case study: follow the money, Former Cardinal McCarrick the pedophile

💸 Follow the money

"Follow the money" is a catchphrase popularized by the 1976 drama-documentary motion picture All the President's Men, which suggests political corruption can be brought to light by examining money transfers between parties.
Look for the incentive, the underlying motivation.
What are they REALLY trying to accomplish?
Are they honest?
Do they have integrity?
good track record?
good credit (behavior/character) history?
Learn to perceive the communication and information that's happening away from the actual communication. What's NOT said, what's implied, etc, often carries much more information about their true motivation.

case study: follow the money, Former Cardinal McCarrick the pedophile

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/31/as-rumors-of-sexual-misdeeds-swirled-cardinal-mccarrick-became-a-powerful-networker-and-fundraiser/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c1c24ad36888


The whole article is well worth reading.
Basically, the short synopsis is, Former Cardinal McCarrick was able to to get away with being a pedophile for decades because he was charismatic, a huge fundraiser, so the Pope and vatican were reluctant to prevent (by demoting or defrocking) him  from making money for them by investigating accusations against him. The church knew, and tried to get him to stop, but because he was such a big money maker they didn't do the right thing as long as the accusations hadn't been proven and well known publicly.

Whether it's in politics, olympic and professional sports, little league sports, university faculty,  hollywood, the universal theme is same. Watch out for people who can't control lust, and watch out for people who need money and are willing to look the other way when crime happens.


excerpt:

McCarrick’s popularity and his enormous stature as an emissary for the church and as a prolific fundraiser for Catholic causes may have helped protect him over the years as other, whispered words were added to his reputation: harasser, groper, violator of his vows of celibacy.

Although allegations that McCarrick abused adolescents surfaced only last month, when the Vatican suspended the 88-year-old, there had for decades been rumors in church and journalistic circles about his behavior with seminarians. These ranged from talk of an unwanted hand on a knee to chatter on conservative Catholic blogs citing anonymous descriptions of sex parties.

...

There is also a long-standing deference within the Catholic Church to upholding institutional hierarchy and protocol, even in an extreme case like this. Priests, cardinals and bishops have said they told the Vatican years ago about McCarrick — either about the rumors or about the two legal settlements New Jersey dioceses reached with him in the early 2000s — and there’s no evidence anything was ever done. Victims never heard from Rome, and McCarrick was functioning as a priest until a few weeks ago, speaking to Catholic audiences and performing weddings and baptisms.