why do people keep bringing up the past mistakes in the Catholic Church?

The answer to that is a bit complicated and involves the almost infinite capacity of Protestants to fool themselves into believing whatever they want to. At some subconscious level, they know that Catholicism is Christ's true Church on earth and contains the fullness of God's blessings. But to admit that consciously would be to also admit that they've been wrong all along.

So to salve their own consciences, they trot out all the Church's old mistakes of the past as if they were brand-new information. By trying to do a smear job on the Church, they ease their own guilt and manage once again to avoid the leading of the Holy Spirit that would call them into the true Faith of Catholicism.

The devil is great at this kind of bait and switch tactic. . .just look at how many millions of Protestants he's deceived over the centuries. All we can do is pray that God will somehow break through the bigotry and hatred that keeps them from entering the Catholic Faith.

We probably don't pick on Pagans because Paganism isn't a single religion, as is Catholicism. Paganism includes everything from Hinduism to Native American spirituality. We could pick on Roman Pagans, but they don't exist anymore.

People point out past mistakes because it is our past actions which speak to our current credibility. If someone is a witness at a trial, and they have a shady past, that past will be brought up to point out a lack of credibility. Likewise, a politician who has a past riddled with corruption will have that corruption brought up again and again.

The world has a long memory. Few of us and few organizations are impeccable.

For the Catholic church, from the time it came into power, until very recently, there have been abuses, and few periods in the past are free from them.

For anyone who has had a past that is at all shady, it takes a long time to overcome that. Nobody who is recognized for their troubled past overcomes it completely; the child who cried wolf will for some time be doubted when raising an alarm.

The only thing that you can do is to strive to continually do better. Don't expect in your lifetime that any recent actions will be forgotten. Remember too that any negative actions today only solidify the negative actions of earlier days. Recent child abuse scandals only add layers of mortar on the inquisition and other troubles.

I personally respect much of what the Catholic church does today. Catholic Charities is a marvelous organization. When I had a family come to my office looking for a place to stay, I called a Catholic priest whom I know, and the church put this family up in a local hotel for the night.

On the other hand, my immediate family was directly affected by a pedophile priest.

I understad the good and the bad that has come from the Catholic church, and am unlikely to forget either.

Little do those who bash us know is that there have not been any current homosexual priests molesting kids. They also tend to forget that the ones that did these horrible crimes(they infiltrated the church in the 40's,50's, and 60's) are now either dead or in jail and that they have been dealt with.They also fail to realize that the Catholic Church did what the medical community told them to do regarding these homosexual pedophile priests, put them in therapy that will cure them. Little did the medical community know that pedophilia can not be cured. They also fail to realize that the Church has put into place very through back ground check system that has been in effect for the last 5 years or so. They also fail to realize that a child has a 99% more chance of being molested in their own homes and schools then in the church. It is Catholic bashers that continue to bring up these situations. The Catholic Church and the Pope have dealt with everything. Catholic bashers will never let the past lie where it is supposed to be,in the past. What we as a nation needs to do is make sure pedophiles are locked up for life, that all porn be taken off the internet and out of the stores. But you know what the liberals will say, that violates my freedom of speach not being able to access porn and then they wonder why this world is crawling with rapists and pedophiles

I totally agree with what you say, I am a Catholic also and am fed up with the way people attack the Church. The media taints people's minds and all you here in public places or in your own extended family is Catholic bashing-it's like a new past time. But, even after all of this, think of how great our reward will be when we defend and put up with all of this for love of the lord. I'll pray for you.

Unfortunantly, human nature causes us to bring things up that have happened in the past, no matter how far in the past it was. It seems as though part of human nature causes people to dwell on the bad things that have happened in the past, rather than let go of the things that have happened and allow it to die.

One of the hardest things for us to do as human beings is not to judge the whole by the actions of the few. I know the Roman Catholic Church has had some Clergy that has done some things that are very wrong, but in all reality most people are judging the Entire Roman Catholic Church based on the actions of the few Clergy that have acted badly.

This is no different than judging all of one race of people for the actions of the few. For example: For the most part we do not judge all Germans based on the Actions of Adolf Hitler, but yet the possibily of it happening still remains.

I agree thoroughly. this is gloomy that folk might desire to choose a faith, a church or each person else in line with previous strikes that handed off hundreds of years in the past. yet for some reason, people have long suggestions. The black community nonetheless blames us for slavery- and NONE people owned slaves! people nonetheless blame Bush for all our problems, yet he hasn't been in place of work for 5 years. For some reason, people experience the might desire to show the finger at somebody else for the worldwide's problems. i'm not Catholic, however the Catholics have made plenty transformations. some sturdy, some not so sturdy. yet a minimum of they are not available killing people! My opinion right this is that folk in simple terms hate the church customarily, and that they desire to vent their hate via pointing out previous disasters. i ask your self how they might experience if their spouses or friends constantly observed THEIR previous disasters and informed them what jerks they have been continuously? that's what those people do to Christians.

What mistakes?

The Crusades? Does anyone now doubt that Islam relies on military jihad to spread its anti-Christian faith? That conquest in the Islamic empire means the loss of all religious freedom? The Crusades were a series of attempts to roll back the totalitarian tide. Though the lands of the Eastern Mediterranean were ultimately lost, Europe remained free.

The Inquisition? A balanced history shows that the Church imposed great restraint on the efforts of liberated Spaniards to take retribution on their former captors, requiring trials with counsel and legal safeguards for the innocent.

The handful of homosexual priests, a fraction of 1 percent, who seduced teenage boys in the 1960s? They have been gone for decades, and their crimes cannot be laid on the Church that has always upheld the highest moral standards.

I'm not sure what mistakes of the Catholic Church you are referencing. Preserving Greek and Roman civilization? Founding the great European universities? Promoting the growth of science? Nurturing the greatest artists in history?

Cheers,

Bruce

Honestly, I look at the sex scandals of the church as a test of my faith. I won't leave something very important in my life because of the mistakes of a few. And others love to pick at these things and not let them go and so be it. They need to look at their own church and I'm sure they would see scandals and skeletons there as well. We are all human. Hopefully we come away from these situations just a little smarter and a little less willing to pass judgment.

Because it gives them an excuse to hate all Christians.

Pedophiles will take any job to get close to children. Ever hear of a public school teacher having sex with a student lately?

These same people who think every Christian is a pedophile never remember 100 million people died because of atheistic communism. There's a monument for them in D.C. even.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/usa/news/ar...

Buddhist monks have been molesting children for centuries, but nobody hates them.

http://www.caymannetnews.com/Archive/Archive%20Art...

And the ongoing slaughter of women in the name Hinduism goes virtually unoticed:

"No other religion...slaughters one-tenth of all women each generation except Hinduism. Indeed, Brahminism is nothing but the legitimised genocide of women.... The Brahmin mass murder of 50 million female children in the 20th century has thus been TEN TIMES more severe than the Jewish Holocaust . And the killing continues." She also says, "Although this may sound like some Christian or Muslim propaganda, it is not. I have backed up my research with quotations from Vedic and Vaishnava scriptures, and have shown that these religions, and nothing else, are the main culprits behind the most anti-woman system the world has ever seen. Far from being `enlightened' and `progressive', Brahmanism is in fact the very fountain of the evils of sati, female infanticide, devadasism and dowry."

from Genocide of Women in Hinduism Sita Agarwal (who is an atheist and feminist)

I'm not saying the Roman Catholic Church was right for what it did, but it's being used as an excuse to demonize every Christian. You might as well be fair and demonize everybody out there.

I don't mind others talking about it, but when people seem to think that all priests, or even a majority of them, do such things, it really hurts me. I know so many good men who, simply by wearing the Roman collar, get strange looks or rude comments. And it hurts me that some insinuate that it is celibacy that somehow turns someone into a pedophile, which is preposterous, and someone as who is celibate and knows many people who are, it is frankly insulting.