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Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND
Fair answer. Never accused you of being a hypocrit. You are stong in your faith.
What about the handling of the priest-abuse scandal? Did that give you pause over the handling of this?
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A tough but fair question.
First, let me say that I hope all the priests who abused kids rot in hell, and I hope we give the victims all the asupport we can.
That being said...
The media, particularly in Massachusetts and CT, has made a huge deal out of the story, and rightly so. But the story has been massively distorted . To read the papers, you'd think this was a uniquely (or almost uniquely) Catholic problem. However, the statistics show that rates of pedophilia are HIGHER among public schollteachers than they are among Catholic priests. Yet the media coverage of this scandal is almost uniqely focused on Catholic priests...my conclusion (and I don't see an alternative) is that it's a smear campaign, otherwise why single out abuse by priests, and why ignore the fact that it hapens more frequently with teachers? The pedophilia isn't a Catholic problem, it was a larger societal problem. Anyone who refers to Catholics (or priests) as a group, as child molesters, should also feel that public schoolteachers are child molesters. But I've never heard that claim in the media, not once.
Also, the rates of peedophilia are similar in other major religions, yet the overwhelming focus has been on Catholics. The media is liberal, and they hate my church (this is also shown in the recent coverage of the contraception issue, where the media focuses on the Church's "antiquated" beliefs, when ALL that matters in the Constitution and the freedom of religion guaranteed therein).
I also hate how the problem was handled in my church, meaning the bishops who just moved the priests from parish to parish (which, by the way, is what happened with public teachers in the 1960's). All I can say is that involved a small handful of bishops who have bene dealt with,. though not dealt with they way my Marine training would respond.
I hate that kids were abused by priests. It makes me sick to my stomach. I also hate the way this story has been distorted.
Yesterday in CT, lots or my fellow citizens (including many non-Catholics) got great services compliments of the Catholic church. Lots of hungry people got free food at Catholic soup kitchens. Lots of homeless folks got a free bed at Catholic shelters. Lots of poor people got free healthcare at Catholic hospitals. Lots of couples got adoption services from the Catholic organizations. And lots of kids got a great education at Catholic schools. My Church does an enormous amount of good.
Catholics are humans, which means we ain't perfect. We screw up royally sometimes. But rather than sitting around and complaning, we actually roll up our sleeves and do something about it. Some bigots watch us, wait for us to make mistakes (which of course we do), and then they pounce on it.
To answer your question, I wouldn't abandon my church over the horrible abuse, no sooner than I would say we need to shut down public schools. The numbers suggest your kid is more at risk in public schools, but no one cares to talk about that. I can only speculate why.