Joe McShea – Bishop of Allentown Pa. – 1907-1991- Pharaoh’s Steward?

The twentieth anniversary of the death yesterday of my late second and or fourth cousin, depending on how you read the family tree (a lot of intermarriage among cousins back then), Bishop Joe McShea of Allentown.  Joe the Bishop.

I was kinda taken aback when I first saw the massive black granite gravestone slab, 4' x 8', of my late cousin.  It’s size and position next to the Allentown cathedral put me in mind of other big black granite slabs in museums I have seen and it reminded of the kind of monument fit for minor members of a Pharaoh’s family or their stewards in ancient history and bible stories. Remember the story of another steward of Pharaoh - Joseph and his many colored coat?

So being a student of ancient history and well versed in the King Tut inventory of royal treasures kind of thing, I thought this might be of interest to some out there for its historic perspective on documentation, post mortem, of the estate of a typical in the recent past American RC bishop.

Joseph Mark McShea

Bishop McShea's Estate Valued At $1.2 Million

"I direct that my body be interred on the grassy plot on the south side of the cathedral --the ground between the sidewalk that parallels Turner Street and the cathedral.

"It is my sincere wish that the church and civil authorities respect this request for interment."

Ford says he got written assurance from the city -- twice -- that nothing prohibited the burial of McShea on that tract between the cathedral and the sidewalk on Turner street.

He says he researched state law on this before the bishop's death.

He says he learned that there is a fee for burying certain animals on your property, but no fee for the burial of a human.

The bishop's will calls for a tombstone with the Latin inscription: "Domine, dilexi decorem domus tuae" -- Lord, I love the beauty of thy house.

Psalm 26…
8- O Lord, I have loved the beauty of Your house, and the place of the tabernacle of Your glory.
9- Destroy not my soul together with the ungodly, nor my life with bloody men;
10- in whose hands are iniquities, and their right hand is filled with bribes.
11- But I have walked in my innocence; redeem me, and have mercy upon me.
12- My foot stands in an even place; in the congregations will I bless You, O Lord.

FYI – Allentown College is now De Sales University

McShea Wills College $641,352

Bishop McShea Student Center - De Sales University

September 23, 1992|by DICK COWEN, The Morning Call

Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales in Center Valley is to receive $641,352 from the estate of Bishop Joseph M. McShea, the founding bishop of the Allentown Catholic Diocese.

That is the figure listed on the inheritance tax return for the bishop's estate -- filed recently in Lehigh County Courthouse.

The bishop in his 1985 will named the college, which he helped establish, as the residuary heir.

The will designated the money for the school's general fund "to be used as the college may see fit."

McShea died Nov. 28, 1991, at his home at 2920 Chew St., Allentown, at age 84. He was named bishop when the diocese was created in 1961. He retired in 1983.

The tax report showed the estate had a gross value of $862,000.

The total included 16,649 shares worth $202,285 of Metlife Fixed Government Income Fund, 4,500 shares valued at $179,718 of NBD Bancorp and $127,450 in personal property at his residence.

Set against the gross was about $99,000 in estate expenses.

Among them were more than $21,000 for his funeral, $14,450 for the tombstone on the Turner Street side of the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena where the bishop is buried, and $16,930 each to Msgr. John P. Seitzinger of Reading and the Rev. James J. Ward of Summit Hill as executors.

There is also $24,180 in attorney fees -- though there is no breakdown on how those fees are divided.

The filing of the will and related papers was handled by then attorney William Ford in December 1991 -- just a month before he became a Lehigh County judge.

 Ford listed the value of the estate at $1.2 million -- though he said that was based on old appraisals and that final figures would come in considerably lower.

With Ford's move to the county bench, attorney William G. Malkames became counsel to the McShea estate.

The bishop's will mentioned a memo requesting how certain of his personal property was to be distributed. And it directed that the memo not be made a part of the public record.

The inventory itself, however, is part of the court record.

The $127,450 includes a mahogany circa 1775 secretarys desk appraised at $9,000, a Chippendale circa 1775 mahogany chest at $6,000, Reed & Barton flatware service for 18 at $5,020 and a Hipplewhite circa 1780 antique sideboard at $4,500.

Indirectly, the court records reveal the memo called for 14 paintings and carvings valued at $6,825 go to Allentown College.

The bishop's home on Chew Street had been deeded to the Allentown Diocese before his death.

 “And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. But they, dividing his garments, cast lots.” – Luke 23:34

(It’s good to be the bishop!)

+

Pope Benedict XVI – Moral Leader? - Rockstar? - Commodity Prince? – Mafia King?

My personal meme here, for my regular readers, has been to call Benedict XVI - Joe the Pope.  This goes back to the 2008 election when some jerk in the crowd talks to candidate Obama complaining about how much taxes he is paying in his plumbing business etc.  

That jerk was really a part time handyman named Joe and the name got stuck in the MSM as Joe the Plumber, an opportunity for a burlesque illustrating both the rancor contempt that the GOP has for the lazy welfare/wage slave class and satire of a fake posing as a real businessman not unlike most tax cheat business people that seem to be the backbone of the GOP party these days.

Both Joe the Plumber and Joe the Business Man do nothing in the way of improving the America economy except to cheat on their taxes and complain about everything else.  A true form of American Commodity.  Like the Air Supply song – making “something” (commodity) “…out of nothing at all”.

Anyway, another personal meme here is to call the pope a “Rockstar”.  Of course I started writing this blog after that thug Polish General Karol Wojtvla (Voy-Tee-Wa) went to Crony Perogie Heaven and so I only have a half-assed German scholar, who used to salute Schicklgruber, to pick on in the way of calling him, Joe the Pope – a “Rockstar”.  (sarcasm takes intelligence to generate and to understand and comes from the very dark comedy of our souls)

Somewhere along the timeline the Commodity of Morality, once thought or pretended to be embodied in Canon Law or whatever got turned into a PR asset I think, that unfortunately nobody now wants to buy anymore in that old fashioned obsolete package.  How do you spell Model T Ford?

The American Culture Wars, today turn on Paul VI going against the 90% of his Advisors against Humanae Vitae, into accepting it after being pussy whipped by the Polish Archbishop General Wojtvla (Voy-tee-wa) by turning Birth Control into a commodity of fear that would work well for his agenda behind the Iron Curtain to contain his sheep, build a Polish Catholic Army of Resistance against Marx’s religion etc.  

That Iron Curtain agenda decision did work for him, but it was not what was needed in a modern enlightened emerging global world, in then first world America and Europe.

So we have to live with the mistakes of Paul VI, Karol the Rockstar and now Joe the Pope.

"If it should be decided that contraception is not an evil in itself then we should have to concede frankly that the Holy Spirit is on the side of the Protestant Churches.” KJW

In some very ancient sense when the Holy Spirit and Sofia ("Wisdom" - fourth member of an overcrowded trinity) were still the feminine balance to the consubstantial male thing of Jesus and his Father, the RCC of the 1960s perhaps saw both Protestantism and the Holy Spirit as the enemy, the feminine thing?

Somehow the suppression of the Catholic female vagina, (the Holy Spirit?), the woman by the male only hierarchy was seen as the right way of doing things.  And, for an institution that tries to sell natural law as paramount, where did this inequality of sex come from.  Not nature. Male and female of most every species alive share responsibility equally for the welfare of the young or the protection of the community in general.  

This weird Catholic sexual imbalance meme probably came more from the twisted all male, alpha male game, barracks attitude of Constantine’s Army of “Christ”.

It is disheartening to me that the eighteenth century mind of Karol Wojtvla got sold as a modern commodity worthy of modern derivative investment by the West.  He was after all not the typical holy card Italian pope.  He was after all a resistance fighter against the Nazis or so he said.  He was after all in resistance against the evil of Marx even though Marx indirectly signed off on his church promotions.  

I don’t know about you but somehow this eighteenth century church mind got sold as some sort of enlightenment prince like Frederick the Great or whomever and the American PR Commodity MSM machine made him a Rockstar, just like Saint Ronny Reagan. Whatever.

Joe the Pope had to follow in his footsteps.  Big footsteps of someone who might have been a double agent both for the KGB and the CIA in his megalomaniac self-serving lifetime.  Whatever again.

In the meantime, all JPII's appointments of Crony bootlicking bishops worldwide, were made IMO to recreate whatever century it was in which “Poland was Great?”. 

That delusion is still in progress as all faithful Catholics worldwide are now supposed to forget Vatican II and surrender their last vestiges of conscience and intelligence to the male moral commodity factor, wearing dresses.  In addition to, in similar fashion, the Oligarchs who are now demanding the surrendering of all middle class wealth and comfort  to re-establish the eighth century when Charlemagne “ruled” what was left of the old Roman Empire.

Please ignore reality folks, close your eyes and merge into the desired delusion the new Fascist New World Order of things. Not me buddy. Kindly - f*ck you and f*ck the horse you rode into town on - with that bullshit.

Medieval Europe is not all the Oligarchs and Rockstar Popes and half-assed German Scholars crack it up to be.

I have heard this rumor from Catholics. Benedict wants to re-establish the Holy Roman Empire. Yeah right?

And how do you do that pray tell.  Through banking and the collapse of the Euro?  One has to wonder how much trouble a rogue state like the Vatican can rain down on the rest of humanity with moral terrorism or mere currency manipulations and money laundering.  

This is even too paranoid for even me to imagine that the Vatican Franc will be the standard currency of Europe in the decades ahead. And then again, I could be wrong.

For Joe and his crony bishops, Pharaoh’s Stewards, waiting for the impossible to happen, just sit back, manipulate the currency, the commodity, the illusion of moral superiority, rule over a vast non-taxable worldwide crime empire, and don’t talk about the self-hating nature of your core sexual personality.

For the rest us – hide your kids.

Have a nice day. 

Newt Gingrich - The Great White (papist) Hope?

Pedophilia not a Real Sin until recently – Benedict XVI

Protesters in Britain during recent Opus Dei sponsored Papal Tour

Joe the Pope has made the headlines today with another article which I won’t quote or link here.  But that article more or less has Joe the Dope saying that “Pedophilia – Everybody Does It – So it is Okay” so to speak.


Meaning that the national pedophile ring centered in Pennsylvania and the Penn State Scandal somehow make this a secular problem as well as a church matter.

But considering how many Catholics and Catholic organizations are involved, protecting, enabling, in the Penn State cesspool child trafficking business, maybe Joe the Scholar should retreat to his study and read a few more books, like at least ten thousand books etc.

Ran into this instead.  Interesting to see into the heartless, soul-less, clueless “moral overlord” living at the Vatican.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/catholicism/pope-benedict-xvi-suggests-pedophilia-was-acceptable-1970s

In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI claimed that pedophilia wasn't considered an absolute evil as recently as the 1970s and that child pornography is increasingly considered "normal" by society. 

"In the 1970s, pedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children," the Pope said. 

"It was maintained - even within the realm of Catholic theology - that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a 'better than' and a 'worse than'. Nothing is good or bad in itself."

Not a sin until the 1970s?  Must have something to do with V2 – Vatican II? Right? The Laity are always screaming for their stupid democratic rights and virtues.

(Where do you recruit moral shams, moral pygmies, losers, pedophile protector enablers like Benedict XVI ?  –  Hitler’s Army?)

;*

+

Diamonds and Rust - Joan Baez

Consubstantial = Marriage Equality?

Human Trinity - Man = Woman = Angel

I am so surprised that the English translation “Consubstantial” of the Latin word from the Greek “Homo-ousios” used in Latin literature and symbolic of, meaning = same, essense being equal, union, equality of body and spirit should be used in the new Catholic service. 

Marriage Equality is consubstantial with love, union and equality, just like Jesus and his Father.

Two males united - consubstantial.  Or two females united – consubstantial - in marriage, just like a man and woman - consubstantial -

this understanding of the beauty of love is long overdue and now wonderfully reflected in the new language of the Mass.  

A step in the right direction toward acceptance and tolerance of reality in the RC church, moving away from centuries of ignorance, misunderstanding and bigotry.

Amen

+

Coriolanus - Shakespeare

Penn State Independent Cover Up Begins - Louis Freeh on Scene - Pedo State No More - Nittany Jitbags No More!

Louis Freeh, Former misDirector of the FBI, famous for mediocrity, missing files, and letting key witnesses disappear or merely walk away in the Waco Inferno Mess or the Oklahoma City Bombing, has been brought in to cover up this Catholic Pedo Scandal conduct an impartial independent investigation for Penn State of the Jerry Sandusky incident which may or may not have involved a mere handful of kids.

Even before Director Freeh has unpacked the decorative chotskies for his desk in a hallway at Old Main, a major theme has emerged.

The Lone Magic Rapist Theory will be the final meme proved beyond a shadow of a doubt in the soon to be infamous Freeh Report at Penn State. This theory, with proven roots in bullshit and government propaganda and mimics the Magic Bullet theory, handcrafted for the Warren Commission in the JFK Conspiracy cover up, has emerged. Hell Pennsylvanian Arlen Spector sold his soul and made a whole lifetime career of public service mooching on the government dole off of making something out of nothing - magic.

The American Public will buy.  They bought Arlen for close to forty years. Poor saps.

Anyway, the fact that all these lay Catholics are allegedly involved in the alledged crimes and now cover up, w/uber-Catholic Freeh, makes one wonder if this is merely a laity plot or the Catholic bishops shared, share, in any of the profits?  

The PC answer is that Sandusky should not be persecuted because of his devoutness to his faith in his singular, acting alone, in alledgedly buggering little kids, left and right, on Campus.  Otherwise the Catholic bishops will be yelling anti-catholicism and rightfully so.  

That Joe Paterno, a pillar of his church, could not have looked away while dozens or hundreds of needy kids got passed around campus, to sports announcers, corporate board rooms and the very halls of Congress and let’s not forget the White House or Supreme Court (wink-nod) (;*). (that’s two wink-nods on catholic majority scotus, that is)

End of story on the Catholic theory of child traffickng.  Good Catholics could not possible look the other way while child abuse was evident in their very midst and community.  Yeah right. How do you spell Cardinal Bernard Law?

So the fault lay with the staff of Penn State.  Existing rules have been reviewed.  They are inadequate.  Sorry.  They will be changed. 

( Campus Police were exempted from this academic investigation. )

End of Investigation.

Well done Louis.  I smell a Knighthood of Malta in all this for you!

Our thoughts and prayers to the one or two possible real victims of these alledged crimes by a great coach at Penn State who we believe was merely horseing around etc. He’s just a big kid himself ya know.

(How was that Arlen? Think the moron public will buy this lone mad man, magic bullet, coverup bullshit one more time???)

Back to Business as usual at Penn State’s multi billions of dollars business diploma factory enterprise.

 

Excitement over. Go to the book store and buy your $400 textbook without fear of being attacked.

Have a nice day. 

($3,850,000 bill to Penn State for professional cover up services to be wired to Vatican Bank account xxx xxxx xxxx x.) (send via Knights of Columbus worldwide money wire services)

;*

To the Victims - Everywhere - Always

Epistle From Oz - Peter Kennedy - SMX - St. Mary's In Exile Brisbane

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH A POWER FOR GOOD IN THE WORLD?”

2011 Melbourne series Melbourne Town Hall -  November 15, 2011

For more than two millennia, the Catholic Church has been the author and repository of some of the highest ideals of humanity. Yet, as humanity is flawed, so is the Church. Few would deny that the Catholic Church has dark chapters in its history. However, do these darker moments unfairly obscure the light – perhaps because so much is expected of an institution that claims to bridge the sacred and secular? Or is the Catholic Church simply the most ancient of wolves in sheep’s clothing?

Father Peter Kennedy

In 2009 the ABC Australian Story produced a feature film entitled “Holier Than Thou” which documented our forced removal from St Mary’s Church in South Brisbane into Exile.

At the end of the filming of our story at Natural Bridge in Qld I went down with the production team for a coffee at the roadside café on the road between Nerang in Qld and Murwillumbah in NSW. As we sat down on the veranda a classic Aussie bloke dressed in stubbies and thongs shot a glance in my direction and pointed me out to his wife. Shortly after they got up to leave and he put his hands on his hips, looked down to me and said “Stick it up ‘em mate”. A little surprised, I half stood up and said “what’s your name mate” and he said “it doesn’t matter what my name is mate, just stick it up ‘em”.

Only later did I realise how pivotal that encounter was for me – a light bulb moment, a road to Damascus moment, except it was on the road to Murwillumbah.

The insight that arose was that the ordinary man and woman, the bulk of the church’s membership, the battlers, the mums and dads, who built the churches, hospitals, schools -  who were loyal all their lives to the church to its bishops, priests religions and its rules and regulations, its doctrines and its dogmas -  frankly -  had had enough -  they were voiceless in a church ruled by an elite, clerical caste who demanded and expected that the “laity” that derogative term, should just pray, pay and obey. They have had it up to here and they’ve left in their hundreds of thousands, never to come back -“stick it up ‘em mate”!

My argument is simple: – that the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church that arrogantly refuses to allow its membership, its most loyal supporters, a voice in its governance cannot be a force for good in today’s world where increasingly democracy and human rights is the primal cry of people who know the pain and suffering and disempowerment of dictatorships – especially women.

The Roman Catholic Church is such a totalitarian regime e.g. to become a bishop, male of course, a priest has to promise obedience of mind and will, to one man  the bishop of Rome, the Pope, in whom all authority resides.

To argue that Jesus established the church in this way and that the church cannot be more democratic, involving the people in its governance, is based on a fiction, a lie – known as apostolic succession,

Stay with me… the bishops claim to be the successors of the twelve apostles with the bishop of Rome claiming to be the successor of the apostle Peter, who was no.1 in Team Jesus. They argue they have that same authority to rule over the church today. Please note it is an authority of power – it ought to be an authority of love.

The Pope as No.1, claims to be – wait for it – the Vicar of Christ- well, I don’t know about you, but from my reading of the gospels I think Jesus would be far more at home with the Vicar of Dibley!

The facts are very different. In the first 3 centuries of  Christianity in the various communities of faith that dotted the Mediterranean there was no one form of liturgy, no one form of governance, no one theology. Instead you had communities of equals where both women and men exercised the various gifts given to them by the Spirit.  e.g. The gift of leadership, the gift of healing, the gift of prophecy, the gift of preaching etc.

In the 4th Century of the C..E the Pagan Emperor Constantine used the fledging literalist community in Rome to unify his empire. In order to bolster their claims to authority, the church leaders invented the fiction of Apostolic Succession which is still the basis of governance in the Roman Catholic Church today.

As Harvey Cox, Emeritus Professor at Harvard writes in his book “The Future of Faith” – “as the empire became notionally Christian, the church that had been from its beginning fiercely anti – imperial became its fawning imitators blurring the essence of Christianity almost beyond recognition.

The paradox is that when the Roman Empire collapsed, up bobbed a pseudo-religious empire – the Roman Catholic Church. As the philosopher Thomas Hobbes in the 17th Century wrote – “the Church, the papacy became nothing other than the ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting on the grave thereof

Let me now speak from my own experience and that of our community, now in exile in our struggle with such absolute, ruthless and callous authority.

On that fateful day when I saw the Archbishop in 2008 as I was leaving his office, I turned towards him and with some compassion said “You know John, you are going to cop a fair bit of flak from our community”.

He paused and said “This is the Roman Catholic Church. You put me in a corner and I’ll come out fighting”.

People began writing to him respectfully and as intelligent people of faith. He wrote to me saying “if you think that what they’re saying is going to change my mind, let me tell you, it will do the very opposite.” He added “I obey the Pope, you should obey me, and they should obey you”

I tell you this – not to denigrate the Archbishop but to indicate to you the mindset of total obedience of the bishops of the church to absolute Roman Papal authority.

Such an undemocratic church cannot be a force for good in today’s world. Until the Church falls unto the hands of the people it cannot be a significant player in today’s world  – a world that demands and expects that the voice of the people be heard. -- Peter Kennedy

The Next Pope – Pope Pee Wee the First – Ha Ha

Considering all the douchebags that are likely in line to succeed Joe the Pope, prying power out of his cold dead hands once he goes to his well-deserved eternal reward (got fire?), they could do worse than electing Pee Wee Herman as the next pope.

I don’t know if he is Catholic but he does have the one important thing needed to be pope – a penis – and he apparently knows how to use it, been known to use it in public on occasion.  At least he doesn’t hide it in a closet like all those other popes and bishops.

Besides, if you are going to elect another clown as pope, you might as well go first class.

Love ya, Pope Pee Wee the First!

+

Pat Robertson - Green Bean Casserole - "It's a White Trash Thing"

Green Bean Casserole

Pat Robertson, that white cracker KKK preacher made it official.
His favorite white trash side dish on Thanksgiving is Green Bean Casserole.
You know the kind, the one make with Government canned green beans in the white generic paper label,
Campbell's tasteless flour and water "cream of whatever" soup
and topped with fried pork rinds.
Hmm - Hmm Good, Pat says.
" I can even eat it without my dentures."
Praise the Lord! (and my bank account)

Chill of an Early Fall - George Strait

Rep. Don Young – Alaska - Oil/Gas Company Whore - ”You Don’t Own Me”

Lesley Gore

It is time for some pushback on all the Idiots in Congress, emphasis on the word ALL. Who there can we not live without??? 

Get a real job Don!

Thanksgiving - Tis a gift to be simple

"O grant us strength to fashion a table
   Where each of us has a name." -- Cyrus Cassells

Megyn Kelly – Fox News – “I’m a talking head moron, essentially.”

Megyn Kelly of Fox News is quoted as saying that … Pepper spray is “a food product, essentially,” while talking to fellow talking head moron Bill O’Reilly who did not disagree with her. 

Go figure?