The Catholic Church's Depravity

In a particularly egregious case of bad timing, The Shoes of the Fisherman was on TCM the other night.

This 1968 movie starring Anthony Quinn shows the pageantry of the Roman Catholic church -- in this instance a conclave of cardinals at the Vatican -- at its most beautiful, but it was difficult to get caught up in the red hat crowd because of further confirmation that the Holy See has not only tolerated despicable acts of depravity around the world but has actively covered them up.

Now, coming hard on the heals of an extraordinary report that Catholic orders repeatedly abused Ireland's poorest children comes the news that they are pleading poverty and cannot pay their victims, while the real story is that these nuns and brothers are sheltering billions of dollars of assets.

The good news is that Irish government leaders say they expect the 18 religious orders to pay a much greater share of compensation to the 14,000 state-recognized victims, as well as reveal the true scope of their wealth for the first time.