Prominent lay Catholics are calling on Vice President J.D. Vance to investigate the U.S. bishops under the provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) — a law first used to prosecute the Mafia in the 1970s.
“We request that a RICO investigation be undertaken into how the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) dispersed funds received from USAID,” a cohort of Catholic scholars, journalists, and victims of clerical sex abuse wrote in a March 8 letter to Vance, who also is Catholic.
“Investigating the Church will not be easy; it has a long record of lack of transparency and refusal to cooperate with law enforcement,” the signators warned. “Catholic laity have little to no means to correct the leaders of our Church. It has only been only through civil and criminal lawsuits that justice has been achieved.”
They offered to help the government in its RICO investigation, noting: “We have access to some whistleblowers about how the USCCB and the NGOs have misappropriated the money entrusted to them.”
DOGE Unearths “Obscene” Funding for Bishops
The signatories noted that the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already “discovered that an obscene amount of funds has been given to the Catholic Church through its various organizations to help settle refugees and immigrants.”
“How many illegal immigrants did they assist?” they asked. “Did any of the funds end up in the hands of cartels who are involved in criminal behavior such as sex trafficking and the smuggling of Fentanyl? What did they do to protect vulnerable children and women?”
Rachel Mastrogiacomo and Wiesław Walawender, both victims of clerical sex abuse who signed the letter, said they are calling for the RICO probe so that other innocent victims can be protected from predatory priests and prelates.
RICO makes it illegal to acquire, operate, or receive income from an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity or to be part of one involved in a series of racketeering offenses, even if those crimes were perpetrated by others in the group.
A person or entity can only be found guilty under RICO if there is evidence of a “pattern” of illegal conduct, defined as committing at least two criminal offenses over 10 years. Offenses under RICO include human trafficking, sex abuse, and embezzlement. […]
— Read More: stream.org
