If priests are truly ordained by God, how do we explain all that's been going on in the Catholic Church?

Question

And yes, I know they're still just people but C'MON! It's one thing to make the occasional slip up but jeez. In all honesty I just want an educated answer because it does puzzle me how this can occur, assuming that priests are TRULY ordained by God.

I don't personally assume anything. When I try to understand a religion, I do so in the context of their own beliefs. Catholics (or so I thought) believe that priests are ordained by God.

Answer 1

Priests are people, too, and unfortunately, they are sinners, like all the rest of humanity.

Ordination doesn't make anyone better than anyone else, it provides the necessary spiritual credentials to say mass and to administer sacraments, something of great benefit to the whole church.

We don't expect this type of thing to affect the priesthood, and when it does, it is shocking to all concerned, and certainly a victory for the devil.

There were obviously a number of men who became priests over the last 40 years, who never should have been admitted to the priesthood at all.

When their abominable offenses came to light, nobody expected it, nobody knew exactly what to do about it, and when a number of bishops subsequently mishandled the matter, it made a very bad problem even worse.

There is no excuse for any of this. It was a colossal failure of both certain priests and of the church hierarchy, in general.

That being said, a number of procedures have been developed and are now in place to help prevent a recurrence, and to make sure that things like this are honestly, properly, and legally handled, should they ever happen again.

It should also be noted that this problem is primarily a homosexual problem between priests and post pubescent boys ... something that, according to church policy should never have been able to happen ... as homosexuals are not to be admitted to the priesthood.

Finally, only a little more than one half of one percent of priests were involved in this affair, and the bulk of the offenses happened over twenty years ago.

The vast majority of today's priests and bishops are good, dedicated, and holy men ... but certainly fallible men ... as we have come to discover.

It should be noted that many bishops handled these things promptly and properly, too, without any attempt at covering up, and that many dioceses across the entire country experienced no such problems at all.

Let's all pray that things of this kind cease, and no longer afflict persons, priests, the church, schools, or any other organization, anywhere.

God knows that many, many people have suffered way too much already.

Answer 2

The tone of your question implies that the vast majority of Catholic priests are, what(?), pedophiles... Only 6% of Catholic priests are pedophiles. Granted, that's 6% too many but let's be real.

Don't assume that a man is shielded from serious sins when he is ordained a priests. Priests are not above the Law, they are still subject to it like the rest of us. Priests are no less susceptible to temptation than the rest of us.

Being Ordained by God does not guarantee sinlessness. Sinlessness has not been a part of the human condition.

Some people sin more than others, and some of those who sin more than others are priests. It's that simple.

Answer 3

The Catholic Church herself has never claimed that priests are ordained by God, they are ordained by human beings who have been given authority by virtue of their OFFICE to ordain, not by virtue of their humanity.

Just because a man is ordained by the Church does not automatically make him a robot, he does not lose his humanity because of his ordination. A preist remains a human being with all the same temptations and weaknesses as everybody else. It's everybody else that wrongly places priests on a pedistal that even priests don't like.

By "all thats been going on in the Catholic Church", you must mean sex scandals. Come on. 99.99% of priests are good dedicated men serving all of humanity, not just Catholics, and they do a great job. Nobody cares about that, just the dirt.

Every decent human being is totally appaulled by scandals, especially church leaders. And you have to be fair. Try a little social context into the problem. School teachers are 100X more likely to abuse children than priests, but you never hear about that. Look at the statisticis for social workers and health care professionals in any study you want. Priests don't top the lists.

Protestant ministers have a higher rate of scandals than do Catholic priests, but nobody wants to hear about that. It isn't juicy enough.

So is it just a church problem or is it a cultural problem?

Answer 4

Even if God did ordained Priests in the Catholic Church “Man” still has freewill.

Answer 5

Catholic priest are not ordained by God cause the Catholic religion is a cult?

Pretty simple

Answer 6

You can't assume that priests are truly ordained by God. They are ordained by the church. Some of them may be called to ministry by God, some of them may not be. It's the same with pastors, or anyone else in Christian ministry. Some have other motives for choosing to minister.

Answer 7

That's inconceivable to mention. There had been Catholic missionary movements for plenty of, many centuries, adding in North Africa, in which there have been many Roman colonies that had been closely multicultural in phrases of the citizens' colours and ethnicities. There might conveniently had been black monks ordained within the earliest centuries of the Church. While I don't feel, because the web site beneath indicates, that Saints Monica and Augustine had been black -- they had been close to surely white Romans -- one of the oldest Christian groups in the world began in northern Africa.

Answer 8

This may be news to many, but only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the true authority (the holy priesthood) to act in God's name. If a priest does not carry the ordination of either the Aaronic Priesthood or the Melchezedik Priesthood, bestowed upon by priesthood authority from Jesus Christ, that person is not properly ordained of God.

Answer 9

The same way you explain all that has been going on in the Lutheran Church or the Episcopalian Church or any other denomination. Sin! Priests are human and can sin. How about Judas--He was WITH JESUS and he committed a whopper--does this mean Jesus' message was no good?

Answer 10

I think everyone is ordained by God to do something. The misinterpretation of that is heavily accommodated by religions.