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Curious11
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Is Catholicism a religion that isn’t so tough on corruption as compared to protestants? How do we explain that Protestant countries are generally less corrupt than Catholics?
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CatholicSpirit
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It is like noting that in a mafia movie discussions about the Church having a bank has something to do with them. There have been issues recorded by historians and are now (or were) popular with the History channel. And, prodominantly Protestant countries have corruption also. There can be corruption even in the seemingly smallest remedy to solve a problem if one fails to notice. Sometimes corruption is accidental and needs repair in public policy. Corruption is a very broad concept and that is why every good person should work together for a better future.
To me corruption means, the poor are trying to take from the wealthy in a sophisticated way, so we must help the poor so it is not necessary. Or, corruption means the rich are benefiting from those in need in an improper manner. It can mean many things, but it is an alarm overall.
When I was young, I heard the call in my Church every year for the Annual Bishops Appeal which was many thousands of dollars. Immediately, I said (without any other saying so) “this is wrong.” Then, when I got older, I learned that the Annual Bishops Appeal is a mix of many humanitarian organizations. If you want to see the information, just ask. $1 and $5 bills two days a week in a Church so small and paying the electricity and Priests who serve the community is very small. The next thing, and only thing, is the bishops appeal. So, if people learned this, they would realize we can’t even do a tiny bit of corruption. Look to the rest of the cities, and you will see the problem. But, we don’t even profit from indulgences anymore. You buy a medallion online and a priest blesses it for free, no profits in it anymore and everyone will tell you, “those Catholics sell heaven to you for a profit!” Isn’t that interesting.
We condemn the wealthy to repent from using child labor on hardly any funds. But, what do you see at your shopping malls and who provides it? We are hated for a large voice with very little money compared to big voices with billions of dollars. Sure, many of those companies also help the needy, I have seen it with my own eyes. But they may turn around and accuse us of selling heaven in indulgences. A priest will bless something for you and not sell you anything for a profit, but it will benefit you spiritually. Yet, people will say, “that is the Church of selling indulgences!” We have a bad reputation for things we have been fixing for a hundred years!
To me corruption means, the poor are trying to take from the wealthy in a sophisticated way, so we must help the poor so it is not necessary. Or, corruption means the rich are benefiting from those in need in an improper manner. It can mean many things, but it is an alarm overall.
When I was young, I heard the call in my Church every year for the Annual Bishops Appeal which was many thousands of dollars. Immediately, I said (without any other saying so) “this is wrong.” Then, when I got older, I learned that the Annual Bishops Appeal is a mix of many humanitarian organizations. If you want to see the information, just ask. $1 and $5 bills two days a week in a Church so small and paying the electricity and Priests who serve the community is very small. The next thing, and only thing, is the bishops appeal. So, if people learned this, they would realize we can’t even do a tiny bit of corruption. Look to the rest of the cities, and you will see the problem. But, we don’t even profit from indulgences anymore. You buy a medallion online and a priest blesses it for free, no profits in it anymore and everyone will tell you, “those Catholics sell heaven to you for a profit!” Isn’t that interesting.
We condemn the wealthy to repent from using child labor on hardly any funds. But, what do you see at your shopping malls and who provides it? We are hated for a large voice with very little money compared to big voices with billions of dollars. Sure, many of those companies also help the needy, I have seen it with my own eyes. But they may turn around and accuse us of selling heaven in indulgences. A priest will bless something for you and not sell you anything for a profit, but it will benefit you spiritually. Yet, people will say, “that is the Church of selling indulgences!” We have a bad reputation for things we have been fixing for a hundred years!
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CatholicSpirit
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We Support Made in USA and in places with good labor laws! So now the USA is corrupt?
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Kei
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I disagree that protestants are generally less corrupt than Catholics.
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Curious11
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But Protestant countries do generally have lower corruption scores in the corruption perception index. I’m not sure even if you understood it that way, but I do not mean to say individual Catholics are more or less corrupt than Protestant individuals 
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Cor_ad_Cor
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Correlation does not equal causation.
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Kei
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Looking at the index, something struck me. Look at the top five. What do they have in common?
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Curious11
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Only Switzerland is majority catholic, but it’s under 50% of the population
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Curious11
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I know, in fact I came here looking for reassurance for my claim that Catholicism has nothing to do with the corruption indexes. But if people say that there’s really nothing I can answer back
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JanSobieskiIII
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Protestant countries, for whatever reason, tend to be more developed. The only country I can name off the top of my head that even comes close is France and I don’t know that I’d even really consider catholic in the historic sense anymore.
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Curious11
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Can there be some factual basis for the Protestant work ethic?
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twf
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Which countries are you clarifying as Protestant?
If you mean countries like Norway or Sweden, church attendance and religious faith are minuscule now even if those countries still have official state churches.
If you mean countries like Norway or Sweden, church attendance and religious faith are minuscule now even if those countries still have official state churches.
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twf
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If you look at the top 10, they are all predominantly secular countries with low church attendance. That being said, if we are talking about nominal religious adherence, from the top ten, Germany, Canada, and Switzerland have very substantial Catholic populations.
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JanSobieskiIII
Guest
I think there is some merit to it. I think a lot of it has more to do with cultural things.
Latin America, Spain, Italy, etc never really had a culture of labor like England, Germany, and the US. The Mediterranean cultures are all pretty laid back and put more stock in relaxing and spending time with family than economic pursuits.
Spain outsourced that to their former empire
Latin America, Spain, Italy, etc never really had a culture of labor like England, Germany, and the US. The Mediterranean cultures are all pretty laid back and put more stock in relaxing and spending time with family than economic pursuits.
Spain outsourced that to their former empire
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mkoopman
Guest
My guess is that secular ideals provide better cover for the drug smuggling and money laundering that dominates western cultures. Addiction replaces faith.
The labor force for such pursuits requires “re-education” and therefore the corruption is both more violent and often obvious in the agrarian sources. But, since Cuba replaced Panama in this greater scheme have not things greatly improved?
The labor force for such pursuits requires “re-education” and therefore the corruption is both more violent and often obvious in the agrarian sources. But, since Cuba replaced Panama in this greater scheme have not things greatly improved?
Tis_Bearself
Patron
I’d suggest you ask Blessed Jerzy Popieluszcko, Blessed Oscar Romero, and the El Salvadoran Martyrs about that, except they are all dead after publicly opposing government corruption. I could probably add quite a few more over the centuries to that list…
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Curious11
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God bless them for their courage
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Kei
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What I meant was that they are all European nations full of a fairly homogenous white population.
But you wouldn’t claim they are less corrupted because they are white, right?
So let’s look at what would affect corruption: governments.
But you wouldn’t claim they are less corrupted because they are white, right?
So let’s look at what would affect corruption: governments.
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Curious11
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The thing is, the fact that many “white” countries are richer than “black” countries probably has something to do with colonial exploitation so it’s a better understood phenomenon. This, however, is not.
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Peebo
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I wonder if Catholicism over the centuries just became absorbed into the lives of people in European countries until it had no more meaning in their lives than any other cultural practices did…of course there were always exceptions as we see in the lives of the saints…and that followed the same trend by the mainly early Spanish and Portuguese (Latin) explorers and colonists into Latin America etc…early Protestantism came into the new world…the US…Canada…Australia…New Zealand etc… mainly from British explorers and colonists and they would have bought British common law with them which is based on Christian principles…so maybe for that reason they were able differentiate between their culture and their faith life…just guessing …if I’m wrong …I’m wrong
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