Wasting Catholics’ Money

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Cardinals are spending loads of Catholic cash instead of embracing the long arms of justice.

Last September, New York's Cdl. Timothy Dolan hired Barbara Jones, a former federal judge, to conduct an independent investigation into how the archdiocese handled allegations of sex abuse. At $750 per hour — what Jones typically charges — the archdiocese has already shelled out around half a million dollars — all for naught, as Church Militant reported that Dolan is ignoring Jones' recommendations to remove several predator priests from active ministry.

Dolan has also wasted untold funds in obstructing justice which demands that the relatives of Abp. Fulton Sheen be allowed to transfer his body from New York to the diocese of Peoria, Illinois where his process of canonization is being furthered. Three times Dolan stonewalled the legal process, and three times the court ruled that Dolan was in the wrong for refusing to give up Sheen's body to Sheen's next of kin.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, former archbishop and current apostolic administrator of Washington, spent massive amounts of parishioners' money in retaining the services of the prestigious Washington law firm Jones Day.

As head of the D.C. archdiocese, Wuerl retained Jones Day back in August ahead of the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report which named him 169 times. The price of this law firm, which represents companies like J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, is $50,000 to $75,000 per month. The total price for this law firm over the past eight months is somewhere north of half a million dollars.

Watch the panel discuss bishops using offerings of the laity to derail justice in The Download—Wasting Catholics' Money.

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