Methinks someone was cheated

Those in the know are aware that we here at the Manor are rock-ribbed Protestants. This is not to say that we do not consider some of our Roman Catholic brethren Christians, but we do hod to the doctrines of Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide and Sola Gratia.

This being said, we do pay attention to the activities of the Roman Catholic Church in the county in which the Manor has been placed.

After the Northridge earthquake Roger Mahoney deigned that it was imperative for Catholics within his archdiocese to pay for the building of a new cathedral to replace Saint Vibiana's Cathedral, which was dead in the center of downtown Los Angeles. It was so downtown that it wasn't unusual to be hit upon by a drunk or sterno drinker camped outside St. Vibiana's while walking by said cathedral. Said "street people" retreated to the Salvation Army Mission or Union Rescue Mission (both Protestant organizations) when they wanted a bed or a meal. St. Vibiana's offered them nothing. Cardinal Mahoney claimed that the earthquake damaged St. Vibiana's (a Spanish colonial style edifice) to the extent that it would cost more to repair the cathedral and bring it up to current earthquake standards than it would be to build a new cathedral on the other side of the freeway (and outside of downtown).

Of course, Mahoney got his way (after all, he is the price of Los Angeles and every politician has his nose buried in the back of Mahoney's cassock) and a new cathedral, Our Lady the Queen of the Angels (perhaps it's Angles) was built on the west side of the freeway. The resulting edifice looks (despite the alabaster screens and statues) like a sheet metal plants. But it gets Mahoney and his minions away from having to daily confront the homeless, the drunks and the insane camped outside their cathedral.

Be that as it may, the cathedral is there and it was paid for by the tithes of faithful Catholics under the guise that it would be more economical to build a new cathedral than repair the old one.

Well, lo! and behold! The local rag (the L.A. Times) reported the other day that the old cathedral, St. Vibiana's has been refurbished and brought up to the current earthquake standards. In other words, Roger Mahoney has not only built a new cathedral, but has refurbished the old cathedral, as well as paying off the victim of the priest sexual abuse scandal.

It seems awfully odd to us here at the Manor that Roger Mahoney, while crying poor mouth, can pull off such a financial miracle. He must have a hot line to the Almighty. One year he says that the Church cannot afford to repair the old cathedral or any of victims of pervert priest and the next thing one knows the Church in LA is building a new cathedral, repairing the old one and paying off the kids who were sexually abused.

Meanwhile, Mahoney is still sending the homeless, the drunk and the abused to the Salvation Army and the Union Rescue Mission.

Somebody was ripped off and it wasn't the Protestants. Mahoney wears his scarlet beanie and keeps his hand clean while Protestants take care of the poor. The poor and homeless aren't camped outside of the Taj Mahoney.