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Archbishop Fulton J.

Sheen, one of the greatest orators and Catholic teachers of this century, once said, "There are not a hundred people in America who hate th e Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly belie ve to be the Catholic Church which is, of course, quite a different thing." I think that applies to what you wrote. I appreciate your honesty in sharing al l the horrible things you experienced and it saddens me that you left the Cathol ic Church. As a practicing Catholic I can tell there have been times when I have lost my fa ith as well, sometimes because of stuff I've gone through in life and sometimes because of a lack of leadership in the Church. The sex scandal did a great deal of damage to the Church, but we must remember t hat the Church is made up of men and all men are sinners. That is not in any wa y to minimize the extent of the sin and evil those priests were involved in, rat her, it's my way of saying the Catholic Church itself should not be defined by i ts worst members. These men never should have been ordained priests and never b elonged in that position. These men used the Church for their own perverted desires, and they got away wit h it for so long for many reasons. I would say the main reason was that when this began, and it's impossible to put a date on it, but many decades ago, the Church was seen as Holy and incorruptib le, as a beacon of truth and purity. So these men, many of whom were gay (the o nes involved in sexual crimes), realized they could enter the church and become priests and that would be a good cover for their disordered sexual desires, whic h would not be permitted to exist in mainstream american society back in the 40s , 50s, and 60s when much of this was taking place. Back then people didn't see priests the way many see them today, they weren't questioned and so most people didn't suspect that this crisis was so widespread, or even existing at all. These men who called themselves priests took full advantage of this, and what's worse is that the Bishops and priests in charge of running the seminaries and di oceses often knew it was a big problem but looked the other way and let it go on because they didn't want the church's reputation, and more importantly, their r eputation, to be tarnished if word got out that they had a sex scandal right und er their nose. We have to keep in mind that sexual repression and repression in general was goi ng on everywhere in america during those decades, not just in the Church. It on ly became more prominent there because the Church welcomed anyone who wanted to be a priest or religious with open arms Furthermore, the straight priests often were just unholy men who became priests because they didn't know what else to do with their lives, not because they felt truly called to that vocation. The result of this could not be understated: A n entire generation of people (the baby boomers) was turned away from the Cathol ic Church and religion in general because of the horrible example many priests, brothers, and sisters gave them when they were growing up. They lost their fait h and the values that came with it, and when God disappeared from their lives th ey went in search of happiness elsewhere, but the only place that was left was t he secular world. So materialism, entertainment, and sexual promiscuity became their god, and this was the example they gave to their kids, much more often in a single parent household too. This led to the breakdown of the american family as we knew it. I would know, I grew up without a father. The kids of the baby boomers for the most part grew up without values and religion, so is it any won der why our country has become so godless and sinful? So much evil has come from the abuse of the priesthood by these men. Many young people who would've considered becoming or at least staying catholic have left the Church as a result of the reputation it gained for harboring sexual predator s. So much truth that could have been taught to generations of Catholics was lo st because of the watered down feel-good nonsense that was taught in Catholic sc hools to kids and to the priests themselves in the seminaries up until changes w ere made to start teaching the truth again after 2001.

I would ask you to reflect on the Church's teachings and which ones you specific ally disagree with. Ask yourself if you left because of those, or because of yo ur childhood experiences. If it's the latter, I would say your search for truth should be your #1 priority in life, no matter where it takes you, and no matter what your life experiences have been. I would also ask you to read the writing s of the early church fathers, and of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. If those are too complex to start out with, which they are for many people, I recom mend reading the works of G.k. Chesterton if you haven't already. He was possib ly the greatest Christian apologist of the last century who converted to Catholi cism later on life after his own search for truth. Another good place to start is watching the lectures of Fulton J. Sheen, if for no other reason than they're very entertaining and you can learn a lot about psychology from them, in additi on to the teachings of the Catholic Church. The Church and the priests who did those horrible things deserved the punishment they got, but we should be aware that the media loved every minute of this cris is. They had an anti-Catholic, even anti-Christian agenda to push from the star t so they jumped on every story that came out about every priest, even the ones that turned out to be false. They were desperate to paint the Church in a bad l ight and this just gave them the opportunities they were looking for. The worst part about the sex scandal was that it diminished and hid all the good things the Church has done for so many people around the world. People forget that Catholic Charities help more people around the world than any other charita ble organization. Americans' view of the Catholic Church has been so tainted by this sex scandal, it's completely different from the way people in third world countries view the Church. Because they largely didn't experience the sex scand al like we did, Catholics in South America, Africa, and Asia are on fire with pa ssion for their faith. They see the beauty untarnished and the light of the Chu rch undimmed from scandal and corruption. A great example of this is the movie For Greater Glory, the true story of the war between Mexican Catholics and their atheist government, and their willingness to die for their faith. There is so much truth, beauty, and goodness in the Catholic Church that come fr om its doctrines, dogmas, tradition, and most importantly, Jesus, who founded th e Church and continues to watch over and shepherd it to this day. He couldn't s top the sex scandal because men have free will, but He can always bring a greate r good out of evil, which is what I believe will happen in the Church in the com ing years. The Catholic Church of today is very different than the Church you grew up in, and I can understand your reasons for leaving it. The young men who are becomin g priests now are orthodox and are passionate about the faith. Btw, this is a must-read book backing up my points about how the root of the Chu rch's problem was the teaching of pc nonsense in its seminaries . . . .http://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Good-Men-Seminaries-Generations/dp/0967637112 I think this book will help many conservative Protestants relate to the struggle s of young Catholics, especially today's priests, because it's the same struggle they face all the time in our secular society: people with a pc, liberal world view trying to impose their views on conservatives who have the opposite worldvi ew. Liberalism has infected the Catholic Church just like it has infected mains tream America, and we're all paying the price for it. Non-Catholics of all faiths and atheists always assume Catholics are just conser vatives who are hypocrites, but in reality the sex scandal came into being becau se the Church was being run by liberals who got positions of power in the Church and made sure orthodox, conservative men weren't allowed in the seminaries or w ould be discouraged from being priests once they got in. It wasn't just bad, perverted men who created the scandal, it was the bishops an d priests who didn't have those desires but instead had a desire to reshape and redefine the Church as a progressive Church that reflected the promiscuous, feel

-good, morally relative culture that began to permeate every nook and cranny of this great nation. The scandal would not have been nearly as bad if the men in positions of authori ty actually tried to stop the evil in their midst, and so I believe they will re ceive the harshest punishment on judgment day because with great power comes gre at responsibility. To sum up: the problem wasn't some inherent evil or corruption within the Catho lic Church that led to the sex scandal, it was men with a weak moral compass all owing the Church to become a safe haven for all kinds of sexual deviants and pre dators. These same men then perpetuated the problem by teaching future priests that there are no absolute truths and we should "accept" everyone regardless of how "different" they are, and that the Church needs to be more "modern" and chan ge to reflect the moral relativity and secularism of our society. They covered up the scandal because they didn't wanna destroy their reputation, but instead t hey destroyed their souls and the souls of many young men. The problem wasn't what the Church stood for, it's what it's worst members, and Catholics in Name Only as I call them, stood for and represented. They distorte d the truths of the faith to the point where they were unrecognizable and ironic ally in the process pushed away many people who actually wanted to be part of th e Church because they were attracted to the truths it always taught. I don't blame the Church for the scandal, I blame liberal ideology and the men w ho chose to make that their faith instead of orthodox catholicism. Starting around the 1920s and continuing til today there were two battles going on simultaneously, a battle for the soul of America, and a battle for the soul o f the Catholic Church. Both battles involved two sides, conservatives and liber als, and I believe up til now the liberals have won the battle, but they haven't won the war. This victory of liberals is what created the pc, permiscuous envi ronment that enabled the sex scandal to do great damage to the Church, and it's also what caused american's moral decline and the breakdown of the american fami ly. That's why now more than ever I look to my Catholic faith to help me fight the d aily battle that is being a faithful Christian in a country now dominated by peo ple who don't wanna be bothered by religion or people who are openly hostile to any religion and the people who follow it. Sorry this got to be an essay, I just felt the need to explain why the Catholic Church shouldn't be forever scarred and identified by its darkest moments, but b y the good it brings to the world.

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