I never said it was okay, that's why I put 'only' in quotation marks....during its peak, it was much like the use of odious 'blasphemy' laws in contemporary Pakistan, or lynchings in the era of segregation, spread out over many years....an atrocity, but not on the same level as genocide or slavery. Equating the two results in an unjust distribution of guilt, and perhaps more importantly, obscures the conditions which led to such crimes, and consequently the ways in which societies and institutions need to be reformed to prevent such crimes in the future (and whether they already have-for instance, it would be ludicrous to single out the modern Catholic Church for its past stance against democracy or religious freedom).
As for pedophilia, its probably no more prevalent than in any other similar institution overall (though the sheer size of the institution makes the aggregate total immense), the crimes to which the Catholic church as a whole (as opposed to individual priests) needs to account for are the widespread cover-ups, and the institutional incentives for the same.
All I'm doing is noting that people should keep things in perspective and criticize the contemporary Catholic church for its actual crimes, and balance those crimes beside any good it has accomplished, not turn the institution into a whipping boy or scapegoat simply because they are an easy target on the internet.
Exactly.
In the UK the celebrity Jimmy Saville abused more people, over a longer span, with far more opportunities for the authorities to apprehend him than any of the RCC clergy in the UK and ROI combined. So I guess that celebrity and secular society actually cause peadophilia or are a greater cause than roman catholicism. I mena just to employ the thinly disguised sectarian logic of the forumers hating on roman catholicism. For the Nth time.
The reality is that peadophiles exploit any avenues open to them, if at one time and place becoming a priest permits it they'll do that, if at another joining the police, social services, cultivating a public persona or celebrity its what they'll do.
I'd not be surprised if the present stoking of hatred for the RCC has got its fair share of pedophile support because its the mother of all diversions from their behaviour, so while everyone is busily focused on an institution which is doing its best to rectify its mistakes and attempt to prevent anything of that kind happening again they wont be focused on as yet undetected ways.