Adding Insult To Injury To The Point Of Vulgarity

In an unbelievable show of complete cluelessness, the Milwaukee Diocese and its newly installed Archbishop not only had former Archbishop Weakland and his enabler Archbishop Dolan at the ceremony installing Archbishop Jerome Listecki, but are about to unveil a bronze carving of Weakland as part of the protector of children.

PaddyMac wrote about this event. Appropriately, he condemns having Weakland anywhere near the new Archbishop. Unfortunately, it is not because he condemns what Weakland did, but more in the nature of wishing the whole matter swept under the rug.

Then Paddy takes it one more step over the line with this:

Anyhow, SNAP is hitting new Archbishop Jerome Listecki with this two days after his installation. They complained earlier about him, but to be honest, SNAP blunts its points by complaining about practically anyone in a miter. Listecki by all indications is on board with the diocese’s current approach of calling the cops and taking no chances.

Excuse me? Just where the hell does Paddy get off telling the victims of sexual assault that they should stop trying to hold the Diocese responsible for allowing the outrages that were committed upon them when they were children. Does he lack that much insight? Perhaps he should read the Milwaukee Magazine article of two men who were sexually assaulted by a mother superior. He should be able to find the article an easy read, since it was written by Jessica McBride, of all people.

Sad to say, Paddy's tactlessness is pale in comparison to the idiotic and inexcusable comments made by Charlie Sykes on his show Wednesday morning. Sykes basically came out and said that these survivors of sexual assault should just shut up and go away. And this fool had the nerve to call me insensitive?

Steve Wexler should have a long talk with Sykes, before he gets the station sued again. Better yet, Wexler should try to find someone who isn't so intellectually and morally corrupt to do the show. We already gave a suggestion on who would be infinitely much better for them and for their listeners.

Another Classy Post By Fischer

Apparently, some of the more strict adherents are none too pleased with an effort to change some of the ritualistic phrasing that is part of the Catholic Church.

Now, I'm not Catholic, nor do I agree with many of the positions that the Church takes, but I do believe in the Freedom of Religion, and would consider this issue to be an internal matter that they need to deal with.

Some of those who have strong feelings about this issue, can express themselves appropriately, like Dad29 does.

Fischer does not have the same kind of education or level of sophistication as Dad, as his clearly obvious in just the title of his post on the same subject, spelling errors and all:

BAPTISM AND THE FEMINAZI'S

As a public service, here is a link to their contact information, just in case you wish to let WISN know how glad you are that they are making this class act part of their station. He should fit in real well with Belling.

More Trials And Tribulations

Poor McIlheran. He feels the Church can never catch a break. He complains that the Church and other religious organizations take government money they have to follow some loose guidelines established by federal law. This is so unfair.

But imagine how he would complain if there was no oversight, and they found that money was being misused or even embezzled. He would hit the roof over it. Then again, maybe not.

I also remember how many of the right wing media mavens were going off about the proposed bailout of the banks for all the subprime loans. They would argue how people knew what they were signing up for, and how they needed to take personal responsibility. Why wouldn't this apply to the Church? They knew what they were signing up for. It's a bit disingenuous to start complaining about it now.

Then McIlheran is still trying to deal with the Church having to pay for all the sex abuse cases. Unfortunately for him, the manly Brawler did some quick research into Cardinal Bernard Law, and found out that McIleran's argument doesn't hold up.

Well, Well. Look Who Reads Whallah!

McIlheran has a couple of posts up today in which he still struggles with the dilemna that the Catholic Church is facing.

This post contains this paragraph (emphasis mine):

You’re not supposed mention money, by the way, at least if you’re not the guy arguing for the church to be supine before the plaintiffs’ attorneys. To do so is to “put money before people's very lives,” as some blogger or other put it in when I had the temerity to say it’s a shame the church may well be bankrupted.

Now where did we see this before? Oh yeah, in this post (again emphasis mine, if one can empasize oneself):

And being just as egregious, McIlheran focuses on the cost to the Church, indicating that the Church shouldn't be made to pay for something that happened decades ago. Leave it to him to put money before people's very lives. He should be ashamed of himself for even writing this post. And I feel safe to say, that I bet that the victims would have been glad to forego any money they might receive in order to have never been abused in the first place.

My ego isn't so fragile that I will make a big deal about McIlheran not linking or even mentioning who that "some blogger or other" is. After all, I don't always link to him, although I always make it clear who gets credit for the stuff he writes. (Lord knows I don't want it.)

But I can't help but notice that he is always trying to paint the victims, or at least their attorneys, as the bad guys. He makes claims to the effect of "Well, the Church doesn't do that anymore, so they should just drop it." He further points out, accurately this time, that the actual perpetrators are either dead or don't have any money in the first place.

Unfortunately, the question that McIlheran never answers is why he thinks that the victims should get nothing but a "We're sorry." It could very well be that he just doesn't understand what this kind of victimization can do to a person's psyche, and to their lives, for the rest of their lives. I hope that is the reason he fails to answer the question.

For the only other reasons would be that he does indeed consider money to be more important, or he just doesn't care about what happened to the victims in the first place. And as much as we may disagree with McIlheran's issues and points of view, it would be truly sad if he were that deplorable.

It's Not That Hard To Figure Out

McIlheran is still struggling with the latest revelations in the case regarding Franklyn Becker who molested several children several years ago. He questions Archbishop Dolan's wisdom in continuing to release information about the case. For the record, I commend Dolan for finally coming out with the truth, even though he should have done this more openly years ago, and not when he was more or less forced to do so.

But the striking line from McIlheran's post is this:

The Legislature may well open up a whole new avenue to sue the archdiocese over cases from the 1960s and wrongdoing by bishops long since dead or turfed into retirement. In which case Catholics will see their archdiocese's checkbook pretty much handed over to the plaintiffs' attorneys.

Yes, Patrick, the offenders might be dead or defrocked, but the victims still survive, and they are still dealing with the affects of the abuse they received. And aren't the victims what justice is for?

There's Enough Blame For Everyone

By now, we have all heard of how bad things really are for the Milwaukee Catholic Diocese, and the stunning revelations about the cover up that was involved in it. Now, Whallah! will not go into denigrating the Catholic Church. I firmly believe in coexisting and that everyone has a right to chose how they practice their religious beliefs, as well as if they even have religious beliefs.

But has horrifying as the abuse suffered by the victims truly is, the tragedy is only being compounded by how some people are reacting to it.

Sykes is leading the way, by pointing out the crimes that were committed by Archbishop Rembert Weakland. On his show he also blasts former Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann for his role in trying to sweep these assaults under the rug.

Whallah! agrees with Sykes on these condemnations. That said, we must also say we agree with the Brew City Brawler, who points out that Archbishop Dolan is not to be abolved of the role he played in the obscenity:

Let the Brawler make sure he has this straight:

Archbishop Timothy Dolan booted the pedophile Franklyn Becker out of the priesthood.

He paid him $10,000 -- with no limits on how the money should be spent. He sent him to Mayfield Mayville-- he informed the sheriff but not the neighborhoods or the community. And he didn't provide for counseling.

And now, per Peter Isely, the Midwest director of the Surivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Becker is living in an apartment with a view overlooking a playground?

And somehow Dolan's going to skate on this?

That would appear to be the case as of 12:03 a.m. (late night for the housework-tasked Brawler). The name Dolan appears not once in the Journal Sentinel story
about the scandal that appears due for Friday's paper.

Now, the Brawler fully expects the amoral likes of Charlie Sykes to politicize this, to say "Look what happened under Rembert" while saying Dolan has done an "extraordinarily good job in trying to clean up this mess."

Charlie says that a lot of people are in denial about what transpired under the liberal Rembert Weakland. And when he says people he means liberals. To which the Brawler says: prove it.

The Brawler says let the Lord have mercy on Rembert for what happened under his watch. The Brawler, being human, brooks no excuses.

But the suggestion that Dolan is somehow above the mess is absurd.

And for those of Charlie's dumb ass commenters that are trying to insist that this is only a display of homosexuality, they need to remember that it was not only priest-on-boy abuse that was happening in the Church. Furthermore, they also need to be aware that sexual assault is rarely about the sex, but the control, and can happen in any sexual combination.

And being just as egregious, McIlheran focuses on the cost to the Church, indicating that the Church shouldn't be made to pay for something that happened decades ago. Leave it to him to put money before people's very lives. He should be ashamed of himself for even writing this post. And I feel safe to say, that I bet that the victims would have been glad to forego any money they might receive in order to have never been abused in the first place.

UPDATE: The Brawler provides us with some more history of Dolan's involvement in the cover up and his shortcomings in addressing the issue here, and he also takes McIlheran to task for his misplaced priorities here.

Miller's secret agenda

Boy, the conservatives are onto the big issues now, like Miller Brewing's sponsorship of a gay event which is using a photo that's a takeoff of The Last Supper. Charlie Sykes is fully engaged, with breathless updates, even down to policing the website.

Jessica McBride spins a theory that this is all part of Miller's liberal social agenda, and is shocked to find some underage people drink at this gayfest (unlike the Miller Pavilion at Summerfest.)

Now it can be told. Miller's secret agenda: Sell more beer to gays.

If you find that shocking, you can always join the Catholics and boycott Miller. If only the church had been as zealous about purging the priesthood of pedophiles.