R_>> VH> He hemmed a bit and said yes.
R_>>
R_> Btw, is your new house truly that BIG?  And does it have
R_> more than one floor?

It's two stories, a finished basement, and a large bonus room over the
garage.

R_>> VH> "But that's exactly what I did!!  I gave the money
to some poor people
R_>> and
R_>> they built a house for me.  They also got the dignity of working, not taki
R_>> charity.  And at least one of the young men who worked on the house told m
R_>> what a great opportunity it had been for him -- to work with a pair of
R_>> master builders and really learn his trade."
R_>> >
R_> Iow, capitalism in action.  Something Adam Smith would
R_> approve of!

Yes -- and pretty much the best possible use of the money, since it
doubled the amount of wealth -- they have the money, and I have a house
equal in value to the money, a house that did not exist when we started.

R_>> VH> My point is, the torts should have never happened -- at
least not afte
R_>> the
R_>> first offense for a given priest.  It was sweeping it under the rug, and
R_>> allowing the predators to go on to new hunting grounds that has cost the
R_>> Church so much -- and it has cost more than money!!
R_>>
R_> Correct.  At best, some foolish bishops allowed misplaced
R_> "compassion" to give criminal priests another
"chance."  And
R_> I strongly suspect other bishops were compromised, even
R_> blackmailed, by the Lavender Mafia.

Yes.  Many bishops were guilty of the same crimes.

R_>> VH> But there ARE poor people we cannot help, because we don't have the
R_>> money -- and the people to blame are the Cardinal Laws and their ilk.
R_>>
R_> Too sadly true!  I have thought a big part of the blame for this
R_> degrading scandal was from the bureaucracy of the USSCB
R_> being infiltrated by the homosexual mafia.  That gave them
R_> the means of covering up for one another and nominating
R_> weak or compromised men to be bishops.

Indeed they did -- Gresham's Law applied to organizations.  Bad men
drove out good.

R_> One corrective might be to have CATHEDRAL chapters
R_> be given the task of nominating bishops elect to vacant
R_> dioceses.  A body of local clergy might be less likely to
R_> choose grossly unsuitable bishops than a bureaucracy
R_> like the USSCB.  And I know cathedral chapters can
R_> and will make their own mistakes!

Certainly the priests of Boston, who publicly called for Law's
resignation, would never have tolerated such behavior had it been up to
them.
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