How do we defend the sins of the the Church?

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fille_francais

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In the wake of an investigation of my parish priest, there has been alot of bashing of the wrongs the leaders of the Church have committed over the centuries. How do we defend the cover ups of child molestation?
 
  1. We don’t defend the wrongs committed by people. We cooperate with the authorities in punishing those responsible, provide aid and help to those wronged, and work to change procedures in place and erect institutional safeguards to prevent such a thing happening again.
  2. The Church did not commit those wrongs, members of the Church committed those wrongs. In every institution, religious or secular, there are good and bad people. The few evils committed by those in the Church, which are rightly condemned, do not outweigh the enormous good actions taken every day by those in the Catholic Church.
  3. We make sure the allegations are true and supportable. Many are. Many aren’t. Sadly, there are people who will falsify such statements in the hopes of notoriety and personal gain, or will spread false stories to attack the Catholic Church, or will attempt to use the crisis to change the Church in ways that they find politically preferable but which have little to do with the abuse crisis. For those of us who live in America or other countries with due-process guarantees, we recognize that a man is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and that all the truths in a case will never be found in the media’s stories about a particular case. We also consider that insurance company pay-outs may or may not reflect guilt or innocence of an individual, but reflect the underwriters’ decisions about whether they want to pay for the cost of a trial in a politically charged and uncertain environment. A man’s life and reputation may be changed irrevocably because of that actuarial decision.
  4. We defend the Church, not the wrongdoers, by noting that under the leadership of Pope Benedict, the Church has taken far-reaching steps at every level to prevent this from happening again. Many of these are deeply controversial, but are the correct steps to take. As other religious institutions refuse to take these actions, or even move in directions that will make abuse of the young more likely, the actions of Pope Benedict make even more sense.
  5. We also defend the Church, as well as all children, not the wrongdoers, by noting that by focusing solely on the Catholic Church as a problem, the media and society overlook the far greater risks to the abuse of children in the school system, in athletic programs, in the entertainment industry, in other denominations, even in the home - all of which, statistically, offer a far greater risk of abuse to children than the Catholic Church ever did or does.
 
OK…help me with the spanish inquisition. Someone just told me that if I read about it I won’t be Catholic anymore.
 
fille_francais said:
OK…help me with the spanish inquisition. Someone just told me that if I read about it I won’t be Catholic anymore.
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The Spanish Inquisition was horrible…
But the horrible things that they did were not sanctioned by the Church, and were condemned when they discovered the abuses.
It was not the Catholic Church that did this, it was the lunatics in Spain, who happened to be Catholic(Same as Islam is not a religion of terrorism, just a few crazy terrorists hide behind Islam for their actions)
 
TeenageConvert said:
The Spanish Inquisition was horrible…
But the horrible things that they did were not sanctioned by the Church, and were condemned when they discovered the abuses.
It was not the Catholic Church that did this, it was the lunatics in Spain, who happened to be Catholic(Same as Islam is not a religion of terrorism, just a few crazy terrorists hide behind Islam for their actions)
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Can you help me with sources?
 
fille_francais said:
Can you help me with sources?
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Right here on the Catholic Answers site, go to the library and look up This Rock magazine and then do a search on ‘Spanish Inquisition’. There was a very good article on the subject which might help.
 
fille_francais said:
In the wake of an investigation of my parish priest, there has been alot of bashing of the wrongs the leaders of the Church have committed over the centuries. How do we defend the cover ups of child molestation?
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This nonsense. :mad:
 
fille_francais said:
OK…help me with the spanish inquisition. Someone just told me that if I read about it I won’t be Catholic anymore.
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In such cases, ignorance flashes like lightning, while the truth plods along slowly. The Inquisition involved both the Church, and civil governments. Separate their acts as to who did what, and the Church looks much different. Still, we are using 21st century thought applied to centuries earlier religious and political strife. Should I then renounce my American citizenship because of the evil of slavery in the past?
 
mitex said:
This nonsense. :mad:
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Ok…so if I understand correctly, you’re taking issue with the (suggested) notion that Catholics should “defend” the cover-ups?

If so, I agree with you. I think Arizona Mike articulated the Catholic stance quite eloquently in his post.
 
Short answer is: we do not defend any sin. We repent, do penance, and learn from the experience.
 
cjmclark said:
Ok…so if I understand correctly, you’re taking issue with the (suggested) notion that Catholics should “defend” the cover-ups?

If so, I agree with you. I think Arizona Mike articulated the Catholic stance quite eloquently in his post.
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Yes! Thank you. 👍
 
The sins of the members of the Church does not eclipse the truth that the Church teaches.

We need to pray for the sanctification of priests.

It would be great if at Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament there would be standing room only.
 
po18guy said:
Short answer is: we do not defend any sin. We repent, do penance, and learn from the experience.
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Well…perhaps I shouldn’t have said defend. How do we explain it to people who are anxious to put down the church and all the wrongs it’s leaders/hierarchy have done.
 
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