How could he be competent to testify if he suffered from dementia?

Oh, I love conspiracy theories. The paranoid will have fun with this. The best thing about conspiracy theories is that lack of evidence of a conspiracy is considered proof of the conspiracy’s cover up.

What, no proof of foul play in the Cardinal’s death? That can only mean those Catholics have bribed officials and destroyed the evidence! See how it works?

The media is being terribly irresponsible in this story and is doing nothing but providing fodder for Church-haters and conspiracy nuts.

Anytime a person dies outside of a hospital (as Cardinal Bevilacqua did), an examination is standard!

Although the Philly D.A.‘s office has denied it, this story has the fingerprints of prosecutors all over it.

Welcome to the persecution.

-

Oh, come on: my mother’s body recently gave out at 83, and Cardinal Bevilaqua was 88.

Just political anti-Catholicism garbage rearing its ugly head in Philadelphia.  Judge Teresa Sarmina needs to be booted out when election time rolls around there.  My mother in her early 80’s suffered from dementia.  Her doctors identified it and everyone around her saw its devastating symptoms!  Dementia destroys, absorbs, digests competency and breaks the hearts of those who observe it.
... and this judge decides that the dementia ridden, dying old man is competant to testify!  Give that political hack her anti-Catholic walking papers.

The timing is so suspicious that any reasonable person would suspect foul play. 

Cardinal Bevilacqua covered up for known pedophiles according to a grand jury report, including serial child rapist Fr Cudemo, who got a 12 year old girl pregnant and took her for an abortion according to page 125-130 http://bit.ly/zAiW7S

Its a shame they did the embalming before an autopsy, since a shot of adrenaline and some other methods will not show up on an autopsy.  This may not have been murder - he might have asked for it rather than commit suicide before having to tell “the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God”.  However, it is still too suspicious, coincidental, and convenient given the grand jury report.

Since the Catholic church has clearly covered up crimes before, this case should be investigated by law enforcement, and its a shame so much evidence disappeared during the embalming.

Why would it be left up to a non-medical person like the judge to determine if the Cardinal was competent. Where did the judges medical degree come from.  Any one who has been exposed to a loved one suffering from Dementia could tell you that sometimes, it’s rare, but sometimes these poor souls have moments of lucidity.

My Father was 81 and he had dementia.  I pray this is not a road I will have to travel.

Give the Cardinal some peace.

The Cardinal would not have committed suicide, and to even imagine or suggest anyone connected with the Church murdered him is too shameful and ludicrous.  The Church bashers are beginning to grasp at straws.

NKC, read church history.

“to even imagine or suggest anyone connected with the Church murdered him is too shameful and ludicrous”

Because no one associated with the Church has ever done anything bad? Everyone associated with the Church is completely and totally morally blameless?

DPierre, I agree.  Welcome to the persecution. People of faith realize, since so many were praying for Cardinal Bevilacqua, Our Merciful Father called him home peacefully. This was the loving embrace of Our God, “Welcome home good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master’s House.”  He was readied by the heavy crosses he bore for many years now.  He was spared the unbelievable blows of the Church persecutors, who spare no one and nothing in their attempt to prove they are right.

@ Anon777: “NKC, read church history.” And after NKC reads Church history, that will prove ... what?  That we still live in the 11th century?  That there was someone on the grassy knoll?

It will prove that tares and wheat grow together.  The Church isn’t made up of perfect people - no matter what their “rank” is.  Maybe you should read some church history as well, Tony.  It goes beyond the llth century.  You have a bit of catching up to do.

Mr. Doug Florey:  You state the catholic church covered up a crime.
How about Kathleen Sebelius when she was governor of Kansas telling her
people to erase the evidence. And anybody who thinks state employees would
erase evidence without the knowledge of the governor is not too bright.

Last time I checked, the jurisprudence in this nation requires a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.  It would seem that several of our commenters here have convened their inquest and have arrived at a conclusion and verdict concerning the late cardinal.  It is precisely in cases such as this that the Lord’s words, “Judge not lest ye be judged” are most apt.

Just saw the last half of the Cardinal Bevilacqua’s funeral on EWTN.  I got the impression I had “attended” the funeral of a saint.  I hope Philadelphia is going to open a cause for canonization for him soon.

Lest we forget our recent past:Herman Goering before hanging, Cardinal Cody before his trial, the death/murder of Pope John Paul I (Albino Luciani) 1978,Joe Paterno and now Cardinal Bevilaqua: Things That Make You HUMMMMMMMMM!

Andrew Mackie-Mason, your last, post hyphen name is surely apt here, you Catholic bashing piece of crud!

I hope the DA grows a set of her own. May God forgive the coroner’s desecration of the Cardinal’s body.  Just locals slamming it up against Mother Church out of hatred and because they can.  They sicken me.

It’s just unbelievable at how the government, most of whom are liberals and know who butters their bread, insist on taking down the church.  How absurd any court system would rely on any person’s testimony when they are stricken with dementia.  However, if that person is a member of the church why not.  I also notice there hasn’t been much in the national media about the years long child molestation that occurred in the LA.  Oh, but that happened in the government sector, where most of that type of crime happens.

“Justyn Time”:
Huh?
If I remember correctly Goering was a Lutheran, his family said that John Paul I stopped taking his medicine, Joe Paterno reported what he heard to Penn State authorities (who then bared Sandusky from campus, but were prevented from doing more by “Gay rights” laws), and Cardinal Bevilaqua was 88 and suffering from cancer and dementia (my mother’s body gave out at 83).
So I see that you won’t let the fact that there’s no evidence to back up your conspiracy theories stop you from promoting them.  (Are you a “9/11 Truther” too?

Ah conspiracy theorizing.  Gnosticism for the 21st century.

I do not know why this is suddenly a story much less being taken seriously. The Cardinal died peacefully in his sleep in his own bed on January 31, according to Rome Reports. This does not sound like “foul play” to me much less a conspiracy. As for the late Pope John Paul I, he only had to breathe with one lung (he had TB and the other was removed) His close friend Enrico said that he had suffered a heart attack. This priest knew the Pope since his childhood. So again no smoking gun in either of these two cases. This continuing talk about sex abuse is taking away from the real crisis- the continuing persecution of the Church and its members and leaders. Think close about this folks. Use your common sense, and PLEASE stop all of the sensational headlines!

Seems to me Holy Mother Church, through the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, was fully transparent in allowing the coroner prompt access to the body and by revealing the meds.  No obvious cover-up here regarding the Cardinal’s death.  R.I.P.

R.I.P. Cardinal

There will always be those trying to promote an anti-Catholic bias and rile the rest of us.  Pray for a conversion of heart for them.

Amen, Peter.  They can TRY to rile us, we do not have to fall for their bait.  Prayer wins the day.

Takes me back to my childhood and the controversy that surrounded the death of Pope John Paul 1.

Joannie, I truly don’t know where you got your information about Pope John Paul I, but it’s quite ridiculous and exaggerated. I know his family and have studied his life for years in preparation for writing a biography of him. He was suspected of having TB in 1947, when he was 34, though it really turned out to be viral pneumonia. He never had a lung removed; his doctor’s reports (which I’ve seen) never say anything of the kind. If someone says this who says he knew the Pope, he is probably faking.

All the wild stories about John Paul I’s death should be taken with a huge grain of salt. John Cornwell in his book tried to prove that the Pope had stopped taking his medication and wanted to die, but that was based on mere speculation by his niece Lina that the MIGHT have been forgetting to take his medication. All the evidence that Cornwell supplies about the last night in the papal apartment indicates quite otherwise. But Cornwell is not one to let truth get in the way of a good story.

To this day, we don’t know what JPI died of; unfortunately there was no autopsy. I am laying out the evidence in my book; it is certain that his death was natural; in fact there had been three sudden deaths like that among relatives over the years. It may have been a stroke or a pulmonary embolism.

He was most certainly not murdered, if for no other reason than that no one could have gotten into the papal apartment to do the job; it is the most heavily guarded places on earth. There is no way any outside murderer could have known where the Pope’s medication was in order to poison it. Among other things!! 
 
I have a long discussion here on my blog

http://subcreators.com/blog/investigation-of-the-death-of-pope-john-paul-i/

It’s ridiculous to think that with cancer and dementia he could not die a natural death at 88. Either one of those illnesses can kill very easily and to have both is already two strikes against the person. I surmise the investigation is just a technicality since he was supposed to testify, which is also a joke. Someone with dementia isn’t capable of testimony. They don’t even know what took place a couple of minutes ago, let alone any time in the past.

Joannie, actually, I’m sorry to have been so hasty. I certain don’t know the Enrico in question or how much of what you said he actually told you. So it was hasty of me to conclude he didn’t really know the Pope.

However I have known a so-called author who was obviously lying when he made claims that John Paul I was in favor of homosexuality and other things he never could have supported. He supported his claims with his supposed personal knowledge of the Pope, which anyone who was aware of the smallest part of his history would immediately know were false. There are even crazier things connected with this story; I won’t give the author’s name any publicity. But I can assure you it’s true. It has led me to be very angry and pounce on people without sufficient though. Sorry.

I too, watched the funeral of the Cardinal on EWTN- it was beautiful.  God rest his soul.

This post goes towards Jason regarding conspiracy theories…

Yeah…I totally see how it works.  The “Paranoid,” will cling to this as some sort of “Sherlock Holmes” tale, and the IGNORANT will see it as nothing at all.  In fact, the IGNORANT will call the one’s who want to look into this for what it is as “Paranoid,” while they sit back and do nothing about anything as usual.  SEE HOW IT WORKS???

Oh, come on !  Anti Catholicism ?? are you kidding me? I am a catholic, however, the church has set about covering up abuse of young boys…world-wide !! Its the covering up that has people even more upset. That bishops continued to allow young kids to be put in harms way to protect the institution and their friends.  Thats the FACTS !  10 years ago some of you people would have thought the sex abuse scandal was
science fiction also…..How many bricks do you need to fall on your head, before you see the building is coming down ? This so called conspiracy theory does sound a little far out…..BUT so does the abuse that actually occured.  God will have His say….It’s time to clean house. And if His Church doesn’t do it themselves….He WILL.

It was the Opus Dei albino in the library with a poisonous communion wafer.

terry,
If you’re a Catholic you’re an ignorant one; the facts are that the homosexual abuse of the young is common everywhere; and sexual abuse is even more common in the public school system (but they’re protected by law from being sued.)
Read “Pedophiles and Priests” (Oxford University Press).

Michael,
Yeap, you’re proving that everything that Jason wrote is true.

It may be to our benefit that they run their toxicology tests.  At least it should put the conspiracy theorists to rest and stop the rumors.

c. kraft, Yes, I said the Catholic church has clearly covered up crimes before, and your defense involves distracting people by bringing Kathleen Sebelius when she was governor of Kansas.  Amazing.
For the people saying that his murder is foolish, ludicrous, et cetera, you said the same things when child sex victims first came forward.
For those crying about persecution, its actually “prosecution”.  Bevilacqua died before he made it through prosecution, and is now being shown the horrible lives that he inflicted on God’s most innocent children.  You will see them someday, too.
Denise, they embalmed Bevilacqua before the coroner could do a full autopsy and do full blood analyses, so if they knew any nurse or doctor, they could have found out what over-medicating might kill him.  He may even have requested it.
Don Schenk, you spread the worst of the Catholic lies, implying sex abuse is common everywhere, when it was MUCH more prevalent in the Catholic church than in any other institution ever.  By spreading these lies, you will be condemned by God to an eternity you can’t imagine, and will forever regret your heartlessness.

doug florey,
Who’s the heartless liar?
Philip Jenkins’ book “Pedophiles and Priests” (Oxford University Press) was released in the 1990s,
and in 2004 the US Department of Education revealed that the abuse problem is at least 100 times worse in the public school system,
and yet you still cling to your hate.

You’re probably mad at the Church for denouncing homosexual acts as sinful, aren’t you?  As G. K. Chesterton noted in “The Catholic Church and Conversion,”
“There is a sort of woolly-minded philistine who would be content to consider a friar a knave for his unchastity, and a fool for his chastity.”

Don Schenk, the Catholic church hid the truth about this until newspaper investigators in Boston ripped the truth out of the Catholic church in 2002, so your 1990 book is irrelevant.
As for the DOE study by Shakeshaft, it was dismissed almost immediately by the DOE.  Shakeshaft used a completely different technique, and did an extrapolation, saying that 225 cases (181 in in New York) could be multiplied to reflect the whole US.  She also considered sexual harassment (like a NY teacher telling a 16 year old girl that her boobs were sticking out of her shirt) to be the same as a priest having anal sex with a 12 year old boy.  But, of course, you know that.
The truth is that 8-9% of Catholic priests in the 70s and 80s were known child sex abusers, which is 10-20 times the average for any other group.
Be careful with your attempt at insulting me unless you are willing to step into a boxing ring in your own town and tell me the same thing.

doug florey:
Not confused by the facts, are you?
The 1994 book by Philip Jenkins, “Priests and Pedophiles,” came out after most of the abuse cases which the liberal media publisized happened—and pointed out that such cases were just as, if not more, common with ministers, rabbis, and secular professionals.
And comparing the DOE study with the sex abuse cases in the Catholic Church—yes, “boundry violations” aren’t the same as raping a 12-year-old, but the John Jay study indicated that of the 8-9% of Catholic priests who were accused, most of the accusations were similar.  And of the 8-9% who were accused only 1-4% involved “pedophilia,” the abuse of a pre-pubescent youngster; 81% involved the homosexual seduction of a teenage (NOT 12-year-old) boy, some as old as 17.  (The other percent were teenage girls.)
My local newspaper is full of stories of school teachers and ministers who were caught (just in January—first-grade boys were molested about a block from where I live, and a married high-school teacher had sex with the boys. Oh: and a minister was arrested too.) but since my local public school district points out that you can’t sue public schools and the minister leads a non-denominational church, nothing happened.

There are a lot of misleading statements in your response, but let me highlight one that shows satan’s presence in the Catholic church. 
You say that only 1-4% involve “pedophilia”, which is a lie.  The truth is that 72% of the priests from the John Jay report were pedophiles, but for the second John Jay report, they changed the “cut off” age for pedophilia.  The American Psychiatric Association says the cut off should be 13, but for the second John Jay report, they cut the age to 10 PRECISELY because Catholic priests raped so many 11 and 12 year old altar boys.
When your local newspaper has 4,392 articles about different pedophiles in any other institution, you can start having the argument that it is as bad elsewhere.  They don’t because it isn’t.
You don’t get into heaven for passing on lies to protect satan.

doug florey,
If you go to hell for passing out lies, boy are you in trouble.  Go to Confession soon.
Pedophilia was, and is, defined as the abuse of a pre-pubescent youngster.  81% of the “children” abused by priests were teenage boys. Homosexuality is the issue.
My local paper dowesn’t have 4,392 articles about local Catholic pedophiles—in fact, it doesn’t have any.  It did have an article about how much Protestant denominations had to pay in abuse cases—more per clergy than Catholic dioceses did—and, as I pointed out, many articles about ministers and public school terachers.  If your local paper covered up those stories about ministers and teachers, complain to it.
I’m glad to see that you know about the American Psychiatric Association, because you need their help.

Don Schenk,
I’ll do this one more time, and not to convince you, who are clearly misleading people so that you can protect pedophiles, but to show those seeking the truth that you and others like you are lying to protect these pedophile priests.
Pedophilia is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as the thought of having sex with someone 13 or under. Priests who actually do it are active pedophiles, and 72% of priests in the Catholic John Jay report were pedophiles using that yardstick.
In the second John Jay report, they changed the cut off age to 10 to make it look like it wasn’t pedophilia when priests had sex with altar boys, most of which were 10-13.
Its not homosexuality. Its child rape. Its also not “heterosexuality” when you rape a 10 year old girl.  Its child rape.
The Catholic church had 4,392 “Jerry Sanduskys” that they admitted to in their own John Jay report of 2004. No one in history is close, even though your local paper may have one.
On your judgment day, you can explain to God why you defended the pedophiles and pedophile protectors that took over His church.

It amazes me that some people just hate the Catholic Church so much that they want to spread their hate among the faithful.  These cafeteria Catholics will never see that we live in a world of sinners because they cannot admit their own sins.  They make up the rules to suit their fancy and disregard the laws the Church has set up for us.  These laws give us the best way to live a life free from sin and guilt.  The guilt that is imposed on these people turns into hate.  Thus they hate the Church for giving them the best possible way to avoid the sin that causes the guilt.  If we follow Christ’s teachings, we suck it up and deny ourselves to live a life to avoid sin.  Pray for those who cannot get past that guilt and hate.

doug florey,
So who’s protecting the sexual molesters?
When you claim that seducing a teenage boy has nothing to do with homosexuality, you’re the one who’s protecting molesters.
Again, the John Jay report reported that 81% of the victims were teenage boys.  No matter which age you put as the limit for pedophilia, the problem is homosexuality, and it’s a problem with homosexuals being ordained (despite the Vatican’s ruling that they were ineligible candidates for the priesthood, which the media denounced [remember the 1984 Jack Lemmon movie “Mass Appeal”?].)
And yes, it’s not homosexuality when you rape a 10 year old girl—it’s heterosexuality.  But, the John Jay report noted, that’s the problem only in a few percent of the abuse cases.

Previous post:
I hope the DA grows a set of her own. May God forgive the coroner’s desecration of the Cardinal’s body. Just locals slamming it up against Mother Church out of hatred and because they can. They sicken me.

I thought at the time and my Philly relatives agreed—some Jewish !@#$% throwing her cohones around—searched the internet tonight—we were right1

Sorry, Jewish female dog came out as !@#$%, but we all know what I mean!

So Sad, that a Pastor of souls for many years is now being poisoned by the media! I suspect ink is the real toxic substance, and it’s poured out
in “liberal” doses…

“any reasonable person”
-
So I suppose we are to conclude that Doug Florey is the only ‘reasonable’ person here?  Ha!  Pfft.

Christ says to LOVE one another as He LOVES us. That is the Church’s teaching so why are all of you trying to justify or prosecute or deny any of this. God said He will take charge of His priests. What happened happened. They are all in God’s power now and He will take care of this.

The Montgomery county DA and Courts cannot be trusted to do anything except play politics.

Not a Philadelphia catholic:  You wonder when bevilacqua will be cannonized? Are you serious? This guy protected pedophile priests and you think he should be made a saint!  I guess all of the blindly faithful have consumed the kool-aid.  The catholic church is completely hypocritical, they use intimidation and fear to get their beliefs across. He was just as guilty as the priests who did the molesting. He should have died in prison.

Christoper:
I guess your believing the accusations made against Bevilaqua without any facts to back up the claims means that you also think that 9/11 was an inside job, and that Obama was born in Kenya.