MORE DOLAN DETAILS SURFACE. TWO CONFIRMED PAID OFF SO FAR.

AP has the report of two Milwaukee priest payoffs:

The archdiocese acknowledged it paid suspected pedophile clergy to leave the priesthood after an abuse victims' group produced a court document that references a 2003 proposal to pay $20,000 to "unassignable priests" who agree to leave the ministry. The document from the archdiocese's bankruptcy proceedings includes minutes from a 2003 meeting of its Finance Council, which included then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan, now a cardinal and head of the New York archdiocese.
...
The archdiocese acknowledged in 2006 that it gave $10,000 to former priest Franklyn Becker to help pay his health insurance until he became eligible for Medicare.
...
Dolan asked then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 2003 to defrock Becker after allegations of repeated sexual abuse of children that dated back to at least 1970. Dolan wrote the letter about two weeks after Becker was arrested in California in connection to a sexual assault there in the 1970s. Becker was removed from the priesthood in 2004.

Odd timing, that last one. Perhaps he had never been accused until 2003? I don't have those details. So, Cardinal Dolan was getting the guy booted, by the now-Pope, no less. Then he either claims not to know about the payoff, or considers it "charity." Which is it? I think the press needs to press him on this issue.

I guess by labeling it as "charity" that changes what it is? Awfully slippery, and I don't buy it.

Cardinal Dolan still has the ability to change course here and do a world of good to repair many wrongs. A semantic squabble seems a bit petty at this stage. I think his dignity of office would be better served by trying to fix things.