Pope cuts 2 cardinals from cabinet named in abuse scandal

Pope Francis has removed two cardinals from his informal cabinet after they were implicated in the Catholic Church's sex abuse and cover-up scandal, shedding embarrassing advisers ahead of a high-stakes Vatican summit on abuse early next year.

The Vatican said Wednesday that Francis in October had written to Chilean Cardinal Javier Errazuriz and Australian Cardinal George Pell thanking them for their five years of service on the so-called Group of Nine, or C-9. Francis also bid farewell to Congolese Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, who hasn't been implicated in the scandal but at age 79 recently retired as archbishop of Kinshasa.

Errazuriz, 85, has been accused by Chilean abuse survivors of having covered up for predator priests while he was archbishop of Santiago, a charge he has denied. Pell, 77, took leave from his job as the Vatican's economy minister to stand trial in his native Australia on historic charges of sex abuse, which he denies. Their continued presence on the C-9 had been a source of scandal for Francis, given the explosion of the abuse and cover-up crisis this year. Francis himself was implicated in the scandal after he strongly defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering for the country's most notorious predator priest - a position he took apparently on the advice of Errazuriz.

After Francis realized his errors and apologized, he summoned the presidents of all the world's bishops conferences to Rome for a three-day meeting in February to discuss protecting young people from pedophiles. That summit has taken on enormous weight given the eruption of the scandal in the U.S. The Vatican made no mention of the accusations against Errazuriz and Pell in explaining their departures, and said for now they wouldn't be replaced. rancis appointed the C-9 in 2013 to help him reform the Vatican and reorganize its bureaucracy. That work is wrapping up, with the finalizing of a new document outlining the work and mission of the various congregations that make up the universal government of the 1.2 billion-strong church.

A statement from the Vatican press office noted that the cabinet members asked Francis in September to reflect on the future composition, structure and work of the C-9, taking into consideration especially the advanced ages of some of its members. Errazuriz, who retired as Santiago archbishop in 2010, had announced publicly in November that he had removed himself from the group. He is currently the subject of civil litigation in Chile by victims accusing him of covering up for recently defrocked priest Fernando Karadima. Though he has been away from Rome since announcing his leave of absence in June 2017, Pell technically remains prefect of the Vatican's economy secretariat.

http://amp.wsbtv.com/news/national-news/ap-top-news/pope-cuts-3-cardinals-from-cabinet-2-implicated-in-scandal/887654683

Did the Vatican just cover-up for Austrian bishop implicated in financial and moral scandal?

Monsignor Engelbert Guggenberger, the new administrator of the Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt, is in the process of setting straight the economic affairs of the diocese after the departure of Bishop Alois Schwarz who was transferred to the Diocese of St. Pölten, on 1 July 2018. Not only financial, but also moral problems had arisen under his leadership, and Monsignor Guggenberger had wished to publish the findings of a thorough financial audit. However, after Cardinal Schönborn's seeming intervention – he is said not to have wanted the publication of the findings – Rome itself intervened one day before the planned press conference and ordered that the findings be sent, instead, to the Vatican. Guggenberger showed himself to be “somewhat shocked” about this new turn of events. Different news outlets have reported in the last days once more on the developments in the Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt, whose former bishop, Alois Schwarz, was moved to St. Pölten after constant and consistent rumors about his close collaborations with two female employees of his diocese, the divisive role of these two women in the diocese, and some doubtful financial decisions on the part of the bishop.

As a matter of fact, one of the close collaborators of Bishop Schwarz, Andrea E., went with him on trips to Vienna for visits to the opera, and she was largely considered to be much too close to the prelate. (As was the case earlier with another woman, his housekeeper, Eva H., who has now moved with him to his new diocese.) Catholics in Klagenfurt were embarrassed about their bishop who appeared many times in public together with this woman, even though he had been already earlier challenged concerning the propriety of this conduct by one of the most prominent Austrian newspapers, Der Standard. Additionally, Bishop Schwarz is also said to have administered his diocese in irregular ways, namely by disallowing a proper control of financial decisions. As one Austrian report had it, Schwarz is even accused of covering up for two sexually abusive clergymen. When Monsignor Guggenberger became the diocesan administrator in the summer of 2018 – after the removal of Bishop Schwarz – he immediately started to straighten out the diocese. One of his first steps was the cancellation of the contract of Andrea E., who had been given by Bishop Schwarz a new contract just before his departure. Another step was to re-set the administrative rules allowing for better control so that they were according to canon law, which had been violated, according to this diocesan administrator. Guggenberger's intention was “to restore lost confidence in the diocesan leadership.” He then also named a commission to investigate the financial situation of the diocese.

Then, on 11 December, Guggenberger had planned to publish the findings of the financial audit, also in order further to promote a transparency that had been lost. As News.at says, there had been many rumors swirling regarding “expensive investments, controversial contracts, and economic irregularities” in the diocese under Schwarz. As the magazine was able to find out, the findings of that audit are “explosive” and even said to be of “criminal relevance.” As the Austrian magazine News.at reported on 9 December, there had been intense discussions going on within Church circles as to how to handle the findings of the financial audit. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn is said to have put pressure on Monsignor Guggenberger to keep the files secret: “According to accounts received, Cardinal Schönborn – who is also the President of the [Austrian] Bishops' Conference – and the Papal Nuncio, Zurbriggen, are said to have put enormous pressure on the diocesan administrator Guggenberger to deal with the matter inside the Church.” At a meeting with Guggenberger and Bishop Schwarz, Guggenberger is said “to have been unambiguously instructed about the hierarchical order.” “For example,” the magazine continues, he [Guggenberger] is said to have had to wait, together with the chauffeurs, outside of the conference room, while the other clergymen were together inside, conferring about the matter.”

https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/did-the-vatican-just-cover-up-for-austrian-bishop-implicated-in-financial-a

Boy Scouts of America weighs bankruptcy

The Boy Scouts of America is weighing filing for bankruptcy protection, according to a new report. The group’s leaders have brought on the Sidley Austin law firm to provide support in the event of a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, sources familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal.

The potential move coincides with a decline in membership and mounting legal fees connected to a series of lawsuits related to the organization’s management of sexual abuse allegations. For example, four men sued the Boy Scouts in July, accusing the group of not taking appropriate action to prevent an accused serial pedophile from leading a troop in the 1970s.

The lawsuit alleges the scout leader sexually abused the Boy Scouts between 1974 and 1976, and it claims that the national organization was aware that scouting had become a “pedophile magnet” but didn’t take appropriate action to prevent abuse from occurring. If the Boy Scouts did file for bankruptcy, the litigation would be stalled and the group could try to hash out an agreement with those who brought the lawsuits against them. The Boy Scouts was first launched in 1910 and has had more than 110 million people participate in its programs since then.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/boy-scouts-weighs-bankruptcy

>>4287140

Heard that loud and clear Anon..

Christopher Steele Provided Information To Longtime Clinton Crony

Christopher Steele disclosed information from his infamous dossier to Strobe Talbott, a longtime Clinton insider and former State Department official. Court documents released on Tuesday show that Steele shared information with Talbott because of the latter’s position on the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Talbott’s link to the dossier has not been previously reported. His brother-in-law, another Clinton insider, compiled an anti-Trump dossier of his own during the campaign.

Christopher Steele, the author of the infamous anti-Trump dossier, disclosed information from his Trump-Russia investigation to a longtime Clinton crony because of his position on a State Department advisory board, according to court documents filed on Tuesday. According to the court filing, Steele told a court in the United Kingdom on Aug. 1 that he provided Strobe Talbott, the Clinton insider, with anti-Trump research because of his position on the Foreign Affairs Policy Board, an independent advisory board set up in 2011 by then-Sec. of State Hillary Clinton.

Clinton appointed Talbott chairman of the advisory board, and he served in that role through John Kerry’s tenure. “As regards disclosure to Strobe Talbott (if relevant to this claim), the Defendant relies on US Department of State Foreign Affairs Policy Board,” reads the Aug. 1 filing. Steele’s link to Talbott, which has not previously been revealed, shows the lengths to which Steele went to disseminate the fruits of his Trump investigation, which started in June 2016 when he was hired by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm hired by the DNC and Clinton campaign.

The Steele document was revealed on Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by three Russian bankers who have sued Steele in the U.K. and U.S. over the dossier. A Sept. 14, 2016 memo in the dossier alleges links between the founders of the bank, Alfa Bank, and the Kremlin. They have sued Steele and Fusion GPS for defamation. Steele disclosed the link to Talbott in response to a series of questions posed in the U.K. ligation. Steele’s filing does not provide additional details on his interactions with Talbott, who served as deputy secretary of state in the Bill Clinton administration. Talbott has long been friends with the Clintons, having met the former president at Oxford in the 1960s. It is also unclear what information from the dossier Steele gave to Talbott, or when the handoff would have occurred.

Steele, a former MI6 officer, compiled 17 memos dated from June 20, 2016 to Dec. 13, 2016, alleging a vast conspiracy between the Trump team and Kremlin to influence the 2016 election. The FBI would rely heavily on the dossier to obtain four warrants to spy on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser who is named throughout the dossier. Page has vehemently denied Steele’s claims. Republicans have accused the FBI of abusing the surveillance court process by relying on the dossier, which FBI officials have acknowledged was largely unverified when it was used to obtain spy warrants on Page.

Steele disseminated his dossier widely, to his contacts at the FBI, numerous news organizations, Congress, and the State Department. By passing the dossier to Talbott, who then served as president of the Brookings Institution, Steele pushed the anti-Trump research to the president of the most prominent think tank in the U.S. Steele had other ties to the State Department beyond Talbott.

In Summer 2016, the retired spy met provided his longtime friend, Jonathan Winer, then the State Department’s special envoy to Libya, with parts of the dossier. Winer passed a summary of Steele’s claims to others in the State Department. Steele also visited State Department headquarters in October 2016 to brief officials on the dossier. It is unclear whether Talbott was involved in the meeting, which Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr revealed during a hearing on June 20. Talbott also has a familial link to another dossier that was handled by Steele and Winer. Talbott’s brother-in-law is Cody Shearer, a longtime Clinton fixer who conducted a private investigation of his own into Trump during the campaign.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2018/12/11/strobe-talbott-steele-dossier-clinton/

>>4287294

Agreed, it should have happened a long time ago.

Former FEC Commissioner: Trump Did Not Violate Campaign Finance Laws

Former FEC Commissioner Hans Von Spakovsky debunked the argument that President Donald Trump broke campaign finance laws by paying women he allegedly had affairs with prior to becoming president. The president’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in jail on Wednesday for a litany of crimes, including making an illegal campaign contribution amounting to $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, who alleges she slept with Trump in 2006, so she would keep quiet about the affair.

Despite the guilty plea, Spakovsky said that Trump should not be worried because it would have to be a “campaign-related expense” for the contribution break any campaign finance laws. He also pointed out that the only other time the Justice Department tried to say payments like these were campaign-related expenses was with John Edwards. Donations to Edwards’ campaign actually went to paying his mistress, a woman who worked for the campaign and ended up having his child. A jury, however, ruled that Edwards’ donations were not a campaign-related expense. Spakovsky went on to say that Trump has nothing to worry about and that the U.S. attorney’s office is being “overly aggressive” in their pursuit of the matter.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2018/12/12/coven-trump-campaign-finance-spakovsky/