Posted on 05/22/2010 2:38:14 PM PDT by Grunthor
Bravo Harley!
The standard defense among FRoman Catholics varies among the following:
1. Posting threads about Priests sexually molesting children and then being sheltered by the church is an attack on the church/Catholic bashing..
2. Teachers do it! Well, the church is supposed to have a higher standard then the world.
3. Protestants pastors do it! Difference of course is that Prods turn it over to the police and if the pastor is guilty the get sent to prison, not to another diocese.
4. It is teens that are molested, not small children. As if that is somehow more tolerable. < eyes rolling> Plus that is not true, but that is another story.
5. It is homosexual priests molesting boys. DO WHAT? First of 19% of the victims are girls. Second: Is it somehow less an offense to God that is is boys being molested? And lastly, who made these homosexual's priests in the first place? THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH DID!
And now we see another varient of number 2. Brazil is a sinful country so we should not be surprised when a priest goes down there and loses all control. It used to be that priests tried to save lost souls. Now they wallow in the sins of the lost.
It is all quite pathetic.
Just offering a little insight is all.
Besides, driftdriver's 'argument' via bringing up the 7-year-old dancer has no relation whatsoever with the fact at hand: that this 'priest' abused an altar boy. Trying to do so is akin to saying that by wearing scanty clothing, a woman's just asking for it (if you get my meaning): both equally fallacious, given that the onus of responsibility is always on you the individual.
It's a question of trust.
If you UltraSonic, are robbed by a career criminal - you might be angry - feel bad or even violated. But your trust in mankind is not destroy.
On the other hand, if you're robbed by your grandmother with help from your father, you've been betrayed and violated on a deeper level. A level where evil resides.
Your father and grandmother are the people in life you should be able to trust. It's a violation that will scar you for life.
Catholic priests are in the category of people we must be able to trust. They help us in our spiritual understandings of God and our place in His Church. Their betrayal is worse. It's evil.
Please spend some time thinking about this - it's important.
What a great summary!
Well actually it does have bearing. The ONLY reason this is news from Brazil is because its a priest. They could care less about the child.
Of course child abuse is horrific when its done by a priest. Its just as horrific when its done by a teacher (which generally warrants a guilty/not guilty discussion here on FR), of its its done by a cop.
The rest of your assertion that I was excusing the abuse is pathetic and twisted.
I’m well aware of this. I’m not trying to whitewash this at all. My parish’s priest actually dedicated a portion of his homily towards this current scandal, and the shame it entails.
Their betrayal is heinous. My initial point to HarleyD (who was talking about the attitude of other Catholics regarding this sort of thing) was that Catholic FReepers, in general, are irritated by the mass media perception that this is a strictly Catholic phenomenon (even though it happens at a similar rate across almost all denominations; given that Catholicism is the largest and oldest denomination, it gets the most attention).
I in no way meant to imply that this was not a horrible thing, nor was I trying to mitigate the evil of it. Far from it. I was merely making a point the reactions of certain FReepers.
My goodness, you summed the excuse mentality up quite nicely.
The question really is, or should be, if you are a Christian? Christians are called out to be different and holy. A light set on a hill. A holy nation. As Augustine put it, we are two cities; non-believers and believers. We do not have fellowship with darkness.
You say you're not Catholic so then that brings up the point of whether you are a Christian or not. If you are a Christian then you should understand the concept of two cities simply by understand how God works in our lives to change them. If this is the case, then defending a priest by saying everyone does it, doesn't fly. Christians need to purge this behavior from the church-not justify it.
If you are not a Christian then none of this makes any sense. To non-Christians people are simply people. Nothing could be further from the truth. But the only way they will know is to ask God to forgive them for their sins and to come into their hearts to make them a new creation.
Thanks for the dissertation. Nobody’s justifying anything and the suggestion that I am is HIGHLY offensive.
Face it the only reason you are so interested in this thread is its a chance to throw stones.
If you go back through the posts it was you who are defending the Catholic Church in their support of pedophile priests. If you want to position yourself in support of this nonsense, then have at it. I am more then happy to say these people should be kicked out of the church and jailed. If you find that offensive, too bad.
Face it the only reason you are so interested in this thread is its a chance to throw stones.
And there you go again with your backhanded support of the Catholic Church. There are no stones to be thrown. The evidence is clear. I should mention there are places in scriptures where God commands us to throw stones.
“If you go back through the posts it was you who are defending the Catholic Church in their support of pedophile priests. “
No actually I was attacking you for blindly attacking the Catholic church when the real enemy is countries like Brazil.
“The evidence is clear. I should mention there are places in scriptures where God commands us to throw stones.”
There are also places where it talks about heresy and blasphemy.
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