Posted on 12/19/2014 8:17:59 PM PST by NKP_Vet
NEW YORK (RNS) In the latest clash between the Catholic hierarchy and one of the church’s leading anti-abortion crusaders, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan accused the Rev. Frank Pavone of continuing to stonewall on financial reforms, and Dolan said he is cutting ties with his group, Priests for Life.
In a Nov. 20 letter to other U.S. bishops, Dolan said he did not know if the Vatican would now step in to take action against the New York-based priest, who for years has angered various bishops by rejecting oversight of the organization by church authorities and for refusing to sort out his group’s troubled finances.
“My requests of Father Pavone were clear and simple: one, that Priests for Life undergo a forensic audit; two, that a new, independent board be established to provide oversight and accountability,” Dolan wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Catholic World News.
“Although Father Pavone initially assured me of his support, he did not cooperate. Frequent requests that he do so went unheeded. I finally asked him to comply by October 1st. He did not,” Dolan wrote.
Dolan, who had been asked by the Vatican to help Pavone restructure Priests for Life, said in the letter that he has informed Rome that “I am unable to fulfill their mandate, and want nothing further to do with the organization.”
The cardinal said he had “no idea” what the Vatican intends to do now.
In a statement emailed to Religion News Service on Monday (Dec. 15), the Staten Island-based Priests for Life rebuffed Dolan’s criticisms, contending that the group has had “clean” audits for 15 years and saying the dispute is, in fact, “about control.”
Priests for Life is “working with the Vatican to fully implement all the Church’s expectations,” the group said, adding that the Vatican “has been consistently supportive and favorable towards Priests for Life.”
The statement said the Vatican and Pavone agree that “it does not serve the needs of the Church or the cause of life to argue a matter in public that is still being worked out in private,” and said it would not be “appropriate” to comment further.
Despite Pavone’s ties to influential church conservatives and his long-standing promotion of a cause that has topped the church’s agenda, there are signs that Pavone could be wearing out his welcome.
For decades, the outspoken Pavone has often clashed as much with his own bishops as he has with abortion-rights foes.
Pavone had tense relations with Dolan’s two immediate predecessors, the late Cardinal John O’Connor and retired Cardinal Edward Egan, and in 2005 he moved to the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas, where the bishop there promised him greater freedom. But Pavone’s grand plans to build a $130 million seminary there went south; when a new bishop, Patrick Zurek, was installed in Amarillo in 2008, he demanded a full accounting of Pavone’s $10 million annual budget, one of the largest among anti-abortion groups in the U.S.
In 2011, Zurek denounced Pavone’s “incorrigible defiance of my legitimate authority as his bishop” and suspended his ministry. It then emerged that Priests for Life had been badly mismanaged, running an unsustainable $1.4 million deficit and failing to make key tax filings or allow proper financial oversight and safeguards.
Pavone moved back to New York, saying he had the Vatican’s support and that he would not be cowed by any bishop. Then earlier this year, he and Zurek said they reached a settlement in their standoff and the problems seemed on their way to a resolution.
But that apparently wasn’t the case, and Pavone’s fate now seems to rest with Rome.
Catholic Church, RIP.
So which side is which on? Life or money? Money will lose.
Why is Fr. Pavone not complying with this? I am curious because I do not know all the facts in this situation.
Bump.....
I got one of those fake surveys in the mail this week sent by Frank Pavone:Priest for Life.
You know the same fake surveys (and petitions) that the Democrats and Repubs send out also. Those surveys... all they accomplish is that they tell the professional marketers how to direct mail you better for their money solicitations. You fill out the survey and/or petition and then all their friends and allies are given your hot button opinions/information for their solicitations.
The mailed surveys dont tell them anything they dont already know through telephone polling.But they tell them everything about you so they can get into your pocket better.
For instance in general if it was a Republican initiated survey and you picked that you were more concerned with immigration issues over fiscal or life issues. Then you will be targeted with direct mail/money solicitations for immigration control issues....surveys and petitions and all soliciting money.
I’m not Catholic. I couldn’t care less about the opinion of any bishop or cardinal. But I would never give a nickel to Pavone, either. Too many compromises for political expedience.
Read the article. He is complying with the Vatican. Dolan, the democrat operative, could care less about the pro-life movement and despises Father Pavone because Pavone is more popular that he is and actually lives the faith, something Dolan has no concept of. He’s more concerned with closing down Catholic parishes all over NY City and spending millions of dollars “renovating” St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and paling around with pro-abort and pro queer “marriage” politicians.
Why would Pavone let Dolan interfere in his good works, Dolan doesn’t like that org is why
RIP? “The gates of hell shall not prevail.”
Dolan shows his true colors by those he shamefully gives communion to, which are pro-abort politicians. He shows his true colors by being the grand marshal of a St. Patrick’s Day Parade that has been hijacked by homosexual activists. He shows his true colors by inviting the most radical pro-abortion president in American history to the annual Al Smith Dinner. He shows his true colors by not praising the work of Priests for Life in trying to stop the slaughter of the unborn, instead wanting them closed down. Cardinal Dolan is an absolute disgrace as a Catholic bishop. End of story.
You left out one other thing: Dolan doesn’t have the Catholic Faith.
I don’t completely trust this article. It comes from a magazine sponsored by the University of Missouri. I am sure there is more to the story than what is being reported here.
What source of information are you using to say that?
Perhaps Father Pavone takes issue with so-called Catholic bishops allowing pro-aborts to receive communion.
Now you submit an article from a source in England? I do NOT trust the press at this time in history. It is not a substantive source for this whole situation.
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