Obviously not. For personal reasons, I have incredibly strong feelings about people who take advantage of the unconditional love and trust of children. To abuse that purity in the context of faith, to me, is unspeakably vile. It's beyond wrong.
Anyhow, with that said, if the Catholic church isn't very circumspect about how they fix this problem, it could cause a crisis of faith for millions of people. I think religion is a waste of time. It is the word of man. But there's people who possess true faith. I wouldn't even begin to screw with that. In other words, they need to come up with something damn clever. There's a reason George Carlin in Dogma makes the buddy christ joke. As you pointed out, Catholics are fantastic at making shit up to control their congregation.
But I wouldn't beat on them too hard. Had it not been for the church, the words of the great Greek philosophers, eastern medical science and large amounts of mathematics would have never survived to become a part of Western culture in the future. Let's not forget that monks in monasteries were writing the Renaissance long before it ever happened. Even great saints (Thomas Aquinas, for example) were interested in all kinds of science at the time. He even dabbled in alchemy, despite the fact that it was outlawed.
What I'm trying to say is that religion has its purposes. As an institution, they can thumb their nose at the conventions of society, for better or worse. In the case of the current crisis of the RCC, it's for the worst.
As I see it, pedophile priests have to die some time. In the future, the church should convene secretly to decide how to select better candidates for priesthood. It's not a perfect solution and certainly doesn't provide closure to those who have suffered in the past, but life is rarely fair.
no subject
Anyhow, with that said, if the Catholic church isn't very circumspect about how they fix this problem, it could cause a crisis of faith for millions of people. I think religion is a waste of time. It is the word of man. But there's people who possess true faith. I wouldn't even begin to screw with that. In other words, they need to come up with something damn clever. There's a reason George Carlin in Dogma makes the buddy christ joke. As you pointed out, Catholics are fantastic at making shit up to control their congregation.
But I wouldn't beat on them too hard. Had it not been for the church, the words of the great Greek philosophers, eastern medical science and large amounts of mathematics would have never survived to become a part of Western culture in the future. Let's not forget that monks in monasteries were writing the Renaissance long before it ever happened. Even great saints (Thomas Aquinas, for example) were interested in all kinds of science at the time. He even dabbled in alchemy, despite the fact that it was outlawed.
What I'm trying to say is that religion has its purposes. As an institution, they can thumb their nose at the conventions of society, for better or worse. In the case of the current crisis of the RCC, it's for the worst.
As I see it, pedophile priests have to die some time. In the future, the church should convene secretly to decide how to select better candidates for priesthood. It's not a perfect solution and certainly doesn't provide closure to those who have suffered in the past, but life is rarely fair.