ENOUGH!
While I respect the personal beliefs and faith that help people find meaning and comfort individually—I reject all organized religions, religious doctrines and especially religious “leaders” who claim divine inspiration and God-given authority.
Spirituality, an urge toward transcendence, is hard-wired into every human psyche. Humans have always resorted to imagination and myth to make sense of life, natural phenomena and the world . . . but every culture-specific inflection of “God,” "Jehovah," "Allah" is a human construct, and every doctrine of every church, temple and mosque are human fabrications, which historically, invariably, have served paternalistic social-political ends.
Organized religions, for the most part, are and always have been a catastrophic plague on humankind. The bloodiest, cruelest chapters in the history of the world were written—and continue to be written—by those seeking to impose their religions and gods on others.
In light of revelation after depraved revelation, the Catholic church and its all-too-worldly priests, who for almost two thousand years, have misused the transcendent urge—as well as ignorance and superstition—to exploit countless innocents all over the world, have forfeited every right to moral authority about any and all human behavior.
Human love and compassion, virtue and integrity, did not originate with, nor do they require, any religion or religious doctrine. They do, however, require humane, enlightened hearts and minds.
2
Churches should be safe places. Church leaders should be safe people. Churches are supposed to welcome people in with open arms and love them. It breaks my heart to see its position so horrifically abused. The Catholic Church has, instead of sharing a religion of peace and hope (which I believe the Christian religion to be), fostered a greedy and corrupt institution that is money hungry and is ripe for abuse with zero accountability. The Catholic Church is unsafe for its congregants, to whom their duty should lie. Instead, they protect serial abusers with no regard to the spiritual and physical well-being of their congregants. It is sickening to keep hearing about. The Pope took his time acknowledging it. Everyone took their time. And now, from the bottom up, the Church has to change.
1
Why does anyone pay any attention to this medieval institution, which has always done and continues to do far more harm than good? Let it die in darkness.
It is worrying to think that priests are simply being forced out of where they have committed the sexual offences. Are they simply going to be moved on to reoffend in new locations, a pattern we saw with the child sexual abuse scandals?
Fellow priests, nuns, adult parishioners – and children. Is there any group that hasn’t been a victim of this institution?
Where is federal law enforcement in all of this, and why aren’t we seeing massive RICO prosecutions?
2
Maybe this is a naive question, but this a group of people who have taken a vow of chastity and whose faith/religion forbids any method of contraception...how did this manage to stay under wraps? Would it not have resulted in a slew of pregnant nuns?
2
In the show today, Laurie Goodstein was talking about some priests having relationships with lay women and mentioned that it was not abuse. That is not possible. It is only possible if the woman does not know he is a priest when the relationship is developing. Priests have a position of power and a sexual relationship with any congregant is an abuse of that power. But even if the woman is not a congregant in the particular parish the priest is part of, because of the hierarchical nature of the Roman church and the priesthood at the top of the hierarchy, a relationship with any woman within the church is an abuse of power. And I would take it one step further. Priests have a recognizable position of authority within a community or township. A sexual relationship with any woman, even if she is not Roman Catholic is an abuse of power as well as a moral failure for breaking his vows of celibacy.
3
“The truth lies with the Greeks:” Martin Luther, Leipzig Debate, 1519; The council–democratic Orthodox Church (Papal infallibility question) | That it is problematic going against the original Church’s married-presbyters tenant (celibate priests question; married Orthodox priests) | That Orthodoxy is not all works-based.
Greater Pittsburgh; Arab, Greek, and Russian Orthodox-central. Here, even the Democrats are social conservatives, as is (retired; Arabic Orthodox; moderate D) U.S. Representative Nick Rahall.
And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch (Greek west Syria). [Acts 11:26]
I think the celibate rules in the church are past their time. Do away with this and a lot of this thing will stop.
1
@David Allard
Has adultry stopped in marriages? It all comes down to the character of the person. Has the church errored on their selection and vetting process for those professing a vocation? Should predatory and or submissive behaviors have been clear indicators as traits to be questioned for vocations? There is much to study in these sad stories of abuse and simple answers are a disservice to truly understanding what happened so as to never repeat.
1
"Overlooked"?
"Covered up" is more like it.
2
This story is so sad, to hear the problems some of these nuns face! I’m hopeful that the pope is talking about this but I’m also soooo deeply disturbed and heart broken, once again.
3
When a large institution like the Catholic Church is permeated with corruption and has a history of allowing sexually abused children and nuns to be exploited with little reliable recourse something must be done.
Observers outside the church can’t help but wonder if the Catholic Church is no longer tenable and should be abolished in its present form and redesigned in a completely different structure.
The lay community and law enforcement community should not look the other way while the Catholic Church breaks the law with impunity!
8