I'm not Catholic. But I agree with Nicholas Kristoff that much of what the church base--the nuns and priests and aren't involved with the scandal--does is "deeply inspiring":

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/nicholas-d-kristof-nuns-rock-as-do-so-many-who-serve-at-the-grassroots-of-the-catholic-church-245411/

He talks about two Catholic churches. I'm pretty sure that none of you will bother to click on the link. But I felt I had to post it anyway.

Faced with the choice of protecting the most vulnerable entrusted to them or looking out for their own good name, they took care of the latter every single time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There were 3 child abuse cases in MCPS this year. Why do you continue to support mongomery county?

Because they didn't cover it up and try to shuffle the teachers off to another school where they could continue abusing for decades.
Does that answer your question?

+1000

Amazing to me that there are still people that don't get this. Including the majority of the Church hierarchy, apparently.

Anonymous wrote:According to the Catholic Church, a woman seeking priesthood is punishable by excommunication, but raping, molesting, and abusing children is not. Chew on that one for a minute.

I mean is this really supposed to be a "moral" institution? Are you effing kidding me?

Sure, but as they'll tell you, people are fallible. Meanwhile, we've just elected a Pope who was a collaborator with the murderous military junta in Argentina during the infamous "Dirty War". The new pope's excuse is that lots of people were collaborators as well. And that the two priests who he ratted out (and possibly abetted in the torture thereof) have since forgiven him.

No word on why neither of these two priests and who demonstrated great moral courage during that time is now Pope.

Anonymous wrote:Not excusing the priest scandal at all-- but somehow we forget that there is a higher percentage of pedophile/child sex abusers in our public schools and no one shines a light in those people at all.

Cite?

Anonymous wrote:There were 3 child abuse cases in MCPS this year. Why do you continue to support mongomery county?

Because they didn't cover it up and try to shuffle the teachers off to another school where they could continue abusing for decades.
Does that answer your question?

There were 3 child abuse cases in MCPS this year. Why do you continue to support mongomery county?

I left for these reasons but I almost regret it. I lost my community, my children's school, my traditions, my foundation. Majority of Catholics I know are loving, open minded and def think the church is way too old school but stay anyway because they love their community. However, I strongly suspect one of my sons is gay and I don't want him to be a.) in a community that doesn't accept his lifestyle (even though I know many of the individual's of the community will do nothing but support and embrace him) and b.) I don't want a young, confused gay preteen to be victimized by a priest, bc frankly that seems to be their target audience. I miss the mass, the hymns, the coffee and donuts afterwards, my kids school which is the same one where both my husband and I attended (and where we met), I miss fish frys, midnight mass on Christmas Eve, and coaching in the sport leagues. I come from a very Irish family and my husband is 100 percent Italian and in both these cultures Catholism is very important. I realize many church's offer similar experiences and I have been poking around here and there and hope to eventually find another community. I feel strongly about my choice but I would never judge a anyone who stays and it certainly doesn't mean they support child molestation, in fact they are most likely extremely hurt and devastated, as every Catholic I know is.

According to the Catholic Church, a woman seeking priesthood is punishable by excommunication, but raping, molesting, and abusing children is not. Chew on that one for a minute.

I mean is this really supposed to be a "moral" institution? Are you effing kidding me?

And according to Pope Francis, gay adoption is child abuse.

It's like rain on your wedding day.

Not excusing the priest scandal at all-- but somehow we forget that there is a higher percentage of pedophile/child sex abusers in our public schools and no one shines a light in those people at all.

Also, to add to my post^^^, the overwhelming majority of people who had their kids in Catholic school were doing it to give their kids a private school education for less than 10,000 a year per child. They got decent enough teachers (not great), an insular community (the religious element kept a fair amount of behavior in check), and a very well edited class size and student profile (disruptive or troubled kids were asked to leave, sometimes mid year). I don't think most of parents really were sending kids there to teach them about Jesus....

I worked at a Catholic school. The school was staffed by secular people, largely married women with kids of their own. The priest appeared a few times a year to do mass and give rah rah talks. They had many rules in place to prevent abuse. All of the doors in the school had windows, for example.

Legitimate question: why do parents continue to send their kids to Catholic Schools after this? We wondered this as there are two very well known Catholic private schools near our home...
The abuse doesn't seem to just be in certain areas... it seems to be an epidemic in the religion- spanning many cities and countries, and all types of areas within the religion- in the church itself, it its schools, in its events.
The lack of prosecution is such a huge issue that, as a parent, I cannot for the life of me figure out how Catholic parents are in effect condoning this by continuing to support these institutions.

How can anyone, especially a mother, continue to be a part of an organization capable of this:

http://www.kcet.org/shows/socal_connected/content/religion/la-used-as-experiment-and-revolving-door-in-dealing-with-pedophile-priests.html