It is 10:58 p.m. EST which is late for me. (I try to be in bed at 8:00 or 9:00. I could not sleep, I had to write.  Today there was a deanery meeting and the minutes from the Deans meeting with the bishop were made available to the priests in our deanery.  They contained what I construe as a lie from the bishop. Maybe it is not a lie maybe it is just him living in his own world of rainbows and unicorns.  Whichever one it is it triggered me.

I do believe that most bishops are liars, in love with their power, (no matter how little of it they have), and of course money.  Then I really started to think about my bishop. He has pretty much lied to the priests and the faithful of the diocese from the very beginning.  At his installation he spoke some pretty words about helping those that have been abused.  Then nothing.

Fast forward. He responded to something in the paper that could only be called insensitive. (Boneheaded ) I honestly don’t even remember what it was.  However I do remember responding with a very strong but respectful letter to him.  The one thing I vividly remember writing was that what he said could be taken as petty and he’s not petty.  Fast forward…the letter ended up in the hands of the personnel director. At a meeting for a transfer. He started waving it around. He was trying to intimidate me. I would not back down not even in the face of his angry sarcasm.

Fast forward again. The bishop told me that his experience in Baltimore with the victims of sexual abuse by clergy made him understand…made him “get it”.  I told him that he doesn’t get it at all.

Fast forward again. The priests of the diocese were together, maybe for retreat, I don’t remember. I remember again being triggered.  This was after Pope Benedict XVI told all of us to stop blaming others for the sexual scandal because it was/is our problem. Did he mean the Catholic Church? That’s how I took it. The bishop and some nun began the tired, old song that the press was to blame. During a separate comment session I went first and chastised them both for doing the exact opposite of what the pope had said.

Fast forward. Again, other priests were present, the topic of the diocesan bankruptcy because of the possible compensation for victims came up. He stated that if he didn’t declare bankruptcy he would not be the bishop for very long.  Wow! That is more important? Wow!

This does not have anything to do with sexual abuse by the clergy but speaks volumes of his character. When abortion loving Joe Biden was vice-president he once came to the church where I was stationed.  I knew, let me say that again, knew I would not be backed or supported in any way by the bishop if I refused to give Mr. Biden the Eucharist, (body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ), if he came to communion. So I sat down and did not give communion out at all.  I called the bishops office and got the chancellor. I asked about communion for abortion proponents. He had to get beck to me.  The answer was that the bishop did not want to politicize the Eucharist. (It’s already politicized isn’t it?)

(I would never kill myself so if I end up dead it was murder.)