Are Priests & Catholic Church the most Evil of them all?

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

Well, let us look at one of the big 3 of today. The religion has at its core that practicing members are far superior to people outside of its membership. To the point the members can lie, cheat, steel and break contract with non members. In fact, this type of betrayal of human vs human is encouraged through its scripture. Then you have the oral tradition which is much much worse.

I wonder what that type of philosophy does to a human spirit?

a reply to: JAGStorm

I don't think you can tarnish all priests with brush but i do think that, historically, it is one of those vocations people with certain predilections will have migrated towards.

A bit like how you seem to find necrophiliacs working in morgues......

a reply to: JAGStorm

I think it has not been talked about for so long and that is part of the problem. It is not comfortable. It shouldn't be.

Agreed but I think that this is an every emotive subject and that ATS is not really the best place to discuss child abuse.

Again this is my personal view on the matter, I really only wanted to pass an opinion and move on to the next thread.

I would hope you can respect that by not trying to bait me into more replies.

originally posted by: OtherSideOfTheCoin
a reply to: dug88

You would be surprised a lot of that kind of training is about spotting potential victim and abusers.

Explain how?

Do they sit there and watch and when one gets an erection at pictures of kids they go oh # we got one boys?

Or

Do they wait for someone to ask some dumb # like, but why can't we touch the children?

I really don't understand how you can use training like that to spot child abusers...

This is why I am so intolerant to most religion these days.

Islam is garbage that poisons minds and kills people.

Catholicism is garbage that poisons minds and molests children. They've long-since stopped killing people...So I guess there's that... But where does that leave the faithful?

There is no way to look at a Catholic priest without suspicion considering how widespread this is. The Church, at the very top of their leadership, has long since been complicit and no one will ever forcibly enter the Vatican to remove this vile scum and jail them.

Yes and yes

2nd

There are rabbis who molest children, imams who abuse children and christian priests who abuse children.
Just because such cases in other religions don't get much coverage doesn't mean they don't have the same problem.

a reply to: KiwiNite

That's very true.

But have other religions been shown to use their own internal power structure to cover it up?

Islam's love affair with pedophilia is common knowledge. As soldiers we received our briefings on Bacha bazi on our way in to Afghanistan and told to do nothing as children are routinely raped.

This was also a common encounter in Iraq.

There's plenty of neat stuff in religion that allows for this kind of disgusting behavior to flourish.

All the more reason to turn our backs on religion.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I think the current exposure of molestation and sex abuse of nuns by Catholic priests, and their internal cover-up is just another eye-opener to the behind the scene cons of religion . How many prominent preachers and ministers have also fallen from grace? Ted Haggard, Jim Bakker, Bill Gothard, Jimmy Swaggart just to name a few.

I was brought up Catholic, served as an alter boy for 4 years. After attending a private Catholic school for 6 years and observing all the behind the scenes contradictions, I had to step away from following my religion altogether. I came to the conclusion that I don't need a church or religious organization to believe in my God.

I can't believe how ignorant people can be when their own religion cast women as being lower than men. The Catholic church has never allowed women to become priests, Bishops, Cardinals or even a Pope. Instead, the closest women were allowed to participate in the Catholic hierarchy was that of a nun. With all its ridiculous enslaving black habits they were forced to wear. Islamic and Amish religions also enslave their women with their forced dress codes. For women to conform to this enslavement and not realize it's degrading, is a tell-tell sign of brainwashing at a very young age.

originally posted by: dug88

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: JAGStorm

I'm not sure the problem is as bad as you are portraying it. I work with a Roman Catholic Church on a volunteer program. Before I was allowed to participate I had to be finger printed and background check done. I was also required to take a class on child molestation prevention which interviewed a number on child molesters in the training film. It was disgusting beyond measure. Since I was required to go through so much vetting and training there is no doubt in my mind the RBC is very much aware of this issue and is taking strong actions to address it.

Does that not strike you as all kinds of #ed up that you needed to undergo training on not molesting children?

Like I can honestly say, i've never had a job that needed to train me not to molest children and i've taught children before.....

The fact that people working for the Catholic church need to undergo anti-molestation training kinda says there's a big #ing problem....

And Meh # it

The training was not for me not to molest anyone as you suggest. The training was on prevention. For example, children were not allowed to go to church bathroom by themselves without first notifying someone in charge they were doing so. And people at these events were suppose to monitor anyone being suspicious. Pretty much common sense stuff to keep children safer. The people they interviewed, however, were candidly talking about pedophilia. It was extremely repulsive to watch because it is just so wrong. I think the interviews where to show people how common looking the pedophiles might look.

Catholicism should be abandoned. But people cling to old ideas.. whether they are a failure or not

a reply to: WeRpeons

It's a old religion that Hopefully will die in a more progressive world.

For some reason, the PC police are holding back on religious opression at the moment. At least, on a large scale.

a reply to: WeRpeons

I can't believe how ignorant people can be when their own religion cast women as being lower than men. The Catholic church has never allowed women to become priests, Bishops, Cardinals or even a Pope. Instead, the closest women were allowed to participate in the Catholic hierarchy was that of a nun. With all its ridiculous enslaving black habits they were forced to wear. Islamic and Amish religions also enslave their women with their forced dress codes. For women to conform to this enslavement and not realize it's degrading, is a tell-tell sign of brainwashing at a very young age.

This is very obvious to us, but why is this such a hard thing for so many to grasp?
Religion has been used for two purposes (and some others), to keep the poor from killing the rich, and to keep women submissive!

a reply to: JAGStorm

The Roman Catholic Church is devil (Satan) worship disguised as Christianity. why do you think all the "catholic festivals" are almost entirely Pagan: Easter, Xmas, All saints day (Halloween) all of them line up with pagan holidays.

its the great deception of he end times. Everyone has been deceived into worshiping Pagan idols and the Pope and not the words of Jesus. all of the Vatican is full of Pagan and Egyptian symbolism.

its all by design to turn everyone away from God, and it worked like a charm.

a reply to: WeRpeons

I don't need a church or religious organization to believe in my God.

yep thats right...its in the Bible even. i don't see a single reference in the bible that states anyone should or needs to go to church. all you need to do is listen to what Jesus said. that's it. all the rest is about control and money.

a reply to: projectvxn

so you lump all of Islam but only focuse on a specific denomination of Christianity. what about Episcopale, or Baptists or Protestantism or Eastern Orthodox or Lutherans

They are all Christian faiths without the molestation... and many allow women to be priests. you'r hate seems to stem from ignorance.

Evil of who all? It would be nice to know who "all" is so we can compare...

When I first started coaching sports for my boys I went to a coach workshop and part of that training was to talk about pedophiles and sexual deviants associated with children sports. The deal is these types of people work very hard to put themselves in the positions of authority over children with the sole purpose to abuse that authority to satisfy their desires.

Why would being a Priest be any different? We don't say all Coaches are evil because some of these sick Fs become coaches and the same is for Priest. The one bad side has been the cover up by the church and it makes me wonder who is watching the hen house. We now know there are more pedophiles in the world than what we once thought there were and I'm sure they are scattered throughout ALL religions in any position that gets them authority access to kids.

The main point is the vast majority of Priest are what they say, think, work and live as which is very good and caring people.

So to the OP if you are suggesting these pedophiles are the evil of all the evils I would say most likely.

originally posted by: smkymcnugget420
a reply to: projectvxn

so you lump all of Islam but only focuse on a specific denomination of Christianity. what about Episcopale, or Baptists or Protestantism or Eastern Orthodox or Lutherans

They are all Christian faiths without the molestation... and many allow women to be priests. you'r hate seems to stem from ignorance.

Do those religions you mentioned still collect money and funnel it upwards?

I'm sure to some degree they have to.

I can't speak for projectvxn, but I kind of know what it's like.

To me, classifying religions is easy. Draw a vertical line on a chalkboard. Mark "good" on the left side and "bad" on the right. Proceed to place all organized religions(cults, etc) on the right side in whatever nuanced fashion you want as far was which bad one is worse than the next bad one.

a reply to: Xtrozero

The main point is the vast majority of Priest are what they say, think, work and live as which is very good and caring people.

Are they? I used to believe that. Only time will tell, but like I said previously, I think we've only hit the tip of the iceberg.

Yes there are pedofiles everywhere, but they sure do seem to be concentrated within the Catholic religion. Wonder if some of those pedofile coaches are Catholic too.

Maybe it is the whole thing about confession. They feel they can do bad things and just confess it away?

a reply to: Sheye

Child molestation is not just a problem in the Catholic church. There are many Christian communities that struggle with sexual abuse.

That doesn't justify ignoring the fact that these "men of the cloth" are not walking the talk. They're conning their followers while leading a sinful life. How many evil leaders of cults have caused their followers to blindly follower their lead, even to the point of suicide? ...Yes, I believe religions are in some manner a form of a cult.

I’m happy this pope is not glossing over the facts regarding abuse by the clergy.

He may be accepting the facts because his back is up against the wall. Did he and his predecessors expose these molestation's and the sex abuse before it became known to the public? NO! The Catholic bishops and the Vatican have been trying to keep this undercover for years! Isn't it amazing that many of these priests were never removed from the priesthood when these molestation were reported to them?? Most private businesses wouldn't stand for this and their employees would have been reported to the police immediately. Doesn't say much for the 'good" consciousness of these leaders in the Catholic religion.

It’s important to separate God and His holiness from the sinfulness of mankind. People will sin, but that in no way implies we have a God who doesn’t care or won’t hold them accountable.

Of course people will sin, but when a clergy's duty is to be a role model to their congregation based upon Christ's teachings, they have a spiritual duty to their followers and to God to set an example in their everyday life. After all, wasn't one of Christ's teachings was to "beware of false prophets?' Hmm, could he have been referring to organized religions?

Did you ever think why are there so many different religions in the world? If there is only 1 true God, Christ would have built a foundation without question, or interpretations on 1 true religion. It's been known that many religions including the Catholic religion have removed scriptures because they didn't conform to "their own" religious teachings.

The Catholic church is founded on many beautiful truths , just as Judaism was. Jesus did not let the many sins of the Jewish leadership of His days stop him from loving God and serving Him.

Exactly, Jesus Christ did not conform to religious ideology. He followed the truth that's in the souls of all mankind. Christ preached about God, being simple, helping the less fortunate, forgiveness and treating everyone with love and respect. It's a simple teaching that doesn't need a glorious structure with gold chalices, statues, and church leaders who think they are holier than thou. We all are human with sin and nobody should be addressed as "father", "His Holiness" or “Your Excellency”. Nobody is worthy of this address than God.