As to the criticism of criticism, every Tom, Dick and Harriet with access to a bible of whatever flavor seems to regard himself or herself as an expert on how the Roman Catholic Church ought to govern its affairs. This is quite impertinent at best and downright rude and counterproductive more commonly.
This particular moment in history is not a time when Catholics will do their usual patient job of putting up with criticisms not rooted in knowledge. A previous poster apparently not Catholic pointed to that portion of Scripture which seems to justify divorce for reasons of adultery as not being accepted by Catholicism. I will defer to those more knowledgeable among my co-religionists as to whether that comment was accurate or whether there is some Scriptural analysis which trumps or better explains that one, but it does appear to me that we rely on the more general statement from the Wedding Feast at Cana: What God has joined together, let no man put asunder and thus we do NOR allow annulments (Church annulments which differ from government annulments) for reasons arising after marriage. It is at least a fair criticism that is made and a fair ground of argument.
Part of what is going on here is an inhouse Catholic fight over governance of the Church with AmChurch liberals seeking, as usual to destroy the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church and accommodate it to the American way of democracy, "progress", moral slippery slopes, empowerment of women to govern men within the Church, birth control, an end to celibacy, Bozo the Clown Masses (not the ordinary Novus Ordo but cutting edge fiascos complete with environmentalist hymns worshipping mother earth), communal meal Masses in place of the emphasis on making immanent upon the altar of the one and only sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Cross. These tendencies began over a century ago with the desire of Bishop Ireland of Minneapolis to worship the false God of American culture. That desire was condemned by Leo XIII.
If your faith is in the flag, the Bible and no darn taxes or simply in Scripture alone, fine, but we are a little more complicated for good or for ill and we are having an internal war now. If you want to fire your pastor for some reason, it's none of the business of Catholics. How we govern our Church is none of yours. Ironically, under the First Amendment, that is even the American law.
Given the turmoil WITHIN the Catholic Church over the spectacular scandal caused by the usual pack of liberal dimwits in the AmChurch hierarchy (Law who is the Kennedy family Cardinal du jour, Mahoney, the late and unlamented Bernardin who had the Windy City Gay Men's Chorus sing at his funeral, the Mad Monk of Milwaukee, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseam) who claim, at least Mahoney does, that celibacy is at fault, this is no time to be hearing from our fundamentalist brothers their deep scholarly insights on what is wrong with our Church. This is a time for Catrholic introspection and infighting.
We Christians have many causes in common. We have many enemies in common. What we do not have is the luxury of being able to pick at each others' scabs in public.
Jimmy Swaggert's failures and Bernard Law's failures were not proof of any invalidity of the beliefs or preaching of either which must stand or fall on the merits of the doctrines and not of the speakers. If the worst of sinners proclaims Jesus Christ Lord and Savior, that sinner is right. If the most charitable and wonderful of human beings denies that status of Jesus Christ, that person is wrong.
Recently, an Ohio priest committed suicide, very possibly consigning himself to hell in the process. When non-Catholics take this opportunity at this time of internal pain of Catholics here, to either pick at the usual scabs or, in some cases, to take an opportunistic moment to try and pick off and "convert" weak-minded Catholic stragglers to some other form of Christianity, you do not know us very well nnor are we likely to regard those efforts as merely the acts of misguided allies.
Thanks for the insights elk and I can assure you I have no such delusions of expertise regarding the Catholic religion or it bylaws. It is of absolutely NO concern to me how any organization, group, cult or religion establishes or conducts it's own affairs.
I tend to break some things down into good and evil with not a lot of gray. My curiosity is piqued when I see "good" being challenged by evil and being critical in nature, I question WHY.
I see the Catholic church and it's philosophies as overall good but I see the problem with the pedophile priests as evil. The only question I ever asked in this thread is where does the "celibacy thing" come from and does it have an influence on the pedophile priest problem.
Your answer here was much better than the previous "don't criticize what you don't understand". As I said, I am critical by nature, especially of things I don't totally understand.