Depressed About Catholic Church

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Unfortunately because of a few, all are tarred with the same brush and looked upon with suspicion.

Gross rash judgement of priests in general?

Apparently for 2018 there are 37,302 diocesan and religious-order priests in the United States.

According to this news article from January this year more than a 1,000 have been accused of child sex abuse in the US.

So that leaves roughly 36,000 good and holy men in the priesthood.

Whilst it is a terrible thing indeed, and I am not minimizing the dreadfulness of these cases, I do think things need to be put into perspective about how many priests are offenders, before deciding to be disillusioned with the Church.

(If anyone else has more accurate statistics, then please provide).

ETA- I have to log off for a while…
 
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We’re finding out within the last few decades that mothers and grandmothers hid sexual abuse in their families. They did it out of shame and some need to “protect the family name,” they did it out of ignorance about the likelihood that offenders amend, and, let’s face it because they were in denial about the profound damage done.
It doesn’t surprise me, sadly, that bishops have done what even the mothers of victims have done. Now that we know how much offenders can seem like “normal decent caring people,” though, we can all work together to prevent this kind of offender from victimizing children and young people.
 
Divine3 said:
Very few children, your facts are off the wall. The FEW (priests) abusers, who fully represent this sick culture we live in for decades---- the USA, are few in number ,but the sexual abusers who are not priests, now that is a real ugly reality to see.
Research the non priests who are sick children abusers and get an eye opener.
And google is not the place to do your research. Check out the guys in jail too while you are at it. The rapists etc. Amazing to see doctors , lawyers , policeman, teachers, uncles, ministers, a few rabbis, politicians and please don’t leave out actors, producers, sports …did I forget someone? How about the guy next door! Witch hunts … Let’s not forget that nasty biggot in PA who calls himself an attorney General.
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Friend, your post further proves my point. Nitpicking about the facts, downplaying the tragedy of the situation by saying, “Well, plenty of people who aren’t priests do it, too,” and “It was actually very few priests…” Very few priests? Really? ONE priest abusing a child is too many.

What really needs to be said is it was wrong, there’s no excuse, and what can we do to heal from this?
 
Not saying abuse is OK, Never said that. Just saying get the facts.
 
Stop right there!!!

You are looking left and right and seeing only sinners - but you are one of them, as am I! This is the devil’s trick to "D"eiceive, "D"ivide, "D"ivert and "D"iscourage you. Notice a pattern?


Rather: look up! Up to the perfection of that Savior hanging on the cross. Focus on the Tabernacle. Gaze upon the beauty of Christ in the Holy Eucharist at adoration.

Both Christ and the devil want you. One day, one of them will have you. One of them will say, forever… “Mine!”

Let not your heart be troubled. The Church has been filled with 100% sinners from her inception.
  1. Go to adoration.
  2. Turn OFF the media. TV, cable, the interwebz, FB, Instagram, newspapers, magazines, radio - all of it except solid Catholic sources.
Take a breath of fresh air and have faith.
 
TotusTuusForever said:
Im just so heartbroken over all of the evil within the Church that I am starting to wonder where the holiness is.
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The holiness is where it’s always been in the Holy Eucharist found only within the Catholic Church. Jesus told us the weeds (sinners) would grow up together with the wheat (saints) and that He’d separate at His coming. Keep your focus on Jesus and don’t worry about the sinners that will always remain among us until He personally separates them at the end. Peace.
 
Nicely said! Also OP, it helps to be a student of history. Times have been arguably much worse for the Church. Just read Dante, Catherine of Siena, and others who wrote all about terrible, rotten clergy—including popes. There is nothing new under the sun in terms of human behavior. Yet Jesus is, as He promised, very much still with us. Focus on Him.
 
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Dolphin said:
The Apostles didn’t leave Jesus when Judas betrayed them. We can’t leave Jesus when some of the clergy betray us.
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Actually most did leave our Lord during his passion, with John being the exception.

It was the women, including his mother Mary, that stayed with him through his trials and Crucifixion.
 
I mean more that they did not leave the Church and they went on to build the church and evangelize. We have to do the same thing even when we are betrayed
 
The sexual abuse scandal within the Church doesn’t make me depressed but upset and mad about those who didn’t protect the vulnerable as they should have.

I’ll tell you what honestly depresses me about the current state of our Church: assisting at a funeral Mass and seeing not even ONE of the family members of the deceased knowing what to do at a Mass.

That so many baptized Catholics have fallen away from the Church and haven’t attended a Mass for years to the point they don’t have a clue about the rubrics of the Mass (that hasn’t really changed all that much since the Mass of Pope Paul VI was promulgated) truly saddens and depresses me. But it also serves as a wake up call to me that there’s so much work that we the remaining faithful need to do to help those who have fallen away come back to the Church, including unceasingly praying for the fallen away Catholics to return to their Church.
 
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Psalm30 said:
Friend, your post further proves my point. Nitpicking about the facts, downplaying the tragedy of the situation by saying, “Well, plenty of people who aren’t priests do it, too,” and “It was actually very few priests…” Very few priests? Really? ONE priest abusing a child is too many.
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Aaand this is why we can never have a rational discussion of the subject on here. Because people aren’t interested in a logical, truthful argument that most priests are good and that the Church has taken significant steps to address the issue. Instead they just keep harping the emotional arguments and using it as an excuse to bash the Church or feel depressed about the Church.

God gave us emotion and compassion, but he also gave us logic and reasoning. He expects us to use both.
 
TotusTuusForever said:
As I see the continuous reports of child abuse by the clergy come forth, it becomes apparent how prevalent this was for almost the entire 20th century. I have alway defended the church throughout all of these revelations because I believe that Christ is at the center of the church despite the human failings.

But, I fear that I am beginning to become disillusioned. Even before the child abuse scandals, there were popes who had mistresses and pope who persecuted the Jews in Rome among many other scandals. Where does one draw the line between faith in the church and calling out these crimes and sins?

You can’t blame people for leaving their family when their father beats their mother or molests their brother, or has an affair with another woman. Im just so heartbroken over all of the evil within the Church that I am starting to wonder where the holiness is. How can we tell people not to sin when our church has become the prime example of hideous sins? Turning a blind eye to the ugliness of it all is exactly what we have done for the past decades. How are we supposed to move past this?
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You don’t need to feel awkward at all calling out Catholics who commit sins that are made known publicly. You shouldn’t have an ounce of partiality towards a person because they are Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Hindu, secular, etc.

The Church is absolutely not a “prime example” of hideous sins. It has sins, including hideous sins, but it’s also the single most influential institution in the world for aiding and ministering to humanity. Sexual abuse and harassment is EPIDEMIC in public institutions, schools, and universities and this is not an exclusively Catholic issue. It is much wider than that.
 
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It seems quite clear that a great paring away is happening of all Catholics, priests, religious, or lay, who are not deeply adhering in faith to Jesus Christ and His Church. If any finds him or herself teetering on the brink of leaving due to any human failure in the Church you have got to get back to a profound love of God and frequent, wholehearted prayer and use of the sacraments to remain. There is no longer the ability to remain on the fence. Embrace Our Lady and the Eucharist in particular.
 
CRV said:
Apparently for 2018 there are 37,302 diocesan and religious-order priests in the United States.

According to this news article from January this year more than a 1,000 have been accused of child sex abuse in the US.

So that leaves roughly 36,000 good and holy men in the priesthood .
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Please clarify your statistics.

Of the 37,000 priests in the US today, how many have had accusations?

From the article you linked, that 1,000 “The recently disclosed accusations date back six or seven decades in some cases, with the oldest from the 1910s in Louisiana.”

How many priests have served in the US since the turn of the 20th century?

You will then see how miniscule the percentage is of those credibly accused.
 
This type of ‘how can we move past this?’ mentality lumps all priests together as if they were all guilty. It’s like lumping all your family, including you, together as terrible sinners if one or two members did something terrible. You move on by focusing on your own sins and spiritual growth, not others.
Also, the Church has implemented changes in seminaries so that this problem does not continue.
 
It is not easy when it seems that media portray Catholic Priests as sex offenders. At times the reporting seems to be obsessive

Please take the time to click and read this link: Catholic sex abuse facts :: Fast Facts from TheMediaReport.com - it will put into perspective the fact over media propaganda.

IT’S NOT ABOUT CATHOLIC PRIESTS​

FACT: Catholic priests abuse at a rate far lower than that of other males in the general population.
Read more

Notwithstanding the media hysteria over sex abuse in the Catholic Church, priests abuse at a rate far lower than that of other males. While even one case of abuse is too many, approximately only 4% of all active priests between 1950 and 2002 were even accused of abuse – a rate far lower than that of other males in the general population.
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The website is good from what I have read and does put into perspective how it is and not how it is being portrayed.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Aaand this is why we can never have a rational discussion of the subject on here. Because people aren’t interested in a logical, truthful argument that most priests are good and that the Church has taken significant steps to address the issue. Instead they just keep harping the emotional arguments and using it as an excuse to bash the Church or feel depressed about the Church.

God gave us emotion and compassion, but he also gave us logic and reasoning. He expects us to use both.
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Please don’t put words in my mouth.

I never said most priests were not good.

I never said the Church hasn’t taken steps to address the issue.

I am not looking for an excuse to bash the Church or feel depressed about the Church.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t use logic, reasoning, and compassion.

I am simply saying that the seriousness of these issues should not be downplayed.
 
Divine3 said:
Very few children, your facts are off the wall. The FEW (priests) abusers,
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The FEW?!
There are 300 priests listed in the Pennsylvania report alone. 300 isn’t a few.

My wife very seriously questioned whether she could remain Catholic. I felt disgusted with the Vatican and the Magisterium for weeks. The same men who set out the moral code that we’re supposed to abide by on pain of mortal sin were committing the vilest of sins. And I don’t use the word vilest as a hyperbole.

“Do not eat meat on Fridays during Lent” Really, Your Eminence? Really? I’m supposed to trust you with the welfare of my soul? Dig the plank out of your own eye before you start dictating how I should lead my life, bud.

The bottom line, @TotusTuusForever, is that you have to be bigger than they are. You are bigger than they are. Don’t give up on the truth of the faith, don’t give up on the core essentials that make us Catholic. Toss the dreck in the Church aside and don’t let them, their hypocrisy and their utter vileness keep you from the truth. You deserve the truth even in the face of their repugnancy.
 
TheLittleLady said:
You will then see how miniscule the percentage is of those credibly accused.
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Precisely. That was my point! Even assuming those 1,000 were out of the current 37,000 number - this just goes to show it is a small minority that has offended, and therefore overall is no reason to "be disillusioned with the Church.

I was in a rush and so used it as a generalisation to make my point. I wasn’t going on exact statistics as within the short time I had to search I couldn’t locate a chart/stats to link to.

Therefore the demonstration I gave 37,000 odd compared against the 1,000 odd I believed proved my point - rather than digging up the number of priests in the 20th or 21st Century as I thought that was unnecessary as the above figures were enough to illustrate my point.

ETA - I would have thought the fact that I used the # of priests from 2018, and the number that article used of a 1,000, even over decades just highlighted the miniscule numbers who do offend compared to the huge numbers who don’t.

I am wondering if you are not getting the point I was trying to make or whether you are being picky, as I don’t see the need really to clarify my earlier post, as by doing so would just reaffirm what I’ve said and the point I was making.
 
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