The Catholic Church is Finished

[lifertexan]

Originally Posted by Thomas R.

A part of me kind of thinks they should consider moving the age of altar boys/girls up to 16-24 instead of the current ages they are at. I think pedophiles might be less attracted to the priesthood that way. I think kids/young-men that age are more likely to fall away so it might be a way to get them more active too. Also better screening at seminaries, which they're starting to do. I wonder if they could even have some kind of "internal affairs" squad for priests, maybe have monks or nuns do it so they're not "inside", but I'm not sure how that could be justified.

This post in itself is a sad commentary on the state of the RCC.

[Thomas R.]

It was just speculation. The thing on the seminaries they are doing and there are clear Papal encyclicals going back to the eighteenth century that ordination should be limited to those with good moral character. To me it makes sense to check references, do interviews, etc to assure a seminarian is not dangerous to himself or others and that if he is he doesn't get ordained. Thomas Merton, as I recall, was refused the priesthood (at least initially) because he had an illegitimate son.

And it's not so much a commentary on the Church, but on life in general. I think public schools have sex abuse problems that they sweep under the rug more successfully than any Church would ever get away with. I wouldn't mind if they also had investigations and maybe restrictions.

It's hard to think about, but I think I read .4% of men are sex abusers. (It's much rarer with women, although it happens on occasion and physically abusive nuns were an issue in Ireland) If you look at the stats for different cities on sex abuse that works out about right. I think it might be even higher than that when you consider the percentage of women, and men, who were molested in youth.