The latest expose of sexual perversions and cover-ups in the Catholic Church, specifically six dioceses in Pennsylvania, bring up the question: can the Catholic Church police its wayward, abusive priests?
The grand jury reports are stunning in what they uncovered. Priests who had raped, molested, abused children would confess to their superiors, and the priests higher up would basically pat them on the head, forgive them, and let them continue in ministry.
I have never seen anything like this.
The victims who testified, the men and women who came forward about the horrific abuse they suffered, must feel some sense of relief. Yet how do they square the teachings about the church, about the priesthood, with these unspeakable transgressions?
There are fundamental problems with the Catholic Religion, or the Catholic Institution. I don't think "church" is an applicable term anymore, and never should have been. The Church is the Body of Christ, and it is not limited to the large corporate religious institution based in Vatican City.
"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it." (Matthew 16:18)
There are two words in this wordplay. Peter is "little rock", and then there's the word "rock", which refers to something much larger. Peter was not the foundation of the Church, as Catholic apologists claim. Jesus is the Rock, He is the Cornerstone. We are called to a person, not a community. We are called to Christ Jesus, not an institution.
There's more.
The Catholic religion teaches people that the priest stands in place of Christ Jesus, during the mass and in the parish for all ministerial purposes. Sorry, but I have a huge problem with that. He is not some infallible person. He is not the final authority on anything, including God's Word. Any common fisherman or tax collector can make sense and receive revelation through God's Word. In fact, they served as God's Secretaries to share the Gospel with the world!
As for everyone who believes in Jesus, we become priests, in fact a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9).
The Catholic religion also teaches that only certain people can be saints. That is a lie. When we believe on Jesus Christ, we are taken from death to life. We go from being sinners to saints.
The Catholic bureaucracy has put this massive institution ahead of Christ Jesus, ahead of the Body of Christ, ahead of the millions of men and women who want more than answers, but The Answer! Grace and Truth personified, that is Christ Jesus.
After decades of exposes showing that the Catholic churches throughout the world have been covering up crimes and corruptions of priests, nuns, and other ecclesiastical authorities, isn't it time for men and women of faith to leave the Catholic "church" and join themselves to Him who has been from the beginning? (1 John 2:15)
I remember my mother teaching us that my sister and I were Catholics because she was a Catholic, and then going backwards from there to all the ancestors before her. Today, I tell you that I would never attend a Catholic church again. As far back as 2009, I walked out of one Catholic church and committed to never going back. I got so tired of the priests begging for money because of one church scandal after another. Roger Mahoney was the Archbishop of Los Angeles, and he had to "shepherd" the church through one scandal after another, including the unprecedented 2002 lawsuit settlements, which cost $666 million . The Archdiocese had to sell of numerous properties and leverage along with leverage the multi-millions from a number of insurance companies.
And yet here were are 16 years later. Most of the most ardent Catholic critics are actually casting all these problems based on the Vatican II summit, in which the Catholic mass gave up the use of Latin and allowed the priest to look forward at the congregation.
Really? That's why the Catholic church is rife with sex, drugs, and financial scandal? Pat Buchanan has made that argument. "We need to go back to speaking in Latin. That will solve all the world's problems."
Unbelievable.
The truth is that this institution, like many of the other stale religious corporations, have long forgotten their First Love, Jesus (Revelation 2:4). These religions have placed all the power and authority in men, not in God. They have made man the final arbiter of truth, and that is wrong, too.
These institutions have treated tradition as the final determinant, which makes no sense. Tradition has a starting point. Truth does not. Priests, nuns, religious figures are not perfect people, and they are not gods on earth. They are fallible. The Catholic religion's strict adherence to the law of Moses, rather than the New Covenant of God's grace, ensures that sin breaks out all the worse in these institutions.
There is redemption for all of us, in Christ Jesus. God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). He did not then expect another religion, another set of customs to tie people down into bondage. Jesus came to give us the truth, and the Truth--Christ Jesus--makes us free.
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