The currently sitting archbishop of New Orleans, Gregory Aymond, is a monster who should be publicly removed with great fanfare and paraded through the streets of New Orleans.
This is said in the spirit of the words of the Son of God, who acclaimed, "It is impossible that scandals should not come. But woe to him through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones" (Luke 17:1–2).
So egregious is it to harm a child that this is the only instance in the Gospels where Our Blessed Lord actually attaches a specific penalty to a specific sin. And yet, new developments reveal that Aymond has done just that, being "him through whom the scandals come."
He certainly isn't alone in the crowded field of lying, cheating, children-of-Satan bishops who have made their careers over the devastated psyches and even corpses of sexually abused, molested and raped children.
But then again, Aymond has had the misfortune — from his point of view — of having his sins revealed in various documents from the New Orleans archdiocese bankruptcy filings.
In that mountain of paper a series of letters and texts have been unearthed by reporters at The Guardian newspaper, which were compiled in a nearly 50-page memorandum from attorneys representing abuse victims.
It outlines the cases of a half-dozen priests whom Aymond's own sex abuse board found credibly accused and made recommendations to remove or sideline from ministry and have their names added to the diocesan list of credibly accused molesters.
Yet Aymond simply disregarded his own board's recommendations and never said a word about these clerics.
He certainly isn't alone in the crowded field of lying, cheating, children-of-Satan bishops.
One of the priests had a victim that, according to the accusation, the priest had raped multiple times since he was 10 and eventually killed himself. Yet not a peep from Aymond.
Another priest with another victim denied he had molested boys but admitted that he had fondled their genitals while smearing oil on them as part of a "blessing." According to The Guardian, Aymond appears to have gone to pains to not alert his half-million-member flock to all this, ponying up only what he had to when all other options were exhausted.
Of course, he rolled out the obligatory garbage of "you are in my prayers" while he knew the priests he protects from public scrutiny were in these boys' pants, ruining their lives.
Buried in those bankruptcy papers was a galling accusation in a text from Aymond talking about what is being revealed by reporters' investigative work. He texted quite simply, in direct reference to his evil being revealed, "Satan lives."
Yes. Yes, he does, Archbishop. You are quite correct.
The 73-year-old archbishop is himself personally accused by a former New Orleans seminarian from Africa of sexual abuse — not just covering it up, but actually having been the perpetrator. That case also surfaced in the bankruptcy proceedings.
Aymond vehemently denies them, but, of note, they were dismissed out of hand by Church authorities without the seminarian or Aymond ever being interviewed in the process.
Whatever one may think of those accusations, the cover-up charges now being leveled against Aymond are serious enough to merit a full-fledged investigation by the Vatican and the subsequent removal of Aymond in disgrace. He should have the decency to simply admit his guilt in failing to reveal the names and warn his flock.
When his failures came to light, he went to great lengths to proclaim that he would be "transparent" (he pounded that theme) about all these types of cases. Now it appears that was a lie, according to these reports, so he should step down and allow the Church in New Orleans to collect itself.
But don't hold your breath. These old archbishops never think they are at fault and, as we see from his text, will even blame Satan when they are the ones at fault.
What's in The Guardian newspaper's report is beyond damning, again, coming from revelations from the bankruptcy filings. If this were some lowly priest somewhere falsely accused, he would be removed from public ministry and a thorough investigation would be launched. That would happen in corporate America as well if the CEO had such charges leveled against him.
But when it comes to these monsters, they sit back, hide behind their office, hurl down accusations against those spilling the beans and seek to destroy whoever they can, even saying their sins being revealed has Satan behind it all. At this point, it's not clear if such actions and mindsets point to such men as being possessed, delusional, crooked as hell, arrogant, or some combination of any of the above.
Aymond's past reveals that one of the co-consecrators at his elevation to bishop was the notorious archbishop of Miami, John Favalora. Favalora was forced to hand in his resignation to Pope Benedict when a laity-led, years-long investigation revealed that Favalora was leading an archdiocese drowning in actively homosexual clerics and did nothing about it.
The report, dubbed "Miami Vice," was somehow leaked to the media and gained enormous attention on the internet and was forwarded to Rome and Benedict. Shortly afterward, in a surprising and very unusual move, Favalora suddenly stepped down, handing in his resignation eight months before the mandatory retirement age of 75. Benedict accepted it immediately.
Co-consecrating bishops at a consecration-to-bishop ceremony are almost always personally selected by the man being raised to bishop, and are close personal friends. In fact, checking who the co-consecrators are of a given bishop can oftentimes reveal much about the man.
It shows who he "hangs" with, is friends with, has past associations with, was buddies with in seminary and so forth — lending a certain credibility to the old expression "Birds of a feather flock together." It's certainly not foolproof, but it's not nothing either.
So why would Aymond have Favalora — who elevated, protected, approved of and covered up a gigantic network of gay Miami priests — at his consecration to bishop? It's true, Favalora was a New Orleans native, but so what?
A man who apparently was personally removed by the pope for his involvement with a gay network of priests didn't just wake up one morning and begin that evil. It would simply be the latest in ongoing immorality.
His evil became national news.
Favalora was part of a network of bishops who, at the very least, approved of all this — an old queen's club that was part of the cover-up of teenage boys being raped by the thousands, and then secret settlements being paid to them with collection plate dollars as an absolute last resort once details became known.
We texted Abp. Aymond earlier this week and asked him some questions in that text, as follows:
Do you not trust your sex abuse advisory board?
If not — will you publicly state so?
When you receive "evidence" which contradicts your board's findings, why don't you re-present that evidence to them and ask for a new review?
While in Austin, Texas, as bishop, Aymond led the Texas bishops' legislative efforts to stop the reform of the state's deadly 10-day law, which allowed for the removal of all lifesaving efforts against the patient's will.
His evil became national news in the case of baby Emilio Gonzalez — a brain-damaged child who Aymond would have been happy to have had all care withdrawn from and let die. These men really have some sick antipathy toward children, whether they are boys being raped or kids lying in a hospital bed fighting for their lives.
Imagine going before Almighty God having to give an account of why you exhausted so much effort harming children: better that a great millstone be hung around their necks.
Resign, Archbishop, while you still have time to repent. A young clerical-rape victim killed himself and you helped cover for the priest whose rape brought about that death.
Florida recently passed a new law allowing for the death penalty for those who sexually abuse children. They need to revise that and include those that create the environment where this is allowed to go on.
After all, that's what Jesus Himself said in the Gospel of Luke.
