In Defense of the Catholic Church

Satan, through his minions on the left and in the #FakeNews media, is waging a war against the Catholic Church.

Because the Catholic Church is the only major Christian denomination which stands against entirety of the secular worlds hedonistic "paradise" where divorce, contraception, abortion, causal sex, and active homosexuality are all extolled as positive goods the forces of the left single it out as their primary target.

While it's true that many Protestants oppose the more egregious aspects of hellish hedonism, such as abortion and casual sex, they tend to belong to smaller groups which are harder to sue--and don't doubt for a moment that money isn't the driver to the lawyers who constantly sue the Church-- and because Protestant doctrine is perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be changing over time.

Though Protestant denominations which oppose everything but divorce and contraception are attacked by the #FakeNews media the media's major effort is reserved for the Catholic Church.

Satan's war on the Church is based on the Big Lie; most people will tell little lies and so they believe that other people tell little lies too but few people will tell a really big lie and so they tend to believe Big Lies when told to them by others since they can't imagine that anyone would tell a Big Lie.

The Big Lie isn't that some priests molest children because they did; the Big Lie is that most priests molest children and that lots of priests are molesting children today.

The truth is that about 4% of priests have been accused, over the last several decades, of molesting children and that the molestation crisis ended long ago.  The sexual abuse crisis peaked in the 1970s and by the 1990s was back to 1950's levels.  Today about 0.05% of priests are accused of molesting children in a year.  Of the 300 accusations against priests in the Pennsylvania grand jury report for example only 2 were alleged to have occurred in the last 33 years.  The rest date as far back as the 1930s. None of this means that what those priests did was ok only that they're not doing it now due to reforms made by the Catholic Church and that most priests didn't molest children.

The Big Lie isn't that some Catholic priests molest children because they did; the Big Lie is that the problem is common and on-going and that the Church hasn't done anything about it.

For example you've probably read about the 300 priests who molested 1000 children in Pennsylvania according to a Grand Jury report.  What you probably haven't heard is that none of those priests is still a priest, that only 2 of the 300 crimes the accusations refer to occurred more recently than 33 years ago, or that those 300 accusations span 70 years.  None of that says that what those priests did isn't horrible or that they shouldn't be punished but it shows that the Church had a problem, because any number greater than 0 is a problem, but that it took steps which fixed the problem as well as can be possible given that we're all sinners.  Further it shows that unlike the lie that Satan is trying to peddle there aren't 300 child molesting priests wandering around Pennsylvania today.

The Big Lie isn't that some Catholic priests molest children because 4% of priests have been accused of that and many are guilty; the Big Lie is that priests are more likely to molest children than anyone else and that the Catholic Church is the major source of child abuse in America today.

The PA Grand Jury spent a year investigating only Catholic priests, deacons, and seminarians and found 300 accusations spanning 7 decades.  In a typical year there are hundreds of accusations of sexual molestation against PA public school teachers.  On a national level there are around 90,000 cases of child molestation reported every year.

That doesn't mean that what those priests did was ok only that it's a lie promulgated by the media that the Church is somehow the biggest source of sexual predators.  In fact Public Schools generate far more sexual molestation than the Catholic Church does.  For example the official Pennsylvania Professional Standards and Practices Commission website estimates that 10% of public school students will be sexually molested by a school employee between kindergarten and graduating from high school.

Similarly Protestant Ministers are just as likely to molest children as are Catholic priests, though both groups are less likely to molest than the average adult male.

This Big Lie actually hurts children.  The resources the PA Attorney General expended over his year long investigation produced 2 cases that occurred within the last 33 years; he can't prosecute earlier cases due to the statute of limitations.  Catholics are all for him finding those 2 cases but it's not an example of Catholic bias to wonder if some of those resources couldn't have been used to investigate the hundreds of accusations against public school teachers, or the claims against Protestant ministers, or all the other accusations that pop up every year in PA in addition to investigating priests.

Catholics fully support law enforcement and DAs investigating priests to see if any have been accused of molestation; but why is it only Catholic priests who are investigated?  If the PA Attorney General had actually been motivated by concern for children why didn't he investigate the Church as well as all the other organizations which harbor far more molesters?

Similarly if these "crusaders" care about the children why is it that when they bring up laws to extend the statute of limitations they make sure those laws don't apply to public schools? Given that hundreds of PA public school teachers are accused of molestation each year shouldn't extending the statute of limitations apply to all molesters?

The Big Lie isn't that some Bishops moved around priests accused of child molestation because a few of them did in the past but they don't do so anymore; the Big Lie is that only the Catholic Church did that when in fact public schools are still doing that today and that the Catholic Church is still passing around priests accused of molestation today.

Back in the 60s to 70s when the child molestation problem was much worse than it is now in the Catholic Church psychiatrists told Bishops that the offending priests had been cured.  Now it was stupid of some Bishops to believe that, and there were probably some Bishops who didn't care, but it's not like every Bishop who transferred an accused priest was doing so with full knowledge that the priest would offend again. Thanks be to God the Church learned its lesson and that sort of thing is no longer tolerated.

However public schools still pass around teachers who have been accused of molesting children.

That doesn't excuse anything that some Bishops did but it does show that those who say that only the Church moved around alleged offenders are repeating a lie.

The Big Lie isn't that the Catholic Church has paid a fortune to the victims of predatory priests; the Big Lie is that that is a bad thing.

Precisely because the Church condemns the actions of that small number of priests the Church has done all it can to help the victims both spiritually and via worldly means.

Yet many of the leftists who attack the Church cite the Church's willingness to pay out huge settlements as an indication that the Church as a whole is bad.  Many of these settlements weren't the result of court cases but of the Church voluntarily doing what it could in a worldly way to help victims.

On the other hand victims who were molested by public school teachers have a much harder time.  If they don't file a report within 90 days in many cases they can't sue. On the other hand if a priest molests a child in Pennsylvania for example the child has until they're 30 years old to sue,  and until they're 50 to file a legal complaint.

The Big Lie isn't that some Catholic priests molested kids;  The Big Lie is that they did so because of priestly celibacy; in fact 80% of the accused molesters were gay priests abusing teenage boys.

Given that married Protestant ministers and married adult males are at least as likely to molest children as Catholic priests it's clear that celibacy has nothing to do with the problem. After all the 96% of priests who don't molest kids are celebrate too.

But the #FakeNews media hates the idea of celibacy because it shows that the left's claim that living a moral lifestyle and only having sex in the context of a marriage between a man and a woman is impossible is wrong. Hence they try and blame celibacy rather than blame the priests who committed the crimes.

The Big Lie isn't that some Catholic priests molested kids; the Big Lie is that homosexuality has nothing to do with the problem.

Given the massively promiscuous nature of gay "relationships" they are the poster boys for the modern left wing hedonist movement.  As such the left will do anything to protect their image.  Which is very bad for children if in fact gays are more likely to molest children than straight men.

Around 80% of the victims of priests are teenage boys which means that gay priests were the vast majority of the problem in the Church.      

Did you know that for years a gay group that advocated sex with 3 year old boys marched in the SF and LA Gay Pride parades? Did you know that 39% of the children who are molested each year in America are male but that only 9% of molesters are female?  Given that gays make up about 2% of the US population according to the CDC that means that gays are much more likely to molest children than straight men though it does not mean that most sexually active gays are molesters.

But by ignoring the gay component of the problem the #FakeNews media is putting children at risk.  Given what we know about gays being more likely to molest kids is having gay scout masters who go out on overnight hikes with young boys such a great idea for example?  But the same people who demand that priests not be alone with young boys, a policy the Church has implemented, are fine with gay scout masters being alone with young boys. That doesn't seem to indicate that concern about children is the real priority driving the attacks on the Church.

That the priests were gay doesn't reduce the severity of their actions nor does it relieve the Church of its responsibility to have fixed the problem more quickly but the fact that the same #FakeNews types who are condemning all priests for the crimes of a few are actively hiding the role that homosexuality plays in the problem proves that the Big Lie is an intentional thing; that those who are attacking the Church don't care about the kids but only about how the sins of a few priests can be used to attack the whole Church.

The Big Lie isn't that some Catholic priests molested kids; the Big Lie is that the people who are attacking the Church are doing so because they care about children.

We know that the Left has no problem defending or casting doubt about charges of molestation against people who they like, Roman Polanski and Woody Allen for example. Woody Allen has been credibly accused, just like the priests in the PA report, of “inappropriately touching” a 7 year old girl.  We don’t know if he’s guilty or not but the media has not had a problem repeating Woody’s claims of innocence while simultaneously assuming that every accused Catholic priest is guilty.

The reality is that if those in the #FakeNews media who condemn the entire Church instead of just the offending priests and Bishops really cared about child molestation they'd be as hard on convicted child molester Roman Polanski as they are on Catholic priests.

Now there are those who condemn the Church because of the lies they have been told who are sincerely concerned about children.  That's why we need to address the real problem not the fake one made up by the media.

After reading this many people will try to ignore it by saying that it's a defense of priests who molest children but if you say that to yourself you're lying.  No Catholic thinks those priests are anything other than monsters who should be prosecuted. But just because a small minority of priests have done horrible things doesn't mean Catholics have to condemn the 96% of priests who have done nothing wrong or the entire Church.

Catholics are furious that it took the Church from the 1960s to the 1990s to fix the problem but we're not going to buy into the lie that the Church didn't do anything and that the situation today is as bad as it was in the 1970s.

Blaming the Church or all priests for the sins of a few is like blaming all Jews because George Soros, the Jewish  funder of leftist causes, collaborated with the Nazi's during WWII and helped the Nazi's steal Jewish assets.  That Soros is a monster is not a reflection on the Jews who were murdered by the Nazi's.

Similarly that some Blacks attack cops does not mean that all Blacks are bad nor does the fact that some white Democrats founded the KKK prove that all whites are bad.

Catholics need to pray for the victims of a tiny fraction of our priests and for the actions of a small fraction of our Bishops. Catholics need to ensure that the new policies the Church has implemented since the 1990s, with a major improvement in 2002, are adhered to.

But Catholics don't have to agree with the Big Lies that the #FakeNews media is peddling.