With all due respect there are many people who were raised Catholics who are anti-Catholic. They either were not raised with a proper understanding of the Church or have been convinced that it is wrong. If you disagree with what the Church teaches that is fine but if you misrepresent what it teaches and/or attack it with malice then…yes there is a problem with it. Bill Maher is guilty on both accounts.

I actually agree with you that religions should not hate but that doesn’t mean that we all have to agree with each other either.

Religion in general doesn’t hate… quite the opposite… it is people who hate.
Some of the most nasty groups out there in the last century have been atheistic/communist regimes.

I think thoes sunglasses are keeping him in the dark.

Fight the good fight, brother!

Thanks for the timely clarification and the insightful analysis.

Where did you get the sweet sunglasses and how much are they? Some of the readers might want a pair.

Thanks for commenting. I am a Catholic revert. I too personally wish for Christian Unity, however, I do think we may have some differences on what true unity is. I do believe that we as Christians should strive for unity with one another and that it is shameful the lack of unity within the Church. Many “Christians” do not consider Catholics to be Christians. Many try as hard as they can to take Catholics out of the Church. I have seen the ugly face of anti Catholicism since I have returned to the Church, both on a personal level and publicly(The topic of this post is an example of secular anti Catholicism. I have seen both secular and sectarian anti Catholicism).

Doctrine is and always has been important to the Church. Jesus is truth and therefore false doctrine cannot and should not be accepted. The Church should not compromise its identity just for the sake of a “superficial” unity. Unity should be a unity in truth as Jesus is the truth. Having said this, I do believe that non catholic Christians are Christian and can be saved, just as the Church teaches.

Pope Benedict XVI’s address to other Christian leaders is a good source on what true ecumenisim should be and how it should be approached.

http://discoverthefaith.com/2008/04/19/pope-benedict-xvis-address-to-christian-leaders-at-st-josephs-church/

Could you please elaborate on the change you want to see in the Church? You can post it here or send it to the email address on the contact us tab if you would like.

God Bless

Chris

asimplesinner was right. The posts were in the spam queue. I just got back from work and released them. Thanks for providing the links.

I will look at them when I get a chance. I do think that we can agree that it was shameful that priests, who were supposed to shepherd and protect their flock, engaged in these reprehensible activities. It was sinful and dispcable behavior. It was also tragic and misguided what some of the bishops did. Some were given poor advice and some made bad decision. I just don’t believe that there was some sinister program by the church to initiate a cover up of such epic proportions. I do appreciate other peoples opinions on the matter and it does educate us all to hear them.

The one major difference that I can see between the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and the problems that occured at the compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints(FLDS) is that the behaviour of the priests is not morally acceptable by the Catholic Church. It is considered sinful behavior by the Church. In the FLDS, the behavior stems from doctrinal beliefs in plural marriage and arranged marriage. It seems that many of the adherants did not consider what was going on to be problematic. It was doctrinally acceptable behavior. It was part of the religion. This is just my opinion.

God Bless

Adding links to a combox can get them caught there… There they are saved until the moderator approves them…

Janet

It always harms victims to tell them they must keep silent about sexual assault. Please remember that Cardinal Ratzinger released this in 2001: by that time, it was well known that victims need to be free to talk about the abuse in order to heal. But that is not the church’s main concern. They have always been more interested in protecting their image than in protecting their members.

We will have to agree to disagree. I am still grateful to Bill Maher for pointing out the grave injustice when, in the same week when one religious group was held responsible for sexual abuse, the head of another religious group where many more have been abused was exalted.

Janet

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20010518_epistula_graviora%20delicta_lt.html

Here is a link to an article by Jimmy Akin on the subject.

http://jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2005/04/observe_this.html

Some try to say this is proof of an intentional coverup while in reality it was used to protect all those involved in these types of allegations. I am sure there are those who mishandled it and for that we all as Catholics are sorry and ashamed, but to say what Mr. Maher said was going too far.

I do believe that society as a whole has been over sexualized to the point where this behavior is prevelent in all sectors of society. The public school systems are notorious for the amount of sexual abuse that goes on in them.

The Church has made many changes when it comes to protecting children. I volunteered to help with the National Catholic Youth Conference just last year and had to go through hoops before I could participate. Figerprints were required. Background checks were done. Everyone had to take a class or classes on the subject of abuse. Progress has been made.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimen_sollicitationis

God Bless,

Chris

Have a good weekend!
Janet

Like a simple sinner I do ask if you have sources for the this document and where to find it. I do wonder how could Pope Bendict release this document in 1962 when he was not even a Bishop, let alone the Pope? Could you elaborate on that? Mr. Maher made direct accusations against the Pope in this regard.

God Bless,

Chris