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
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
