Can you reconcile remaining Catholic?

[Anonymous]

A seminarian lured me into a hotel room at a wedding reception when I was a kid. I quickly understood the situation and got the hell out of dodge. I reported it, but my mom worked for the catholic church and we were encouraged to accept that nothing untoward had happened. And that is basically true because I was able to figure it out and flee. We had a catholic wedding, etc, but I can't bring myself to raise my kids catholic bc it's such a perverse and sexualized environment for kids. People can make their own choices based on their own perceptions. I don't condemn anyone for being catholic- they must have a different experience than me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These crimes happen in every church - the abuse and the cover up. It's horrible and inexcusable, and has no influence on my ability to reconcile with the decision to remain Catholic.

Can you provide a source that the systemic, institutionalized abuse and cover up exists in other religions?

Is there another religion where a priest/preacher raped a kid then forced the kid to confess their sin to the predator? This level of physical abuse and psychological torture happening while the Catholic hierarchy looks the other way or actively covers up known abuses is sickening.

And yes, there were priests that forced their victims to go to confession after they raped them.

I’ve heard many Catholics cling to this idea that there are pedophiles and rapists of all religions. That is true, but there is no other mainstream Christian Church that has been protecting the abusers and covering up their crimes for decades. I’m done. Nothing will change until Catholics stand up for their own children and leave the Catholic church.

I completely agree.

My mom was raised Catholic, went to 12 years of Catholic school (pre and right after Vatican II) and, after marrying my Jewish Dad, decided to raise my sister and me Jewish because she understood Judaism (in the way we were raised -- Reform) teaches greater respect for women and minorities, and does not have the systemic child abuse the Catholic Church has. That's certainly not to say there aren't creepy Rabbis--there are--but Judaism isn't organized via a secretive hierarchy that enables systemic abuse. It has other issues, but that's not one of them.

being jewish is an upgrade.

it is the most intellectual of religions and you get access to great networks in finance, law, and media.

Welcome to the thread, DCUM’s Jew-Who-Hates-Catholics!

[Anonymous]

I hate to say it, but priests abusing kids is not a strictly catholic thing.
It gets the majority of the public attention because it is a big church, the media also tends to be more sensitive to how they write about minority religions

[Anonymous]

Nytimes page 1 article on sustained sex abuse at hotchkiss school.

[Anonymous]

Talk about the Catholics- ever see a bris?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brit_milah

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talk about the Catholics- ever see a bris?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brit_milah

I don’t want to post links- you can google it easily- they got lots of Jewish boys getting herpes from mouth to genital contact during the bris.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A large part of the problem are repulsive apologists like the execrable Bill Donohue.

https://ascienceenthusiast.com/catholic-league-president-says-its-not-rape-if-the-child-isnt-penetrated/

The combination of minimizing the abuse, blaming of gay priests, ignoring the many girls and women victimized, and conflating of grooming and intergenerational abuse with being gay-it's all disgusting.

This comprehensive list of accused, charged, convicted priests is just unbearable: http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbydiocese.html#PA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Talk about the Catholics- ever see a bris?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brit_milah

I don’t want to post links- you can google it easily- they got lots of Jewish boys getting herpes from mouth to genital contact during the bris.

WHAT?! I swear organized religion is evil!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will stay because now I am motivated to be part of the solution. Many in the church hierarchy have admitted that they need the help of the laity and law enforcement to help them address the damage done by those who should have never been there to begin with. They know they need to clean house. They are finally admitting they need support to do it. There are good, faithful, holy priests. Men who accepted the vocation with all that it asks of them and they do their job well. My heart hurts for them. (Much like my heart hurts for my law enforcement husband who gets painted with the brush of every arrogant, hot-headed, power hungry cop who abuses his power and bring shame to the force. Yet many in the police brotherhood protect those who bring shame!) NO! Stand up! Be strong enough to speak up! I really do believe in this Church begun by Jesus through Peter. Evil, sinful men may have damaged it, but they will not break my faith in what I believe to be true. They will not break my will to do what Jesus would do. Oddly their sin is what has sparked me to now be more than a passive churchgoer. I want to fix my church to make amends to those who have been hurt and to support the faithful who want to, and WILL, do good.

Let me state this clearly. THEY RAPED YOUR CHILDREN! THOSE IN CHARGE KNEW THEY WERE RAPING YOUR CHILDREN AND THEY NOT ONLY PROTECTED THEM BUT MOVED THEM SO THEY COULD RAPE MORE CHILDREN. This was going on for decades and by the thousands and NOT ONE, NOT ONE priest or nun said “I don’t care what the bosses say, this is an abomination. I am going to put the welfare of the child ahead of the church and go to the authorities!” NOT ONE!!! If everyone in Hollywood knew that there was at least something hinky about Harvey Weinstein, I find it hard to believe that all these ‘good’ priests had no idea at all that this kind of stuff was going on. They had to at least have suspicions and talk - they are a tight group. And this new openness is just because they finally got caught. If they were genuinely good people they would open up all of their records, all of them and treat the priests with at least the same scorn they like to heap upon the divorced. The fact that no one spoke up and so many are still not willing to leave tells me that this truly is a cult. No different than Scientology or Jim Jones. How much more are you willing to sacrifice at the feet of the Pope?

[Anonymous]

Everyone should protest. Children's lives matter.

[Anonymous]

We already completely left ten years ago. We were already lukewarm at best, but found a priest to marry us and baptize kids who we were honest with and he was supportive, He had worked in secular Europe for 20 years and had married atheists. We really liked him. He had since passed.

When it was time to start CCD almost ten years ago, I had to ask myself if we were in or out and I decided out. No regrets. We live in a catholic area, I explained to kids and they seem to understand. I’m still a spiritual person, I told them if they ever want to explore together, I would with them.

Especially after this latest news, I don’t want to set an example of blind allegiance to anything whether it be a religion, political party or a toxic marriage, friendship etc.

You really have to question, were we all brainwashed??

By the way, I don’t believe that priests have magical powers for transubstantiation. How did they get that? A masters in divinity? I have a graduate degree as well....

Good luck to everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate to say it, but priests abusing kids is not a strictly catholic thing.
It gets the majority of the public attention because it is a big church, the media also tends to be more sensitive to how they write about minority religions

Do you think the fact that abuse happens in other religions minimizes the crimes of the catholic church? It would seem that is the point of your post you disgusting, garbage human being.

[Anonymous]

As soon as I see stuff like this video my first thought is ‘ no, you can’t ‘sleep’ with people unless you’re a promiscuous cardinal or unless you want to abuse young boys’. I sent my DD to a Catholic school even but I’m happy that she came out of it smart enough to not blindly follow this kind of thing. Seriously - she can spend the night with her long term BF when she wants and there’s nothing wrong with that - there would be something wrong with her not doing that as I don’t want her to settle down with someone she doesn’t know.
The Catholic Church should 100% get out of people’s bedrooms!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xff4iDFMDb4

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate to say it, but priests abusing kids is not a strictly catholic thing.
It gets the majority of the public attention because it is a big church, the media also tends to be more sensitive to how they write about minority religions

Do you think the fact that abuse happens in other religions minimizes the crimes of the catholic church? It would seem that is the point of your post you disgusting, garbage human being.

Part of religion is controlling people and that often leads to abuse! She’s not a bad person for pointing that out.

[Anonymous]

I am struggling with it. I am a male so all these news events truly bother me. Although I never did any of it.