Corruption in the Catholic Church

The official audit is out and it “ain’t” much better!

The annual audit of reports for sexual abuse by members of the U.S. Roman Catholic clergy was released last Friday and it showed a sharp INCREASE in the number of new claims.

The audit showed that 828 people came forward from July 1, 2014 through June 20, 2015 to say they had been sexually abused by priests, deacons and members of religious groups (yes, that includes cardinals and bishops). I will always believe the cover up was not to protect the Church, but to protect guilty cardinals and bishops.

Six dioceses in the U.S. have filed for bankruptcy because of the sex abuse scandal. Money that could have been used for the poor was paid out to cover the sins of evil priest. I am amazed how the bishops in the Philippines can be so critical of corrupt politicians stealing money from the poor when they are as guilty. As far as I am concerned the funds bishops used to protect evil priest was stealing from the poor.

It is true that the bulk of the cases are old cases changes in the legal system made it possible for old victims to file claims. Catholic parishes and other orders spent $153.6 million on settlements, legal fees and other expenses related to claims of sexual assault over the last one year period.  The Church spent $119.1 million the previous year. The church has paid out BILLIONS of dollars since 2002 because of the sex abuse scandal.

This is what happens when men are looking for a POSITION/TITLE and not a MISSION. Too many priest, bishops, cardinals are not looking for a mission they are looking for the respect a position/title brings. They do not have the character to earn the respect they want. They need the clerical clothes to demand the respect they want. Many young men had a mission when they started, but were corrupted when surrounded by older priest that had lost site of their mission. Their immaturity led them to mismanage their opportunity and away from their mission. Position means nothing if you do not understand your mission. The same is true of politicians.

God did not give us money, talents, blessing, opportunities, etc., in order for us to be important. God gave them to us to accomplish His mission on earth. The position/respect will come if you never lose sight of the mission. Unfortunately too many in the Church want the position, but not the mission.

Celebrating Mass does not take the place of a personal relationship with God. Celebrating Mass does not replace personal time with God in prayer, study and meditation. You do not know it all simply because you finished the obstacle course in the seminary. Knowledge comes with experience and experience comes with living it.

Success is hard to manage and if you cannot manage it you will eventually lose it. You are not fit to be blessed if you cannot manage it. Good managers are successful in good or bad times – they know how to survive. They survive because they know how to treat people. You cannot abuse people and survive!

Know When to Hold Them, Know When to Fold Them - Kenney Rogers

You are not a failure until you refuse to try again. I have only met two people in my lifetime who I consider to be failures.  They both had things in common: Early in life they experienced failure and regardless of the opportunities presented to them they refused to try again; they had spouses that were enablers; they refused to acknowledge their part in their failure, they were good at blaming others and both were waiting on God to turn things around.

I have always contributed my success to God and not giving up, but that does not mean there were not times when I got out. I have invested time, money and energy in some losers, but I always was willing to cut my losses and get out. I did hang in until I could sell for a small profit. What might not be good for you may be great for someone else. In all but one case the people that purchased the businesses I sold were successful and happy with the purchase.  Unfortunately, too many people do not even consider getting out as an option. They will hang in until they lose it all. I always had an exit strategy in case I needed it.

Hard work can be enjoyable if you are enjoying what you are doing, but when the enjoyment is gone it is time to get out. Thinking about your capital, time and energy invested may cloud your thinking. It is often hard to give up on the dream of what you thought you could achieve.

 It is a common misconception that winners never quit, but the truth is it can take a considerable amount of strength and courage to quit the things that are not right for you. The most successful people in the world are often the ones that have let go of something in order to pursue a bigger dream and achieve greater happiness. Winners never quit when they know they are on the right path, but when quitting is the right thing to do, quitting and refocusing your energies can lead to a happier and healthier lifestyle.

Before you judge too harshly a person that quits or fails and tries again think about how your success in life compares to the following men who failed and started over many times: Henry Ford - Ford failed five times before he founded the successful Ford Motor Company; R. H. Macy - Macy failed seven times before finally hitting big with his store in New York City; F. W. Woolworth - Woolworth was not allowed to wait on customer in a dry good store because his first employer thought he was not smart enough, but went on to found the most successful general merchandise store in the world; Soichiro Honda - Honda was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation because they thought he was not a good engineer and he decided to make motor scooters in his home; Bill Gates - Gates dropped out of Harvard and his first business venture failed; Harland David Sanders - Sanders had his famous secret chicken recipe rejected 1,009 times before a restaurant finally accepted it; Walt Disney - Disney was fired from his first newspaper job because they said he lacked imagination; Thomas Edison – Edison was fired from two jobs and made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Oprah Winfrey, Harry S. Truman all experienced failures and had to start over.

If you are unhappy, have lost your passion or you are hurting yourself or others it is time to quit and try again. Continuing doing what is making you unhappy is only robbing you of a better future. We only live once and have no time to waste on anything other than what contribute to our happiness and success.

Stop thinking starting over is a waste of time. There is a lesson to be learned in everything and it is often the lessons learned in failures that can bring us one step closer to finding what really does make us happy and successful.  Failure and defeat are often life’s greatest teachers.

Fear of failure can keep us from achieving great things. Great success often depends on great risk, and failure is simply a common byproduct. To achieve your personal best you can’t fear failure. To achieve any worthy goal, we must take risks which leaves us open to the possibility of failure. Decide whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying and give it a try.

It is important that we remember failure can only lead to success if we learn from our failures, accept responsibility for our failures, and do not repeat past mistake while expecting a different result.

Success requires a plan, drive, patience, integrity, passion, self-confidence, hard work, self-reliance and prayer.

Anger can be a motivator

I heard a minister preaching on the sin of anger. He said anger has no positive benefits and can only bring harm and often destruction to the person that is angry. He added that often the person you are angry with does not care that you are angry and may not even know that you are angry or what you are angry about. It brought to mind my own personal experience with anger. I agree when you keep your anger suppressed inside you the person you are angry with may not know you are angry, they may not care and may not realize they have done something to offend you, but I disagree that anger cannot be a motivator and have positive effects.

My father died when I was in my early teens. His oldest brother was a real jerk. After my father’s funeral he was standing on our back porch talking with some relatives and said, “I do not know what will happen to that boy. He has never had to work a day in his life, but I sure the hell am not going to help them.” He did not know that I was listening to him from inside the door.

My mother was in her bedroom with her sister crying. I went in and ask her to promise me one thing. She said I cannot promise you anything unless you tell me what it is. I told her promise me you will never ask anyone for any help. She asks why I would make such a request and I ask her to just promise me and she did.

My anger towards my uncle motivated me to succeed and with the help of God I accomplish all my goals in life and more. He never knew I was angry, but that did not matter to me. I was determined to have more money and be more successful than he ever was and I succeeded.

No one knew how I felt about him or what he had said until he died. My grandmother informed me he had died and wanted to know when I would be arriving for the funeral. I informed her I would not be coming to the funeral which shocked her. She asks why and I told her. I then called my mother and told her if our family send flowers for her not to put my name on them and she ask why and I told her.

Following my father’s death I went to work after school and on weekends. I finished high school, got a Master’s Degree in Theology with minors in psychology, government, philosophy and history. It took me eight years to complete college because I had to work and attend classes. We never ask or received any help from anyone, except God.

During my lifetime I have pastored a church, owned a grocery store, electronics store, café, janitorial service and still own stock in an automotive repair shop.  I never experienced a failure in my life. The secret to my success was the motivation I receive from the anger I had for my uncle. I give the Holy Spirit credit for giving me the knowledge to turn my anger into positive energy because I was young and would not have known it on my own.

Anger can create the most powerful energy that a human can have and if channeled in the right direction can work miracles.  Anger is not bad or good, what you do with anger will determine if it results will be bad or good.

Anger is like fire it can be helpful or harmful. You can use fire to destroy or you can use it to benefit you. It is what you do with the energy from the fire that determines if it is good or bad. The same is true with anger you can use the energy from anger to harm or to benefit. Energy cannot be destroyed, but it can be transformed for good or evil.  You determine how you will use the energy from anger.

You may keep your anger inside and think you have it under control, but the energy from anger is still there. It is inside eating away at you. High blood pressure, ulcers, colitis, and other digestive diseases are common in people who keep their anger inside of themselves. Or, you can put the energy from anger to work and produce a positive outcome.

I did not tell anyone that I was angry, but I did not keep it stifled inside, I put the energy from my anger to work for my good. You can share your anger with everyone you come in contact with and explain how you were wronged and each time you tell the story you add gasoline to the flames of your anger. You use your anger to produce more anger. It is nothing wrong with seeking help from someone that can help, but it is a waste of time just to rehash the same story over and over. I would have gone to someone that I knew could help, but I did not have a person like that in my life at the time. Nothing positive comes from using the energy from your anger to complain.

 I chose to use the energy of my anger to motivate me into creating a better situation. I discovered later that this is the highest purpose for the energy that comes from anger and is probably why God gave us the emotion of anger. It is the greatest motivator you can have. The energy from anger can give you the opportunity to create something better out of the situation that created the anger.

I was determined to set boundaries and earn the respect that I thought I deserved. I knew I was not worthless as my uncle thought. It is interesting that he lived in Florida and we lived in Texas and I had not even seen the man for a total of ten days in my life. My father avoided him because as I said earlier he was a jerk. I am sure he would roll over in his grave if he knew he was responsible for much of my success and had motivated me to be the most successful person in our family.

Do not be ashamed of your anger. Transform your anger energy into motivation so that you might discover ways to change the situation into one in which will benefit all those around you. The results from the energy from my anger has allowed me to provide good incomes for over one hundred families, support my mother, until her death, pay college tuition for deserving people, pay hospital bills for people that needed some assistant, do all kinds of charity work and brought me tremendous joy in the process. Don’t waste anger put it to good use!