Have the many accusations against priests made people want to leave the Catholic church?

Question

Alexecution,no,I'm not the Chamillionaire guy.However,one of my favorite N.B.A. players is Al Harrington of the Golden State Warriors,who looks like him.What made you ask me that?

Answer 1

Many still hold on to their belief they were taught you see the Catholic religion baptizes you into it, when you don't have a say or a mind to even understand what is going on, I know, I was baptized into Catholism and then taught all about the faith through school and church, only it didn't ring true to me, many things I questioned or heard others question, for instance, we used to have to go to confessional to confess the sins of the week or the sins you commited since the last time you were at church, then when you were finished the priest would say "for your penance say 3 hail mary's and 1 our father prayers" now as a child my husband asked the priest, why praying was considered a penance when we were supposed to love to pray to God and God loved it when we prayed to him, this is what was being taught. The priest did not have an answer for my husband, to explain this, also during our generation the church was losing followers the pews were only at half at best Sundays, so they loosened the strictness, such as, women were now allowed to enter the church without having to wear or cover their head, we no longer needed confessions if the sins were minor, just say the Act of Contrission before Holy communion. Too many changes for me when we were told as children that God never changes and has always been. But all this did help me to question and led me to read the Bible instead of having it read to me out of context at church on Sundays on television by evangelists, yes I used to watch them, it made me come to the realization that we are responsible to seek and ask for the revelations within the Bible.

Priests are humans, and the laws set up by the vatican were a breeding ground for pedophiles, and the church says that it must forgive because that is what christians do, yes but what about harboring? isn't that a the catholic church as a whole is responsible for, it is ok to forgive but when the church sees that this priest has more than one allegation, proven guilty, forgive him but excommunicate him don't send him to another unsuspecting diocese to practice his pedophilia on. This is my beef, it is God's choice to judge them for their actions the world will know soon, that we don't need all these different kinds of religions we just need to believe in Him, to follow the scriptures as they were meant to be followed not made into a sect or religion that you would die for instead of dying for believing in God and His truth. Religions are manmade, therefore governed by man not God.

Answer 2

I have to agree with other posters that it isn't just the Catholic priests, but it happens in other religions. You just don't hear about it really.
I have stop being a parishioner at a Catholic churches before you start hearing about the molestions. (I wasn't a real Catholic myself). Would I stop going all together?
Child molesters are everywhere. You just got to keep a close eye on your child and teach them about molestation, and be careful who you leave them with. I understand sometimes a person don't give you an honest reason to make you feel they are not to be trusted with your child; they are good enough actors in your face, but do things behind your back. Just for the sake of the conversation, if I were to beome a parishoner in the Catholic church, I would not let my child be an alter server, or anything else, not unless I can witness every move being made during and outside mass time.
I am fortunate enough to have gone to Catholic churches where no one was busted for molestation.

I think that maybe this one thing will cut back on molestations, if not put a complete stop to it: Criminal background check to make sure any form of sexual abouse was not involved, and 2: Allow priests to be married. The fact they are not allowed to makes no sense anyhow!

Answer 3

The fact that people are sinners is hardly a reason to leave the one Church founded by God for all mankind. Where would you go? To a church where there are no sinners? There is no such church. To a church where there are no child molestors? There is no such church. It is precisely because people are sinners that Christ founded His Church. Would I jump off a ship in mid-ocean because I discovered that a few of the crew were doing immoral things? If I did, it would be to my own detriment. The ship would still reach its destination in spite of its sinful workers, but I would be left behind.

Also, to put the problem in perspective ...
- Such acts by Catholic priests are no more common than by any other group of men in the population. Only the press coverage has been greater.
- Many of the accusations that have been made are bogus. It's amazing how many men had "instant recall of suppressed childhood memories" once the cash started flowing.
- There have been virtually no accusations of actual pedophilia against Catholic priests. When a man makes sexual advances toward adolescent boys, that isn't pedophilia. It's homosexuality. The secular press prefers the inaccurate term because it produces a stronger emotional response, and because it avoids casting homosexuality, one of the liberal media's pet causes, in a negative light.

Answer 4

I think It has something to do with it.
Its been going on a long time , but had always been kept under wraps by the church
There is a stong sense of betrayal, by those who are supposed to be an example to the "flock" now that it has become exposed & far more prevalent than most had been willing to believe.
I think it has pushed more than a few over the edge when it comes to the church's credibility.

Answer 5

No. It's not just the Catholic Church that had pedophiles hiding. All churches have that. You only hear about the Catholics because they are one of the largest groups. Pedophiles are found everywhere. They could be priests, teachers, high level executives, CEO's, little league coach, etc etc etc... They are all around us from the trailer park to the Hamptons. I am not abandoning my religion because of this. It's the people that are bad not the religion.

Answer 6

In my experience yes, *if* their particular parish/district was marred by this. Not necessarily leaving Christianity, but leaving the Roman Catholic Church. The people I know have gone to Anglican, or Lutheran Churches.

Answer 7

No the parishioners duck for cover instead and toddle off to another church till things cool down then return. Well that is what got me when it happened at our church some years ago. No I stopped going despondently and only go to funerals.

Answer 8

Have the many accusations against people made you wanna leave the human race?

Come on now. Folks are gonna' find an excuse just to validate what they are doing. In this case, if that is what they want to use this week......

God Bless!

Answer 9

Of course. It was a great violation of trust.

However, sensible minds can see that not all priests are guilty of these crimes and it's still possible to worship as a Catholic and protect children from predators of ANY walk of life.

Answer 10

Most of the people who leave religion or decide not to raise their kids to be religious do so because of the rampant hypocrisy in religion so it probably is a factor.