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Why I wonder is even Pope Benedict is now in the crossfire of the sex abuse scandals involving priests and the coverups of same.
Especially factoring in that the Episcopal Church is quite similar in many regards to the Catholic Church............I wonder if there will be a mass exodus from the latter to the former.
Actually, this whole sex abuse scandal should have brought the chruch to its knees, but they have the money to buy their way out. Their money should run out sometime. LOL!!!!!
On the Episcopal thing you're assuming Catholics want a more liberal version of Catholicism. That's only true in the US and parts of Europe. If anything the Anglican Communion is in decline compared to Catholicism.
Some conservative Catholics are becoming Orthodox over the scandal, but my guess is not that many. Catholics ideally believe in a religion and set of beliefs, not simply an organization. Being a Catholic isn't like working for GM. The Catholic Church has had terrible Popes who produced illegitimate kids and watched pornographic plays, but it survived that and it will survive this.
And I think I would say that even if I wasn't Catholic. If they survive over a century religions become pretty durable. The Jehovah's Witnesses have survived despite several failed prophecies and their own sex abuse scandal. The Yezidi of Iraq have survived despite being mostly in a small area where they have been castigated as "Satanists" for centuries. The idea you're going to smash Catholicism or the JWs or whatever is naive at best.
Young people are not much into Catholicism...it is antiquated and out of touch with their thinking and beliefs. The ranks of the Catholic church have been shrinking for years and I think that these type of pedophile scandals just hasten the demise.
"America is a less Christian nation than it was 20 years ago, and Christianity is not losing out to other religions, but primarily to a rejection of religion altogether, a survey published Monday found.
Seventy-five percent of Americans call themselves Christian, according to the American Religious Identification Survey from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1990, the figure was 86 percent.
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League said he thinks a radical shift towards individualism over the last quarter-century has a lot to do it.
"The three most dreaded words are thou shalt not," he told Lou Dobbs. "Notice they are not atheists -- they are saying I don't want to be told what to do with my life."
Actually, this whole sex abuse scandal should have brought the chruch to its knees, but they have the money to buy their way out. Their money should run out sometime. LOL!!!!!
However, there will never be a lack of desperately fearful human beings looking for a life - and an afterlife- fully guaranteed. Most people want certainty.
The RC church will survive, all forms of theism will survive.
Young people are not much into Catholicism...it is antiquated and out of touch with their thinking and beliefs. The ranks of the Catholic church have been shrinking for years and I think that these type of pedophile scandals just hasten the demise.
Perhaps you are focused too much on Europe and the U.S. Catholicism's biggest growth is elsewhere.
With the growing problems in the Catholic Church, will it exist much longer?
Hummmmmm, please define "much longer"
Well, let's say anywhere between the time it takes for me to pass through London twice to some posting here will not have tasted death.
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