04-14-2024, 02:23 PM
(04-14-2024, 01:24 PM)samhain Wrote: It's a convenient outcome for the diocese. Priests make little money. The church is loaded.
I was raised in the Catholic Church and sometimes consider returning. Unfortunately, I can't really excuse the abuse that they've no doubt facilitated and all but encouraged.I don't necessarily blame Catholics en masse for the occurrences, but I legit think that the church should have been brought to rubble after these things came to light. If this were some Branch Davidian type cult overseeing these acts, the leaders would have been jailed or shot by federal agents. The church merely gets by due to being too big to fail in some sort of way.
I hate it, because it's almost like admitting that your "family" is deeply flawed on a criminal and disgusting level. It's gross. But it's reality. With the amount of performative dislike for child abuse and pedos that permeates our culture, it's nothing short of collective willful ignorance that the Catholic church continues to survive doing business as usual.
The coverup is in many ways worse, as it enabled continued abuse. Absorbing the short term negative publicity and taking real steps to squash any reoccurrence would have been the smart, and morally correct thing to do. Unfortunately that's hard for many people, hence its unfortunate rarity.
As for returning, I can understand your position. I was raised Episcopalian, but never really felt any real connection to the religion, or religion in general. But I don't have to personally find it important to understand why so many people do.
