Tuesday morning, a group of Catholic activists gathered in front of a NYC Cathedral to protest a reprimand the Pope issued to America’s largest organization of catholic nuns.
Why? Because they spend too much time focusing on feeding the poor and woman’s rights, and not enough time talking about right to life from conception, and the Vatican’s view of the family.
STORY: The Pope’s Annual Christmas Message
These pedantic chastisements are utterly infuriating considering the problems that the church has within its own organization and the political and social injustices that occur on a daily basis.
Rather than focusing on nuns remaining silent in trivial matters, the Pope should be turning his focus towards…
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Pedophilia In The Church
Studies show that only 10 percent of Catholic priests were pedophiles. That’s around 11,000 priests and still counting. The percentage of pedophile priests is 20 times higher than what is found in secular instances.
Just this week, it was revealed that two priests in Philadelphia, George J Mazzotta, and Hugh P Campbell sexually assaulted two young men. The Archdioceses kept this a secret for six months.
Instead of being put behind bars, these men are simply barred from ministry and are living a “supervised life of prayer” until their case is brought up before the Vatican. Not a grand jury, the Vatican.
In six months not only can they intimidate their victims and cover their tracks, they are also given the opportunity to molest more children.
The failure to take more punitive actions in a swifter manner is almost aligned with allowing the behavior to continue. Then they have the nerve to condemn same-sex marriage in the same breath.
So basically what they’re telling us is that it’s wrong for a man and another man to have relations unless one of them is under the age of 18.
Actions speak louder than words, and unless the Vatican takes a stronger stand against such malicious acts coming from those we entrust with our children, our flesh and blood, the statement they make will be one of hypocrisy.
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Poverty
When over half of the world’s population is making less than $2.50 a day and your organization is in control of the richest state in the world per square foot there is a problem.
Especially when the organization preaches a doctrine that states it’s better to give and live poor than to live with monetary wealth.
It’s understandable that in order to help the poor it’s better that you’re not one of them, but when the amount of money spent on adding to and maintaining the grandiosity of the center of your organization exceeds the number of people being helped by the organization, you are simply accumulating wealth out of greed – not benevolence.
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Aids In Africa
In 2011 alone, 1.9 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa were infected with the HIV virus and 1.2 million people worldwide have died from the virus. In three southern African countries the adult HIV prevalence rate exceeds 20 percent: 24.8 percent in Botswana, 23.6 percent in Lesotho, and 25.9 percent in Swaziland. While this epidemic is affecting millions of people worldwide, the church condemns condoms.
An organization with as much power could save millions of lives by using its influence to promote condom distribution in countries most heavily affected by the epidemic.
Jesus spent his life healing the sick; if the goal of every Catholic is to be more Christ-like, then the focus should be on replicating his good deeds in the most efficacious way possible, not reprimanding those who are devoting their lives to helping those in need, and doing exactly what you’re supposed to do as a believer in Christ.
