The state of the Catholic Church

Here's one summary blurb:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7552936/Cardinal-tells-Pope-Benedict-XVI-not-to-be-distracted-by-petty-gossip.html

I know not everyone is Catholic, but I think this issue speaks to something greater in scope than religious denomination. The Catholic pedophile scandal has hit mainstream media once again. I would bet a number of people out there question their faith, and perhaps feel that the Catholic church has abandoned them. In one respect, the entire Church has a scarlet letter due to the folly of a select few.

I think in some respects, the Church needs to stop worrying about protecting the priests and have a house cleaning to get rid of the dirt that has probably accumulated at several ranks. I'm less traditional in the sense that I think it would be good for priests to marry. I think a family man can understand some of the trials and tribulations of the congregation better by having experience with a wife and kids. Given his occupation, I believe it would help to draw analogies with scripture that the average person can identify with. Also, I wonder why priests unfaithful to their vows neglect to resign.

What do you think of the situation and the future of the Church? I'm anxious to hear...

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RP

Well, I have my issues with the catholic church for sure. I don't believe priest should get married because like america we just keep giving people more breathing room with rules and it needs to stop. Im sick of a select few ruining it for all. At IHM I am lucky enough to be involved in the athletics programs as well as other adult programs. Fr. Comer is marrying me and Rachel and he seems to be a real stand up guy. He is strait forward, consistant in his preaching, and overall genuinely seems to care about his faith and position as a priest. He is also a lawyer believe it or not. Anyway, my issue with the church is that;

1. There are too many arrogant asshole rich people running the schools. Its like a glorified highschool. Its cliques and groups that are select and lack the whole meaning of Catholic which is Universal.

2. They think having someone Virtus trained will stop sexual abuse. My training was sitting through a 1/2 hr video of 2 sex offenders talking about molesting kids. Really informative and detering....Not.

3. It seems as though many who decide to become priest tend to be socially awkward and very individualized. Personalities like Steves rarely find the priesthood. Thus I believe the selection process needs to be more thorough and actually like college entrance. Yes the denomination is suppose to be all encompassing but when choosing leaders and lay persons it has to be specific and elite.

Personally I try through coaching to form the young lives in faith. I do not coach solely for athletic purposes but to teach sportsmanship and show that its cool to have faith. I want the kids I coach to put faith into everything. Faith isnt just God, faith is having hope and being sure of what you do not see. Whether your faith be in your ability to improve or ability to make the big shot just have faith. I think the catholic church has created much of their own problems and rather than fix it and ruffle some tail feathers it is easier to sweep it under the rug. But with that it is only a matter of time before you need a bigger rug.

I think the church has handled this whole situation well. We all know that some really disturbing things happened in the 60s, and the church pretty much turned a blind eye to it. Fortunately, they have now decided to face the problem head on. Most of my opinions about this subject fall in line w/ a man named Alan Hunt. He was a methodist pastor for 25 years, then converted to catholicism. He makes some really good points. One point he hammers home is that there are higher percentages of sexual abuse in public schools and boy scouts than the catholic church. Why aren't they in the news? In a nut shell, for 20 years the catholic church didn't handle these matters very well at all. But now, they are much more proactive.

Rybred...as for you "wishing the process would be more selective". From, what I understand the background checks, and psychological testing involved with entering the priesthood is extremely extensive. It is even that way with people who want to volunteer or speak on behalf of the church at charity events.

Honestly, I could care less whether priests get married. Both sides have their pros and cons...although I don't think allowing priests to marry will affect this situation at all.

I think you make a good point about the situation regarding priests and marriage, Noetzel. I really don't think it would make much of a difference.

Another reason I think this receives so much press are due to priests who molest a purported 200 deaf kids. Whether he did or not is another matter, but the fact that the numbers where so inflated gives it quite an impact factor.

RyBred, I think another reason you don't see as many people gravitate toward priesthood, or the church in general, is that they can take those same skills to the marketplace as make as much as 30-40% more income.

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RP

So I don't have a lot to say about this but I'll probably end up typing quite a bit. Just to let everyone know, pretty much everything I say is based on my opinion alone. I don't have many facts to back it up or anything and honestly haven't looked up much. I just figured I would give you my 2 pennies worth.

To start things off, I think the most ridiculous thing about this all is how the priests were never prosecuted. I'm not sure how the law and church work but it amazes me that almost none (if not none) of the priests that have allegations against them have seen any jail time. It's unbelievable. The only discipline they have seen is a transfer to another region or is some cases another country. Anyone else in the world would be spending time in a cell as well as being labeled as a child molester - forever. How have these priests practically gotten off scotch free? It just doesn't make any sense.

Now I'm not sure about the whole cover up plan but it sounds that way to me. I do believe the bishops/pope did all they could to not let these stories leak. At a certain point they couldn't cover them up anymore and the news hit mainstream. I think it is kind of sad that it took THAT many cases of this happening for the church, who usually carries itself in high esteem, do take any major action.

With the whole marriage thing, I don't think that would help much, if any, in this situation. A child molester is a child molester. It may have helped some, but not enough to even notice. I do think that priests should be able to marry though. Not that it would help with this scandal but I just think they should be. But then again I think anyone should be able to get married if they want. Did I mention I don't really consider myself a strong Catholic, if one at all? Maybe that's why it wouldn't bother me...

I'm not really sure why not as many boys growing up these days want to be priests. But I know I sure as hell don't. If any kids are thinking about it I don't think that money has anything to do with it. It is all about faith, not the cash. I could never see myself being a priest and never really have. But then again I'm not a religious person and sure wouldn't want to preach a bunch of stuff I don't believe in. If all of the sudden priests made more I think the quality would go down. Maybe I'm wrong. What do I know. There are less than a handful of priests I have liked in my life.

Noetzel, I'm not totally sure why this has had so much more publicity than schools and boy scouts. Probably just because it is a Church. Priests are usually associated with being more of a leader and thought of as being 'perfect'. Everyone now knows they aren't. It also is most likely because it came out of no where. It's like you never heard ANYTHING about it and all the sudden there were hundreds and hundreds of cases in the US - and now across the world.

I'm probably leaving a lot out because I had 4 paragraphs then accidentally closed out of the tab. Pissed me right off. But that's what I think...

Later homies

I'm pretty sure quite a few priests got jail time (rightfully so)

I heard a priest speak on the subject a while back. Apparently, there's some document about how priests should handle certain situations. He said that accusations (I guess when there wasn't enough evidence to charge priests) where always to be handled as a private matter.

Is this so bad that it makes anybody start to doubt the faith or being a catholic? I read a survey the other day that said 1/10 people in the US used to be catholic. That's a lot!