“I will not attempt to excuse the sins of priests but the facts are that the safest place on earth for a child to be is in the presence of a Catholic priest.”
Is it really? Somehow, I doubt the victims of molestation, or of Torquemada (You can’t talk him out of ANYTHING!) of Inquisition fame would feel very safe around them. In fact, pedophiles tend to seek out roles in which they can have “trusting” access to children. It is no wonder then that the Roman Church, being just another human institution, would be prone to infiltration from such predators. There was a Pope, you know, who was killed when caught sleeping with another man’s wife. Did the Holy Spirit infallibly choose him through the Cardinals who elected him? More importantly, how safe is the soul of a man in the presence of a Catholic Priest? I would venture to say, not safe at all, as the Priest is just another sinful man with pretensions of Holy superiority.
Rom 3:9-11 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; (10) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (11) There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Jerome called it the “arrogance” of the Priests and Bishops to pretend that they had the judicial power of forgiving and absolving sins. I would go even further than Jerome and say that their very act of calling themselves Priests, in exclusion of the rest of the body of Christ, is also a great arrogance.
It is Christ, of course, who is our one and only High Priest, who mediates between God and man (1 Ti 2:5). What room is there for another mediator between us and Christ? When Christ says to pray, He never tells us to pray to another. He tells us to pray, expecting even the mountains to move at our petition to Him:
Mar 11:22-24 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. (23) For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. (24) Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
In fact, our prayers are best in secret, and not to Priests or in front of everyone:
Mat_6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
If my secret prayer can avail to my forgiveness and the moving of mountains, why do I need a Priest?
More importantly, because of the blood of Christ and our joining into His body, we are all made Priests and Kings in the sight of God:
1Pe_2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
1Pe_2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Rev_1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Kings in the sense of our dignity as Christians; priests in that we can now march boldly into the throne room of God and ask and receive freely, not from a God who is our enemy and needs the intercession of Priests or Mary to hear us, but because He is our Father who chose us before the foundation of the world:
Rom 8:29-30 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (30) Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Or as Augustine says, “That the predestinated are called by some certain calling peculiar to the elect, and that they have been elected before the foundation of the world; not because they were foreknown as men who would believe and would be holy, but in order that by means of that very election of grace they might be such,...”
“I do find it interesting that those who post extensively against the sinless Blessed Mother claim that priests on the other hand must be sinless for the Sacraments to be valid.”
It’s because it’s logical. You cannot hold that Priests are holier than other people since we all know how evil they can be. If a Devil gives absolution for a sin, or handles what Romanists claim is the body of Christ, speaking the words which give rise to the transformation, then the Devil is your captain through whom you say God works.
“but I will not be dragged into the gutter.”
The whole Roman church is in the gutter. I counsel you to get out of it.
Unfortunately, the risk is still not zero, but it REALLY is the safest place for a child to be.
Peace be with you