Catholics: How do you still justify going to church or being a part of the church?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not Catholic, but I would guess that many Catholics see the church, flawed as it may be, as the way to God.

Even so, it wouldn't mean that the Catholic church is the only way to God.

If you are Catholic, then by definition it is.

Not really -- people leave the Catholic church to follow other paths all the time. Some people stay in the Catholic church despite the pedophilia scandals because they feel at home there and because they have found ways to overlook the scandals and justify their position.

If pedophilia (but really more often like whatever that similar abuse is called when applied to adolescents), then we should also be getting kids out of organized sports and public schools too. Those are supposed to be safe havens for children too, and were often a means for getting/keeping them off the street. Hypocrites are everywhere you look.

+1. Do we give up our citizenship because of the United States’ genocide against the Native Americans? Or the enslavement of Africans? Or more recently the immoral wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc. that led to millions of deaths of innocents? No. You work to repair and reform what went wrong. People are flawed, sometimes immensely so.

This is a terrible comparison -- leaving a country vs leaving a church. It's incredibly simple to leave a church and find another, very similar one, without uprooting yourself.

In both cases , you can continue to work to reform the offending institution.

NP. For some people, church is very important.

These people can belong to a church that is not as corrupt as the Roman Catholic Church is known to be.

[Anonymous]

Still no answer to why President Biden and his family, who are Catholic and attend Catholic Church, are ok to be Catholic but the regular people Catholics are the bad guys. Dimes to doughnuts the outraged on this thread voted for Biden.

[Anonymous]

There's pedos EVERYWHERE.

I prefer Catholicism for my family, and I'm not even Catholic personally, to subjugating myself and my family to alternate moral systems of relativism, secular humanism, or environmentalism.

[Anonymous]

I was raised Episcopalian and it's really very, very close to Catholicism. I call Episcopalians "compromise Catholics" -- the ones in my family are the product of Catholic-Protestant marriages. None of the coverups of child molestation, all of the High Church pomp and elegance (and real wine at Communion as a bonus).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not Catholic, but I would guess that many Catholics see the church, flawed as it may be, as the way to God.

Even so, it wouldn't mean that the Catholic church is the only way to God.

If you are Catholic, then by definition it is.

Not really -- people leave the Catholic church to follow other paths all the time. Some people stay in the Catholic church despite the pedophilia scandals because they feel at home there and because they have found ways to overlook the scandals and justify their position.

If pedophilia (but really more often like whatever that similar abuse is called when applied to adolescents), then we should also be getting kids out of organized sports and public schools too. Those are supposed to be safe havens for children too, and were often a means for getting/keeping them off the street. Hypocrites are everywhere you look.

+1. Do we give up our citizenship because of the United States’ genocide against the Native Americans? Or the enslavement of Africans? Or more recently the immoral wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc. that led to millions of deaths of innocents? No. You work to repair and reform what went wrong. People are flawed, sometimes immensely so.

This is a terrible comparison -- leaving a country vs leaving a church. It's incredibly simple to leave a church and find another, very similar one, without uprooting yourself.

In both cases , you can continue to work to reform the offending institution.

NP. For some people, church is very important.

These people can belong to a church that is not as corrupt as the Roman Catholic Church is known to be.

I would say that the difficulty is less like leaving a country and more like cutting off your parents. For some people, that isn’t a big deal, and for some it would be devastating. Saying that you should just find some new old people to hang out with is kind of ridiculous though.

What’s it to you, anyway?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I voted for Biden without any problem with his being Catholic. He understands the difference between church and state and doesn’t try to impose his religious views on others. I don’t care what religion a politician is, as long as they don’t base their political decisions on their religious dogma.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a pp and am not Catholic. I have been happily married to my first husband for many years and am currently a grandmother. I have no feelings of guilt relating to behaviors frowned on by the church.

My objections to the Catholic Church come from their incessant attempts at blurring the line separating church and state. These include their history of ignoring abuse of children, as well as trying to halt distribution of birth control and working to criminalize abortion, including in pregnancies of children as young as 10 resulting from incest and in trying to force women to carry a pregnancy even at risk to her own health.

It is one thing for a church to ask its own followers to adhere to its rules, it is another to force your religion down the throats of the of the rest of us.

I have to disagree with you. I only respect being pro-life if you are willing to work at trying to criminalize abortion. Otherwise, it’s just dogma, and I don’t believe that you believe in it.

Imagine that they set the time frame to something that you don’t agree with, like say, two years old. Let’s say that people said that an infant doesn’t have a personality and isn’t really fully human as a toddler. So, on your way to work, you see people walking hand in hand with their toddler on their way to have them euthanized. You would fight against that, right? You would try to make it illegal, right?
So, if people really believe that a fetus is the same as a human life, and that having an abortion isn’t any different than euthanizing an older child, then they SHOULD be fighting against it.

Not many people are really doing this. So, I don’t believe they really think of a fetus as a child. So, what’s it all about? Why would you go hold a sign once a year, then ignore it the rest of the time?

The problem isn’t the few people who are working to make it illegal. The problem is the tens of millions that kind of half-heartedly follow without considering the consequences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Still no answer to why President Biden and his family, who are Catholic and attend Catholic Church, are ok to be Catholic but the regular people Catholics are the bad guys. Dimes to doughnuts the outraged on this thread voted for Biden.

Catholic here. No one mentioned that regular Catholics are bad people. People (myself including) are talking about the hierarchy and leadership in the church. People are discussing child abuse and the toxicity within the church. I commented earlier that I am considering to exit the church. It is not because I do not love Catholics because I very much do. Regular Catholics (lay people) are some of the best people that I know, however the church (the leadership) has neglected to address pedophilia within the church besides a slap on the wrist.

You are the one who continues to bring up President Biden. Stick to the topic. What does President Biden have to do with pedophiles within the church? You are trying to stir the pot and turn this into a Democrat versus Republican scenario. I am pretty sure that we are all in agreement that child abuse in wrong no matter what political party you associate with. I am definitely furious about how the church has not dealt with the rampant pedophilia. Heck, who cares if I voted for Biden or Trump. Who I voted for as president of the USA has no correlation to my outrage against child abuse.

By the way Catholics can be Republicans, Democrats, and everything in between. That's the beauty of this country people are allowed to worship any religion as they please no matter what political party they align themselves with including our president.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Still no answer to why President Biden and his family, who are Catholic and attend Catholic Church, are ok to be Catholic but the regular people Catholics are the bad guys. Dimes to doughnuts the outraged on this thread voted for Biden.

Catholic here. No one mentioned that regular Catholics are bad people. People (myself including) are talking about the hierarchy and leadership in the church. People are discussing child abuse and the toxicity within the church. I commented earlier that I am considering to exit the church. It is not because I do not love Catholics because I very much do. Regular Catholics (lay people) are some of the best people that I know, however the church (the leadership) has neglected to address pedophilia within the church besides a slap on the wrist.

You are the one who continues to bring up President Biden. Stick to the topic. What does President Biden have to do with pedophiles within the church? You are trying to stir the pot and turn this into a Democrat versus Republican scenario. I am pretty sure that we are all in agreement that child abuse in wrong no matter what political party you associate with. I am definitely furious about how the church has not dealt with the rampant pedophilia. Heck, who cares if I voted for Biden or Trump. Who I voted for as president of the USA has no correlation to my outrage against child abuse.

By the way Catholics can be Republicans, Democrats, and everything in between. That's the beauty of this country people are allowed to worship any religion as they please no matter what political party they align themselves with including our president.

Then just apply the same standards you apply to President Biden and Nancy Pelosi to regular Catholics and op’s question is answered in full.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Still no answer to why President Biden and his family, who are Catholic and attend Catholic Church, are ok to be Catholic but the regular people Catholics are the bad guys. Dimes to doughnuts the outraged on this thread voted for Biden.

Catholic here. No one mentioned that regular Catholics are bad people. People (myself including) are talking about the hierarchy and leadership in the church. People are discussing child abuse and the toxicity within the church. I commented earlier that I am considering to exit the church. It is not because I do not love Catholics because I very much do. Regular Catholics (lay people) are some of the best people that I know, however the church (the leadership) has neglected to address pedophilia within the church besides a slap on the wrist.

You are the one who continues to bring up President Biden. Stick to the topic. What does President Biden have to do with pedophiles within the church? You are trying to stir the pot and turn this into a Democrat versus Republican scenario. I am pretty sure that we are all in agreement that child abuse in wrong no matter what political party you associate with. I am definitely furious about how the church has not dealt with the rampant pedophilia. Heck, who cares if I voted for Biden or Trump. Who I voted for as president of the USA has no correlation to my outrage against child abuse.

By the way Catholics can be Republicans, Democrats, and everything in between. That's the beauty of this country people are allowed to worship any religion as they please no matter what political party they align themselves with including our president.

Then just apply the same standards you apply to President Biden and Nancy Pelosi to regular Catholics and op’s question is answered in full.

Disagree: Political standards and religious standards are different. Catholicism has rules that are frequently broken or disdained by many good, practicing Catholics. People are drawn to and remain in Catholicism for more than rules and often in spite of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a pp and am not Catholic. I have been happily married to my first husband for many years and am currently a grandmother. I have no feelings of guilt relating to behaviors frowned on by the church.

My objections to the Catholic Church come from their incessant attempts at blurring the line separating church and state. These include their history of ignoring abuse of children, as well as trying to halt distribution of birth control and working to criminalize abortion, including in pregnancies of children as young as 10 resulting from incest and in trying to force women to carry a pregnancy even at risk to her own health.

It is one thing for a church to ask its own followers to adhere to its rules, it is another to force your religion down the throats of the of the rest of us.

I have to disagree with you. I only respect being pro-life if you are willing to work at trying to criminalize abortion. Otherwise, it’s just dogma, and I don’t believe that you believe in it.

Imagine that they set the time frame to something that you don’t agree with, like say, two years old. Let’s say that people said that an infant doesn’t have a personality and isn’t really fully human as a toddler. So, on your way to work, you see people walking hand in hand with their toddler on their way to have them euthanized. You would fight against that, right? You would try to make it illegal, right?
So, if people really believe that a fetus is the same as a human life, and that having an abortion isn’t any different than euthanizing an older child, then they SHOULD be fighting against it.

Not many people are really doing this. So, I don’t believe they really think of a fetus as a child. So, what’s it all about? Why would you go hold a sign once a year, then ignore it the rest of the time?

The problem isn’t the few people who are working to make it illegal. The problem is the tens of millions that kind of half-heartedly follow without considering the consequences.

All of society agrees that it’s wrong to kill children, but there is no such consensus that abortion is wrong. In this situation, you are imposing your religious beliefs on others. And, what’s next? When are you going to start criminalizing forms of birth control you don’t like (or maybe all birth control) and in vitro fertilization?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a pp and am not Catholic. I have been happily married to my first husband for many years and am currently a grandmother. I have no feelings of guilt relating to behaviors frowned on by the church.

My objections to the Catholic Church come from their incessant attempts at blurring the line separating church and state. These include their history of ignoring abuse of children, as well as trying to halt distribution of birth control and working to criminalize abortion, including in pregnancies of children as young as 10 resulting from incest and in trying to force women to carry a pregnancy even at risk to her own health.

It is one thing for a church to ask its own followers to adhere to its rules, it is another to force your religion down the throats of the of the rest of us.

I have to disagree with you. I only respect being pro-life if you are willing to work at trying to criminalize abortion. Otherwise, it’s just dogma, and I don’t believe that you believe in it.

Imagine that they set the time frame to something that you don’t agree with, like say, two years old. Let’s say that people said that an infant doesn’t have a personality and isn’t really fully human as a toddler. So, on your way to work, you see people walking hand in hand with their toddler on their way to have them euthanized. You would fight against that, right? You would try to make it illegal, right?
So, if people really believe that a fetus is the same as a human life, and that having an abortion isn’t any different than euthanizing an older child, then they SHOULD be fighting against it.

Not many people are really doing this. So, I don’t believe they really think of a fetus as a child. So, what’s it all about? Why would you go hold a sign once a year, then ignore it the rest of the time?

The problem isn’t the few people who are working to make it illegal. The problem is the tens of millions that kind of half-heartedly follow without considering the consequences.

All of society agrees that it’s wrong to kill children, but there is no such consensus that abortion is wrong. In this situation, you are imposing your religious beliefs on others. And, what’s next? When are you going to start criminalizing forms of birth control you don’t like (or maybe all birth control) and in vitro fertilization?

1). You don’t know what all of society agrees on. You happen to have a popular opinion. That doesn’t mean that everyone agrees with you.

2). You are misunderstanding m post. I am not pro-life. I also don’t think that most pro-life supporters believe what they profess to believe. (ie. that a fetus is a child). I think that most just like the opportunity to control and shame young women.