Before I launch into my little rant about Bill O’Reilly and the Church, let me say that for many decades I have been appalled at the way the Church changes their rules to accommodate certain people for an exchange of cash. I distinctly remember a case where my aunt’s friend, Jennie, who had never been married, wanted to marry a man who was divorced. She wanted to get marry in the Catholic Church because she was a devote Catholic. The only way for her to do that was if the man was able to get an annulment of his first marriage. The Church told her that it wasn’t possible, there could be no annulment. She continued to plead her case because it meant a lot to her to be married in church and to be able to continue to receive communion. The Church reply was that for $5,000 they would grant him an annulment. Her reply was basically that hell would freeze over before she paid $5,000 to the church for a piece of paper. This is going back over 40 years ago, when for $5,000 you could put a good down payment on a house. What pissed me off was that an annulment should not be bought, either it was allowed by church law or not. This was one of the incidents that caused me to begin losing confidence in the Church.
Now back to old Bill O’Reilly. Bill and his ex-wife split in April of 2010 and divorced in September 2011. They agreed to share custody of their two children. Things got very messy when Bill decided to hire the children’s “neutral” therapist as a full time employee, to parent the children. When his ex-wife complained about the unfairness of that and that it undermined the court’s order for an impartial third party to look out for the children’s interests, Bill got pissed. Bill allegedly decided to take his divorce issues to the Catholic Church, because he is said to contribute a fair amount of money to them, roughly $65,000 in 2011 alone. Bill’s ex-wife had remarried after the divorce, but continued to go to church and receive communion. Thanks to Bill, the church reprimanded his ex-wife for receiving communion after her divorce and remarriage AND for telling her children that her second marriage is “valid in the eyes of God.” Now if she doesn’t heed their warning, there is speculation that she could be excommunicated. Nice.
I am not a fan of Bill O’Reilly. I am not a fan of the Catholic Church. This case is just a small example why. Bill O’Reilly is an arrogant, full of himself, pompous asshole. He may demonstrate some moments of intelligence, but I would have to listen to him too long to pick up on it. I acknowledge, because I can’t listen to him, that I don’t know much about him. But, how full of himself must he be to think he can go to the church and use them to bully his ex-wife into complying with his breaking or circumventing court orders? It doesn’t matter because Bill must have learned, as I did years ago, that the Church puts a price on everything, and breaking rules can be done if you fork over enough money.
One of my many issues with the Catholic Church stems from the fact that their hard and fast rules become somewhat arbitrary when money is involved. These are not just isolated incidents. In fact, in my studies I learned that as far back as the 1500’s, corrupt priests sold “indulgences” to parishioners, which were certificates that pardoned sins. This was one of the main reasons Martin Luther attacked the Church. Many things the Church provided were based on exchanges of money: Christenings, Marriages, and Burials. I guess some things never change. The tradition continues hundreds of years later, money in exchange for favors. I’m sure God is very pleased with the entrepreneurial ways of the Church. They are big business! Bill O’Reilly learned this lesson well. If you are rich and give enough money to the Church, they will grant you special favors. They will even harass your ex-wife for you for no extra charge. That’s what I call “Holy Sh*t.”
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