(March 22, 2011 at 5:59 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I guess my question is how can you still call yourself a
Quote:Roman Catholic
after all the despicable conduct of those sanctimonious bastards?
Maybe you should give a little thought to that?
Thank your for your comment.
Yes--yes I should definitely give thought to that--of course, I'm also a school-teacher, after hearing about countless (much higher rate, actually) abuses of children by them. Thankfully, that doesn't actually destroy what the profession is supposed to be--it just affects what people who watch the news for their understanding of it, think of in connection with it.
Being Roman Catholic means, despite the press which is far from impartial here: standing with the ancient body that has protected and put forth more statements about the dignity of the human individual, the need for mutual respect and cooperation, and the inherent worth of all life, than any other in the history of man. And not only statements of words, but deeds--the Catholic Church feeds and clothes and tends to more poor and sick than any other institution in the world--she backs up her bill. Even more--she hasn't contradicted her official teaching for 2000 years--the expressions and rituals of the Church may have been updated, but the foundation has never been contradicted. If anyone ever showed me undeniably that it had, I wouldn't be Catholic. But I sure as heck wouldn't leave over somebody acting like a jerk, who calls themselves Catholic--even if that person were a higher-up...because the Catholic Church is an institution and a religion, not a breakfast club you pick just for the company. You're always going to have people--sometimes even a LOT, who just plain ignore the rules they profess. They're called hypocrites, and they're hypocrites exactly because they do NOT give a good example of what they believe...to hear us talk in the news nowadays, you'd think that Sodomy, Pedophilia, and Cover-Ups are what the Catholic Church endorses and believes. Sheesh. It's happened before in every religious body around the globe, and, God help us, its going to continue to tempt people--you've just got to say no do hurting other people and falsifying your integrity. Some do, some don't. But just because some don't that doesn't change the meaning of the word integrity, or make the creed of Catholicism false.
If you or any other person take examples of a couple, a dozen or a hundred of play-acting priests who don't know what it means to do their job, and who consciously actually go against everything the profession stands for--if you try to dress that up as "The Church" you are doing yourself and the Church and the world that listens to you, a grave disservice. Believe what they do or not, their insitution is the foundation of most of our legal individual rights (the valuing of the individual based on the idea he or she is in the image of God). Even today, they continue to embody (albeit, including an idea of the supernatural) everything an Atheist Utopian dreamer could come up with for the affirmation of natural human dignity and individual rights. That's not an accident.
So no...I don't let sanctimonious hypocrites play the red-herring and distract me from the chief concern--whether or not Catholicism is true. And this comes from a person who has friends and teachers who have been abused by priests. I know its there. I also know that they're human--and being Catholic is no guarantee of being a Saint--its just the road that's given us to walk. And I believe its the right road.
JMJ
