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Catholic Diocese in Canada to Sell All Its Churches to Pay Sexual Abuse Cl

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NNN0LHI

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Mon May-09-05 08:44 PM
Original message

Catholic Diocese in Canada to Sell All Its Churches to Pay Sexual Abuse Cl

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBW1PRFJ8E.html

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland (AP) - A Roman Catholic diocese in eastern Canada plans to sell all its churches and missions to raise the money to pay the victims of sexual assault by a priest who was convicted more than a decade ago, a bishop said Monday.

The Catholic Diocese of St. George's will sell about 150 properties to raise $10.5 million as part of a settlement for the victims of the Rev. Kevin Bennett, who was convicted in 1990 of hundreds of sexual assaults over three decades as a priest in the province of Newfoundland. snip

The organization was appealing to its 32,000 parishioners for donations to buy back core properties when they go on sale in the coming months. "What we're hoping is we can save, or repurchase, one-third of them," Crosby said.

Bennett admitted his guilt and was sentenced to four years in prison in the early 1990s. Now retired and in his 70s, he continues to draw a church pension while living on a family property.

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unhappycamper

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Mon May-09-05 08:47 PM
Response to Original message

1. Sympathy is in the dictionary between sex and syphilis.

What did Ratzi the Nazi tell them to do?

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Fire Walk With Me

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Mon May-09-05 09:05 PM
Response to Original message

2. Let's buy a church and welcome EVERYONE.

Or is that too radical.

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NuttyFluffers

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Tue May-10-05 06:04 AM
Response to Reply #2

10. i like the way you think.

if i could i would.

i know that Boy George (the artist) bought a church that was up for sale in england. turned it into his own house. looks pretty neat.

i'd make a church into a cool dance club.

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The White Tree

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Tue May-10-05 07:24 AM
Response to Reply #10

17. My brother-in-law lives in a church that he bought

and converted into a house in rural Pennsylvania. It has great open spaces and he got it for real cheap. He had to do a lot of work to fix it up though.

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Fire Walk With Me

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Tue May-10-05 02:16 PM
Response to Reply #17

24. No seriously

Lots of folks buy churches and convert them, but if the Demos bought a church and "ran it", and welcomed everyone, it would be a nice, loud contrast to exclusionists.

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Voltaire99

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Tue May-10-05 04:37 AM
Response to Original message

3. Just desserts...

...for the church hierarchy.

But a sad day for the parishioners, so badly represented by their conspiratorial elites.

Catholics, revolt: you have nothing to lose but the pedophilia bills.

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leftchick

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Tue May-10-05 04:43 AM
Response to Reply #3

4. I walked by an Episcopalian church near my home Sunday....

I am seriously thinking of leaving the Catholic Church after 40 some years. The Liberal Catholic church of my youth is long gone. I think it has gone past the point of no return.

That Episcopalian church down the road looked very welcoming. I may attend next week.

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Voltaire99

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Tue May-10-05 04:54 AM
Response to Reply #4

7. Understandable.

I can't relate, exactly. Even post-Vatican II Catholicism doesn't appear to me to have been terribly liberal (relative, that is, to anything other than pre-Vatican II Catholicism). I speak as one who in his youth had the list of forbidden films waved under his nose. I got out over twenty years ago and am a happy, if grouchy, agnostic.

That said, I can sympathize. And to be sure, under Ratzinger, the gloom is gathering. Good luck.

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PennyLane

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Tue May-10-05 05:32 AM
Response to Reply #4

8. Try Several........

.....I recently attended a Universal Unitarian Church and found it to be very refreshing. Good luck in your quest.O8)

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hue

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Tue May-10-05 07:33 AM
Response to Reply #4

18. The fact is that Catholics know/realize only the tip of the iceberg.

Years ago Canada made a documentary on the devastating and unbelievable abuse that went on in an orphanage in Canada. It was shown in Canada, but the Pope (JP II) and the Vatican managed to have it banned in the US. The atrocities that went on and on for years in that orphanage were unspeakable. There are many victims of the Catholic Church that have have chosen for many reasons not to speak out. They themselves do not wnat to be in the spotlight.
(I'm going to try to find a link to that documentary.)

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gavodotcom

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Tue May-10-05 04:47 AM
Response to Reply #3

6. Now now, my good man, this is no time to be making enemies...

Edited on Tue May-10-05 04:49 AM by gavodotcom

I left the Catholic church awhile ago, hadn't even thought of partaking of the opiate, until I saw that UCC 'bouncer' commercial. Seems rather Christian, what with all the tolerance and all.

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saigon68

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Tue May-10-05 04:47 AM
Response to Original message

5. 4 years for HUNDREDS OF SEXUAL ASSAULTS

I hope the neighbors have their little Boys pants buttoned securely.

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Horse with no Name

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Tue May-10-05 05:45 AM
Response to Original message

9. I find this the most disturbing of all

"Bennett admitted his guilt and was sentenced to four years in prison in the early 1990s. Now retired and in his 70s, he continues to draw a church pension while living on a family property. "

The church has to sell off its holdings to pay for his transgressions, yet they are continuing to pay him?
That is morally insane and if I were one of the children who had been molested, I would be highly inflamed if I still supported the Catholic Church--that my money was allowing a luxurious lifestyle for my molester.

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AngryOldDem

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Tue May-10-05 06:48 AM
Response to Reply #9

12. They have the pay him the pension

...at least priests here in the US in a similar situation still draw their pensions because they have paid into them over the years and legally, they are entitled to that money. What is really outrageous --again in the US -- is the fact that if priests are put on suspension, or otherwise forbidden to fulfill their priestly duties, they are still on the Church payroll, which means the Church is taking care of them financially. The defrocking process that must go through Rome can, in some cases, take years. As a Catholic, I object most to giving these guys a paycheck and a place to live when they should be behind bars somewhere doing hard time.

But the Church is obligated to pay them their pensions.

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GOPBasher

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Tue May-10-05 07:00 AM
Response to Reply #12

14. Oh thanks. You answered my question in my post below. n/t

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Tyler Durden

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Tue May-10-05 06:43 AM
Response to Original message

11. I remember a Gay Bar in Seattle housed in an old church.

Drove by it when I visited back in the mid eighties. Thought it a very appropriate idea at the time.

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d.l.Green

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Tue May-10-05 07:10 AM
Response to Reply #11

15. Two gay bars near me were bought out by churches and BOTH were

publicly exorcised! Just goes to show how silly(and demeaning) those people are. I'm sure my dead friends are whooping it up during their ceremonies anyway....:evilgrin:

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GOPBasher

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Tue May-10-05 06:59 AM
Response to Original message

13. I think that's a good idea, but why is that guy still getting a pension

from the church? As far as selling the churches to pay the victims, I think that's a good idea. But as far as giving a pension to the child molester, :shrug:.

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AngryOldDem

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Tue May-10-05 10:56 AM
Response to Reply #13

23. One thing to remember, too...

...and I'm pretty sure it's probably the same in Canada. Priests get paid a pittance. Diocesan priests are a little better off than members of orders -- diocesan priests make no promise of poverty -- but still, their pensions probably aren't all that much.

But the sticking point is the free room and board and a paycheck while they are on "administrative leave," "sabattical," or whatever they care to call it. But there are probably laws that guide management in this type of labor situation as well, so the Church is bound there, too.

The bottom line, as a friend of mine who is active in Voice of the Faithful likes to say, is that these priests are getting a paid vacation -- at Catholics' expense.

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d.l.Green

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Tue May-10-05 07:20 AM
Response to Original message

16. So the church is asking its members who have had to contribute heavily

to maintain these properties to contribute heavily to retain them? Why not just do one of those fundraising drives and keep as many as they can from those funds? Selling them all off with hope of retaining some seems drastic. But I'm sure they'll find a good deal of sheeple willing to fork up even more money...

Now didn't the church ban married clergy in the middle ages to gain more property? Karma works on the church also, huh...

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hue

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Tue May-10-05 07:45 AM
Response to Original message

19. The name of the documentary is "The Boys of St. Vincent's"

There were several orphanages in which atrocities occured--as well as convents and schools etc. Here is a link regarding a nun who decided to tell what she knew. Her story was validated eventually, but she was labeled as "crazy" by the Catholic Church.

http://www.priestsofdarkness.com/mmonk.html

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leftchick

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Tue May-10-05 07:49 AM
Response to Reply #19

20. That was shown in the US....

a couple of years ago on A&E or Discovery, I can't remember which. I missed it back then. Thank you for the link.

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hue

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Tue May-10-05 08:21 AM
Response to Reply #20

21. I'm glad it was shown!

I have not seen it--just read about it and knew it had been banned.
When I was in nursing school (over 30 yrs ago) I worked with a young, very pretty lady (she was a few years older than I was then) who was a nusing aide. I got to know her and she had related to me that she left the convent. I asked her "Why?" She told me that she and some other novices were expected to have sex with some priests and that she just couldn't handle it. She described to me that it happened on retreats and how several of them were chosen and taken in a van to a retreat grounds for priests.
I never questioned her about the validity of her statements--why would I? She seemed like someone I would trust. We worked hard together taking care of elderly in a little nursing home and I trusted her on everything else.

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LiberallyInclined

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Tue May-10-05 08:33 AM
Response to Original message

22. I would LOVE to buy a church...

and turn it into a nice house...(i know, i know, it's already a "house")
when i was growing up, a couple bought a retired firehouse near us and converted it into a residence- i thought that was pretty neat.

you could also make a bitchin' bar in a church...limelight did it in chicago.

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