The Shame of Being Catholic
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
History shows that the Catholic Church has done more to damage society over the centuries than any other organization, including any radical Islamic terrorist group, any Communist country, or political or nationalist movement.
They have suppressed scientific research for as long as they’ve been around. People were killed, ostracized, imprisoned, and excommunicated simply because they dared to publish scientific findings that conflict with the teaching of the Catholic Church.
They have killed millions over the centuries. The Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, forced “conversion” of African and North and South American cultures are documented instances.
The Vatican has been shown to be incredibly corrupt, and many Popes were nothing more than criminals and perverts, ordering killings, selling indulgences, conspiring with leaders of countries, and womanizing. Many had children while they were in the Vatican, and one is even known to have pimped out his own daughter. The Catholic Church is a political organization, not a religion.
Recently it has come to light that a large number of Catholic priests have been sexually abusing children (mostly boys), and that the Vatican has been aware of the actions of these perverts. They have made a point of hiding this knowledge, and simply moved the guilty priests to other parishes where they abused more children.
This knowledge went all the way to the Vatican. From the days of Pope Pius X, Popes have been aware of child abuse and did not report it to authorities. On the contrary, they instructed their parishes to not report the abuse either. The current Pope is known for his writings on this subject.
Yes, Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict are responsible for the molesting of hundreds of innocent children by moving pedophile priests from one parish to another because they didn’t want the name of the church sullied. They are as guilty of pedophilia as the priests who committed the acts.
If you are still a Catholic, SHAME ON YOU! God certainly does not condone this behavior, so why do you? Why would anyone want to be associated with such a low-life organization? Anyone who remains a Catholic is giving implicit approval of the actions of the church hierarchy.
Any pastor, bishop, cardinal, or pope that is known to have knowledge of child molestation and did not report it to local authorities should be prosecuted themselves.
In the interest of purely rational thought, that is an assertion. It claims that one organization has caused more damage than any other. For this to be true, it has to be measurable. By what standard and are we sure we could muster all the data necessary for it to be measured? It may be true, but I don’t believe it can be proven true.
That technicality aside, I agree with the rest of position and the sentiment driving it.
Steve, As it says in the site header, this is my opinion. But I can’t think of any other group that has even come close to having the amount of negative impact on society as the Catholic Church. Can you?
This is just my point. None of this is measurable in an accurate way. How about the Calvinists, Soviets, Nazis, Muslim zealots, Bible thumping supporters of G. W. Bush, etc. There is a long line of other beliefs and organizations who share some of the same traits as the Catholic Church. If we lump them all together, I think we might be in agreement. So I feel it’s more appropriate to say it’s quite likely nothing has harmed society more than the many horrendous things done in the name of religion.
In any event, I still like your blog. Direct and to the point.
Of course this is a subjective argument, but let’s try to look at this as rationally as we can:
Firstly, the Soviets, Nazis, Calvinists, Muslim Zealots, and the right wing religious extremists had extremely short lifespans, so they did not really have time to hurt society in the same way as the Church, which been in existence for thousands of years.
Secondly, none of the others have really been in a position to influence society in the same way that the Church has. For many centuries, the Pope was the most powerful person in the world, with authority above all kings and other rulers. This is how the Church was able to stifle religious research to the point of torturing, excommunicating, imprisoning, and even killing scientists to stop the general public from becoming informed. They have also stifled social development with their ridiculous rules regarding sex and other human instincts that are not evil but threaten the power that the Church ascribes to itself.
Now consider the number of people killed in the name of Catholicism – the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, missionary “conversion” of native African and North and South American tribes, etc. Even the Muslims do not come close to the cruelty of the Church. The killings by the Nazis and Soviets are just a drop in the bucket in comparison.
So although you are right that harm cannot be measured, we can only imagine how advanced society might be today without the suppression of knowledge, and murder of freethinking people that can be directly attributed to the Catholic Church (and that’s not even considering the actions of “religiously enlightened” rulers)
Again, this is my opinion, but I have come to this conclusion as a result of a good deal of study and reading. If there is any other organization or even government that you think surpasses the Church in this dubious distinction, I’d love to hear about it.