And it didn't just happen "once". The boy-raping faggot "priest" deal has been going on for decades, maybe 100 years or longer...multiple accounts in every state and probably every nation on Earth.
My grandmother left The Church in the 30s (in Germany) for that very reason.
I know the pedophilia (and many other EVILS) are being done by people in the Catholic Church but I will not abandon her.
I’ll tell you why:
I believe this is historically the Church the disciples built after Jesus was Brought back to Heaven. Now some will say the early church, the one prosecuted by the Greeks and Romans was not the same as the Catholic Church today but certainly came from that. Constantine solidified it with the Council of Nicaea which we have firm documentation about. And from that at least (325 AD), the Catholic Church has ever been, and further keeps many of the same traditions/displays of Faith since then.
So when I stand and say the Profession of Faith, I know the words—even though English—profess the same IDEAS passed down for over a millennium and a half, almost right down to the time of Jesus on Earth. And that makes me feel part of something...from God. The same when I partake of the Eucharist. I won’t give it up because some people are evil. Evil is all around us on this Earth. It IS of this world, but from Faith we belong to a DIFFERENT world.
I could further argue that Scripture itself was codified at this Council, so the words of Christ, the disciples and saints; all are known from the actions of these men.
I have nothing against my Brothers and Sisters in other Christian faiths—I strongly feel we are all in it together. I just won’t condemn another for their nuances of belief.
Now, some Catholics say that we are constantly judged, and without good works will be condemned. I actually disagree and believe in Eternal Salvation in Faith, which some say is a Protestant belief, but... Historically, the idea of Eternal Salvation through Faith goes back to the very root again, and when the whole of Christianity was one church, many believed it. So it is not a tenant that JUST came about post 1500 AD.
As far as good works go, man, I am a mess! I sin way too much and have impure thoughts about all kinds of things—from pretty girls to death to democrats. But I do ask for forgiveness... Directly to Jesus and then in confession.
I’m guess I’m just an old-fashioned red-blooded American Catholic man!