a "phony victims' group". In July 2013, documents made public during bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee showed that Dolan had sought permission to move $57 million in church funds to prevent them from being accessed by victims of clerical abuse. In a 2007 letter to the Vatican requesting permission to move the funds, Dolan wrote "By transferring these assets to the trust, I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability." Dolan had previously denied that he tried to shield assets from child sex abuse victims claiming compensation, calling the accusations "old and discredited" and "malarkey." The Vatican approved the request in five weeks. In 2018 after the Pennsylvania report and the McCarrick scandal, a CNN interviewer asked Dolan whether homosexuality was a cause of the abuse. He answered: "I don't think that's the sole root of it. The sole root of it is a lack of chastity, a lack of virtue. This isn't about right or left. This isn't about gay or straight. This is about right and wrong." In 2019, Dolan was reported to have received, together with other influential U.S. Catholic leaders, substantial monetary gifts from West Virginia bishop Michael J. Bransfield, who had resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct. Bransfield's diocese had reimbursed him for the gifts. Although Dolan did not reply to a request for comment, other bishops reported that they did not know that Bransfield had been reimbursed by the diocese or that he was accused of sexual misconduct at the time that they received the gifts, and that they had returned the funds or given them to charity. Terrorism Dolan visited Ground Zero, the site of the September 11 attacks, the week after his installation as Archbishop of New York. After reciting the same prayer used by Benedict XVI during his visit to the United States, Dolan remarked, "We'll never stop crying. But it's also about September 12th and all the renewal and rebuilding and hope and solidarity and compassion that symbolizes this great community and still does." Letter to all cardinals In July 2020, conservative author George Weigel's book The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission was sent to all 222 cardinals with an accompanying letter from Cardinal Dolan stating: "I am grateful to Ignatius Press for making this important reflection on the future of the Church available to the