Monday, March 21, 2011

Globe Article On Daughters of St. Paul Suing the Wizards at the Archdiocese



The Globe picked up on the story BCI broke last week about the Daughters of St. Paul suing the wizards.


The Daughters (and their lawyers) have run into the same chicanery Boston Catholics have been reporting for years:

The trustees, the lawsuit alleges, never kept separate records for each contributing employer — even though, it alleges, they were required to do so by the document establishing the trust.

Marcia S. Wagner, a pension law specialist whom the nuns hired in 2007, said she has never encountered such difficulty acquiring basic information to complete what she said should have been a straightforward matter.

“What struck me as most atypical is the incredible lack of responsiveness, the lack of any hard data or information, non-answers to very specific questions, and just endless, fruitless negotiations,’’ she said.

She added: “When you want to accomplish something that is par for the course and ordinary, and it becomes mired in arcane complexity, nonresponsiveness and non-answers, that will usually mean that something is amiss.’’


How long will the Holy See continue to ignore the corruption here in Boston?

Wasn't this and isn't this the dishonesty that makes an environment a dangerous place?

Unless you have experienced it first hand, it's impossible to grasp the impact of the dynamic of deception and lies - both by commission and omission.

The shattered trust. The realization that your Cardinal and his administration are untrustworthy liars, that it's all smoke an mirrors...it is shocking. Dealing with the people who have been shattered by their abusive treatment is demoralizing. Hearing their stories, seeing the pain and destruction. Maddening.

We dealt with it in life and death matters when the Cardinal and his staff tried to go into the abortion business with Centene. The Cardinal himself played a role in the deception by using his blog to undermine the credibility of Boston Catholics exposing the scandal by calling us 'people who do a disservice to the Church'. Just about Tue same time he gave Ted Kennedy a funeral given to a Saint. A man who spent his life fighting for the rights to even decapitate children alive.

We experienced it when the Archdiocese sold off of Catholic Hospitals (and Catholic conscience protections) to lay the groundwork for Obama's socialized medicine (led by Ralph de la Horre). It's all left us with the conviction that the mafia has nothing on the Cardinal's Cabinet. (In fact, they are often referred to in the trenches as the Irish Mafia.)

Our most recent experience with the pastoral center for the propagation of lies, involved the 'non-discrimination policy'. You can review a good summary of that experience HERE.

What they lack in honesty, they sure make up for with audacity and duplicity. Take a look at what Terry Donilon had to say HERE.

Terry Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the archdiocese has a good relationship with the Daughters of St. Paul and is confident the lawsuit can be resolved through mediation.

"We're happy to resolve this," he said. "We are trying to ensure that when they withdraw, that there's a plan, that they are going to continue to provide for the well-being of the beneficiaries of the fund. We don't think that is a lot to ask."


Trying to ensure there is a plan?

Excuse us, but isn't the priests' pension set to completely run out of funds in 2012? Aren't these the same people holding 'get your RCAB pension before there's no money left' meetings last week?


The source who wrote this roundup on the RCAB's pension meeting last week, had one very interesting point that needs to be highlighted.

As the archdiocese uses the scare tactic of telling employees their pension plan may go bankrupt to coerce them nto taking a partial buyout payment, they withheld some pretty critical information from them:

“Is there FDIC Insurance behind this?” Of course there isn’t. Make sure that you don’t tell them that paragraph 19.3 of the trust agreement says “Each employer shall periodically make contributions which … are sufficient on an actuarial basis approved bythe plan’s actuary to fund the costs of the plan arising with respect to the participants…”

Don’t tell them that your benefits are GUARANTEED BY NOT ONLY THIER EMPLOYER BUT ALL OF THE OTHER EMPLOYERS IN THE PLAN.



The pensions are guaranteed?

If they were scaring you by telling you that you may have nothing, the information that your pension is actually guaranteed, that would be a mitigating factor in deciding whether or not to take a dime on the dollar of your retirement money, wouldn't it?

Can you think of a reason they didn't tell them?

I can.


You have to have some kind of chutzpah to not give people their own money while saying you need to make sure THEY are going to provide for the well being of their employees when you don't do it yourself.

Employees should call the Daughters lawyers. Along with the district attorney.

6 comments:

Joseph D'Hippolito said...

Remember these things:

1. O'Malley is a Franciscan, which means he (supposedly) is trained to be less enamored with material things.

2. JPII appointed O'Malley, which suggests that either the Pope or those around him didn't perform their due dilligence when appointing Law's successor.

3. The problem isn't just the Boston Archdiocese. The problem, quite frankly, is Catholic ecclesiology. It effectively promotes corruption by discouraging accountability and encourging institutional arrogance and a sense of entitlement.

Anonymous said...

Joe,

Do you think some of us just fell off the turnip truck?

Veronica

breathnach said...

Joe,

Pretty lame defense of Cardinal "Sean" akin to: Pope Alexander VI(Borgia) was a pope, therefore his greed and corruption was illusory.

James said...

Joe,
1) That's a preposterous excuse. There is nothing about the Franciscan spirituality that would make one less concerned with material things like taking care of low-paid former employees in their retirement and upholding his own promise to fund their pensions.

2) JPII appointed Roger Mahony too.

3) What aspect of Catholic ecclesiology promotes corruption? These are people in the positions. Canon law says they are supposed to take care of the temporal goods of the Church. I would accept that they are corrupt people, but don't see anything in the ecclesiology that encourages corruption.

Maria said...

I don't like saying this,but Pope Benedict permits this.

Joseph D'Hippolito said...

Let me explain my first post to my critics.

The first point about O'Malley's Franciscan roots was meant to be ironic. I seriously don't think St. Francis would have behaved the same way if faced with the same problem.

The second point about JPII appointing O'Malley says that, in the final analysis, the buck stops at the top. Yes, O'Malley is responsible for his decisions. But, ultimately, the Vatican is responsible for the bishops it appoints and for holding them accountable. O'Malley's case is another black mark against JPII and his aides.

Regarding my final point: Perhaps "ecclesiology" is the wrong word. Nevertheless, the Catholic system of governance enables corruption because it inculcates an institutional attitude of arrogance, self-benightedness and entitlement in its prelates. Why do you think so many bishops throughout the world behave in basically the same way?

Remember, also, that the Pope is elected by the College of Cardinals...IOW, by people who are interested in preserving the current system because it protects their personal ambitions.

Maria, you have every reason for your misgivings.