General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsClose The Catholic Church
Sell the assets to cover the settlements to its thousands of victims.
They institutionally helped the predators not the kids.
Dissolve them.
samnsara
(17,622 posts)2naSalit
(86,560 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,775 posts)Religion and politics use each other to gain wealth and power.
jodymarie aimee
(3,975 posts)your suggestion is kind of flip. Nobody is going to dissolve the entire C Church. I get your outrage, but this isn't the answer.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
MineralMan
(146,287 posts)I think I've seen that explanation from that poster some other time.
Here it is, in a subthread:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210656593#post15
Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)I know a priest who was a married Methodist Minister and them converted die to problems he had with Protestant theology.
Orthodox priests routinely marry, but Bishops must be celibate.
The priesthood would benefit from laying aside this old Ran Rite tradition.
Polly Hennessey
(6,793 posts)crack in the structure that brings all organized religions down.
bearsfootball516
(6,377 posts)Organized religion has been around for thousands of years. What was unearthed last week, while incredibly disgusting and disturbing, isn't going to bring down organized religion.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,490 posts)Philosophers have said for centuries that so long as there's fear of the unknown in humans, there will be religion in some form. It's also a big business for many and they'll fight it, too. I think it was Freud that suggested that millions of years ago, the minute the human species stood upright and became self-aware, he invented a god to quench his fears.
My preference would be to turn all the churches into community centers - a valuable service to humanity they have stolen from many areas around the world.
dalton99a
(81,455 posts)and ended up replacing it with the Cult of the Supreme Being
The Festival of the Supreme Being, by Pierre-Antoine Demachy (1794)
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,490 posts)(snip)
Under threat of death, imprisonment, military conscription, and loss of income, about twenty thousand constitutional priests were forced to abdicate and hand over their letters of ordination, and six thousand to nine thousand of them agreed or were coerced to marry. Many abandoned their pastoral duties altogether. Nonetheless, some of those who had abdicated continued covertly to minister to the people.
By the end of the decade, approximately thirty thousand priests had been forced to leave France, and several hundred who did not leave were executed. Most French parishes were left without the services of a priest and deprived of the sacraments. Any non-juring priest faced the guillotine or deportation to French Guiana. By Easter 1794, few of France's forty thousand churches remained open; many had been closed, sold, destroyed, or converted to other uses.
And, from the page on Cult of the Supreme Being:
----
Robespierre believed that reason is only a means to an end, and the singular end is virtue. He sought to move beyond simple deism (often described as Voltairean by its adherents) to a new and, in his view, more rational devotion to the godhead. The primary principles of the Cult of the Supreme Being were a belief in the existence of a god and the immortality of the human soul. Though not inconsistent with Christian doctrine, these beliefs were put to the service of Robespierre's fuller meaning, which was of a type of civic-minded, public virtue he attributed to the Greeks and Romans. This type of virtue could only be attained through active fidelity to liberty and democracy. Belief in a living god and a higher moral code, he said, were "constant reminders of justice" and thus essential to a republican society.
We'll never see anything like that in America - because of capitalism and religion's usefulness to politicians to stoke fears into the lemmings. Too much money to be made on stuff like megachurches, guns and fancy cell phones. Regardless, all the churches need to get down off their high-horse and contribute better to the dirty work of having safe, healthy and humane communities open to all people.
Polly Hennessey
(6,793 posts)you are right. Fear of the unknown is a powerful fear. One that most people cannot face without some kind of assurances.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)...that brings all organized nation-states down.
I mean, if we're wishing about the removal of imaginary constructs we allow to order our lives and all, let's dream BIG, and start with the most controlling and most absurd!
JoeOtterbein
(7,700 posts)Sparks, MD. Near Baltimore.
Agreed, the Catholic church is a criminal enterprise that abuses others at will. They need to dissolved.
Polly Hennessey
(6,793 posts)how can your dad be a Catholic priest?
MineralMan
(146,287 posts)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_celibacy
That could explain it.
Polly Hennessey
(6,793 posts)always an exception. I should have remembered that overworked fact. Thanks.
MineralMan
(146,287 posts)There are just a few, really, among the many.
Quemado
(1,262 posts)My wife and I attended a Catholic church several years ago whose pastor was married. He started off as a married Episcopalian priest who converted to Catholicism, then became a Catholic priest and was allowed to be a Catholic priest and be married at the same time.
BSdetect
(8,998 posts)AlexSFCA
(6,137 posts)that has no place in the US. This institution has been involved in systematic child rape, cover up of thousands of felonies even at higher levels of administration. It has paid billions in the US alone to shut the victims. Everyone who attends their services or donates money to them is complicit and is an accomplice to the most heinous crimes. Parents who leave their children with priests are de facto commiting child endangerment. I bet more states will be moving forward with grand jury investigations. Lets bankrupt this criminal enterprise once and for all, its way past reforms - the very foundation is rotten. If after reading the Pennsylvania grand jury report you can still call yourself catholic, you are part of the problem and bear responsibility for thousands of ruined lives. The word catholic is now synonymous with child rape, not something you want to be associated with in any way. Any other smaller organization religious or not would have been banned long ago for half the crimes RCC has commited.
Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)DownriverDem
(6,228 posts)the Catholic Church. No way will they dissolve.
AlexSFCA
(6,137 posts)pazzyanne
(6,549 posts)to the main problem facing the entire nation at this time. Unless you are Catholic, let the Catholic parishioners take care of the churches' problems. This happened in Minnesota a few years ago, but not to this extent. Catholic parishioners stepped up to the plate, and things have been resolved by local churches.
Meanwhile, we need to focus on saving our nation from tRump and his cabal.
Perseus
(4,341 posts)Anyone who speaks/reads Spanish should read this book "EL CATOLICISMO EXPLICADO A LAS OVEJAS" by Juan Eslava Galan. The book is written with a lot of humor, even though it is a serious topic and everything in it is very well researched, but after he points out the obvious fantastic (fantasy) stories about religion in general and that of the Catholic Church, to my surprise because as you read it you come to the conclusion that he is an atheist, but nonetheless he makes the argument, an economic argument I should add, on why the Catholic Church must remain.
Unfortunately, I don't know that it has been translated to English, which is a shame, although I don't doubt the church may have had something to do with it. He is a great writer, I have a read a few of his books and they are all very entertaining and informative.
Any catholic who reads this book will start doubting many of the myths and stories that surround their religion, and any other religion for that matter.
Anyway, what I was trying to get to was that I used to think like you, and reading the book I understand why it would be impractical at this time in human history to get rid of the Catholic Religion. Should tax exempt status and other perks they enjoy be taken off? Yes, they should, it would force them to do more charity with their money.
catchnrelease
(1,945 posts)Has everyone forgotten back in the early 2000s, all of the same kind of scandals? Boston, Cardinal Law, the outrage, etc. People thought it would sweep things clean and the church would stop these kinds of abuses/coverups. Give it a few more years and we'll be hearing the same things from another city or state. In fact I'll bet there are priests and bishops etc out there sweating it right now, wondering if they will be outed next.
TomVilmer
(1,832 posts)https://books.google.mv/books?id=qXFjAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PR2&pg=PA82#v=onepage&q&f=false
... but if you are trained as a priest, and children are given to your care, it is still too much.
WhiteTara
(29,704 posts)but religious "leaders" who use their power over others, rather than using their power to lift others up.
get the red out
(13,461 posts)It's just the oldest, richest, and biggest.
At the very least Churches should be taxed.