Getting Past the Abuse Crisis When Defending the Faith

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The abuse crisis has definately discredited may people’s view of the Church and is seems to be used to derail any defense of Church teaching. Whenever the Pope or our Bishops make a staement in the publie square it’s always brough it up.

It seems like the only arguement is about abuse and protectig priests, etc.

Does anyone have a way to neutralize this without sounding insensitive to the issue?
 
Personally I believe that only some of these cases are actual abuse cases and the others are people who have seen the $$ being paid out and are simply scamming the church.

Then you have the media aspect that seems h*ll bent on depicting the Catholic Church in a negative light. Why? Abuse happens every single day, in every country, in ALL faiths…so WHY are the abuse cases of the church so news worthy when the others are not?

Why are people waiting 20-50YEARS to speak up. Why only after someone else says Fr. X did ABC to me do 20 others go…oh yeah…me too?
 
I always mention that the Church has always had sinners within the clergy, beginning with the Apostles: Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus; Peter denied Him three times; the rest, except for St. John, deserted Him like cowards. So, if they insist on judging the Church by the impeccability of its leaders, then they shouldn’t be Christian at all. Or anything. Since no one is perfect.

They also have to realize that the media lies about a lot of this stuff in the way they report it. They report it like it happened yesterday, when in fact, the vast majority of it happened decades ago, some as many as 40-50 years ago! So, to blame the Church in the present tense for things some weak Church leaders did decades ago, is really a lie. They also leave out the fact that decades ago, this is how everyone handled these problems. If a family caught “Uncle Bill” molesting a niece or nephew, it wasn’t splashed all over the front pages. It was handled internally, within the family, and kept quiet. And, truly, many family members of the abused begged the bishops to keep the abuse quiet because they didn’t want their “family name” being bandied about with such shameful acts. The psychiatrists, too, to whom many of these priests were sent, at that time claimed that pedophilia, etc., could be “cured.” Today, they all believe it cannot be cured. But, back then, they sent the priest back with a “clean bill of health, ready for duty.” So, the bishops, not knowing better, move 'em to another parish. Now, the media is looking at what happened decades ago and singling out the Catholic Church, judging Her with a modern viewpoint as to what happened decades ago, when no one really knew how to handle this stuff.

But the media isn’t innocent in this. They are carefully bleeding these stories out, one at a time, to make it seem like a current, on-going problem, and ignoring all the work the Church has done to get control over this problem. They have an agenda, and it’s not from God, I assure you. It’s from Satan, himself. And Satan’s goal is to attack and get rid of the Eucharist by getting rid of the priests. No priest, no Eucharist. No Eucharist, no Jesus. No Jesus, no salvation!
 
idrum677 said:
The abuse crisis has definately discredited may people’s view of the Church and is seems to be used to derail any defense of Church teaching. Whenever the Pope or our Bishops make a staement in the publie square it’s always brough it up.

It seems like the only arguement is about abuse and protectig priests, etc.

Does anyone have a way to neutralize this without sounding insensitive to the issue?
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Two friends just asked me if it lessened my beliefs in the Church. I said yes. When the abuse was first reported, many backed off. Then the Last Supper came to mind and I thought of the first priests…Judas betrayed Him, Thomas and Philip doubted Him, Peter denied Him. It has never been easy. We expect saints and we don’t get them. And others need to google abuse in their own churches. Supposedly, there are 230 abuse reports re. Protestants ministers etc. per year.
 
I suggest you read the thread about the Grand Jury investigation in the Philly archdiocese Here and the Grand Jury report Here if you really think priest abuses are decades old and just trumped up by the media. Please pull your head out of the sand and face what is happening in the Church. Pretending never helped anything.

Cardinal Rigali just suspended 31 of 37 priests identified by the Grand Jury, but NOT until his own special investigator advised him to do so after the GJ report came out. All of the info the GJ looked at was available to the archdiocese and most of it is out of their own files. This same Cardinal testified before the GJ that there were no priests in active ministry who had credible allegations made against them - then had to eat his own sworn words. Is it deceit or the height of incompetence? I don’t know, but neither one speaks well of what is CURRENTLY going on in that archdiocese and children have obviously been KNOWINGLY exposed to risk.

As far as the OP question. I tell people the same thing I tell myself. That the Church is full of sinners and priests and bishops are no exception. That Jesus’s Church will prevail and he will turn this terrible time into a cleansing and renewal for His Church. I also say that I will not let the sinners in the Church turn me away from God nor keep me from the Sacraments.
 
I get by the abuse crisis by stating the Obvious. It was not the Catholic Church that was abusing these Children but sinfull men and there are sinfull men in every sphere of existance. These sinfull people have been abusing people in many other institutions too.
I point out that they are right to be horrified as are the rank and file of the Church who are probably more horrified than they. I will point out that the real Sin in the Church was the Cowardice and lack of proper leadership by another group of sinners who did not have faith in the congregation and God and tried to hide it for political reasons. But now that the secrets are out the Catholic Church is now leading the way in dealing with this issue and I hope the media keeps the spotlight there so it can never happen again. I tell them that this is the real position of Catholics.

If they are serious about looking at the Catholic church ask them to look at the real leader of our Church, Christ and ask them if they feel he is someone they could respect and follow. If yes then ask them why the actions of a few sinfull people should stop them.

I hope this helps

Love and Respect
 
Maureen1125 said:
Personally I believe that only some of these cases are actual abuse cases and the others are people who have seen the $$ being paid out and are simply scamming the church.

Then you have the media aspect that seems h*ll bent on depicting the Catholic Church in a negative light. Why? Abuse happens every single day, in every country, in ALL faiths…so WHY are the abuse cases of the church so news worthy when the others are not?

Why are people waiting 20-50YEARS to speak up. Why only after someone else says Fr. X did ABC to me do 20 others go…oh yeah…me too?
Click to expand...
I would be careful with saying your first statement. It’s really offensive to suggest that a lot of these people are making it up just for money and such an opinion will reflect in a damaging way back on our Church.

The reason the CC was targeted so much is because its a fact that the CC moved these Priests around instead of suspending them immediately. This is not something the CofE has been accused of or shown to have done for example, this alongside the fact that Catholicism is the biggest Christian Church, with the Pope who is also a Head of State and 20% of the world’s population being Catholic… oh as well as a huge Catholic population in the US and in Ireland (and plenty in Briton, let alone Europe)… so of course it’s going to be big news. If this happened in one single Protestant Church then it would be unlikely to be massive news - many Protestant Churches are scattered in small areas and lack a singular image to the public (possibly because of a lack of central control).
 
EWTN’s, “The World Over”, discussed this issue. The invited guests stated that the Church has not heard from the missionary Church,which would be Africa and South America. They feel we have not heard the last re. child sexual abuse by priests. Prepare yourselves…more, apparently, is expected.:mad:
 
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