The Catholic Church is out of cash???
- Thread starter trisket
- Start date
The good thing about him though is that, unlike some of the warmongers on this board, he's actually been in Vietnam and knows what it's like to be in hell.
I am trying to understand the logic of the original poster. Was the intention to bash the RC church or to report facts? The facts unfortunately were tainted with his obvious anti-RC opinion. Dont get me wrong, I dont support that church, but I also dont support bashing any religion.
May you all hobby in peace brothers and sisters!
May you all hobby in peace brothers and sisters!
Having previously worked in the development offices of a few Catholic Colleges I can say most of what people think about the operating functions of the Catholic Church is usually wrong. Unless a priest or a bishop is an outright heretic there's very little the Vatican can make them do. Even the local bishop cannot just take money from a local parish.
The Catholic Church only runs from the top in regards to theology. In how the Church functions it works from the bottom up.
People say, "Why don't they just sell off the property?" Well, problem is some of the property the Church has was willed to them for a specific purpose and they legally aren't allowed to sell it for profit.
Secondly, simply closing local churches is a huge problem. Boston is still in court because parishioners sued the Bishop for closing their parishes.
As for how many priests are molestors? The John Jay Report findings said 4%.
As for the general population, one expert in pedophilia, Dr. John Bradford, "estimates its [pedophilia's] prevalence at maybe four percent of the population" (John Cloud, "Pedophilia," Time, April 29, 2002).
The Catholic Church only runs from the top in regards to theology. In how the Church functions it works from the bottom up.
People say, "Why don't they just sell off the property?" Well, problem is some of the property the Church has was willed to them for a specific purpose and they legally aren't allowed to sell it for profit.
Secondly, simply closing local churches is a huge problem. Boston is still in court because parishioners sued the Bishop for closing their parishes.
As for how many priests are molestors? The John Jay Report findings said 4%.
As for the general population, one expert in pedophilia, Dr. John Bradford, "estimates its [pedophilia's] prevalence at maybe four percent of the population" (John Cloud, "Pedophilia," Time, April 29, 2002).
While I 't can't really support the no-marriage policy the RC Church has for priests it's not really a concern of mine (although I do think it contributes to this issue). I do have a problem with the cover-up the RC Church has perpetrated at the cost of more children being molested to help the RC Church save face. I wonder if one could use the RICO laws to prosecute the Church for obstruction.....ocean976124 said:
OTB
OTB
This I agree in many ways is the more serious of the problems. Not that I'm excusing the pedophila, there are, however, bad eggs in many baskets. However, the the systematic cover-ups and shell games that were played, the failure to report to the police, and most importantly the failure to protect future victims were all far from the standards that any denomination should be attempting to met.onthebottom said:
I will say that "now that the horse has been stolen" most denominations currently have addopted policies which are designed to attempt to prevent this sort of conduct. And many States have adopted mandatory reporting policies.
One of the problems was that Bishops and Archbishops, Abbots etc. . . weren't honest with each other, pawning off their problem children and never warning that this person was unsuitable for either parish ministry or any ministry involving children. . .DonQuixote said:
The cover up is indeed the issue. But the problem is not always one of malice. Many of them just had no idea what the hell they were dealing with.onthebottom said:
Secondly, any time you have a group of people dedicated to a cause there is always a kind of "us vs. the world" mentality that takes place. Be it politicians, cops, teachers, etc. They begin to feel that most people are just looking for an excuse to attack them so they try to hide the dirty laundry.
There's no single reason it happened just as there's no single reason cover-ups continue to happen in many professions.
But the Catholic Church does not exist as a single entity, nor does even any one diocese. The bishops in the dioceses the colleges I worked in were in couldn't just take money from a parish and give it to my colleges....
And actually in most places (but not all) each individual parish is a single corporation legally unconnected to the other parishes...DonQuixote said:
