State of CT vs The Catholic Church

Mind shedding a little light on what you mean by plenty? Or are we simply just going for the cliched, company line attacks on the Catholic Church? I'm not saying that there haven't been instances, but your use of "plenty" seems to imply a lazy assumption for me. And as far as poo-pooing the "played up by the media" angle, there is a little truth in it. Taking a look on some of these cheap shots at the Church so far on this thread is a good indicator of that. I would honestly like to know the percentage of people who genuinely feel compassion for the victims from the scandal versus those who merely enjoy playing up the scandal to take shots at the church.

Oh, and I also would love to see a report of the number of cases involving people who came out of the woodwork years and years after the so-called incidents took place...sure, I'm not saying each instance was played up or fabricated, but it seems a tad opportunistic to me.

 

Blaming the victims ... classy.

 

Not reading all of my comments ... lazy.

 

I think he read them all. Those in particular jump out. Very ugly on your part, very ugly.

 

Don't see how the first paragraph of your post had anything to do with the second. Hence the "Oh, and I would love to see..." phrasing that indicates a new thought.

 

Yes, that is a transition, I'm talking about the part where I said "I'm not saying each instance was played up or fabricated." Don't get me wrong, the bulk of those cases have innocent victims and the priests that harmed them should be punished accordingly, but I can't stand people that attack the Church under the guise of being politically correct (ditto for the smug, holier-than-thou 'shame on you' comments, a la the "...very ugly on your part, very ugly..."). If you think my comment implied that very few of the cases have any merit, I guess I just assumed that it was the tone of the thread as the anti-Catholic comments would have you believe these scenarios play out at a majority of the parishes which is far from the truth.

As you can tell I'm Catholic, and I've heard more than one priest talk about how the misdeeds of a few corrupt priests (that is, few in relation to the number of "clean" priests) have transformed their lives (no, not in the same manner as they have changed the victims' lives...I'll preempt an attack from the PC police), with one saying something along the lines of "you don't know what it's like, where everywhere you go people stare at you and wonder 'is he one of them?'" So sorry if I get a little ticked by people who attack the Catholic Church when they either have not attended mass in their life or were turned off because the Catholic faith doesn't quite jibe with their secular desires.

 

Guess what? I was raised Catholic, too. And I don't like baseless bashing of the church, either. That said, this particular "bashing" has a ton of merit and your snide comment about people being "opportunistic," frankly, is a little insulting.

You really have no place to judge any of us based on what you think our views of your faith are.

 

Okay, um, you were aware that you "judged" me before I "judged" you, correct? And frankly, given that I would bet (I can't give you any data to support this, so if that's a prerequisite for you just disregard this) the number of cases of after-the-fact opportunists latching on to a guilty priest in relation to the number of valid cases would probably be equal to or more of a percentage than the number of dirty priests in relation to upstanding ones, I'll disagree that only my views are insulting when compared to others on this board.

As far as passing judgment, I was not originally directing my ire to you (as again, you chose to first pass judgment on me, though you now take offense to my judgment) but those that posted comments along the lines of 'arrest the pope,' etc.

 

You need to stop your speculation about sex abuse victims. In no way are you making yourself look better with lengthy explanations.

 

In fact, you're pissing some of us enormously.

 

do catholics deserve an extra swing because of a handful of priests that play with boys, or do they deserve an extra swing for being so rigid in their ways?

 

I really don't give a shit about pissing anyone off when most of the first page of this thread was an all-out assault on the Church and the Pope. If you are the sensitive/delusional/ignorant as to completely disregard my rational argument, I really could not care less if I look worse and worse to you. How many times have I got to say it, I feel deeply sorry for the victims. And if you honestly think that a lot of the earlier posts did not exploit these cases to rip on the Church, I'll respect that, but I'll be damned if I agree with it.