THE CHURCH MILITANT - BELEAGUERED BY BERGOGLIANISM

Cardinal Maradiaga probably has an exculpatory explanation for what this story alleges, but just in case there is some truth in all this (maybe
the sums involved were really quite modest), how will the pope spin this for his friend and probably number-1 surrogate (for which he has been
widely called 'vice-pope' by the media), as well as coordinator of his Crown Council of Nine???

35,000 euros a month for the Cardinal:
a new scandal that's shaking the Vatican
The pope's friend and adviser, Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, apparently
has been receiving $600,000 a year from a Honduran university
by Emiliano Fittipaldi
Adapted from the English translation provided by
L'ESPRESSO
December 21, 2017

When he finished reading the investigative report by the apostolic envoy he himself had sent to Honduras last May, Pope Francis’s hands went up to his skullcap. He had just found out that his friend and main councilor — THE powerful cardinal Oscar Maradiaga Rodriguez, a staunch supporter of a poor and pauperist Church, and coordinator of the pope's Council of Cardinals since he created this in 2013 - had received over the years around 41,600 US dollars a month, with an additional 64,200 dollars bonus in December,from the Catholic University of Tegucigalpa.

The Pope received the dossier six months ago, and has let it be known that all final decisions in this connection will be made by him.
[He deserves credit for ordering an investigation, to begin with - he must have had serious reason to do so; but why are we hearing about the report only six months later? Unless he gave Maradiaga and his 'co-accused' time to answer the charges, but that does not seem to be indicated anywhere in this story.]

Not included in the report he read was that several witnesses, both ecclesiastical and secular, have accused Maradiaga of investing more than $1.2 million in some companies in London, investments which have reportedly vanished into thin air.

Nor that the Court of Auditors of Honduras has been investigating the flow of large sums of money from the Honduran government to the Foundation for Education and Social Communication and to the Suyapa Foundation, both foundations of the local Church and therefore dependent on Maradiaga himself.

"The Pope is sad and saddened, but also very determined at discovering the truth," people of his entourage at Casa Santa Marta have said. [Does that mean he is assuming the veracity of the report without confronting Maradiaga to get his side?]

They say he wants to know every detail of the investigation conducted for him in Honduras by Argentine bishop Jorge Pedro Casaretto. Not to mention the final destination of the jaw-dropping sums of money reportedly obtained by the cardinal.

Just in one year, 2015, according to an internal university report obtained by L’Espresso, the cardinal received almost $600,000, a sum that some sources say he has been collecting annually for a decade in his capacity as Grand Chancellor of the university.

However, some other rather unpleasant items account for the rest of the sums he received, according to Bishop Casaretto’s report. Many witnesses also made similar accusations against the Auxiliary Bishop of Tegucigalpa, Juan José Pineda, among the most loyal in Maradiaga’s inner circle and his de facto deputy in Central America [since Maradiaga is almost always globe-trotting].

Casaretto took the testimony of around fifty witnesses, including administrative staff of both the diocese and the university, priests, seminarians and the cardinal's driver and secretary.

Maradiaga, a Salesian like former Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, was born in Honduras 75 years ago. His birthday falls on 29 December, at which time he is expected to submit his resignation under the mandatory retirement age for bishops. At which time, we will know if the pope will keep him on or accept the resignation.

A primary school teacher before becoming a middle school math professor, the cardinal is a highly cultivated person ​​fluent in five languages, an expert in moral theology and philosophy ,and a great lover of music. He became very well-known in Latin America as a sworn enemy of corruption and a strong defender of the very poor.

That is why, in 2013, Francesco, who appreciated his intellectual and government skills, called him to head the group of cardinal advisers helping him with the reform of the Roman Curia and with governing the Church, in general. [Precisely because he is reputed to be a great intellectual - leaving aside the fact that the accusations alleged are evil - why and how would Maradiaga have done all the things he is accused of, and expect none of it to come out? Sanctimonious people should strive to be above suspicion like Caesar's wife!]

The accusations against Maradiaga's auxiliary are many: "Some [audited] expenses go to close friends of Pineda, like a Mexican who calls himself ‘Father Erick’, but who never took his vows", according to one source. "His real name is Erick Cravioto Fajardo, and for years, he lived in an apartment adjacent to that of Cardinal Maradiaga, at Villa Iris. Pineda, who has reportedly lived with him under the same roof, recently bought him a downtown apartment and a car. The money, we fear, came from university funds or from the diocese. We have denounced this close and unseemly relationship to the Vatican. The pope knows everything". [Oh dear! Another Ricca openly living in flagrante delicto, so to speak! But Worse because Pineda is a bishop!]

The witnesses also disclosed alleged investments to the tune of millions gone catastrophically sour: Maradiaga supposedly transferred large amounts of diocesan funds to some financial companies in London, like Lehman Wealth Management, and now, part of the money entrusted (and deposited in accounts in German banks) seems to have vanished.

Casaretto's report also hints at possibly huge money transfers to the media empire set up by the archdiocese, and to the Suyapa Foundation, which manages the newspapers and television channels of the diocese,

As to Bishop Pineda, local newspapers pinpointed him recently as having orchestrated reckless financial operations, receiving as much as $1.2 million in public funds allegedly meant for projects aimed at "training of the faithful to the values ​​and understanding laws and social life". According to the accusers, these expenses were never supported by valid documentation.

The Vatican is understandably worried that the Honduran Court of Auditors launched an audit of the Tegucigalpa archdiocese Catholic for the years 2012-2014. They are reportedly investigating the legality of projects for which the government transferred every year tens of millions in the local currency to the Foundation for Education and Social Communication, whose official representative is Maradiaga. As of the time of writing this story, a letter from the prosecutors that L’Espresso obtained states that Maradiaga's archdiocese has yet to produce the documentation requested.

Imagine if in their time, Cardinal Deskur (John Paul II's close friend since they were in seminary together) or Cardinal Meisner (probably the cardinal who was closest to Benedict XVI) had been accused of what Maradiaga is being accused of!...However, it's Christmastime, and I can only pray Maradiaga - as much as I dislike him - can properly and honestly answer the accusations made against him. This is a man who was listed among the front-running papabile in 2005 and 2013, after all.



Top papal adviser and critic of 'the rich'
embroiled in allegations of financial misconduct
by Steve Skojec

December 21, 2017

A top papal adviser known for his tirades against capitalism and the wealthy is under investigation by the Vatican after reports that he has been receiving over $40,000 US per month from the Catholic University of Tegucigalpa and had allegedly invested amounts of over $1 million in companies in London that “later vanished into thin air.”

According to Emiliano Fittipaldi of Italy’s L’Espresso weekly newsmagazine, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras — the coordinator of the pope’s C9 council — has fallen under the scrutiny of the pope himself since the allegations have surfaced.

They implicate him in receiving of nearly $600,000 a year for up to a decade from the Catholic University of Tegucigalpa of which he is Grand Chancellor.

Despite his advocacy of the poor at the expense of the rich, when asked in a 2014 interview about the wealth of the German Church — also closely tied to the Francis pontificate — Maradiaga responded that “helping the poor does not mean being poor”. In that same interview, he nevertheless blamed the wealthy in America and Europe for the 2008 financial collapse.

Of all the members of the pope’s inner circle, it has been Maradiaga who has stood out as the most enthusiastic proponent and enforcer of the pope’s agenda. He identified himself early on in his role in the papacy as a staunch progressive force, and has continued to make public statements that reinforce that impression.

In a talk given in October 2013, he claimed that the Second Vatican Council “meant an end to the hostilities between the Church and modernism, which was condemned in the First Vatican Council.”

He was acting president of Caritas Internationalis when it was first reported that the international Catholic relief organization held a seat on the board of a pro-communist, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual organization known as the World Social Forum — but he nevertheless took no action.

In 2014, he publicly chastised Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who at the time served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as inflexible, calling him “a professor of German theology” who “sees things in black and white terms.”

In the same interview, he said that the Church reforms championed by Pope Francis had “reached a point of no return”; a theme he reiterated in a 2015 talk in which he claimed that the pope “wants to take this Church renovation to the point where it becomes irreversible.”

He was also a point man in the attacks on the DUBIA cardinals, accusing them of not having read Amoris Laetitia before commenting on it, and of “pharisaism” in their response to it. He took things a step further with Cardinal Burke, the de facto leader of the DUBIA effort, saying that he “is a disappointed man, in that he wanted power and lost it.”

But now, it seems that the tables have turned against the brutally candid Honduran cardinal. His role as leader of the pope’s hand-picked men is now in doubt as reports of his extravagant income threaten the image of the pope’s commitment to “a poor Church for the poor.” Sources cited by L’Espresso said that Francis is “sad” about the allegations against Maradiaga, “but also very determined at discovering the truth”...

It is unclear how much Pope Francis knew about Maradiaga’s financial activities when he was brought on board as an adviser. The pope was given a dossier on the matter six months ago, and has reserved to himself the right to make all ecclesiastical decisions as a consequence of the investigation. The question remains, however, whether the pope will take action.

In the past, he has received criticism for his handling of several cases of clerical misconduct among his friends, the most significant case being that of the Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, a member of the so-called “St. Gallen Mafia” who claims to have participated in a conspiracy to elect the Argentinian pope.

Danneels was caught on tape attempting to silence a victim of clerical sexual abuse in his diocese; the book The Dictator Pope alleges that Danneels was also implicated in some way in nearly 50 of 475 dossiers on allegations of clerical sexual abuse that ultimately went missing after having been seized as evidence by Belgian police and subsequently deemed inadmissible in court for unknown reasons.

Danneels was nevertheless present with Pope Francis on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on the evening of his election, and was personally invited by the pope to attend the Synod on the Family, despite his advocacy for abortion and homosexual “marriage” in his home country.