The Pope they loved but could not obey

[RBHam]

Malachi O'Doherty, The Observer
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1451208,00.html
excerpt:
Catholics have been disillusioned by the teachings which do not address their lives but they have also been profoundly shocked by scandals within the church. It would be wrong to assume that all of those who never quite felt they belonged in the church in the era of John Paul II were liberals. In some cases, it was those who had had the strongest simple faith in the holiness of men of the cloth who were most shaken to discover that some of those men were raping children and that their bishops and cardinals had been protecting them against the law.

Yes, some degree of naïve theological reasoning was used to defend those priests. 'It's the holy ones that the devil puts most work into tempting.'

But priests no longer expect to be revered. It used to be that, when they called at a house on parish work, the best china was got out. People passing them on the street would give them a respectful nod or salute. Now the priest features in popular humour as a figure like the man in the dirty raincoat. And they say it hurts. That collapse of spontaneous reverence happened under John Paul.

[Demeter]

1. Cognitive Dissonance

or as we say on the street--crap detectors--Religion thrives on filling people with dissonance. Religion doesn't want any crap detection!