Posted on 02/05/2026 10:23:02 AM PST by ebb tide
The Annual Appeal was launched in our diocese this weekend, as it has been or will be in many other dioceses, with a sound-tracked video at every Mass and a step-by-step walk-through of the completion of pledge cards. While I sympathize with the committee that came up with that tedious line-by-line approach, it doesn’t wear well on adults.
Instead, maybe give us an honest accounting of where our money has gone, the steps taken to protect and report it, and a picture of the accounting best practices that assure us the money is spent as intended. Maybe that, instead of, “On the first line, write your name. We’ll wait.”
Maybe tell us about the engagement of independent auditors to oversee the implementation of proper internal controls and the production of attested financial statements. An audit is so effective a tool that when Cardinal George Pell, as Prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, contracted with PriceWaterhouseCoopers to audit the Vatican accounts, false charges were advanced to force him back to Australia. Needless to say, the audit was cancelled, Pell was whisked away from Rome to a sham trial, and he was effectively neutralized as a financial reformer.
No substantial business with stakeholders could dream of not having an audit; it’s the only way the public can be assured that a business is doing what it says on the label. No public company can opt out of an annual audit; it’s in SEC regulations, to protect stockholders.
Why should dioceses be any different? They should be held to a higher standard not a lower, given that they act in the name of Christ. But an audit takes carte blanche away from diocesan employees who are not accustomed to outside scrutiny.
In the past, we’ve trusted the oversight of bishops and the proficiency and good intentions of chancery staff. That is no longer a prudent strategy, if it ever was. Blind trust with no accountability may actually encourage shoddy behavior.
In truth, how many bishops take personal responsibility for the funds contributed? Many have inherited a command structure in the chancery that actively precludes any possibility of personal agency. “For goodness’ sake, don’t rock the boat, Your Excellency. People won’t like you.”
So, practically speaking, we’re not even blindly trusting a bishop when we give to appeals with no transparency; we’re blindly trusting lay employees who may not be identifiable behind the protective curtain of the diocesan business office.
Here in Tyler, Texas, some of us still wonder why no one in the chancery spoke up for our bishop when he was removed without process. Presented with an appeal relying on trust for those same people, we still wonder. While that is a concern unique to Tyler, it speaks to the assumption that the faithful will blindly hand over money to people who are disconnected from the issues that most deeply concern us.
We have been given no hard information about the financial decision-making and oversight processes, just mention of the seminarians and Catholic Charities, as if that establishes the case.
In our diocese, we can contribute separately to a fund for seminarians. We can contribute separately to the college campus ministry or to the St. Vincent de Paul Society. We can, in effect, bypass the Annual Appeal without neglecting the causes we care about.
That leaves Catholic Charities. Early in 2025, it was confirmed what many of us suspected already, that Catholic Charities was facilitating human and drug trafficking at the Southern border. When an appeal is presented that benefits Catholic Charities, we immediately call to mind the 300,000+ minor children who disappeared into the interior of the country with no protection; the fentanyl highway; the fees that human smugglers demand, so high that a period of indenture (slavery) is required; and the undocumented millions of dollars that were made during the Biden invasion from sex commerce at the border.
I’m not saying the bishops are guilty, but if they ask for money, they should, by golly, address these concerns in some plausible way beyond, “We didn’t do it.”
There were huge grants to Catholic Charities from Biden’s executive agencies, over $2.3 billion during his administration. Catholic Charities of Fort Worth, alone, increased its annual revenue from $32 million to $289 million during the Biden years, with $270 million coming from the government. What would account for an 800 percent increase in funding?
The Federal pipeline has been shut off, for the most part, which means Catholic Charities will have to rely more heavily on Bishops’ Appeals. That’s all the more reason to demand an independent audit with documentation of activities and organizations supported by our dioceses.
While I have hope that our local Catholic Charities of Tyler has not participated in the income from bogus government grants or from trafficking of any kind, credible proof has not been presented to us. No one is even acknowledging that we have valid concerns. We are just supposed to sign the check (or click the “GIVE NOW” button) without solid answers.
I believe that era is over.
The bishops, as a whole, are disingenuous. They have supported abortion and homosexuality through screens of obscuring organizations, especially the Campaign for Human Development—and its dependent NGOs (here, for example)—which was reinstituted in our diocese when our new bishop took office.
Bishops who provably participated in, or covered up for, clerical sex abuse are promoted by Rome, which could not happen if the USCCB oversaw its own members and had the will to protect the faithful.
Bishops gather together to moralize against the president that many of us voted for, as though the Catholic Church has become a Democrat stump, the rest of us be damned. Instead of preaching and teaching the universal Catholic truths, they concern themselves with politics and their bank accounts. They spend more time agitating against communion rails and the Latin Mass than preaching the Gospel.
They have, in nearly every way, thrown out the moral authority they should have had by ignoring Christ as though they have any authority within themselves apart from Him. And then they ask us for money and hope we will continue to give blindly. Bishops have been withdrawing moral capital for decades and not making deposits. The whole structure is broken.
Dear bishops, we are tired of the never-ending scandals and your pretending that nothing is amiss. We are tired of being used by you.
If a particular bishop is innocent, let him at least address our concerns and give us solid, documented reasons to believe he is truthful. A clean, independent audit report would be the most direct way.
Bishops, there are capable accounting firms in every diocese of this country.
....
The bishops, as a whole, are disingenuous. They have supported abortion and homosexuality through screens of obscuring organizations, especially the Campaign for Human Development—and its dependent NGOs (here, for example)—which was reinstituted in our diocese (Tyler) when our new bishop (Bergoglio's replacement of Strickland) took office.
Ping
Ahhhh, ebby’s fetish for fired strickland rises once more. Do you two share a man-purse?
Just shut up! Bp. Strickland was my bishop when we lived in his diocese. I’m sick of your unfounded, egregious attacks on one of the few holy bishops in the Church. He is a True Shepherd who is concerned with the salvation of souls. Something you obviously know nothing about! And I’m still not convinced that you are even Catholic.
strickland was fired. And contrary to the posting above, he received what he deserved. After his firing stickland has gone about promoting himself in a false manner even to the point of giving himself the Honoria of “emeritus,” which his own old diocese does not grant him. As the above posting also notes that he was quoted at a national bishops meeting. His quote and appearance was met with a “thud” by the Bishops in good standing. This means he is not only fired but disgraced. Don’t be fooled by a fired wolf in sheep’s clothing.
And like those mentioned above, you can't stand the thought of Catholic, orthodox and moral priests and bishops speaking out and preaching the true Catholic Faith.
It just irritates you so much:
Calm down, before your hemorrhoids flare up again.
It's becoming more obvious with his every post that he's not one.
Not to discount the points OP is making, bec I agree
BUT
As was told to me from a priest many years ago -
Every person in the Chancery has an agenda!
So by extension, the Bishop may not always get the best or unfiltered advise from those in the Chancery.
I’m also confident Pope Francis filled most Dioceses with less than satisfactory Bishops.
‘But who am I to judge’
You have no idea what you are talking about. You are making it all up. If you were Catholic, you would know that calumny is a Very Serious Sin. But I guess in your world, sin does not exist.
Idiot.
So was Joan of Arc, literally; and she's a saint.
So was Joan of Arc, literally; and she’s a saint.
She was a sister who really cooked.
And "How much of this money that we give you is going to go to pay victims/participants in certain priests' bad actions, and to pay the Democrat diocesan attorneys? Is it more than half, or is it 100 % plus, as it was in Boston and LA and other large dioceses in our country that were bankrupted by perv priests and their superiors?"
The other unspoken question is "How long are the Novus Ordo liturgy, the inane Synodality talk, the targeting of conservatives and Traditionalists, the horrible music, and the pro-Democrat sermons and 'intentions' going to last? -- When is all that 1960s nonsense going to end? It has been almost 65 years since Novus Ordo began, and it has been ruinous, every year since, for the Catholic Church."
"And when are you going to say Masses that are politically neutral, Masses that don't antagonize me, a conservative? When are you going to have sacred music, old hymns, quiet liturgies, and stop the whining, pop-music, self-centered, garbage guitar hymns that appeal to old hippies and Communists? Can you spare us normals from being provoked by them?"
Another Great Unspoken is, "Why do you take our money and funnel it into NGOs that promote hard-core Communist, pro-invasion causes, and hostile illegal immigrant causes? Do you not realize that these illegals are not being persecuted in their homelands, but instead come here to circumvent the immigration process, to commit crimes, to steal from us and get on public relief, to illegally vote Democrat in our elections, and are not necessarily poverty-stricken or in need of protection in their corrupt home countries? They are at best, chiselers and cheaters, but usually they are much worse than that, with prison, violent crimes, and bad morals including child abandonment in their histories. You do know that they are here to overwhelm white, Christian, conservative voters (who give you most of your money, you ingrates), and to transplant their fecklessness, lawlessness, and corruption here in the US?"
Then the final Great Unspoken is, "The Latin Mass people are very, very good people: Well motivated, fervent believers, 'full of zeal for Your House'. They represent a vibrant, fecund, and happy-warrior segment of our Catholic faith that, unlike the Novus Ordo majority, is NOT in decline --yet you bishops, archbishops, and cardinals are specifically antagonizing them and doing EVERYTHING YOU CAN to block, discourage, shame, and forbid their reverent prayers and their desire to have Latin Masses -- why are you killing off this very real growth segment of the Catholic faith, membership-wise?".
Maybe people here in this forum don't go -- or have never been -- to a Latin Mass.
It is of the GREATEST importance to go to them and to promote them.
There, you see children and infants. You see young married couples, and not all 70 plus as one sees typically in a Novus Ordo parish. A Latin Mass parish has the feel and appearance of LIFE and vibrant Catholicism.
At a Latin Mass parish, people dress up, say, as if they are in a courtroom or attending a wedding.
They don't wear AC/DC tee shirts and jeans like Beavis. They don't wear sweats and tank tops and "I Survived Spring Break" wear or NFL/NBA hoodies. They don't talk before, after, and throughout Mass. They cut their hair and shave, all the way down to the skin, NOT the beta-cuck, perpetual homeless-person-stubble look.
Still kissing Cardinal Dolan’s butt?
I stated facts. Disprove what I said. You can’t. Feelings aren’t facts.
https://firstthings.com/cardinal-dolan-by-no-means-finished-yet/
Quite an accomplished man and a respected Cardinal.
Are you trying to equate fired strickland to St. Joan of Arc, ebby? Ask the Pope. He knows Church history, the history of Saints and, believe it or not, fired strickland’s case. You need better schooling. But, then again, so does fired strickland.
The Dictator Pope is dead, Jim.
While I still pray for his soul, you have declared him to be already in Heaven.
You're a joke, just like your heros, Tucho and Jimmy Martin.
None of you believe in the evilness of sin and its repercussions, despite Christ's severe warnings.
The Pope is alive and well. And, as I factually stated, he knows fired strickland quite well. fired strickland is closer to excommunication than he is to St. Joan of Ark but you already know that, ebby. ImagineThat!
Go figure.
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