Is the Catholic Church dead?

[Siren]

 

[koalabear]

Yes, but they ran the beads, so all is ok with their god.

 

[Siren]

huh?

 

[koalabear]

Well they could be used to choke priests........

 

[Siren]

OMG hahahahahaha

 

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

I know this is going to sound cold and calous but I have always stated by abhoration for the Roman Catholic System. Prior i the 1000's it was a christian church. Since then ever so slowly they have turned themselves into a cultish religion with no grounds fror accountability. For the people I weep, for the leadership and dogma grieves me, because they have systematicaly breed loyalty from the cradle to the grave and beyond.

Feel free to flame I ain't feeling to much lately anyways.

 

[riff]

Catholics

I think this guy really explains it all.

 

[Siren]

I dont think their arrogant attitude is going to help them in this cause

 

[harleyhog]

there is only one true church,,or place of worship. it's called the heart ....... and believe it or not i'm catholic. the only time I step into any church or place of worship is for weddings & funnerals

 

[CarolineOh]

Re: I dont think their arrogant attitude is going to help them in this cause

and if I were a parent...........

I would not send my son to church to be an alterboy
nor would I allow my daughters to submit to any priestal counseling.


Sad but true. They have brought this upon themselves with their own arrogance and denial.

Allowing priests to rape the children of innocence and trust.
and
taking advantage of older children with their position of superiority.

Shame.

And they have the arrogance to tell divorced women they cant have communion, while their own monster sinners pass out communion?

Bastards.

I agree with you 100% Siren, and in fact made this same point in another thread recently. As a divorced woman I am not considered fit to take communion,but the priest giving it may be known to the church to be a child molester, and still perform his duties.
This goes beyond a mere scandal to me. This shatters any last illusions I had of the Church as intermediary between Man and God.
The entire Church hierarchy, from the Pope on down, need to prostrate themselves and beg for forgiveness. Instead, they have apparently decided to use this situation as an excuse to conduct a witch hunt against gays.
And of course, if this is a scandal about homosexual priests, then the charges made by thousands of young girls that they have been molested are being summarily dismissed. Big surprise there, huh?

 

[Irish_Rover]

as a catholic who has recently strayed from the church and come back again, I probably am not the most unbiased source when it comes to the catholic church, but I would like to go on record about the good work that the churches do in communities in Ireland. I have been a regular church goer since birth, except for the last year and a half, where my own issues have for a while left me bitter, but I have been in contact with priests on a regular basis. Knowing some of them personally I feel a deep regret that they are suddenly seen as a collective group of monsters. One priest I know was spat at while walking down the street a few days after a particular scandal broke out. Now knowing the man personally, I feel disgusted that a fellow human being could do this to a stranger just because he wears a white collar. What people do not understand is that each priest is an individual, albeit one who has vowed to embody an organization but a human and an individual nonetheless. My point would be that the vast majority of catholic priests are good, kind, compassionate and caring people that do not deserve mistrust or suspicion any more than an arab or your nextdoor neighbour. just because a few of them have bein decietful or even plain and simple monsters, doesnt mean that they all should suffer your mistrust and suspicion, believe me they feel bad enough already.

 

[Siren]

The problem Irish is this

 

[Siren]

 

[Sateema Lunasi]

First off, I do not intend to piss anyone off. I am just expressing my opinion and my belief system.

Here it is. Plainly spoken.

All religion is shit. It is a system of retarded beliefs (a miraculous man is born in a manger to a virgin...poof, the earth is created...the seas parted...blah) that was designed ages ago to give some guidance to people who were outrageously uneducated and needed something to follow. It was probably a good idea at the time. What better way to make sure uneducated people behave than to put a lot of superstitious fears in their heads to fear them into being "good."

Problem is, it never went away. How do you erase that many lies when they are passed on generation to generation, parent to child. Who the hell wants to believe that their parents taught them a ridiculous belief system based on fear and mideval methods of psychological torment "You are guilty of everything natural! Sex, lust, even thinking!" So, people continue to believe, though I think it is because we have no manual for life and some people feel they need one.

Imagine if a total stranger started talking to you and told you that there is a guy he knows who can turn water to wine, and that angels with glorious wings are flying around (invisible!) watching over him, that a strange being in the sky listens to him all the time and uses an unseen hand to guide him around and make sure wicked shit doesn't happen to him, that the ocean split into a wall of two to allow him to pass through on dry ground, and that he made a gigantic boat to carry two of each animal in existance when a flood really screwed everything up. and that the first humans were Adam and Eve and somehow all of humanity was spawned from that, BUT WE ARE NOT ALL IMBRED!

It wouldn't make sense, would it? And you would tell this guy he is a nutter and needs his head checked. So why is it people believe it because a book says it? I have never understood that.

So, I believe that religion in it's organized form is for weak people who need a life manual.

In my opinion, if you know what is right and wrong (don't hurt yourself or others and strive to lead a fulfiled life) then religion in any form is not needed.

Also note that in history, the people who made huge diferences in the world and were known for being brilliant, were athiests or at least did not follow any church's system. They thought for themselves.

 

[freescorfr]

I was not molested as an altar boy, but I mistakenly thought, in my youth, that I was meant to be a priest. I left before that but my career was very tied up in the Church since I was head of two catholic schools. I was not able to continue because my theological views were too uncomfortable for the clergy and my inclusive and pluralistic stance on admisions, as well as my insistance on not expelling any kids led to my being pensioned off in my prime. It nearly killed me at the time and had grave consequences for my family. It was when I turned to alcohol.

I don't hate the church and I have my own convictions about the role of religion in human life. At its best it is an expression, for me, of the wonder of being itself - in its beauty, its terrifying greatness, its daily mystery, enen in the ordinary and in the amazing love that we can have for each other combined with our destructiveness. I need, not Catholicism, but our shared awareness of the incomrehnsibility fo our human existence to celebrate, explore and live to the full this gift of life.

I was born into the catholic culture., I'm fucked if any Church is going to dis-inherit me of that.

 

[MechaBlade]

First off, I do not intend to piss anyone off. I am just expressing my opinion and my belief system.

Here it is. Plainly spoken.

All religion is shit. ...

Yowza! You go girl!

I agree, but would say I probably feel less extreme about it.