I've always wanted to ask a Catholic...?

Your questions cannot be adequately answered in a couple of sentences. But generally, I am angered that members of the Catholic Church preformed such acts. I also understand that it is only a very small minority who participated and that such abuse happens throughout all of society. I am also angered by how the Catholic leadership handled the situation , but I also recognized that they dealt with the situation the way that the vast majority of people in society did.

Unfortunately people were very ignorant about how to handle sexual abuse - not just in the Catholic Church but in society as a whole. There was (and to a certain extent still is) a lot of ignorance about why people abuse and how best to help those with the inclination to abuse and how best to help the victims of abuse. The entire issue use to be kept in the dark and was not acknowledged or discussed - so that helped the ignorance continue. At no point did the pope or church leaders think it was a good or right for priests to abuse people. It was ignorance and fear that caused them to make bad decisions about how to handle it.

I hope and pray that now that the issue is more public and brought out in the open that not just the Catholic Church but other institutions and societies as a whole can learn how to deal with the issue more effectively. That by holding not just the Catholic Church, but people everywhere, more accountable that they will address the actual issues involved in sexual abuse.

I also understand that the concept of forgiveness is EXTREMELY difficult for some people, however it is a central teaching of the Catholic Christian faith. Some people do consider the abuse of children as unforgivable, and the demonize the abusers and the people who covered it up. And I do think anger is justified, but I also understand that both abusers and those who cover it up can feel extreme remorse for what the did and that they can be forgiven. As Catholics we believe that penance for wrong doings is an important thing to do, but some people’s anger leads them to want very impractical and unreasonable ideas of how to punish people.

The Pope acknowledged that the abuse and cover-up was wrong and the Church as a whole is working to address the problems. There are no easy answers to handing sexual abuse, as much as people would like to think there are. And punishing past abusers, while appropriate, does nothing to address the issues that cause the abuse and cover-up. I do appreciate the Catholic Church working to address those issues.

The scandel did not shake may faith because the faults and wrongs of individuals who practice a certain faith does not mean that the faith is wrong. At no point in time did I think that being Catholic would protect me from others hurting me nor did I believe that being Catholic took away our free will so that people couldn’t sin any more.

No, I don't deny what happened. I think that when Catholics accurately point out that only a small percerntage of priest abused or that sexual abuse is a societal problem, other people claim Catholics are denying the problem rather than acknowledging the truth of the statements by Catholics. I think this is done in part so people feel safer and so that they don’t have to wrestle with the actual issue of sexual abuse as a whole. It’s easier to focus on punishing people for their past deeds then focus on complex issues involved in preventing abuse in the future. People would be better off educating themselves about sexual abuse, it's signs, ways to prevent it, how to educate their children on the issue rather than pointing fingers at priests (especially when priests are only a small percentage of abuses.)

That is proper with all matters the minority turns out to begin getting rights the bulk does now not. It might be regarded raciest if any individual might make an All White University. Honestly I feel the motive is that no person complains. In different phrases whilst there have been areas that most effective Whites might pass Blacks protested. Today there are areas that most effective Blacks can pass and I in no way listen of any whites protesting. It will have to now not be both means there will have to simply be Universities now not Black, now not White, now not all Men, now not all Woman. Just a tuition for someone in need of to study. Simple as that...

1. I probably feel the same way about sexual abuse that you do: I'm horrified by it. It's doubly criminal that these abusers would hide among our clergy in order to gain access to victims. I don't have a word that's terrible enough to describe these crimes against children.

2. Had Catholicism condoned the abuse of children, of course it would have turned me off to my religion. But Catholic teaching is just as opposed to sexual abuse as you and I are, if not more so. This is the old "Throw the baby out with the bathwater" thing - why blame Catholicism when Catholicism does not encourage sexual abuse? That doesn't make any sense at all.

3. Um, Pope Benedict XVI was NOT "very involved in covering it up" or in "allowing it to continue." The actual documents of his role as Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith (before he was pope) show that he was working to ferret out the abusers and stop them. But he was bound by law, just as you and I are. He couldn't risk falsely accusing anybody or accepting evidence without making sure it was factual. He couldn't risk accusing innocent people of such a horrible crime. Just like the court system in the U.S. - you can't walk into a police station, report an abuser and have that person immediately declared guilty and thrown in jail. There has to be evidence and that evidence must be tested and proved true and so on and so forth. And I must point out here, YOU are accusing the pope of something based on media sensationalism, not based on the facts of what he has actually done and said to stop sexual abuse by Catholic clerics. Did you not witness him hauling the Irish bishops to Rome to chew them out when their abuse scandal became known? Did you not see how many of them resigned immediately afterward? Don't YOU care about the facts? Don't YOU care about falsely accusing somebody of a terrible crime?

4. There are all kinds of sin in the world that HUMANS are responsible for, not God. God never told anybody to molest a child, and it's wrong to blame God for the sins that other people committed in defiance of His call to Holiness. If a parent raises a child to never steal, lie or do drugs, and the child grows up to steal, lie and do drugs, do you blame the parent for the child's crimes? You wouldn't, unless you have a very twisted sense of justice. It's wrong to blame God when people do the exact opposite of what He tells them to do.

5. No, I don't deny that the abuse happened. Of course it happened; there's no question of it. But blame ought to be ascribed to the perpetrators, not to innocent people who didn't know about it until afterwards and tried to stop it, and not to God, who teaches people to be holy and pure.

Well first off your question is presumptuous and accusative.

The Pope didnt cover anything up, unless you have evidence that no one else does.

Second it is greatly offensive what those "men" did. It didnt affect my faith because no man can shake that.

Most of the stories you are hearing about happened well over 30 years ago and the Church has done it's best to insure there is no repeat of the situation.

Do you harbor the same feelings toward the Protestant offenders, school teachers and basketball coaches or just toward Catholics?

I am a Catechist and I had to go through a background check and be finger printed just so I can teach the faith.

The Priests-to-be go through physiological exams in addition to through background checks.

Pope Benedict XVI has been instrumental in removing the wolves in sheep's clothing and I pray for him that he continues in his work.

So please stop bearing false witness.

Thank you.

"There are not more than 100 people in the world who truly hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they perceive to be the Catholic Church. ....As a matter of fact, if we Catholics believed all of the untruths and lies which were said against the Church, we probably would hate the Church a thousand times more than they do."

-----Archbishop Sheen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs6qZd_xP1w

Peace be with your spirit

<<<Devout Catholic>>>

http://catholicmyths.blogspot.com/

Catholics are fake christians so everything they do is of satan.

Realistically.....the pope is flesh and bones like you and me. We all mess up from time to time. Some more than others.

I'm not making excuses for him. I'm just saying that he is a regular person like you and me. The difference is that he has a hard job that REQUIRES high morals and values.

The bottom line is that the pope will burn in hell ( based on scripture) along with every other Catholic unless they get right with Jesus.

ADD: We dont hate the JW's Mormans, ect.....we feel hurt for them cos we know they are on a path to hell. We dont want to see 1 person go to hell.

No one should have respect for that bas***d evil pope that covered up abuses in the past.

He's not only a waste of time and money, he's a cancer in this world.

I'm not Catholic, so I can't answer your question either, but I feel the same!

I'd also like to ask church members in general how they feel about the scandals that many of them seem to be involved in, the hatred shown for other groups (you should hear the vicious things said about people like Jehovah's Witnesses - who actually have a reputation for being peaceful and law abiding!), and one for Mormons: how do you feel about being told so many things in the Book of Mormon that contradict historical fact and having your two main holy books flatly contradicting each other??

Its been going on for hundreds of years among the Roman Catholic clergy and won't stop.