Abbey-Roads2

Photo:  Homeless man sleeping with his dog.

It sort of sums up how I feel today - thinking of that homeless man, treated like an animal and dropped off on a L.A. skid row area street, and of course, I’m unable to get the images out of my head of the Chinese skinning animals alive.  The world has grown cold.

I read today where Boston priests are being shortchanged on their pensions due to mismanagement of retirement funds.  It is alleged Cardinal Law dipped into these funds to pay legal costs and make victim pay offs during his tenure - most of the spending associated with the clergy abuse scandal of course. 

“Hundreds of distraught Boston-area priests are facing stark cuts in their retirement benefits as the Archdiocese of Boston scrambles to shore up its teetering pension system after decades of poor fiscal management.

“I see all of this as unjust and a failure to observe our canon law,” said the Rev. Richard Craig, 71, who retired four years ago as pastor of St. John the Evangelist in North Chelmsford. “It leads me to wonder, are we, the senior priests, becoming objects of elderly discrimination?”

Church documents show that as of April 2006, the pension plan - the Clergy Retirement/Disability Trust - faced an $85.4 million gap between the money on hand and what it is expected to have to spend for hundreds of priests, active and retired.” - Boston Herald.com 

“Archdiocese officials insist senior priests are better paid than their active counterparts.”  I guess that is supposed to make the retired priests feel so much better.

What is this country going to do as all the baby-boomers are beginning to retire now?  Many corporations are also trying to cut employee pensions.  But an Archdiocese doing it too?

All I can say is, Wow!

(If you read the entire article, it does appear the Archdiocese is working to correct the shortfall and take care of their priests.  Nevertheless, it is unsettling news that shakes one’s confidence in Church officials.)