Saturday, April 10, 2010

Pope Palpatine and the Pedophile Priests

From Pam's House Blend:

The Pope can't blame a NYT conspiracy or rumor-mongering this time. Whatever "woes" the Catholic Church is experiencing is a result of the multitude of cases of child-raping priests left free to run amok mount, leaving the church looking more like a crime syndicate than a bastion of faith.

And now he's tied directly to pedophile priest-enabling, with a 1985 letter with his John Hancock on it.

The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including ''the good of the universal church,'' according to a 1985 letter bearing his signature.

The correspondence, obtained by The Associated Press, is the strongest challenge yet to the Vatican's insistence that Benedict played no role in blocking the removal of pedophile priests during his years as head of the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog office.

The letter, signed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was typed in Latin and is part of years of correspondence between the Diocese of Oakland and the Vatican about the proposed defrocking of the Rev. Stephen Kiesle.

The Vatican confirmed Friday that it was Ratzinger's signature. ''The press office doesn't believe it is necessary to respond to every single document taken out of context regarding particular legal situations,'' the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.

Love how this all drops on Friday, the traditional drop day for really, really bad news. This is truly an apocalyptic development now, and the Vatican knows it.

The letter also revealed quite specifically that Ratzinger wanted to protect the church, not the victims.

In the November 1985 letter, Ratzinger says the arguments for removing Kiesle are of ''grave significance'' but added that such actions required very careful review and more time. He also urged the bishop to provide Kiesle with ''as much paternal care as possible'' while awaiting the decision, according to a translation for AP by Professor Thomas Habinek, chairman of the University of Southern California Classics Department.

But the future pope also noted that any decision to defrock Kiesle must take into account the ''good of the universal church'' and the ''detriment that granting the dispensation can provoke within the community of Christ's faithful, particularly considering the young age.'' Kiesle was 38 at the time.

Another big shout-out for criminal enterprise-defending Bill Donohue -- in this particular case, the pedophile priest molested a young girl in his Truckee home in 1995 and was sentenced to six years in state prison. How does that fit into your "homosexual problem in the church" meme, Bill? These priests are engaging in deviant criminal behavior.

This is the man Benedict sought to protect and keep in the flock:

''He admitted molesting many children and bragged that he was the Pied Piper and said he tried to molest every child that sat on his lap,'' said Lewis VanBlois, an attorney for six Kiesle victims who interviewed the former priest in prison. ''When asked how many children he had molested over the years, he said 'tons.'''
In another report , Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesbot, acknowledged that the Church had lost public trust and reiterated Pope Benedict's willingness to meet more victims of abuse.

Meeting more victims of abuse isn't going to cut it. The Pope, the cardinals, the bishops and all who know about the church policy on covering this whole mess up, deserve an indictment, not a chance to stand before victims.

If that's the route they want to take, then then every victim the Vatican plans to have Benedict meet needs to ask the Pope directly to answer what he knew and when he knew it before cameras, since it won't happen in a court room.

Friday, April 09, 2010

***** BREAKING! Wedding Bells for La Liz?*****

It is being reported that Dame Elizabeth Taylor (78), of the silver screen and tabloid fodder for generations, is getting married for the ninth time to long-time beau Jason Winters (49). More details to follow!

Thursday, April 08, 2010

La Veuvre Clicquot

The guys from Cafe Chew and La Contessa di Pomodori belong to a book club that is reading books with a culinary "spin" to them. They recently got together to read a book about the Widow Clicquot (and I am afraid I don't have the name of the book for you. I will get it though...) the famous doyenne of the French Champagne house and had a discussion party at Hedge House this week. Bob made lobster cocktails with fresh mango and Tobin made madeleines, those delicate little French cookies that Marcel Proust waxed prosaically about in "Remembrances of Things Past". Looks like they had a nice time. 6 people, three bottles of the bubbly stuff? I'd say they probably did.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Holy Crimes!

This week in "Holy Crimes" courtesy of the nice men at JoeMyGod.com. Thanks boys!

Alabama: Pastor Bertha Wright arrested on 16 felony counts of Oxycontin prescription fraud.
Texas: Pastor Lester Cody pleads no contest to sexually assaulting a minor.
Texas: Youth Pastor Matthew Overstreet charged with sexually assaulting a minor.
Missouri: Father Patrick Grady pleads guilty to possession of child porn and trying to buy sex from a female minor.
Illinois: Deacon George Valdez charged with embezzling $315K from his parish.
Wisconsin: Pastor Leonard Van Vlaenderen charged with stealing $128K from his church.
France: Father Jacques Gaimard confesses to child molestation.
Ontario: Father John Duarte sentenced for molesting boys at Catholic mission he founded in Haiti.
France: Father Bonaventure Ouedraogo arrested for showing up drunk at the funeral he was to officiate and punching out one of the mourners.
North America: Bishop Accountability group claims that numerous accused priests are being quietly reinstated despite pending charges of child predation.

This Week's Winner-
Vatican City: Cardinal Angelo Sodano opened the Pope's Easter Sunday Mass today with a speech dismissing charges of the Ratzinger's complicity in the global child abuse scandal as nothing more than "petty gossip of the moment." Ill Papa made no mention of the controversy during his address.


Its beginning to look more and more as if organized religion is nothing more than a racket to molest children, steal from parishes and live the good life!

Disgraceful!!!

Jenny Craig Diet Results, Week 1

OK, so I have been on the Jenny Craig diet plan now for 1 week and I went in today to be weighed in and collect my food for the next week. It was fairly easy to do. No guessing as to what I am going to eat for meals as they are all spelled out for you. You just take the food out of the freezer, cook it, supplement it with fresh fruits, veggies and dairy products and before you can say "haute cuisine" you have lost weight. The food isn't bad but as a professionally trained chef I do find the food a little bland, overcooked, and texturally unappealing sometimes. However, in the name of losing weight I will keep to it. The only item that I really didn't like was a soup called Chicken and Corn Chowder. That, I will say was nasty. I will not be choosing that again.

After stepping on the scale this morning I found that I had lost 7.9 pounds this week. My counselor Kim was very excited for me and all of the girls there were appropriately impressed so I did feel good about the results. I will keep you all updated with my progress so check back in regularly.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Just finished last batch of jam


Just finished my last batch of strawberry jam. I made 28 jars and have them cooling out on the counter. Some lucky folks are going to have some tasty mornings coming up.

Now I'm going to relax. 2 big batches of jam, making Easter dinner for Mr. B, going out on a stake-out with him and now it's time for a break!

Have a great Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter everyone! This is me at Chatham Bars Inn lo those many moons ago.

I have spent the morning making strawberry jam which I usually do Easter weekend. I am now in the middle of making dinner for Mr. B. He is having glazed ham, au gratin potatoes and peas. I, being on the Jenny Craig program, will be having my macaroni and cheese dinner from the program and supplementing it with a slice or two of the glazed ham. I can't resist.

Hope you all have a great day. We are going to go for a drive to Chatham and enjoy the beautiful weather after lunch. Do something fun.

Don't forget to check in tomorrow after I go for my first follow-up consultation at Jenny Craig and see how much weight I've lost (if any) since last week!!