Obviously, I'm not Catholic but I was raised in a fairly orthodox Catholic household. Church weekly (missing it never happened), Catholic school from 6th-12th grade. I was even an altar boy for a long period of time.
We all know about the sex scandals that have happened in the church. I've seen a very sad reaction to them. What I've seen is that (some, not all) Catholics ignore that they are happening and blame an anti-Catholic conspiracy, homosexuals, the media and "liberals" who want to take down the church. I'm not sure what is more damaging to the church-the scandals itself, the cover ups, or the reactions that some people have had to them. The bitter, uncomfortable truth is that some members of the church did commit heinous crimes towards children and no, you can't blame anyone else but the institution and individuals that enabled it to continue. It's fascinating to me that accountability was drilled into our heads while growing up, but when asked to take accountability for their own actions, everyone looks for excuses.
Can former Catholics or non-Catholics have an opinion about the scandals? Of course they can. If it was any other institution, we'd all be having opinions about it too.
I am a convert to the LDS church. My whole family was catholic. Most of them still are. I went to Holy Mary of the Cross elementary school with nuns as teachers. It was a rough time with the strictness they enforced. Yet most of them were trying to teach me good things and really wanted me to succeed. It is difficult to see men of any religion using that religion or hiding under the religion to justify the acts they do. The latest allegations against Cardinal Pell don't help matters. I am glad Pope Francis is doing things like establishing the church tribunal to deal with bishops who fail to project children from abusive priests.
ReplyDeleteI am a convert from the Catholic church (obviously) as well. I think the scandal has been among the biggest religious scandals in history. Like I mentioned in the original post, what's been much more damaging is how some Catholics have reacted to it. To some degree, if it happened to any church we'd all circle the wagons, but it was still shocking.
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