Why are Roman Catholics so slow at just coming out against abuse committed by some of their religious leaders, rather than primarily coming out in defense of their denomination?Catholics have repeatedly come out and condemned this abuse but you act as if this condemnation has never happened. How many times do Catholics have to condemn this abuse before you will be satisfied?
I do not think that you understand the reaction of Catholics on this subject. First, despite charges to the contrary, not one Catholic has ever defended these crimes. Yet that is exactly what we have been charged with time and again. No one is more horrified by these crimes than Catholics.
Second, we need to drop the naïveté and have some honesty here. The subject of this abuse has been brought up time and again not in order seek justice against the abusers but as a tool to attack and delegitimatize the Catholic Church. This is clear by the fact that the posters only post about the abuse in the Catholic Church. It is also shown when they segue into attacks against Catholic teaching, as I have shown in post #175. This is clear when they frame the discussion with "the Catholic Church did …" rather than "Fr. X did …" or "Bishop Y did …" The true agenda of those who keep returning to this subject is revealed whenever they use the formula "Catholics who defend their priests" as if any Catholic is actually defending the abusing priests. The unstated assumption is that all priests are abusers, that in order to condemn those who are guilty of abuse one must reject the entire priesthood and the Catholic faith itself. Indeed there are some who have explicitly stated this.
So yes, I will never defend the abuse or coverup by priests or bishops but I will defend the Church whenever you try frame it as the Church and the Catholic faith are guilty rather than the individual priests that committed the abuse.
Well stated, clearly and plainly said.
thank you.
You wrote, “Catholics have repeatedly come out and condemned this abuse but you act as if this condemnation has never happened.”
Again, my point is that the FIRST response in this discussion, and discussions like it, is “everyone’s doing it” and “stop picking on the Catholics” and “it’s not as bad as everyone says” and so on. Instead, the FIRST RESPONSE should be humility, acknowledging that a minority of priests are pedophiles, and that such sickness should be rooted out from the Roman Catholic Church.
Is what I’m saying really that hard to understand?
I’m not saying anyone is “defending these crimes.” I’m saying that the first response is defensiveness: to defend the Roman Catholic Church. Do you see the difference?
The problem here is that the Roman Catholic Church claims to be the only legitimate denomination, the implication being that they’ve got it right and non-Roman Catholics have got it wrong. Another implication is that only Roman Catholic priests are qualified to interpret Scripture, and that if I try to do so, then I’m engaging in “YOPIOS” (your own personal interpretation of Scripture). How is a pedophile (there are some pedophile priests, you know) more qualified than I am to interpret Scripture? Why am I to be mocked because I strive to practice discernment as I interpret Scripture, rather than leave all that up to a priest, whose character may be entirely corrupted?
Such a context is fertile ground for critique. Claiming to be THE ONLY VALID CHURCH, and claiming that its priests are more qualified than I to interpret Scripture, is just begging for critique.
You should not be surprised, then, when some people point out the corruption within your denomination, a denomination Roman Catholics exalt over any other.
Me? I exalt Christ over all denominations. Sure, I say, “May Rome decrease and Christ increase.” I also say, “May Protestantism decrease and Christ increase.” I don’t care if you try to critique my denomination, because I don’t claim that it’s THE ONLY LEGITIMATE EXPRESSION of the Body of Christ. Christ is the cornerstone of His Church, the family of all those whom He has adopted.
So we have at least two things going on here — a knee-jerk defensiveness that Roman Catholic FReepers often express (kinda like the defensiveness Mormon FReepers seem to feel), and the arrogant position that many RC FReepers posit that God loves their denomination more than He loves other denominations. I find both attitudes offensive.