Gated White Diocese in Knoxville Tennessee – New Wave of the Catholic Right’s Future? – Glory Hole of Corruption?

Bishop Stika / Cardinal Rigali of Knoxville Tennessee

This all started when I saw Cardinal Rigali getting good air time on some eyewitness news channel related article that gives good air time or print time to local human interest stories to children, animals at the zoo and or a OMG Real Live Cardinal Living in little old Knoxville Tennessee with all us hillbillies kind of media story. 

Rigali in my previous article was of course spouting what qualities a new pope should have. Whatever on that.

In my previous article, I thought that maybe the new Cathedral “Rectory” and or Bishop’s Palace had not yet been built in Knoxville. Further research thwarts me on finding any real news on the Internet regarding that matter.

So just giving a reread of some standard things like Wikipedia, one sees where Bishop Stika's career soared under the tutelage of Cardinal Rigali in St. Louis Missouri. Bishop Stika of course dealt with aspects of priests as personnel, Vicar General, and their sexual habits (alleged) with children.

It occurs to me that one of two things seems to be needed for promotion in the Roman Catholic Church IMHO. Cash for bribes and Sexual Blackmail and or knowing a lot about the secrets in the Diocesan Priests’ Personnel Files etc. Of course, that may not be the case in this matter. Bishop Stika came up through the ranks on pure merit. Yeah right. LOL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stika

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Francis_Rigali

When Philly crime boss Justin “Big Frank” Rigali was forced to resign in July 2011, in the middle of the Local authorities, District Attorney’s Office in Philly having to take over, intervene, clean up the mess of decades long child abuse and child rape in the Philly Archdiocese, exasperated by Rigali being a part time Philly bishop when not in Rome and hanging with the Swiss Guards etc., I quoted in another article at the time that Rigali was retiring to Knoxville:

Rigali is expected to head to Knoxville, Tenn., to visit his best friend, Bishop Richard Stika, who has "built a home for him to get away from it all," said Michael Sean Winters, a blogger for the National Catholic Reporter. Additionally, Rigali will be making trips to Rome as he is still a member of the Congregation of Bishops.

Apparently Michael Sean Winters quoted correctly or incorrectly in the Philly Press was doing his usual fawning Catholic half-assed PR propaganda best. Cheers, Mikey!

Apparently, Rigali was already looking for retirement digs even before his forced resignation in Philly as mentioned in a blog dated June 2010. Knoxville was “delighted” to have a retired red hat coming to Tennessee?

http://blog.frankmurphy.com/WordPress/2010/06/southern-cardinal/

Do read all the many links attached to above article. Makes very good reading about the Knoxville Diocese.

Well looking into how Opus Dei Archbishop Gomez is no doubt giving retired Cardinal Mahony grief in retirement, hoping to suggest a vote, Mahony’s vote, in the papal election in exchange for friendly prison privileges in his L.A. retirement hell. Etc. -

Looking for the mythical Michael Sean Winter’s memorial Rigali retirement home in Knoxville, I see some shuffling around of funds, funding, Cathedral plans, non-plans, rectory shuffling, convent shuffling, new Bishop’s palace architectural plans in Knoxville, - Justin Rigali is or is not somewhat homeless except for digs in Rome and the occasional sleepover in Stika’s bailiwick to save Justin from the wrath of Charlie Chaput in Philly who should have the upper hand here in asking, suggesting who Justin should vote for as pope/ceo of the Vatican Inc..

Somewhere in there is a grant to build the new bishop’s house for Stika/Rigali in Knoxville from a Dan Murphy Religious Foundation in Los Angeles with a lawsuit from a former board member listed below regarding disputed reporting and or value of assets…

Getting back to the previous link above, it would seem that Former Bishop Kurtz of Knoxville may have been involved in middle of a shell game of funding with an archdiocese loan of $11million to build a great medieval church worthy of being a cathedral in the middle of the rich white western suburbs of Farragut Tenn.  The Cathedral Church of St. John Neumann is on a 42 acre campus and is ready for perhaps a college and or seminaries, convents to sprout in the shadow of the Cathedral church.

Saint John Neumann - Farragut Tennessee

A new very richly appointed rectory was supposed to be ready for construction in 2010 at St John’s of a similar rumored budget, later quoted as a misprint, as the new rectory going up next to the old sixty year old modern Vatican II era Cathedral more centrally located to the center of Knoxville. 

Vatican II Era Sacred Heart Cathedral Knoxville

And here is why I used the word shell game for Bishop Kurtz in that the whole thing reminded me of the story I did on Phoenix and the delicate diplomatic long term switching of cathedrals from old urban inner city space from the 1950s and in minority territory to the raging flavor of the month “Rich White Suburb” geographical goal of the Catholic Church in many places in America to replace that old city stuff, that old Vatican II stuff and be on top as a city on a hill in the burbs. (Phoenix's game plan slightly different.)

I have to wonder too with the South involved that the new St. John Neumann Cathedral in Farragut/Knoxville will not be unlike the big plantation house with its colleges and seminaries and nunneries, missionary convents already arrived from Uganda, will receive tithes and adoration from all the brown and Hispanic parishes down the hill and in the valley so to speak. 

                                                                                                                                         (Google maps)

A gated Diocese and or Cathedral – I.D. required to enter the segregated whites only house of God?

That art and or religion imitates politics and the GOP goal to loot the national treasury and build economic fortresses and gated white castle communities is not unlike how the Diocese of Knoxville may be going.

I also wonder too that how maybe Bishop Morlino of Madison Wisconsin thwarted in his attempts to outright build a new cathedral or skim funds off for personal (bribes?) and secret Vatican projects, may in fact be making a large diocese loan at this very minute to build a new mega parish in the middle of some cow pie pasture in Wisconsin that one day will be the new Madison Cathedral.

Without transparency, with tax exempt and tax free status, with religious barriers to civil and secular review of the books let alone review by the peasant laity in the obedient ranks, how much money laundering and cash flows and what not rival the teachings of Jesus, discount those teachings into zero and less than zero in the hearts of the RC hierarchy these days?

Etc. Links and Quoted Material:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/pastor-here-named-bishop-of-knoxville-monsignor-richard-stika-is/article_15a870f1-26b8-5cb2-948c-6e02b46c35fb.html

Rigali also put Stika in charge of Pope John Paul II's visit to St. Louis in 1999. Marti Aboussie was on the St. Louis Board of Alderman at the time and worked closely with Stika on the planning process. "He'll be a good administrator," said Aboussie, "but more importantly, he'll make an excellent bishop without compromising the pastoral skills that made him a great priest." In 2004, Burke named Stika to be the director of the archdiocese's Office of Child and Youth Protection and delegate to the archdiocese's review board and chairman of its Child Safety Committee. "With the exception of proven, admitted or credibly accused pedophiles, there is perhaps no priest in the archdiocese less qualified, in our view, to be a bishop than Richard Stika," the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said in a statement Monday. "In his dealings with child sex abuse and cover up cases here, he has repeatedly shown a penchant for secrecy, reckless and half-truths."

http://www.gagenmccoy.com/developments-of-interest/new-cases-interest-may-21-2012

Donovan v. Dan Murphy Foundation (2012) 204 Cal.App.4th 1500.  A former director of a non-profit charitable organization sued the organization and its current directors alleging that he was wrongfully removed after he had raised concerns about financial oversight and governance.

http://www.casp.net/california-anti-slapp-first-amendment-law-resources/caselaw/california-courts-of-appeal-cases/donovan-v-dan-murphy-foundation/

2   Roupp and Rewinski were elected as directors after Donovan was removed from the board of directors of the Foundation (Board).

According to the complaint, Donovan first began expressing his concerns in 2008, after the Foundation’s assets had dropped approximately $65 million in value from the previous valuation of $250 million. Donovan’s concerns were shared by two of the seven directors at that time, Julia Schwartz and Rosemary E. Donohue, but were rejected by three other directors, Edward Landry, Richard Grant, and Maria Grant.

The complaint detailed Donovan’s disputes with his fellow directors. First, during a proposed transfer of management of the Foundation’s assets, Donovan sought a review of the transfer by the full Board. Landry and Richard Grant opposed Donovan’s request, and the management of the Foundation’s assets was transferred without a review by the Board. Second, Donovan “demanded” that the Board exercise its responsibilities under the Probate Code to oversee the management of the Foundation’s assets.

. 

Cathedral Spaces - St. John Divine NYC

In walking distance, it is maybe eight or nine blocks from the extreme northern end of Central Park. It is the crown on top of the so-called fashionable upper west end of Manhattan. It is the southern boundary of the Columbia University campus. I am of course talking about the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine - 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, New York City.

All sorts of adjectives and descriptions for this unfinished mish mash of styles, Romanesque and Gothic. The Nave is 600 feet long, the size of two American football fields laid end to end. It is second only in size to St. Peter’s in Rome. I am not certain where that big church in the Ivory Coast fits in, in terms of size, volumes etc.

This perhaps quiet, unforgotten gem of New York City architecture has been in building mode in spurts and stops since 1892. Many say that this seat of the Episcopal Bishop of New York is a dodo bird of sorts. It defies description but its internal space is why I am writing about it. One brief building period in the middle eighties to middle ninties added fifty feet (one third) of the Southwest bell tower in first photo above. It will not be finished in my lifetime.

I first encountered this behemoth structure in the middle of an May rain storm over thirty years ago. Getting out of the rain was indeed a pleasure but I have not stepped into any other such a magnificent space since. I have been in Notre Dame in Paris and only have a vague memory of it except that I thought it rather plain for all the hype. The average tourist never makes it here unless on a tour bus or religious bus tour package. It is as hidden a treasure to native New Yorkers as it is to the accidental tourist who, like me, literally stumbles upon its sheer space and audacity of being.

I have not been there since the fire and the smoke damage that required extensive and expensive cleanup. Less smoke damage would have occured if they has broken the stained glass to vent the fire. The officials at the Cathedral asked the fire marshall not to touch the windows which led to seven years of clean up that now has put the building on par with anything of Medieval European religious gothic architecture in official tourist guide books.

My first impression there had to do with that of the sheer size. The darkness of its soot covered interior walls was a result of having been submitted to fifty years of old New York City coal burning for heat and cooking in the air and reaching inside an open and unfinished church.

That dark space I feel to this day and a sense of what an astronaut must feel floating in outerspace, as I looked up into a seeming infinite darkness. When they finally opened the church in 1941, they put a temporary plywood dome over the unfinished transept expecting to finish the work after WWII. Funny how that temporary roof painted black made for such magic inside with a few electric lights, votive candles and gloomy exterior rain filled light making a faint register through blue colbalt colored stained glass.

Now over a hundred years of coal soot and fire smoke damage and general grime are cleaned up. The building was rededicated in late 2008.

The cathedral, not so crowded as with the huge number of midtown tourists that frequent the likes of St. Patrick's, makes this place a very quiet and meditative sort of place.

There is plenty of artwork, tapestries, icons, statues and it has a Holocaust memorial sculpture. It is an all purpose building that fits into the secular needs of the nearby Columbia University community. It is host to concerts, plays and even the annual blessings for animals small and big as elephants if need be.

It is a place where famous people, well loved people, have their post mortal memorials because of the thousands of people who can crowd into the space. I recall the author James Baldwin's memorial service took place there. It seemed appropriate since the rear of the cathedral sits on a slight hill and overlooks most of Harlem.

A very interesting place.

Here is a dated review of the place from the Ship of Fools website that reviews services and architecture of houses of worship worldwide.

1164: Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York City

And of course the annual Francis of Assisi Animal blessing.



I close in quote from the first video above.

"It moves me intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. It illustrates what architecture can do to the human animal. What an expression that architecture can be to the human spirit” --Alfred Blanco, Cathedral docent

Highlights of a Cathedral’s Rehabilitation
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Our Lady of Nagasaki - Pray for us !

The whole purpose of the Cold War was to in some weird Dante like image way – to turn the planet into one big pile of bio-trash?

The August 6 anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima is upon and again the MSM gets a free minute or two of airtime showing archive footage and an historic footnote gets mentioned but not analyzed. The Mayor of Hiroshima this year has words to repeat from the American President and a bold new concept for the ban of nuclear weapons from the planet. An unusual word, “Obamajority” refers to and represents the sentiment of the majority of the planet who agree with the concept.

Hiroshima mayor backs Obama's call for an end to nuclear weapons

Are we crawling to Bethlehem as the poet Yeats describes our progress toward the future? Is that crawling a good thing? Are we to be reborn into a better more efficient monkey package in terms of our evolutionary capacity to change - and hopefully for the better?

The Image of Hiroshima, burn victims, salt shadows (evaporated people) on the sidewalks and the naked raw image of the burned landscape - are eternal in humanity’s personal and historic scrapbook.

I am for nuclear disarmament.

As an American, I stand by President Truman and his command decision to use the bombs to save a million American military casualties. I had relatives in the Pacific theatre of war who would have been in a likely physical invasion of the Japanese mainland.

Truman had been in the trenches in World War One. His was a hands on decision based on experience. Right, wrong or indifferent, Harry Truman used the device of war to end war – an old formula.

To Truman’s credit, his humanity, his possible regret, he had a brief discussion with his biographer Merle Miller in which the topic of discussion was whether he would or could visit Hiroshima to lay a wreath. The old cantankerous man responded that he might do that, he might go to Japan but that he would not kiss their ass. Harry did have a way with words. Men in previous generations of western culture have not been allowed to be emotionally honest in so many ways. Truman dropped the bomb and now we have to live with the consequences of proliferation.

The other city that got hammered with science in 1945 was Nagasaki on August 9 with the second bomb, in our new age of non-reason related to nuclear arms. People don’t visit that city or remember it as much. Hiroshima is the premiere icon of nuclear destruction. Nagasaki is more a local domestic thing while Hiroshima is the icon of international focus.

I believe that a very bubble wrapped Japanese government in total denial about surrender looked at Nagasaki and drew a horrible conclusion about its destruction. In the Japanese mindset of race and blood, Nagasaki was not considered to be Japanese but European. The Japanese allowed one port city, set aside in the sixteenth century, and in conjunction with trade from Portugal. While on Japanese soil this city was virtually walled off in access and psychological reference from mainstream Japanese culture up until 1945.

The photo above is of a burned wooden image of the Virgin Mary from the Cathedral there in the European colony port of Nagasaki. The Japanese saw the destruction of a European city by the Americans and they did not understand the concept. Were the Americans ignorant of history or was the nuclear genie a madness that could not be contained?

Nagasaki cathedral chapel – Virgin Mary

Is the nuclear genie a madness that cannot be contained?

That is what anniversaries are for. To remember and to consider, reconsider the facts of the day in focus - August 6, 1945.