The abuse scandal and the current crisis of the institution continue to generate news headlines and commentaries in the mainstream press. Tom McMahon today continues his own investigation of the headlines particularly as they relate to unfolding news in his part of the United States...

Preface...

Some thoughts to share as we launch into the second commentary on the chaos being presented to the world around the pedophile-clerical abuse situation and the Pope's involvement. THIS ISSUE IS HUGE, yet in my opinion only a small portion of that massive abuse of humans that lays hidden in society. Keep you eye on the ball (abuse)! Clerical scandal is the tip of the iceberg which possibly could sink many ships of State, business, and religion. I can come at the issue only from a religious point of view … for the time being.

Keep in mind:

1. custodian of emperor's finances and lands is the main role of a bishop in the early Roman Empire and the political role of the bishop of Rome in the Middle Ages;
2. 1500's, Trent's new priesthood, renovations of today's seven sacraments and founding of seminary, all scaling back the medieval unbridled power of rogue bishops and the spiritual deception of the people.
3. education once locked into male monastic system until 1400's gives way to a Magna Carta type thinking eventualizing in the revolt of the masses.
4. papacy today is the last monarchy ruling over the present feudal 2010 plantation system called dioceses and parishes.
5. the contrast between aristocratic "infallible" Pius the 9th, 1870 and people-minded John the 23rd, 1962.
6. will the masses accept and/or profit from this isolated outdated Roman system in a world of democracies? Are we hearing the peoples' voice? … they are educated.

My objective: do we have a square hole into which we are attempting to insert a round peg? The anecdotal stories that follow are Tom's attempt to continue to show a medieval system in dysfunction and on the verge of collapse, unable to respond to the present human crisis. The downfall of the original Roman Empire took over four hundred years. Was Vatican Two the birth of new church, built on the ashes of the medieval church of the 1300's? In 2010 what is church and what is priest?

APRIL 2010 … more headlines and articles on abuse...

Bishop Norman McFarland "His nicknames included 'Big Mac,' a nod to his height and truth-and-order authority; 'Absolute Norm,' for being a bluntly opinionated Vatican loyalist; and 'Stormin' Norman,' which reflected his take-charge attitude, The Times reported in 1988.' ...LA Times Obituary

"WE CALLED HIM 'KES'" by Clint Reilly: www.clintreilly.com/kes/ [The blog and the follow-up comments is particularly worth a read. ...Editor]

Mercury News 20Apr2010; VATICAN SCANDAL HITS HOME San Ramon Valley Times 10Apr2010 www.contracostatimes.com;

Obit of NORMAN McFARLAND (1922-2010), Second Bishop of the Orange County Diocese Sfgate.com

Let's see what we can take from these articles. Like a jack in the box information keeps popping up all over.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Valerie Nelson offers an interesting obituary of Bishop Norman McFarland. Unfortunately the newspaper is our main source of information. It is not the kind of obit that one pays to run in a newspaper. Valerie speaks of the bishop's nicknames 'Big Mac' a nod to his 6.5 height and truth and order authority and 'Absolute Norman' a bluntly Vatican loyalist as well as 'Storming Norman' for his take-charge attitude. Nor was six years ahead of me in seminary and back in the '60's we called him 'big Nor', the always smiling canon lawyer of the Archdiocese of San Francisco who honestly was convinced that Jesus our Christ left a canon law book as a 5th Gospel legacy … many stories here, just one personal. Nor was a parish priest for less than two years right after ordination ,classical of the cadre of bishops now running the Roman institution. MOST BISHOPS WERE NEVER PARISH PRIESTS!

In 1960 when I was struggling to spiritually service a parish of 2000 families, the old pastor being the one who died with a mil and a half to his name, a young married couple came asking what was the legality/sin or not of going to a nudist camp? I was 30, uneducated in sexual matters, so I got an appointment with Nor, bringing along some nudist camp material. I came away befuddled with this canon lawyer's inability to make a moral decision and aware of his totally becoming unglued at the camp photos.

Bishop McFarland rescued the dioceses of Reno, Nevada and Orange County, California from bankruptcy. Nor was well trained in San Francisco under then Monsignor Leo Maher, the most godless cleric I ever knew. Leo as bishop narrowly escaped being prosecuted for theft of 12 million from the Hanna Center (Boys' Home). Leo left the diocese of Santa Rosa virtually bankrupt (gold-plated toilet seats in the rectories), moving on to become Bishop of San Diego and denying communion to the women's' rights group called NOW.

Big Nor's obituary reveals another side of him when it details:

In another incident McFarland had been told by a psychologist in 1996 that a cleric who admitted to repeatedly molesting a boy should be restricted to an adults-only ministry. The Times reported in 2005.  Instead church officials allowed him to spend six more years as pastor of an Orange County church.In 2002 the priest was removed from ministry.

An Associated Press obituary ends with:

But confidential priest files released in 2005 after a $100 million settlement with clergy abuse victims show that McFarland also helped shelter priests who admitted molestation. In one instance, files and depositions showed McFarland allowed a priest accused of raping a 15 year old girl to stay on in the diocese.

I will address this issue of the sinfulness and criminality of pedophilia next week and I will reminisce by myself the times I had run-ins with Nor over honest innocent people wanting to marry in the Catholic Church but could not prove a legality. Did Jesus institute canon law? Were today's bishops trained to work with people? Is the pope or any bishop today able to handle the present crisis and lead the People of God into a trustful peace of mind? Quo Vadis, Domine? Jesus come soon!

Clint Reilly's blog on Stephen Kiesle...

APRIL 2010 … more HEADLINES and articles on abuse...

Clint Reilly's blog: www.clintreilly.com/kes/

Let's look at Clint Reilly's article WE CALL HIM "KES". Clint Reilly, once advisor to SF Mayor Diane Feinstein (now US Senator) is the newspaper's go-to expert on abuse matters simply because he happened to be a seminarian 50 years ago and Steve Kiesle his classmate. In 1985 Cardinal Ratzinger cited the young age (38) of Kiesle and the damage his firing would do to the Universal Church. I am reminded of Psychologist Richard Sipe's "FOREVER 14" and I am willing to apply this to bishops as well as priests. Reilly goes on to amuse us with such statements as "I haven't seen Steve in more than 40 years" and "second, Kiesle had a predilection toward young children as a seminarian…etc" and "third, the priest faculty ignored telltale signs of possible pedophilic tendencies by Kiesle for 12 years in the seminary and many more years as a priest" … Wunderbar! Clint has diagnosed the tragedy with insight he gained when 15 or 16 years old as a high school seminarian. I have a total disgust for the Alumni Association of my seminary, most of whom never were ordained and who now are financially successful in a dysfunctional society. I question the reliability of one who fishes back 40 years for information on sexual abuse, an issue that may have existed back then but only came to the public arena less than 15 years ago. Along with many local newspaper reporters Clint Reilly deserves "the tarnished medal of consummate ignorance". Recently reporters from a distance have been probing by telephone clerical friends of mine, fishing for anything to add to their sensational reporting. By the way some of us who were ordained refer to the seminary faculty of our time as "the grave yard of the Sulpicians". Sex was never mentioned as the faculty testosterone level had long ago faded. In 1947, at age 18, I finally learned how to spell 'homosexual', still not knowing what the word meant and coming to an awareness when I was ordained ten years.

This from Editor Brian's suggested letter to the Pope or people in the Curia re Hans Küng's open letter to world bishops.

"Holy Father [or n.n.], please listen to me. The vast bulk of my people have stopped listening to what you and the Vatican have to say about most things. They stopped listening decades ago. You need to address that problem instead of only listening to this noisy minority and remnant who keep telling you what a wonderful and holy person you are and who are saying all these novenas for you."
[See: www.catholica.com.au/forum/index.php?id=45666]

Cheers, Editor, and cheers to Hans Küng for his Open Letter — you are genuine, a man of conviction and courage. Too bad Big Nor never met you.

I will humbly comment on your open letter next week, as well as bringing up more explosive "headlines". I am reminded of a plaque my mother gave me "O God, your ocean is so big and my boat so small." This abuse issue is bigger than a bunch of us put together … huge!

Tom in San Jose. Ca. (24/04/2010)

[Index of Commentaries by Tom McMahon]