Scandals Within the Catholic
Church...
Why are there so many scandals within the Catholic Church?
Sexual misconduct charges brought against Catholic priests have generated big
media headlines and the detractors and haters of the Catholic Church are having
a field day, temporarily. I said "temporarily" because of the record of survivability of the Catholic
Church for almost two millennia, and of the "person" who is its head.
But
before continuing, let us put this particular scandal into its proper
context.
1. The Catholic Church is more than four times as large as all
of non-Catholic Christianity combined. Since 1950 the Church in the United
States has had 109,694 priests. During that time period of over fifty years,
4392 (as reported in February 2004) were accused of molesting minors, or about
four percent. Remember, that number is the total number of those charged and not
the number of those found guilty. We can not be so naive as to ignore the fact
that many of those are false charges and were brought about by greed
in hopes of gaining a monetary settlement. We remember the person who
falsely accused the Archbishop of Chicago and who later dropped the charge,
saying that he had lied. Keep in mind that those allegedly charged with
pedophilia are a small minority of the total charged.
Keep in mind also that
these figures did not come about all at once recently, but are spread out as far
back as 1950, over 50 years ago. Some of the accused priests were discharged by
the Church decades ago and hundreds of others have since passed away, making any
defense in their behalf an impossibility.
Remember, we could not have had
Jesus Christ as a Savior without also having a Judas to betray Him.
2.
These supposed sexual abuse problems are not a Catholic clergy monopoly, as
the guilty are in all non-Catholic Christian denominations as well. Recent
figures have shown that an average of 3500 religious in non-Catholic sects are
charged similarly every year. What with tens of thousands of individual
Christian sects in the world today, these abuses do not receive the attention
given to the Catholic Church by the media.
Some of the tens of thousands of
non-Catholic sects openly acknowledge that they "ordain" homosexual ministers.
How many of those would you suppose are pedophiles?
However, it is the
Catholic Church which has always been the "bulls-eye" of the target of
detractors since its very beginning almost 2000 years ago. The liberal media
have a tendency not to sensationalize scandals in Protestantism and they do just
the reverse for the Catholic Church. They have put the Catholic Church under a
microscope, looking for any possible aberration which they take great pride in
blowing all out of proportion.
Didn't Jesus say, "Let
him who is without sin cast the first stone..."?
John 8:7
3. From the figures I have listed
above, the great majority of Catholic priests who are not part of this scandal,
are looked upon as guilty until proven innocent, instead of the other way around
as it is in the secular world. What kind of compassion for the great majority of
innocent priests is espoused by the liberal media, and by those individual
non-Catholics who enjoy attacking the Catholic Church?
It appears that all
Catholic priests are being treated with suspicion. Is that being
Christ-like?
Is this fair to the innocent who are the vast
majority?
4. Do we condemn all executives of large corporations because
of the alleged actions of those of a few? Do we condemn all of Islam because of
the actions of some militants?
5. Do we condemn Peter because of
Judas?
6. Jesus Himself sat at table with sinners. That is a sign that
all are welcome to His table.
"And as he sat at table in the house, behold,
many tax collectors and came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. And when
the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat
with tax collectors and sinners?" But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are
well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this
means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners."
Matthew 9:10-13
The Catholic Church is, and has
always been a hospital for sinners, and not a hotel for saints (Mark 2:17). The
visible Catholic Church is
populated by fallible human beings, and all have sinned.
Romans 3:23,5:12.
Didn't
Saint John say, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His
word is not in us"?
1John 1:10
The purpose of the Catholic Church is to
make saints in heaven out of sinners on earth.
Contrast that with some
Protestant sects who claim, "once
saved always saved". That statement really means, "we can sin as much as we
want because we are already saved". If anyone claims that they are saved in this life, aren't they
really proclaiming themselves as being saints already?
7. Those who
relish attacking the Catholic Church are guilty of all of the
following:
A. "Let him who
is without sin cast the first stone..."?
John
8:7
B. "Do not be a
stumbling block to Jews and to Greeks and to the Church of God..."
1Corinthians 10:32
C. "I am the least of the Apostles, and am not worthy to be called
an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God."
1Corinthians
15:9
D. "But these
people, like irrational animals born by nature for capture and destruction,
revile things that they do not understand, and in their destruction they
will also be destroyed."
2Peter 2:12
E. "Fear not, for I am with thee: turn
not aside, for I am your GOD. I have strengthened thee,
and have helped
thee, and the right hand of My Just One hath upheld thee*.
Behold all that fight
against thee** shall be
confounded*** and ashamed,
as they shall be as nothing****, and the
men shall perish that strive against thee."
Isaiah
41:10-11
*The "Just
One" has upheld His Church every day in every century for almost 2000
years.
Matthew 28:20.
**These are the attackers of the Catholic Church, past, present, and
future, until the end of time.
***Split into more than 37,000 pieces as
Protestantism is today, with more pieces added weekly.
****Psalms 127:1
So why are there so many scandals in the Catholic Church?
Simply
because Holy Scripture tells us that there will be scandals within the only
Church which Jesus Christ founded. If there were no scandals, then Holy
Scripture would be in error, would it not? So how can anyone become upset when
scandals do arise within the Church?
"Woe to the
world because of scandals! For it must needs be that scandals come, but
woe to the man through whom scandal does come!"
Matthew 18:7
And He said to His disciples, "It is
impossible that scandals should not come; but woe to him through whom they
come."
Luke 17:1"
In the time that Jesus
walked the earth, there was the greatest human scandalizer of all time, Judas.
Judas was one of twelve chosen by Jesus Christ Himself, so what was the scandal
rate among Christ's closest disciples? It was about 8 1/2
%.
"From the days of John the Baptist until
now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by
force."
Matthew 11:12
"Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers
did to the false prophets."
Luke 6:26"
"Blessed are you when men revile you and
persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your
reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before
you."
Matthew 5:11-12
A comparison between Jesus Christ and His Mystical Body. He is the head and His
Church is His body (Ephesians 1:22-23). You cannot separate the head from the
body. They are one.
What happens to the one, must also happen to the other.
Reference to
Jesus Christ is the first of the lines following, and to His Body, the Catholic
Church, the second.
They rebelled against His Authority.
They
rebel against its Authority. 2Peter 2:10
They said Crucify Him, Matthew
27:23.
Heretics have been trying to crucify it for 2000 years.
He is
called Beelzebub, Matthew 10:25.
They call it the Church of Satan.
They said he is a false messiah, Luke 22:70-71.
They say it is a
false church.
He called Himself the Son of GOD.
It claims it was
founded by GOD, Matthew 16:18.
He called Himself Truth, John 14:6.
It
claims to be infallible, 1Timothy 3:15.
He called Himself King, John
18:37.
It says it is the only true Church, Matthew 16:18.
He could not
sin.
It has no spot or wrinkle, Ephesians 5:27.
He was not believed by
many, Luke 22:67.
It is not believed by many.
He was denied by many,
Luke 22:57-60.
It is denied by many.
He was derided, not being
understood.
It is derided, not being understood, 2Peter 2:12.
Not
understanding Him, they walked away, John 6:66.
Not understanding it, they
walked away.
He had many false accusers, Mark 14:56-59.
It has many
false accusers.
He was mocked, Luke 23:35-37.
It is mocked.
He
was scandalized, Luke 17:1-2.
It is scandalized.
He was hated without
a cause, John 15:18-25.
It is hated without a cause.
His accuser,
Judas, died, Matthew 27:5.
Its accusers die, but still, the Church lives on
to bury its accusers.
His enemies would stumble and fall, John
18:6.
Its enemies stumble and fall.
We have no king but Caesar, John
19:15.
We have no need of it, as we have the Bible.
Can anything good
come out of Nazareth? John 1:46.
Can anything good come from Rome?
They cried out, "Not this one but Barabbas", John 15:18-25.
It is
also rejected by the world.
He bore His Cross, John 19:17.
It bears a
cross also, the cross of persecution for almost 2000 years.
He died on
the Cross, John 19:30.
It has thousands of martyrs, many on crosses.
"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me
before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you."
John
15:18-19
The Catholic Church is certainly not of the world, for it
is:
A City set on a Mountain, Matthew 5:14.
A Dwelling Place for GOD,
Ephesians 2:22.
A Spiritual House, 1Peter 2:5.
GOD's Building,
1Corinthians 3:9.
Mount Zion, Psalms 2:6, Micah 4:7, Hebrews 12:22.
My
Church, Matthew 16:18.
Our Mother, Galatians 4:26.
The Bride of Christ,
Joel 2:16, John 3:29, Revelation 21:2.
The Body of Christ, Ephesians 1:22-23,
Colossians 1:24.
The Church of GOD, Acts 20:28.
The Church of the
Firstborn, Hebrews 12:23.
The City of the Living GOD, Hebrews 12:22.
The
City of Truth, Zechariah 8:3.
The Congregation of Saints, Psalms
149:1.
The Daughter of the King, Psalms 45:13.
The dispenser of the Wisdom
of GOD, Ephesians 3:7-11.
The final authority of GOD on earth, Matthew
18:15-18.
The Fold of Christ, John 10:16.
The Heavenly Jerusalem,
Galatians 4:26.
The Holy City, Revelation 21:2.
The Holy Mountain,
Zechariah 8:3.
The House of Christ, Hebrews 3:6.
The House of GOD,
1Timothy 3:15, Hebrews 10:21.
The Household of GOD, Ephesians 2:19.
The
Kingdom of GOD, Luke 4:43.
The Kingdom of Heaven, Matthew 13:31.
The
Lamb's Spouse, Revelation 19:7,21:9
The New Jerusalem, Isaiah 65:18,
Revelation 3:12,21:2.
The Pillar and Foundation of Truth, 1Timothy
3:15
Since the Catholic Church is the Body of Christ, it must experience
the same passion as He did. He was persecuted and calumnized unjustly, and so
must His Church suffer the same trials.
The persecutors and calumnizers
should realize that when they attack the Catholic Church, they are really
attacking its founder, Jesus Christ Himself.
In rejecting His Church, they
are in fact, rejecting Him.
"So now I say to you, keep away from these
men and let them alone. For if this plan or work, is of men, it will be
overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it.
Else perhaps you may find yourselves fighting even against God."
Acts
5:38-39
If only the attackers and detractors of the Catholic Church would
stop ignoring these verses and heed the very important message they present.
They might then notice that no man-made institution could possibly have lasted
for 2000 years, while at the same time having to endure the unending attacks of
constant slings and arrows from countless heretics and from all quarters.
Now
you please tell me, just who is protecting the Catholic Church?
Almost
2000 years later, His ONE and
ONLY Church lives and is stronger than ever.
No matter how hard the persecutors try,
His Kingdom will last forever,
Daniel 7:14, Hebrews 1:8.
His Church will
last until the end of the world as promised by Him in Matthew 28:20.
Anyone
who does not believe what He has promised has called Him a
liar.
"BEHOLD, I HAVE GIVEN YOU POWER TO TREAD
UPON SERPENTS AND SCORPIONS,
AND OVER ALL THE MIGHT OF THE ENEMY; AND NOTHING
SHALL HURT YOU."
Luke
10:19
©
Written by Bob Stanley, March 28, 2002
Updated December 21,
2006
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