I thinks its very unfair to say that priests are all a pack of.......
I know many decent priests who work very hard but find themselves tarred with the same brush as these child abusers.
I would recommend that if there are people out there who believe in a god or gods and think that This post will be deleted if not edited immediately was a pretty decent bloke who made some very sensible points then they should become Protestants.
There's a wide variety of Protestants - from High Church Anglicans who do all sorts of mumbo-jumbo Roman Catholic type stuff (Crossing themselves, swinging smelly stuff around, lots of gaudy outfits, idols etc) to the most austere Presbyterian/Methodist - no ornaments, one sombre black outfit for priests -sorry,ministers.
Really, with such a wide choice of types of worship, there is no reason for so-called Christians to remain in the R.C. Church -and if some Irish people can't stomach the idea of attending Protestant services for atavistic historic reasons ther's now a few Orthodox churches available -really colourful and as incomprehensible as when the R.C. priests did their stuff in Latin.
Actually Purple you don't have to be a Christian or even believe in gods to join your local CoI church. In Ireland,
In my job I have very close dealings with priests and the parish and I have dealt with many good/bad/indifferent priests in my time but I've come to the realisation that the party line is their mantra and christian values etc. are overlooked if necessary.
Some priests that I thought were the salt of the earth turned out not to be. The latest parish priest I'm dealing with hasn't got a humane bone in his body. He makes very disparaging remarks about the children I teach/their families and he is in no way compassionate towards people.
Just for the record ... when I said a pack of ... I didn't mean child abusers I meant more like shysters ..... for many different reasons - the priest who lacks basic compassion (a priest who can confide in me whilst whispering out loud that he doesn't like a certain child in my class within earshot of said child etc. ), the priest who tells an 80 year old woman to stay at home from mass, the priest who is a regular dink driver .... and so on.
I have no time for priests anymore (as a collective) because of the far from priestly views and traits they show.
While I was growing up I saw/was taught that priests were infallible and I was led to believe that priests were one group guaranteed a place in heaven ... 'tis far from heaven's gate a lot of them are I'm afraid.
Cardinal Brady, if he had any sense of moral duty, would have resigned long ago. But no ... he'll hang on and the Vatican will back him. Power, power, power .... so unlike the This post will be deleted if not edited immediately I teach about in my religion class.
I was raised a Catholic but I have no more feeling for it anymore. I do my duty in school - I teach religion and I prepare the children for the sacraments as would be expected of me ... but personally I'll take my chances when I die ... if there is a God he can judge me on my deeds and not on whether I was a good, loyal member of his club on earth .... a club run by shysters that I don't want to be part of.
I am thinking of joining in London if I did it in Ireland some of my connservative Catholic family would probably disown me.
but just make sure that the non-Catholic children get fully included in school events and activities? I've seen one school doing the 'If your child is not going to the Mass, then send them to school at 11am, not 9am' thing, which seems to be designed to 'punish' non-Catholic families, and particularly working parents.
And Complainer that is exactly what is going on in Irish schools and non Catholics have no choice but to put up with it. It has affected nieces and nephews of mine.
The odds are that he/she is far less likely to have raped little children than your average RC priest.
This good priests tarred by tiny majority argument gets on my nerves.
Where were all the good priests when evil was prospering? They all knew there was a problem decades ago. Where was the internal agitation to sort out the abuse? Any other organisation would have internal revolts until such problems were resolved. They all facilitated the abuse by their silence or their acceptance of the 'moving-on' policy for dodgy priests.
How many priests stood up in public and admitted the Roman CC had a serious problem? What were they afraid of? Surely protecting little children goes above all other considerations for a priest. Cloyne shows us that they still wont report abuse if they can get away with it. They were afraid to relinquish their power and the Vatican corporation has them all tightly bound.
Daly had 30 years as a bishop/cardinal to sort out the reporting of child abuse but there is little evidence that he did anything. His work-to-rule excuse absolutely sickens me. Resign, you're a disgrace.
The priest is usually married with a family and ,as I say, can be a woman. The odds are that he/she is far less likely to have raped little children than your average RC priest.
Can any poster just make statements like this without being checked?
I agree. The comment is completely uncalled for. Most child abuse takes place in the family home by married family men. Being married with a family doesn't make you any less likely to be a child sex offender than any other demographic.
Being a man doesn't automatically mean you are likely to abuse children. Being a priest doesn't either.
Source: Pedophiles and Priests, Anatomy of a Crisis, Oxford University Press, 1996, Paperback Edition, 2001
It seems what while .2 to 1.7 percent of Catholic clergy have been guilty of pedophilia (or sexual abuse particularly of boys, p.80-82), a whopping 10 percent of Protestant ministers have been found guilty of sexual misconduct with a 2 or 3 percent pedophilia rate (p. 50-52).