Wednesday, September 05, 2007
ROMAN COLLAR AMNESIA
Off the Record at Catholic World News is having another go at Pilla et. al.:
Off The Record has often had occasion to notice the frequency and expedience of memory lapses by senior ecclesiastics faced with awkward questions -- especially under oath (go here, and here, and here, and here ...). Now it seems some persons in greater metropolitan Cleveland are making the same diagnosis in reference to the current diocesan kickback scam trial. From the Plain Dealer:
Some employees at Cathedral Square, headquarters of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, share a whispered acronym for a memory problem that strikes priests who are called to testify in court cases.
"We call it RCA, or Roman Collar Amnesia," employee Janice Hesselton testified during the federal kickback trial of a former diocesan accountant, Anton Zgoznik.
Defense attorneys in the case suspect the RCA affliction has spread all the way to the church's hierarchy. Bishop Anthony Pilla, now retired, and the Rev. John Wright, one of his former top assistants, could not recall significant details of financial transactions and business decisions when questioned at the trial last week in U.S. District Court.
"I've gotten the impression that people's memories are malleable over there" at the diocese, defense attorney Robert Rotatori said after the sixth day of testimony.
It's easy to be generous with someone else's money. These funds not only represent the excess of the wealthy, they represent the widow's mite. Widows might be better off keeping it for a worthy cause. The diocese apparently ain't it.
There is another gem of a line near the end:
Wright said Pilla approved a $60,000 loan to Wright's secretary, Maria "Mitzy" Milos. The loan was not documented on the church's ledgers, Rotatori said. When she failed to repay the loan, Wright paid off the $50,000 balance with a check from the church's Cemeteries Association.
Think about that as you write your check for the Sunday collection. And think about Bishop Pilla's RCA...a disease that is making the rounds of American chanceries. Should the bishops and their lackeys have so much power when their mental faculties are so limited? When the rest of us can't recall what we've done with $270,000, our children transport us to the nursing home and make sure someone is watching us 24/7! Perhaps the strain of bishoping is causing this epidemic of forgetfulness. I think it's time for a whole new American Catholic administration, starting with bishops young enough and honest enough to do the job right.