Sham Sham On You: Counterfeit Catholicism (Part Two)

Here on the Left Coast of Canada, a.k.a. the Banana Belt, we expect kooks of one kind or another who are well positioned in public life to completely misspend the people's hard-earned cash and/or resort to the frequent distortion of the public record in order to enact one goofy agenda after another.

It could be said that if all the crazies left there'd be no one to run the store. By 'crazies' is meant those miscreants who are cognitively impaired only by their egotism, goofball socialism and 1970s-style petulance that afflicts the dwindling percentage of the population that possesses an adequate degree of commonsense and decency.

Since the glorious days of the 1970s - read that last phrase in sarcasm font - the Church on Vancouver Island has witnessed the comings and goings of one or more species of liberal-religionist.

Liberal-religionist:

1. dissident
2. relativist
3. progressive (i.e., regressive)
4. self proclaimed prophet

Thinking themselves Catholic, even while ignoring the obvious - the truths of the Catholic Faith - preferring their own neatly massaged (and highly delusional) tailored-to-me theology, if by theology one means mythology and ideology - and promoting their own 'Spirit of Vatican II' agenda, liberal-religionists now slowly rot in their drab "progressive" alleyways muttering self serving prophecies that all prophets of feel-good spirituality feel compelled to impose on potential funding sources, i.e., the Catholic faithful.

Motto Apropos

If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.

- a version of the Big Lie

Island Catholic News (ICN), founded during the tenure of the disgraced Bishop of Victoria Remi J. De Roo by De Roo's supporters, proudly supports heretical and schismatic 'progressive' groups listed on their websites.

One must acknowledge the perseverance of such counterfeit organizations. Unfortunately, their energy has for decades been wasted on an agenda of lies. Furthermore, they are in complete denial over their failed experiment in sexual liberation, a prurience which, long before the 1960s and 1970s, infected those who thought their ideas wiser than Catholic social teaching. Sexual license is a perversion of the Law of God, and like all forms of decadent thought and behaviour, be they waged in the '50s, '60s or 70's or the new millennium, the devastating effects can be placed at the feet of liberal-religionists who ignored sound judgement and followed the myopic advice offered by equally arrogant social scientists who contributed to the diabolical storm of permissiveness, pedophilia and pederasty that has deprived countless children and adolescents of their innocence.

Operations such as ICN are part of the problem that Catholics face as they try to navigate the culture, fraught as it is with intellectual shoals upon which even the most faithful Catholic may find himself dashed and damaged. Counterfeit groups are guilty by association with secular ideologues/ideologies of conducting a propaganda war against truth, goodness and beauty.

While sham groups continue to plague the Church, their contemptible attempts to infiltrate and obfuscate are finding fewer homes as young Catholics turn toward orthodoxy. Colleges and universities where Catholics are sorely tested for living the Faith whole and inviolate are institutions where the same Catholics are finding their intellectual immunity strengthened by encounters with porridge-for-brains advocates of tired socialistic ideologies who are furious that their fascistic behaviours are being exposed and rejected by level-headed Catholics. Strengthened by adversity from without, they are able to resist and reject counterfeit ideas proposed by 'progressive' elements inside the Church.

With the rise of hope-filled Tradition-minded groups such as the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) and the Personal Ordinariates, which emphasize solid teaching and authentic liturgy and spirituality to orient oneself to Jesus Christ, Catholics are given opportunities to channel their energy and resources toward the true mission of the Church.

In bello parvis momentis magni casus intercedunt.

Its time to deprive pretenders who promote cheap imitations of Catholicism of opportunities to disseminate their deceptive brand of religion among the faithful. Organizations such as ICN, Roman Catholic Womenpriests, etc., have no place in the Church founded by Jesus Christ. They can only exist if people continue to buy their snake oil. Deprived of financial support and refused parish stages upon which to present their irrelevant and soul-destroying teaching, they will have to fund their operations themselves, thereby draining energy from their corrupt mission.

Facts v. Fiction

The legal and financial record should be published and re-published to counter attempts by groups such as ICN to gloss over the negative impact that dissent from Canon Law creates among the faithful.

One misguided De Roo supporter, parroting the opinion of another dissident, remarked that a book attempting to vindicate De Roo

shows how the land agreements, despite major controversy in the Vancouver Island diocese, turned out well for the church.

https://vancouversun.com/news/staff-blogs/radical-retired-victoria-catholic-bishop-vindicated

To conflate De Roo's canonically proscribed and highly imprudent actions with any kind of success, i.e., the resolution of a massive debt wrought through the painful sale of diocesan assets and investment by lay faithful, is a reprehensible attempt on the part of the two authors to enter into the public record an implausible if not impossible-to-substantiate re-reading of events. Such attempts by progressives to redeem one of their own are a misappropriation of absolution, a fraudulent use of the media to negate a necessary ownership of fault, a necessary ownership of the responsibility to admit the truth in the presence of God "from whom no secrets are hid" (Collect for Purity).

The comments of the writer of the article quoted above, and the work of the author of the book referred to in the article, diminish the magnitude of the "crippling financial crisis" and brutal emotional, physical and spiritual stress caused by De Roo's and his confederates' actions . Both article and book amount to attempts to blame shift, rewrite history and rehabilitate a bad actor at the expense of the memory and good names of two bishops, De Roo's successors, who were saddled with the near-catastrophic misappropriation of diocesan resources.

For the record:

Globe & Mail: Bishop De Roo's secret deals 'beyond belief,' probe says, by Kim Lunman. June 30, 2000, Updated April 3, 2018. A report on the financial debacle in the Victoria Roman Catholic Diocese found it "beyond belief" that Bishop Remi De Roo would make secret investments that are now costing his flock more than $17-million. Bishop De Roo told a church-appointed commission that he made the investments in Arabian horses and a U.S. land deal without the required approval because he was sure they would pay off. [...] "It is truly beyond belief that he would have jeopardized the patrimony of the diocese without extending his consultation beyond that of the financial officer and legal counsel," the three-member commission stated in a harshly worded 10-page report released yesterday. The report found that only three people -- Bishop De Roo, retired financial administrator Muriel Clemenger and a lawyer acting for the Victoria diocese -- knew of the investments that have plunged the church's 37 parishes on Vancouver Island into a crippling financial crisis. (T)he report characterized the bad investments as beyond comprehension and fraught with bad judgments and very grave dereliction with regard to canon law. The harm done to the good name of the diocese is something that will take generations to repair, it said. The report found there were no financial records by the diocese of the deals and no outside audits for the 15 years that Ms. Clemenger worked under the tenure of Bishop De Roo. [...] The report also called on Bishop De Roo to issue a letter to the diocese stating that the investments and loans should have received the proper approval. [...] The report found that the Bishop approved of an initial $30,000 investment in 1987 in a U.S. Arabian horse venture after a suggestion by Ms. Clemenger. The money came from a trust fund set aside for nuns. The venture, through a Washington state lawyer named Joseph Finley, failed. By 1992, $2-million of the nuns' account known as the Priory Trust and diocesan funds had been invested and lost in Arabian horses. To recoup the losses, Bishop De Roo said he approved of a subsequent loan and loan guarantees in 1997 and 1998 amounting to $12-million for a land deal in Lacey, Wash., suggested by Mr. Finley. He said he was told the 64 hectares were worth a lot more and would generate a quick profit. "It is beyond comprehension that Bishop De Roo maintained faith in Mr. Finley and in his financial officer after the debacle of the horses investment," the report said.

A trust fund set up by the Roman Catholic Church in Victoria for elderly nuns' pensions was used for secret investments in Arabian race horses that have left the diocese with a crippling $17-million debt. - Globe & Mail 

[PressReader] Court drops curtain on diocese’s land-venture saga. Decision likely ends appeal process over Washington land deal gone awry, by Louise Dixon. Times Colonist. 4 Apr 2008. The financial saga of an Arabian horse venture and a high risk land project that left the Catholic Diocese of Victoria mired in $17 million in debt is finally over. On Tuesday, the Washington State Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal by Seattle lawyer Joseph Finley against the diocese. “We believe it’s the end of it,” Bishop Richard Gagnon said yesterday. “We don’t think there is anything that can go forward from here. I don’t want to make any assumptions on the part of Mr. Finley, but we really feel this will bring a prompt conclusion to the situation.” Between 1988 and 1992, Bishop Remi De Roo of the Victoria diocese invested about $2 million in the Arabian horse deal with Finley. About $1.5 million came from a trust fund — the Priory Trust — set up after a Vatican-ordered sale of assets. The investment deteriorated and the money was lost. In 1997, De Roo became involved with Finley again, guaranteeing a $12-million mortgage on land near Lacey, Wash. The plan was to make a quick profit by flipping it to buyers who wanted it for a racetrack. But the land didn’t sell and interest charges continued to mount. When De Roo retired in 1999, his successor, Bishop Raymond Roussin, stopped paying the $200,000 monthly interest on the debt. In February 2000, De Roo’s questionable business practices were made public. A few months later, the diocese asked for parishioners’ help and announced a fundraising plan to issue bonds at six per cent interest to raise cash to pay off the U.S. lenders. The plan raised almost $13 million. By August 2003, the debenture holders were paid interest on their investments. Most renewed their contracts for a three-year term. In the meantime, Finley sued the diocese for breach of contract when it stopped making payments on the debt and the land went into receivership. In May 2005, a Washington state jury awarded Finley almost $8.2 million US. The diocese was also found guilty of a breach of fiduciary responsibility, meaning it had not co-operated with its inherited business partner. The diocese was fined $4.2 million. But in late January 2007, the judgment against the diocese was overturned by the Washington state Court of Appeals. Finley sought a further appeal in the Court of Appeals and lost again. He then appealed to the Supreme Court, who declared Tuesday they would not hear the case. “The court shows clearly there is nothing illegal happening here in terms of our relationship with Joseph Finley,” said Gagnon. “We’re happy about it. We’re now able to go forward and look to the future without this problem hanging over us as it has for the past decade.” The lesson the diocese has learned is that it needs to continue to function within its guidelines and canon law, said Gagnon. “It’s an unfortunate business deal that was entered into, that should not have happened. We all learned by these unfortunate circumstances. It was not something that was intended to cause so much damage, but this was a whole process that happened over a decade,” said the bishop. Gagnon has not spoken to De Roo, who is retired and living on Vancouver Island, since the appeal was denied. The debentures were paid off in the fall of 2006.

The Diocese of Victoria returned to financial health through the efforts of Bishop Roussin (RIP) and his successor Bishop Gagnon aided by a team of dedicated financial and legal experts, not to mention the support of many generous lay people who contributed personal resources that helped to undo Remi De Roo's mess.

It was Bishop Gagnon, now Archbishop Gagnon, who warmly welcomed former Anglicans into the Catholic fold under the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. He ordained four former Anglican ministers into the Catholic priesthood who are members of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter.