People of like mind always find each other. Artists gather together. Drug addicts gather together. Liberals, conservatives, Catholics, Protestants… we all find those of like mind to socialize with.
If you have a predilection for something, you will gather with others who share it. If the predilection is something society considers distasteful, you will hide it (for yourself and others). If that predilection involves a sexual orientation that society deems wrong, and you wish to remain private, what options do you have? If that predilection involves abuse of power, how do you find a place to exert authority over a person to abuse them?
All questions whose answers (for a homosexual and/or those with deviant sexual tendencies) lead them to the priesthood unfortunately (at least would have in the American Catholic Church of yesteryear!) And here we are.
I don’t see this being as prevalent in appearance from Protestant circles because of the lack of true structure in the Protestant Church. You could easily move around without being caught. Again, at least in the church of yesteryear. Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen there. Just there are no documents in Protestant files like Catholics have.
Abuse, coverups, all of it just awful. But I am a Catholic and a follower of Christ. The men were wrong. The structure and processes in place that allowed this to happen were wrong. That doesn’t make the faith is wrong. We have and need to continue to make changes within the Church to prevent this from happening. And pray of course.
So my response to those who would question my faith in the aftermath of these revelations? Simply this: My faith is in Christ. Christ built His Church on the rock of Peter, and we can all do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We are all sinners and should never be surprised at the revelation of the sins of others. We will move forward, we will reform, we will not let sin lead us away from Christ but we will renew our zeal to fight for what is true and right. We will hold our leadership accountable. We will not pride ourselves better than them, but remain humble and steadfastly work toward a better, more responsible Church whose leaders will reflect the true faith.
Off the cuff, sure I said something off or missed something, but time for work!
This will be a very difficult time to be a Catholic, especially a Catholic in Pittsburgh (as I am). All we can do is pray and be Christ’s hands!