Author: Jake the Snake

Blogger note: At this point I consider myself barely catholic, I have been lied too so much about the Catholic Church priest abuse scandal.

About a week ago I was watching my nightly local news program, I was killing time before bed yet what I saw caused nightmares.  A very somber Northern CA Bishop Jaime Soto was giving an interview about how the diocese (ruling group for an area of churches) is out of insurance money to pay liability claims arising from the sex abuse scandal.  They will be needing to monetize (sell) assets and liquidate funds to cover costs.  This interview was in response to a change in the law regarding the statute of limitations regarding the church sex abuse scandal.

The Statute of Limitations (SOL) has to do with how far back you can go to bring claims against someone/corporation.  Typically the time frame is about 3-5 years.  This is to prevent lawsuits decades later/after the perpetrator is dead.  Note:  If any sexual abuse happened to a victim under the age of 18 there is no statute, the suit can be brought forward at any time.

The legislative change to throw out the statute of limitations only applies to the Catholic Church, not the Mormon Church or any other religious order, even though they are having their own sex scandals.  This failed to surprise me, this state, and our current governor are hostile to religion, even more so after the overturning of Roe V. Wade.  This is his turn to exact revenge.  He won.  The diocese of Northern California will likely be filing for bankruptcy.  I hear San Francisco, and San Diego are even further toward filing BK.

The dirty little secret is the Bishop and his team were all aware of this change, yet failed to alert any of the congregation. (Typically, the bishop instructs the priest, who in turn give a sermon/homily on the subject.)  They did nothing, head in the ground ostrich style.  I guess they prayed the issue would resolve itself, now the flood gates are open and the lawsuits have been flying.  I hear ads on the radio on my way to work, and have heard folks saying there are commercials airing on the tv. You know the ones, “If you have been a victim, call Dewey, Screwum, and Howe…”. 

Bigger problem: most of these new lawsuits are against priests who have fled the country, or have passed away.  This makes the claims impossible to defend.  (Not that you would want to anyway.)  I will quote the famous McDonald’s quality control manager Chris Appleton “this number of injuries was insufficient to cause the company to evaluate its practices.”  That’s corporate speak for its easier to pay a lawsuit then to change your practice.  The Catholic Church is finding out this same lesson.  Lawsuits are flying and now the church will be put on trial (figuratively and via the media) about their practices.

What the Catholic Church hierarchy doesn’t want to hear is the truth. They keep whistling past the graveyard.  I can tell you the first mistake the church made was “covering up the abuse.”  It appears to me the accused were moved to different churches, then shuffled again, and if it got to be too large a problem moved to a different state/diocese entirely.  The public school system has a term for this its called “passing the trash”; in essence you trade one set of problems for another in hope the accused never gets formally caught.  Another ploy they tried was the “Father so and so will spend the remainder of his life in silent meditation/prayer for his sins to be forgiven.  Notice the accused were never fired (defrocked) and still were allowed to preach.  This shows a lack of institutional control.  When you prove time and again you cannot handle the issue internally, eventually the government takes over.  Rarely do they actually help.

The issue continued to grow and gain steam.  This was initially blamed on a couple of rogue priests taking advantage of the flock, instead the problem grew exponentially.  We were told time and again the issue is small, and resolved.  Turns out there are not just priests and bishops, but cardinals also under scrutiny.  Meaning the issue goes almost the whole way to the top, it’s a generation of folks looking the other way. SAD!

The dirty little secret is the flock is about to see just how mismanaged the church is, this time at the diocese level.  We hear all the time about assets owned by the church, be it buildings, land, schools, money etc, and how it’s protected from certain uses.  They call this “restricted money” we will see just how restricted it was/is.  It’s all going to come out folks.  As Warren Buffett once said “only when the tide goes out do you learn who is swimming naked.”  We as Catholics are in for a rude awakening.

My solution?  Actually it’s not difficult. 

Any priest accused should be turned over to the local authorities, and suspended from clergy immediately.  Let the legal process actually play out.  The accused can defend themselves, the church may still be on the hook, but it starts a healing process.  No more hiding behind the collar.  Purge! 

Allow priests to marry.  They have to keep the family/other issues out of church business, but it is time.  The old guard won’t like it, but the secret is the old guard hates that most priests in the USA are English as a second language types.

Recruit folks from here.  I know it sounds bad or racist, but when you recruit folks from war torn/drug infested/crime ridden area’s, you get what you get.  Sadly that’s a lot of folks who flee just for an opportunity.

Get your popcorn ready this could be good.

As a member of the Knights of Columbus at my local church, I am privy to information other regular church goers are not.  I know people on the finance team, parish council, etc.  It’s a humble brag but I will tell you the Catholic Church (aka who the Pope leads) is failing badly.  Allow me to lay out my reasoning.

1.  Dropping finances.  Prior to and during Covid we were told our church had over 1 million dollars in the bank.  Finance chair and resident boot licker Michael Jones even bragged from the ambo about the church getting a PPP loan, aka the forgivable government loan to keep operations going.  Yep, we are not a mom-and-pop shop, we are a church with 5 Masses on weekends and a collection of roughly 11k a week pre-Covid, yet we needed that money.  Just last week Michael Jones the patron Saint of Fiction told me of how the finances are hurting as the collection is way down.  No kidding?  You mean people are told they can watch from home and it still counts?  Why return?
2. Uncomfortable environment to worship.  Our Priest refuses to turn the lights on in either the vestibule or main church until Mass starts, not a second before.  Ditto for shutting the lights off.  He refuses to run the AC in the summer, or heat in the winter.  I had to find a new parish as I do not like wearing my winter coat to service just to stay warm.  In the summer I don’t like the idea of wearing a t-shirt just to not sweat profusely.  We do all this to save a couple bucks a month at my church. 
3. Attendance is declining.  Covid did the church no favors, and the subsequent vaccines and masking isn’t seeming to help.  We are losing younger folks to more popular “Christian venues” that play rock music and the like.  Trust me, go to a Catholic church and you can count the number of folks between 18-35 on one hand.  The older folks?  We are losing them to the graveyard.  We bring in about 7 new members each year, however we lose several times that number.  Some may not like praying in the dark/cold/heat. 
4. Too many folks have a “protect the shield” mentality.  My father falls into this category; they will do/say anything to appease the priest and the church as a whole.  Why don’t you come to Mass anymore?  You better be there!  It’s time to return!  This after the church refused to allow anyone inside for almost 2 years.
5. A litmus test for the parishioners.  This will be expanded upon further in a different blog.  Jorge Rodriguez, a miserable blow-hard, who rarely attends Mass but wants to quiz people on where certain objects in the church are.  When he attends, which is about as often as a total eclipse of the sun, he will ask folks upon exiting “do you know where the Alpha and Omega are?”  Totally unnecessary and it runs people off.  But he gets his jollies off doing it, and no one seems to care.

In closing, the church is struggling because they lost their way.  They appeased the elected left-wing political types and doomsayers by shutting everything down.  They told folks watch at home and people adjusted as such.  Now they won’t return.  Or they do not want to freeze/overheat.  Or be lied to about finances.  The collection is down to around 9k a week from 11k pre-covid.  Most Masses are not close to being full, or even close to the attendance pre-covid.  I have a feeling most/a lot of parishioners never returned/died or found a new church to attend like myself.  We have no money yet we are spending 500k to re-do the patio area and add a covering.  You cannot make this up!

Jake the Snake

Editor’s notes:

What is it with priests that don’t want to run the A/C in church? At my wedding many years ago, on a 100 degree plus day, the priest wouldn’t turn on the A/C at all. We had guests who were over 90 years old in attendance and no A/C. Oh, another bit of trivia while I’m at it, this was the only wedding ever held in the church building in the 18 years or so that this church existed, and you couldn’t run the A/C for two lousy hours.

Secondly, Jake is Really Right. The church we go to now is experiencing much of the same stuff he mentioned, lower finances and attendance, and a newly minted building fund for a new parking lot at a time when the collection plate is light. Allowing yourself to be called nonessential and shutting down was a stupid, self-inflicted move that most churches did to themselves. Many will die a slow and painful death because of this stupid compromise with people that hate you and have no use or respect for God.

How many times have you heard the phrase “separation of powers” or “separation of church and state” or “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof?”  If you haven’t heard it before, maybe study up on the laws and rules of this country they didn’t teach you in public school.  In short, it means the church is a separate body, not to be governed by any state or government entity. 

Occasionally, the Church and State enter into conflicts. An example of this would be in Houston, a few years ago, the mayor and council demanded to sign-off in advance on any sermon at weekly services to make sure it is worthy; this was struck down. The church often talks a great game, then Covid-19 hit, and they let all Hell break-out.

In particular, the Catholic Church has been bleeding members for quite some time; basically, in a given year, about 30 members would join the Catholic faith at our church.  On average, we lost at least that many due to death in an average month.  The numbers do not add up.  When the shutdowns started, the church (via the bishop, the controlling entity for the Diocese) said it was ok simply watching Mass on TV or the Internet or listening on the radio, and not participating in the Eucharist (Holy Communion) was ok.  Even though the Catholic faith says you must participate in the Eucharist weekly, the church bowed to the State. 

While the church did eventually open up outdoor services, it was very limited, and sparsely attended.  We started a live stream, but again folks didn’t attend.  The church made it comfy for folks to watch Mass in their pajamas while sipping coffee.  A few weeks turned into months, which turned into a year plus now.  While churches have re-opened, it was to smaller crowds; 100 folks max.  They made it easy to opt out as the bishop continued the “you don’t have to attend in person, it still counts” decree. 

My point here is a habit is formed over time, and it takes discipline to really form a habit.  You have to hold yourself accountable.  In the case of the church, folks broke habit.  After missing for a couple weeks, it became months, then a year plus.  These folks are not likely to return.  This is similar to a workout regime at the gym. It takes a while to form a habit, but it can be broken, and once broken, it’s hard to get started again.  It’s easy for folks to wake up and turn on the TV. Lord knows, as Americans, we consume enough of that already!

  A new habit has been formed, and not a good one for the local parish. 

Speaking of the local parishes, let me again use my parish as an example.  We have 5 masses each weekend, and weekly collection (AKA the offering) ran about $17K a week prior to Covid.  Now it runs about 5K, and I feel that is drastically overstated.  Our priest gave a long diatribe about how we are required to give 10% of our annual income to the church.  Keep in mind, I have never heard that amount before, and in the Catholic faith, the word “tithing” was always used to describe the Mormon religion, one the Catholics view as a cult.  Our priest used his entire sermon to speak about money and finances, lacking any self-awareness that the church shut down for about a year. During that time, many folks hearing his words were out of work or otherwise adversely impacted.  

My father remarked that he was surprised that most of the congregation “regulars” at the early Mass had yet to return, speculating they may not have been vaccinated yet.  While this thinking is all well and good, the demographics at that Mass are almost exclusively 70 plus in age.  These folks have had about 6 months of time to get the shot, and by now, its likely most have received it; however, they just aren’t going to attend service anymore.  Think about it, the excuse was “the church is closed” “I will return when I get the shot,” now it’s, “I will return when the numbers go down.” These folks ain’t coming back in large numbers.

The church bent over for the Governor and the state government.  It, like any other organization, showed its true colors. They talk a good game, but …  The consequence of their action is that most watch EWTN or some other form of online church and have no intention of returning.  They are spinless and they showed it.  The folks holding out hope for a mass return to the church will be vastly disappointed, its hollow words as far as I am concerned.  Nowadays, there is no separation of Church and State and the bishop here proved it to be true.  Now the church is concerned about money…yeah that’s rich.

Jake the Snake

By: Jake the Snake

Lee Ann Harper serves as the manager of the “Office of Youth Protection” for the Knights of Columbus in New Haven, Connecticut. Sounds like a really important job and I guess in some respects it is. This office was created in response to the Catholic PRIEST sex abuse scandals, because… well, let’s ignore the priests and focus on regular married/single churchgoing volunteers. Yes, you read that right. If you sign up to join the Knights of Columbus—a non-profit men’s group whose purpose is to serve the church—you, not clergymen, must undergo a background check and get fingerprinted prior to being able to volunteer on church property. I found this idea somewhat objectionable because who ever heard of a crisis in Catholic Church volunteers and because KOC members hardly ever work with youth. Despite my misgivings about the need for such a review of my past—I had nothing to hide and was an officer in our local council—I complied with the request. This was four years ago.

I later found out that the results of said background check were sent to the local parish office, not the mothership in New Haven, Connecticut. I have major objections to this, as a close friend of mine was recently told by the parish office that he needed to be checked again because they lost his results. These folks in the parish office, are not Knights, we do not serve them, keep in mind the parish office or diocese (governing body of the Roman Catholic Church) have no jurisdiction over us.

This past year I moved into the important “Deputy Grand Knight Role.” In essence, a position comparable to the Vice President (the Grand Knight is the top dog). In this position, I also had to take the title of Family Director. Family Director is a largely symbolic position as we have an older parish. As a result, the Family Director does nothing as far as the church is concerned.

As a young single man with no family, I know my bounds. I NEVER volunteer at youth events nor volunteer my services to drive/chaperone. The parish office knows this… I do this because the optics look bad, and as a brother Knight, I took an oath to never bring scandal on the church, or our Supreme Pontiff (the Pope). I know my lane and I stay in it…it’s a symbolic position.

Given that the Family Director is just a symbolic position on the Knight’s generic org chart, I was surprised to find an email in my spam folder directing me to submit to a background check for this position, and of course I agreed.

This email was where issues began to turn ugly with the Knights. I found this out about 6 weeks later when I got an overnight FedEx letter stuck in my door. I opened said letter and it stated that due to my driving record, keep in mind my criminal record is clean, I was unfit to hold the position of Family Director and to contact this Lee Ann Harper to discuss my volunteering further.

Let me reiterate, the Knights of Columbus is a volunteer group, one which had no issue with my previous background checks. Again, this letter never specified which position I could not hold, and I hold a bunch of positions, as you will read later.

In response to the letter, I called the mothership and low and behold, Lee Ann was not working, so I spoke to her assistant. Said assistant was the definition of a re-moron (they can’t be classified as a retard or moron, so they get their own title) and I was told that my driving record makes me ineligible.

I hung up and sent Lee Ann an email, since she was out of town according to her hired help. She responded within 15 minutes, saying I could beg for my job back and she was so sorry this happened. This is the typical response of an incompetent Jackhole. First of all, her response was from New Haven, Connecticut according to my iPhone and second, I would never beg to keep my job in a volunteer group let alone a real job. Just to remind people, the background check was only required due to a ceremonial title, not a big deal.

Harper took matters as any other incompetent Jackhole would and decided to fire-off, yet another overnight FedEx envelop claiming I was unfit for the position and was removed as Family Director. You dunked on me pretty good sending this letter to our Grand Knight and Financial Secretary both of whom are great friends. I was embarrassed. Questions were asked, and again, I have no criminal record, not expunged or dismissed. I fielded calls from both men, and both were just as confused as I am. Your exact words in your ill-fated letter to my Grand Knight was that he was directly responsible to make sure I did not hold the position I took as Family Director. I could care less about symbolic positions that are in name only, what was interesting is the remark she made later in this letter “feel free to remain as a brother Knight and keep paying your dues.” Keep paying my dues, and remain as a Knight? Weird, kinda goes back to my other blogs here. The letter sent out by Lee Ann, essentially makes me out to be a person with pedophilia in my background, even though the “sins I committed” in their eyes lie in my driving record. Again, just to reiterate, I have no criminal record, and intentionally stay away from any youth events as the optic of an unmarried young man serving as a chaperone would look bad.

The letters I received saddened me in several ways. First being I never wanted to join this group. I have always believed there is an ugly under belly in every church group and I wanted no part of “seeing how the sausage is made.” I worked a shift as a volunteer with my father who is a Knight, at the fireworks booth, and I met a good Catholic gentleman who I consider one of my closest mentors and friends. When I call, he answers and is always supportive. I still didn’t want to join; however, my father got a bad cancer diagnosis and told me it would mean a lot if I joined…so I did. My father is okay now, and my mother had two bouts with cancer and as a result I strongly believe in the power of prayer. I joined and was viewed at first as an ugly duckling; a young person who wants to volunteer when its mostly an older person’s group. It was a struggle breaking in at first, but eventually I was welcomed. I took time off work to help set up for our events, and while I was always viewed as wet behind the ears, I did my darndest to help out. The turning point was at a crab feed five years ago. I signed up to help in the kitchen and they had too much help. As a result, I was sent home but on my way out the door, I was told to “give this tray of pasta to the youth group.” They were the servers, and this was their dinner prior to the event. I did as I was instructed and was ready to head to the parking lot when a wife of a Knight told me they needed another bartender for the event…I said I would stick around and help. I was a little disappointed about not being needed in the kitchen, but I cannot blame them, and a motto I live by is “a setback is a set up for a comeback” so I helped-out. I wasn’t great. I was pouring for tips and was reminded, we aren’t at a Friday’s or Chili’s, it’s a fundraiser. The head bartender took me under his wing and my volunteerism skyrocketed. While most of my staff is deceased, I have been the bar manager for 3 years. It’s a tough job, but I am good at it now. I would even say really good, as I have been asked to bartend weddings and other events by other brother Knights.

3 years ago, our Grand Knight personally asked me to be his number 4 in command, a great honor. I chaired the Recruiting Committee last year as the number 3 and while the job is not easy, I did my job and again I was good at it. Now as the second in command I have the respect of almost everyone. I hold positions as head bar manager, Deputy Grand Knight, Chancellor of the Admission (new member ceremony) team, and the Warden (formation degree team). Most would say, if you need a guy to run an event ask Jake. In addition, I even raised over two grand for Special Olympics last year at an event I bar tended.

Yet despite my track record of service, incompetent Jackhole Lee Ann Harper wants to end all of this in a dispute over a position in name only, that does literally nothing. It’s funny that Lee Ann wants me gone so badly. In my real-world job, I’m required to undergo a background check annually and they have no issues with my record…oh, and they require that my driving record needs to be clear. In addition, I coach high school football, and both schools for which I volunteer ran my driving and criminal record yet have no issue with me coaching or even driving the players. The owner of this blog has no issue with my driving or background…yet you do?

Despite all this Lee Ann, you want me gone yet you ignore the other Knights who have never completed this type of background check upon joining. What about the leader of our youth group who has a lengthy criminal history… and is also a Knight? I even sent you his criminal record, yet he is permitted to remain and work with children. The owner of this blog knows my history better than you and he keeps me around. Furthermore, I would say he considers me a close friend.

Lee Ann take my advice, resign! I have previously written about your superiors screwing up and you’re irresponsible and arbitrary actions have made you my current target to write about. I have been in contact with our master who claims he has gotten people in your office terminated. You are an incompetent Jackhole and I’m coming for you. No one likes you. I’ve overcome more adversity that you can possibly throw at me. I was born despite my mother’s umbilical cord wrapped around my neck more times than I can count. I accomplish what I set my mind to perform. During the time that I played on my high school football team, we never lost; I have a ring to prove it, you Jackhole! I’m coming for you. Start checking the want ads, I heard your skillset works at Burger King.

Jake the Snake

Oh, I heard Lee Ann approved a member with pedophilia in his background…. stay tuned for my next blog.

By: Jake the Snake

I have written in this space recently about the Knights Insurance Program being a fraudulent racketeering scheme, we have linked the article here if you choose to revisit it. However just when you thought this scheme was coming to a halt, they find a new low. Get this, the insurance program is now open to not just current Knights and their immediate family, now it’s open to anyone! Yeah, they say only to practicing Catholics but how does one identify or define that these days? I know quite a few people who call themselves Catholic yet haven’t been to church in decades! Or better yet how about the “Chreasters” as I call them who only show up on Christmas and Easter? Better yet, the Insurance Agents who sell these policies have territories that cover multiple churches, no way they even know if these people are confirmed into the church!

So now anyone can sign up for our life insurance, annuities, 401k, and get this, long term care insurance! Pay most attention to the last one, almost no one sells long term care anymore because it is a huge money loser! CalPERS quit selling a long time ago and I cannot find any reputable carrier who sells these plans! So now we have opened the flood gates to anyone. The only requirement is…..wait for it……wait…….you must join the Knights within 60 days of buying the insurance. So in essence the Knights gain a member for each policy sold. So I guess this is a way to grow membership right?

Incorrect. This is merely a way to prop up their insurance scheme, that by the way, is seeing its coffers for paying claims getting closer and closer to zero. They will sell this product, then the insured will have to join a council, and in theory become a dues paying member. Here is the problem, if you are an insured member you do not have to pay your dues, because the order cannot drop an insurance member! Even if your dues are in arrears over 10 years…does not matter if you have an insurance policy that you pay on!

(Sounds suspiciously like the CRA membership model of not paying dues as long as you are willing to be a delegate to local endorsing conventions.)

But wait, there is more! The council that you belong to has to send a per capita payment each year to Supreme HQ back in New Haven, Connecticut, whether the local unit collected dues from you or not. Think of it like a pyramid scheme, the folks in New Haven get paid for every member from the local council, regardless of whether their dues are paid or not!

That my loyal readers is the definition of a pyramid scheme, and they have made us dues paying members subsidize the non-payers for the betterment of the fat cats in New Haven.

In a pyramid scheme, an organization compels individuals who wish to join to make a payment. In exchange, the organization promises its new members a share of the money taken from every additional member that they recruit. The directors of the organization (those at the top of the pyramid) also receive a share of these payments. For the directors, the scheme is potentially lucrative—whether or not they do any work, the organization’s membership has a strong incentive to continue recruiting and funneling money to the top of the pyramid.

Pyramid scheme

However worst of all is they are poisoning their own local councils, due to the unknown. Rather than allowing the local membership to vet new candidates this process can be circumvented, allowing a member who is a complete unknown to have voting rights! Or even worse what if they try to spearhead a takeover? I used to belong to a church, who like any other Roman Catholic Church desperate for members let in quite a few homosexual couples, they worked their way onto the parish council (the governing body) and major changes happened. Suddenly the procession included streamers and dancers, the choir was replaced with a band, the congregation swayed during the songs, the sermon turned into something you would expect from a televangelist church! I no longer felt “in” and I left the church.

Sadly the same thing will happen to the local Knights councils. This is nothing but desperation on the part of a group who knows the gig is up. With no power to kick these members out, an aging population who uses the meetings and dinner as a chance to hide from their wives, or drink all you can for $7, the writing is on the wall. Word to the wise, I would buy no product from this group, as most of their insured membership will be looking up at the ground not down at it in the next 15 years.

The program is going insolvent and this is yet another last gasp effort to shore it up. The next step will be allowing any and every one to join the insurance program and the requirement of being a “practicing Catholic in accordance with the Holy See” will be removed. All this just so a group of incompetent jackholes in New Haven can make money off the dues paying members.

Lee Ann Harper, I am coming directly after you in my next blog, after what you did to me! She is the definition of an incompetent Jackhole.

Jake the Snake
Knight of Columbus