The Catholic Church is morally bankrupt and the time has come to ask about the people who continue to support it.
In the year 2019, after seventeen years of reported abuse cases, if you are still supporting the Catholic Church, financially or otherwise, I think you should ask yourself a simple question: Am I a good person?
You supported the church for all these years. But, you claim, you did not know the horrors of priestly behavior. Okay. Okay, but now you do know. Now that these issues, these sins, have been brought into the light, that is no longer a legitimate excuse.
Another argument seems to be: But the church does so much good. Why withhold support just because of a few bad apples? Well for one thing, no one can seriously argue, any longer, that it is only a few. And for another, this, these problems, and certainly how they have been dealt with, stretch right up to the top of the church hierarchy.
We now know that it has not only been the priests who have sinned. But some of the good sisters as well. The way they handled unwed mothers for a start. And now we learn of rape in their quarters as well.
And the problem goes beyond the Catholic clergy and extends into the Catholic community at large. Those who knew what was going on but kept quiet about it or facilitated it, or even helped cover it up. Doctors, nurses, police, prosecutors, social workers, teachers, other influential & important members of the laity, and yes, even some of the parents.
If you are religious and if you need the support of an organized church, why not find an alternative? If you are a priest or a nun, that is those of you who are truly good-hearted individuals, why continue to associate yourself with such behavior? Are you not repelled by it? Your continued support, congregant, nun, and priest alike, implies tacit approval of this behavior AND the manner in which it has been handled by the church hierarchy. I urge you to disassociate yourself from both.
I'll leave you with this thought: What percentage of Nazi's were actual decision makers or participants in the atrocities? And whatever the answer to that question, what do we think about those who were not decision makers or participants? Some knew, some suspected, some tolerated. Some stuck their heads in the sand. All did nothing.
What do we think of them?