Calling all catholics - how can you reconcile this?

Question

I was shocked by the recent Panorama documentary about child abuse within the roman catholic church.

How can anyone remain associated to this faith when the vatican has been shown to harbour and protect paedophiles on a global endemic scale?

riettebotha - the documentary showed the global extent of child abuse within the priesthood since 2002. It is far from 'one person'.

NewCatholic - the vatican's written policies of covering-up that concern me most, and the fact that in the US there was a $7million budget set aside to buy victims' silence that is most disturbing. These practices essentially condone these crimes.

Answer 1

I'm going to put a huge spin on this question, and it may offend some people, but please keep in mind we all have the freedom to form our own opinions and values.

I am a gay man, who identifies as Catholic. Most gay Catholics turn away from the religion because it so clearly discriminates against us.

A person has to decide what they truly believe in life, and stick with it. I agree, it is truly terrible that the Vatican has been supportive of these abusers, and pedophiles. Nobody deserves to be abused or sexually violated. Nobody, especially children.

But I had to remind myself that we are all humans. The people in the Vaticans are humans, and they have made mistakes. I believe that true faith in God transcends current affairs. The Catholic religion has been around much longer than the people who are currently in power. I do believe that we will prevail.

I remain a Catholic because I do still agree with many of the values it represents. I refuse to let the Vatican tarnish my own principles and belief in a higher power.

On a broader scale, there are many religious groups that are just ridiculous. They are extreme people who do crazy things, and then say it is in the name of the Lord, when I don't believe Jesus would ever act this way.

So should people avoid Christianity altogether just because some people try to ruin it for everyone?

Absolutely not. I think people should believe what they believe, and not allow negative influences to change that.

Every century has scandal. Nothing that happens today is any different than things that happened in Biblical times. People will always abuse their power, and that's sadly part of our life on this earth.

But we all have the choice to remain true to our beliefs, our religions.

Answer 2

October 3, 2006
BBC’S HIT JOB ON THE POPE

On October 1, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) aired a documentary, “Sex Crimes and the Vatican,” that accused Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) of covering up priestly sexual abuse for 20 years. The show, which aired on the BBC’s flagship, Panorama, says that Cardinal Ratzinger had been in charge of enforcing a 1962 Vatican document that was allegedly written to cover up these crimes.



Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows:



“It is a tribute to American journalism that the lies told by the BBC have not been widely disseminated in the United States. The 1962 document that the BBC refers to had absolutely nothing to do with covering up priestly sexual abuse. Quite the contrary: it dealt specifically with solicitations that a priest might make in the confessional. In fact, it prescribed penalties for any priest who, ‘whether by words or signs or nods of the head’ (my emphasis) might convey a sexual advance.



“This was an ecclesiastical response to a possible offense that, given the priest-penitent privilege, lay outside the purview of civil authorities. Furthermore, if a priest were found guilty, he could be thrown out of the priesthood. To top if off, if the penitent were to tell someone about sexual solicitation by a priest in the confessional (perhaps another priest), he or she had 30 days to report the incident to the bishop or face excommunication. In other words, the Vatican document actually prescribed punishment for the penitent if he or she didn’t turn in the guilty priest. The 1962 document was superseded by the 1983 Code of Canon Law and the norms established in 2001 for dealing with serious crimes involving the sacraments. As for the sexual abuse scandal, it was not until 2002, after the scandal had exploded in the media, that Pope John Paul II appointed Cardinal Ratzinger to investigate these matters.



“In short, the BBC’s hit job on the pope demands a quick and sincere apology.”.

Answer 3

The Roman Catholic Church as a universal religion is okay and it has very good doctrines with good teachings about up bringing of children but the problem lies with the interpretation of the doctrines and the role the people left in-charge are supposed to do. My understanding is this, since the church did not have a written child protection does not mean it never existed in their minds and secondly it shows that the church in the very early stages never thought that priests can engage in such evil activities by the very fact that they took vows to God.

Yes the time has changed and we have to adopt policies and procedures to ensure children are safe wherever they are and the church is implementing this in its missions. Its good the Panorama did expose few individuals who actuually accepted, but this does not mean the entire church has sinned, or these people (priests) immediately turned to be suppernatural beings at the time of their ordinations.

I will continue to be a Catholic in so far as the church exist, and continue to confess my faith because the presence of priests or Pope does not affect my personal relationship with my God, whom I admire

Answer 4

To Kevin, the Catholic church does NOT discriminate against homosexuals . It deplores the expression of that sexuality with other homosexuals.
With reference to your question, why are you and everyone else including the press so shocked by a tiny minority in the Catholic Church but not by Protestant clergy. Its like saying that all doctors are molesters just because a small proportion have been convicted of such crimes.
Get things into perspective and examine some other aspects of the faith, then you may be able to view the matter from a different standpoint.

Answer 5

You also forget that Panorama was shown on BBC, an English station. The English are maily protestant, which broke away from the Catholic church. They've had a very rocky relationship since Henry VIII. Believing what you see about Catholics from that source is like believing a blind man who says "Yes, that outfit looks good". Always concider your source.

Answer 6

I was shocked also, but I think you are exaggerating the scale.

The Bishop in Boston did cover up some abuse for sure, he is long gone.

The Church has done a lot of training of all lay people that work with Kids to help them recognize the signs of abuse. If the faith itself said it was O.K., I would leave.

There was a baseball coach in our town that molested some kids, and a non-Catholic Church choir director as well. They were both punished, that does not mean I will not let my kids play baseball or sing anymore.

It does mean I am more vigilant though.

Peace!

Answer 7

The horrible truth is that child abuse exists EVERYWHERE. It has been reported within ALL faiths (Islam, all Christian denominations (and cults calling themselves Christian, like JWs), Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, etc.). It has also been reported among groups not affiliated with any particular religion.

With this in mind, it is important for you to understand how pervasive evil is in our world. It has completely permeated all aspects of our lives. Do not be surprised it has also invaded our mosques, churches, meeting halls, etc.

These people are not what makes a religion; it is the true believers who worship God and follow His commandments (which prohibit the harming of a child) who are truly God's children.

Peace.

Answer 8

The Catholic Church is the True Church and the problems with homosexuals within the Church is a very small amount. The number is less than 2% which is about the same with every other religion. The media and people like you who have an agenda to push do much more damage to people then them-- by your false statements you lead people away from the truth. Shame on YOU. You are like a germ laden carrier of a disease who then in turn blames a person for catching the disease you carry.

Answer 9

A friend of mine's father grew up in an orphanage in Ireland run by the Christian Brothers and order of Catholic monks, the least awful thing they did to him was refuse to get him medical attention for meningitis, another example of their despicable behaviour was when they beat him up so badly it put him in hospital for a month all because he failed to answer a question in class, he had, when the topic was covered been in hospital with the meningitis. Not to mention the fact that they refused to allow him to see his brother who was in the same orphanage or his sister who was in a neighbouring orphanage run by really nice nuns. He however is still a fully practicing Catholic who attends mass without fail and is in charge of the alter servers instruction.

Answer 10

It is God who founded the Church as the Catholic Church views it, and men who smear it. The failings of the human beings in it in no way defiles the holy virtues in the teachings. It just reminds Catholics of the need to use proper discernment to choose those admitted into the priesthood.

Does the fact that there are protestant ministers who are pedophiles who get their crimes covered up by their particular communities mean protestantism is wrong?