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Cardinal Timothy Dolan Hid $57 Million From Church Sex Abuse Victims

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Cardinal Timothy Dolan is under fire after news broke that he hid $57 million from the victims of the Roman Catholic Church’s pedophile priest sexual abuse victims. In 2007, then the Archbishop of Milwaukee, Dolan transferred $57 million into a cemetery trust fund after seeking permission from the Vatican. Dolan is now serving as the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), making him the nation’s top Catholic.

LOOK: Cardinal Dolan On Supreme Court Marriage Ruling: ‘A Tragic Day For Marriage And Our Nation’

So says the New York Times in a bombshell disclosure of after the release of “more than 6,000 pages of documents.” The Times reports that Dolan in the past refereed to these claims, made previously, as “malarkey” and “groundless gossip.”

Cardinal Dolan, now the archbishop of New York, has emphatically denied seeking to shield church funds as the archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009. He reiterated in a statement Monday that these were “old and discredited attacks.”

However, the files contain a 2007 letter to the Vatican in which he explains that by transferring the assets, “I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.” The Vatican approved the request in five weeks, the files show.

Those files also show that “Milwaukee harbored some of the nation’s most notorious priest pedophiles, including the Rev. Lawrence Murphy, whom a church therapist assessed as having molested as many as 200 boys during his two and a half decades teaching and leading St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, Wis., and Sigfried Widera, who faced 42 counts of child abuse in Wisconsin and California,” the Times reports:

Father Murphy died in 1998, and Father Widera committed suicide in Mexico in 2003.

In his letter, Archbishop Listecki said the documents showed that 22 priests were “reassigned to parish work after concerns about their behavior were known to the archdiocese,” and that 8 of those “reoffended after being reassigned.”

Joseph Amodeo, who resigned last year from the board of NYC’s Catholic Charities, told The New Civil Rights Movement last night via electronic message that the “recent revelations regarding Dolan’s attempts to shield assets from victims of sexual abuse further demonstrate that the veil of secrecy that has plagued the Church must be lifted.”

“We can no longer allow a Church that claims moral authority to hide behind tactics that subvert the essence of justice. Morality must be lived in order for it to be true. Perhaps the time has come for the laity to organize a Fortnight for Justice for the victims of sexual abuse and all those who have been further marginalized by the Church’s hierarchy.”

Amodeo earlier this year lead a small group of silent Catholic protestors who were threatened with arrest by a New York City Police detective, unless they first washed their hands. The group was responding to Dolan’s blog post in which he told gay people who wish to participate in the Catholic faith, you must first “wash your hands!”

The files released yesterday also show Dolan “paid $20,000 to abusive priests who agreed not to fight their dismissal from the priesthood” once they were found out to have committed sexual abuse acts, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal reports in this shocking report:

In the decades before Dolan — now cardinal of New York — arrived in 2002, church leaders, including now-retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland, routinely moved pedophile priests from one parish or school to the next, shielding them from criminal charges, the records show.

And when they did try to dismiss sex abusers from the priesthood, Dolan and Weakland were met by a Vatican bureaucracy that moved at a glacial pace, causing the process to slog on sometimes for years.

One case, involving the now-defrocked Father John O’Brien, dragged on for five years, even though O’Brien was convicted of fourth-degree sexual assault of a teenage boy and had sought his own dismissal. At one point a Vatican official wrote to Dolan saying he could not turn the case over to Pope Benedict XVI for a final decision without “an admission of guilt and a sincere expression of remorse.”

 

Image via Twitter

 

Related:

Cardinal Dolan Spends A Few Seconds Mentioning Violence Against ‘Some Homosexuals’

New Pope In Rome, Same Old Anti-Gay Focus From The Catholic Church In America

Cardinal Dolan Calls For Anti-LGBT Sermons In Shadow Of Violent Anti-Gay Hate Crime Wave

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‘Supremely Disappointed’: Republicans Furious Over Latest Trump Endorsement

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May 19, 2026

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President Donald Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement in the Texas GOP primary went to far-right Attorney General Ken Paxton over establishment Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn, dealing an severe blow to the lawmaker’s chances, angering some prominent GOP lawmakers, and likely boosting the chances of underdog Democrat James Talarico winning the seat in the red Lone Star State.

“Ton of concern among GOP [senators] about Trump’s endorsement of Paxton,” CNN’s Manu Raju reported. “Fear it will cost them a lot more money to save a seat in a red state.”

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said that Trump’s Paxton endorsement “puts that seat in jeopardy” and asked, “how does that help strengthen the president’s hand when we lose a state like Texas?”

“Supremely disappointed,” is how she characterized her reaction.

U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) declared Paxton is “an ethically challenged individual,” reports Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett.

“John Cornyn is an outstanding senator and deserved, in my judgment, the president’s support,” she said. “Obviously, it’s the president’s call, but I’m disappointed that he did it.”

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a top Trump ally, said, “I think Paxton can win. I think it’d be three times more expensive.”

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson said he was “speechless” and added, “really have no comment.”

Described as “not happy looking,” Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has supported Senator Cornyn, acknowledged it was President Trump’s decision to make.

Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio reported that Thune was “stone-faced” after the endorsement, and appeared “pretty deep” in anger.

“Most GOP senators really want him to endorse Cornyn,” Everett had reported about 90 minutes before the Trump-Paxton endorsement dropped.

U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) had said, “I would like to see him support John Cornyn in Texas. I’ve made that clear.”

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) had said, “I am hopeful that he backs Sen. Cornyn. John has been a steadfast ally of the president and I hope the president sees that.”

Congressional reporter Jamie Dupree described U.S. Senator Roger Wicker’s (R-MS) response as “stone cold silent.”

Professor Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, called Trump’s endorsement of Paxton “Great News for Talarico,” “Bad News for GOP money reserves,” and declared, “If ever there’s a year when a D can win statewide in TX, it’s 2026.”

Talarico responded to the Trump endorsement: “As I said on primary night, it doesn’t matter who wins this runoff. We already know who we’re running against: the billionaire mega-donors and their corrupt political system.”

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

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Trump: $400 Million White House Ballroom Is ‘My Gift to the United States of America’

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May 19, 2026

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President Donald Trump took time on Tuesday to share with the press pool precise details about the ballroom he is having built where the East Wing of the White House once stood.

Trump “is currently giving the pool an in-depth presentation on the new ballroom construction, down to the location of the AC units and thickness of the glass,” reported Wall Street Journal White House reporter Meridith McGraw.

The ballroom is “going to be something incredible — you see the quality of it,” he said, standing on the construction site. On the ballroom’s roof “we’re going to have the greatest drone empire that you’ve ever seen, and it’s going to protect Washington.”

“They’re building a hospital,” he added. “It’s a military hospital. They’re building all sorts of research facilities, also meeting rooms and rooms that go hand-in-hand for the military.”

“The ballroom is really a shield and protecting all of the things that are built here.” 

He said the construction goes “six stories deep.”

Trump discussed the two facades the building will have, one facing the Washington Monument, the other, the Lincoln Memorial.

He said, “the roof is a barrier. It’s a shield, because it’s made out of the side walls of steel, impenetrable steel, and also impenetrable glass. The glass is approximately four inches thick. And yet, it’s amazing, you can see through it as though it didn’t exist. It’s amazing. And it can stop just about anything. Just about anything.”

“On the other side of the glass,” he continued, “we have steel and concrete. So that the glass is very powerful, what’s holding the glass is equally as powerful.”

“All of these columns, they go directly right to the roof of the building,” he said. “And again, we call it a drone port. It’s set up for unlimited numbers of drones.”

“When this is finished,” he said, “my term ends shortly after that. This is really for other presidents, this is not for me. This is my gift to the United States of America. I’m going to be able to use it very little.”

“This is all my money and donors’ money,” he said. “This is tax free.”

While Trump said that he and other benefactors will be paying the cost of the ballroom, reportedly $400 million, he has been pushing Congress to spend $1 billion for security enhancements apart from the ballroom itself.

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

 

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‘I Won’t Participate’: Greenland’s Prime Minister Gives US the Cold Shoulder

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May 19, 2026

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The Prime Minister of Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, says he will not attend Thursday’s opening of the new American consulate in the capital city of Nuuk.

According to a Google translation of a report from the Greenlandic news outlet Sermitsiaq, other members of the government may also refuse to participate.

“We haven’t made a decision in principle, but I won’t participate,” the prime minister told Sermitsiaq.

The consulate has extended a large invitation list, but the news outlet reports that “a significant portion of those invited have chosen to decline.”

The political situation between the U.S. and Greenland has been tense, after President Donald Trump pursued a campaign to take control of the autonomous territory which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Member of parliament Naaja H. Nathanielsen announced she too would not attend.

“I have explained it by saying that the situation between our countries is difficult right now,” Nathanielsen wrote on social media.

On Monday, President Trump’s Special Envoy to Greenland, Republican Governor Jeff Landry, spoke with several Greenlandic children, offering them chocolate chip cookies if they visited the governor’s mansion.

“If you come to Louisiana,” Governor Landry said, “and you come to the governor’s mansion — all the chocolate chip cookies you can eat.”

His remarks landed poorly.

Prime Minister Nielsen on Monday said Greenland would not become part of the U.S., “no matter how many ‘chocolate cookies’ we get,” according to the Times-Picayune.

In January, Trump vowed to do “something” with Greenland, which he has suggested the U.S. could purchase or take over militarily. The vast majority of Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the U.S.

“I would like to make a deal,” Trump said. “You know, the easy way, but if we don’t do it the easy way we’re gonna do it the hard way.”

“I’m a fan of Denmark, too, I have to tell you, and, you know, they’ve been very nice to me,” Trump continued. “I’m a big fan, but, you know, the fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land, uh, sure, we had lots of boats go there also.”

“We’re not gonna have Russia or China occupy Greenland, and that’s what they’re gonna do if we don’t,” Trump insisted. “So we’re gonna be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way.”

 

Image by European Parliament via Wikimedia Commons and a Creative Commons license

 

 

 

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