report I heard later the fight was over a ball. My guess: Too much television or video games in this 9-year girl's life.
I believe that at 9 she can't be charged with a crime.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:12 PM Permalink