I don’t think you understand what is meant by “The Catholic Church”. It is the faithful, not thise who “Move away” from the Faith, regardless of their postion or authority.
The faithful are just that. They don’t “Move away” from the truth. And they are “The Catholic Church.”
thise=those
I take your point. It does seem that a lot of people are “moving away” from the faith, seemingly in almost all of Christianity. Yet, it seems that the leadership in the church never calls it out. In fact, the ELCA, the denomination in which I was raised, now openly embraces sexual perversion in the clergy as being in line with morality and God’s Word. As a man of many shortcomings myself, I am not personally condemning people for being attracted to their own sex, but it is not a healthy condition, it is not how God wants us to live, and it is totally wrong for the church establishment to openly promote it!
My wife is a very devout Catholic, and I attend the Mass with her every weekend that I don’t work, about every other weekend. Yes, they do talk about sin, albeit in the most general terms with one exception. Income inequality. Income inequality as a sin is specifically called out nearly every Sunday. Charity it a great Christian value that I fully support, no one should have to see their kids go hungry because there is no work, or suffer illness because they can’t afford medical care. I get that. But beyond the necessities, does God really care if one guy dies with more money in his pocket than the next? You would think that is God’s biggest concern by listening to the sermons.
In my opinion there is far worse going on these days, generally concerning morality. Abortion. Grooming our children to accept sexual perversion as normal and healthy. Governments taking control of raising children away from the parents and turning them against religion. None of this is even ever directly discussed. I may have heard abortion mentioned in passing perhaps once in the past year, never hear about the rest. I certainly don’t expect a fire and brimstone sermon, but why are they afraid to call it out at all? Possibly offending a parishioner?
My wife is extremely against abortion. No sin is worse in her opinion. Recently, she was in a prayer circle (children were present) and everyone was asked to pray out loud for their most deeply held wish. So she did. She prayed for an end to abortion. One of the parents took offense and my wife was informed to not discuss that subject. Yes, abortion is not a happy subject but she was just being honest. And if sin can’t be named and pointed out, then what is the point of even discussing religion in a church group?
Anyway, that episode got me to do some real thinking, and that is the reason for my original post. And I thank you for your reply.