The Treasurer of the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal George Pell, has just been charged with multiple counts of child sexual abuse by the Prosecutor and the Police of Victoria, Australia.
The Roman Catholic Church has betrayed children at the worst possible psychological level in order to protect the reputation of their Church.
Yet still parents send their children to Catholic schools because they provide cheap private school education. The Catholic Church provides cheap private school education in order to indoctrinate children into worshipping their God, called the Trinity with three persons in one God, in other words, a three headed God.
Catholicism has always had its critics, because of its actions as a presiding body over a religion, as the religion itself, or even for what it represents and how its perceived by people. As democratic as the free world is, Catholism really is sort of this remainng vestige from the past, a monarchy of a belief system rather than of a political system, isn't it? It's sort of this "bastion of tradition", a stronghold against liberalism in some regards. Though, with the move of the Catholic Church to bring to power, a new pope, one from Argentina rather than from Italy, and one with more contemporary views, it is obvious the church is also aware of its image and the need to reform certain aspects of itself if it wishes to remain relevant.
Why I bring the above up though, is why I remain hesitant to jumping on the bandwagon of dismantling the Catholic Church piece by piece, and on a larger scale, religion, as an attempt to question its relativity within our contemporary society. Certainly, I hold the Catholic Church and the clergy and members associated, to the same laws and scrutiny as the common man, and my own personal relationship with Catholicism has undergone various stages throughout my life, but I am skeptical as to where the issue here truly lies? I don't doubt there is child sexual abuse, but just as I don't doubt there is child sexual abuse within other areas of society. I also do not doubt there are cover-ups to protect their image, as is the case with other instances where socially unacceptable acts are committed in other areas of society. My point being, and skepticism here, is if the charges and accusations against the Catholc church are not ALSO tied in to this growing trend against religion and people of faith. Other religions may face their own issues with the public image, but since the Catholc Church is the largest within the Christian faith, why NOT go for the jugular?
The religious are constantly mocked for having little intelligence, of blindly following a belief, etc. Such common "jokes" and jabs are not merely casual, but are meant to denegrate and subject groups of people to a status beneath those that are not religious.
All the above, is where I come from on this issue, and again, is why I am hesitant here in placing judgement on the faith, rather than on those that commit these horrific acts.