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I went to an all girls Catholic high school. There was a chaplain whom we all loved.
We found out years later that he'd been molesting boys in another school, so the diocese moved him to an all girls school since he wasn't attracted to girls and wouldn't rape anyone. Nice, right?
I moved away from the Catholic church in my early adulthood. The way they have enabled the abuse of children is a big part of it.
Homosexuality isn't the problem. Pedophiles of both genders are the problem.
I believe that priests should be able to marry. I also think men and women should be ordained.
I was married and had my son baptized in the Episcopal church and have met some wonderful, devoted priests.
Pope Francis has responded to new reports of clerical sexual abuse and the ecclesial cover-up of abuse. In an impassioned letter addressed to the whole People of God, he calls on the Church to be close to victims in solidarity, and to join in acts of prayer and fasting in penance for such "atrocities".
Then how do you explain the same thing going on in protestant churches where there is no demand that clergy be celibate and are allowed to marry?
There is a streak of denial in Protestant churches as wide as the River Jordan. They think it can’t happen in their churches. But it does and with alarming regularity.
Whenever people are put in positions of leadership and trust, a non-zero percentage will try to abuse it in different ways. Some will enrich themselves, some will merely revel in power for power's sake, some will try to use their power for sexual gratification. This happens. The offenders may be sergeants or teachers or coaches or managers or police officers or priests. Organizations with a power structure have a responsibility to prevent, uncover and, if crimes have been committed, report.
The failure of the Church, cardinal, isn't that you let in in homosexuals. Hundreds of thousands of those around that wouldn't dream of laying a hand of anyone against their will.
The failure is that you let in those who would abuse their power, and that's a moral failing that is not isolated to homosexuals.
And the much bigger failure - the betrayal - is that you carefully, painstakingly, protected the abusers. As an organization, you put the Church's reputation ahead of the suffering and shame of children and teen-agers.
People should not get on their high horse about the Catholic Church, this probably happens more in other churches since there is no way of reporting it and the molesters can just move on to molest again and again.
So a church that knowingly hides crimes is less sinful than a church that fails to uncover crimes, am I getting this right?
Pope Francis has responded to new reports of clerical sexual abuse and the ecclesial cover-up of abuse. In an impassioned letter addressed to the whole People of God, he calls on the Church to be close to victims in solidarity, and to join in acts of prayer and fasting in penance for such "atrocities".
Only people should have religious freedom. Churches, mosques, synagogs and the like should be subject to tax and regulation just like everything else.
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