Scandals Within the Catholic Church...

Why are there so many scandals within the Catholic Church?
Pedophilia by Catholic priests has generated big headlines and the detractors and haters of the Catholic Church are having a field day, temporarily. I said "temporarily" because of the record of survivability of the Catholic Church for almost two millennia, and of the "person" who is its head.
But before continuing, let us put this particular scandal into its proper context.

1. The Catholic Church is more than four times as large as all of Protestantism combined. Since 1950 the Church in the United States has had 109,694 priests. During that time period of over fifty years, 4392 (as reported in February 2004) were accused of molesting minors, or about four percent. Remember, that number is the total number of those charged and not the number of those found guilty. We can not be so naive as to ignore the fact that many of those are false charges brought on by greed in the hopes of gaining a monetary settlement. We remember the person who falsely accused the Archbishop of Chicago and who later said that he had lied. Keep in mind that those allegedly charged with pedophelia are a small minority of the total charged.
Keep in mind also that these figures did not come about all at once recently, but are spread out as far back as 1950, over 50 years ago. Some of the accused priests were discharged by the Church decades ago and hundreds of others have since passed away, making any defense in their behalf an impossibility.

Remember, we could not have had Jesus Christ as a Savior without also having a Judas to betray Him.

2. These pedophilia, and sexual abuse problems are not a Catholic monopoly, as the guilty are in all non-Catholic Christian denominations as well. Do you not remember the scandals of Jim Jones in Jonestown who was responsible for the murder of many hundreds of his flock? Then there is Jimmy Swaggart, Jesse Jackson, James Baker, and many others. Recent figures have shown that an average of 3500 religious in non-Catholic sects are charged similarly every year. What with tens of thousands of individual Christian sects in the world today, these abuses do not receive the attention given to the Catholic Church by the media.
Some of the tens of thousands of non-Catholic sects openly acknowledge that they "ordain" homosexual ministers. How many of those would you suppose are pedophiles?
However, it is the Catholic Church which has always been the "bulls-eye" of the target of detractors since its very beginning almost 2000 years ago. The liberal media have a tendency not to sensationalize scandals in Protestantism and they do just the reverse for the Catholic Church. They have put the Catholic Church under a microscope, looking for any possible aberration which they take great pride in blowing all out of proportion.

Didn't Jesus say, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone..."?
John 8:7

3. From the figures I have listed above, the great majority of Catholic priests who are not part of this scandal, are looked upon as guilty until proven innocent, instead of the other way around as it is in the secular world. What kind of compassion for the great majority of innocent priests is espoused by the liberal media, and by those individual non-Catholics who enjoy attacking the Catholic Church?
It appears that all Catholic priests are being treated with suspicion. Is that being Christ-like?
Is this fair to the innocent who are the vast majority?

4. Do we condemn all executives of large corporations because of the alleged actions of those of a few? Do we condemn all of Islam because of the actions of some militants?

5. Do we condemn Peter because of Judas?

6. Jesus Himself sat at table with sinners. That is a sign that all are welcome to His table.
"And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.""
Matthew 9:10-13
The Catholic Church is, and has always been a hospital for sinners, and not a hotel for saints (Mark 2:17). The visible Catholic Church is populated by fallible human beings, and "All have sinned".
Romans 3:23,5:12.
Didn't Saint John say, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us"?
1John 1:10
The purpose of the Catholic Church is to make saints in heaven out of sinners on earth.
Contrast that with some Protestant sects who claim, "once saved always saved". That statement really means, "we can sin as much as we want because we are already saved". If anyone claims they are saved in this life, aren't they really proclaiming themselves as being saints already?

7. Those who relish attacking the Catholic Church are guilty of all of the following:

A. "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone..."?
John 8:7

B. "Do not be a stumbling block to Jews and to Greeks and to the Church of God..."
1Corinthians 10:32

C. "I am the least of the Apostles, and am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God."
1Corinthians 15:9

D. "But these people, like irrational animals born by nature for capture and destruction,
revile things that they do not understand, and in their destruction they will also be destroyed."
2Peter 2:12

E. "Fear not, for I am with thee: turn not aside, for I am your GOD. I have strengthened thee,
and have helped thee, and the right hand of My Just One hath upheld thee*.
Behold all that fight against thee** shall be confounded*** and ashamed,
as they shall be as nothing****, and the men shall perish that strive against thee."
Isaiah 41:10-11
*The "Just One" has upheld His Church every day in every century for almost 2000 years.
Matthew 28:20.
**These are the attackers of the Catholic Church, past, present, and future, until the end of time.
***Split into more than 33,800 pieces as Protestantism is today, with more pieces added weekly.
****Psalms 127:1
So why are there so many scandals in the Catholic Church?
Simply because Holy Scripture tells us that there will be scandals within the only Church which Jesus Christ founded. If there were no scandals, then Holy Scripture would be in error, would it not? So how can anyone become upset when scandals do arise within the Church?

"Woe to the world because of scandals! For it must needs be that scandals come, but woe to the man through whom scandal does come!"
Matthew 18:7

And He said to His disciples, "It is impossible that scandals should not come; but woe to him through whom they come."
Luke 17:1"

In the time that Jesus walked the earth, there was the greatest human scandalizer of all time, Judas. Judas was one of twelve chosen by Jesus Christ Himself, so what was the scandal rate among Christ's closest disciples? It was about 8 1/2 %.

"From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force."
Matthew 11:12

"Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets."
Luke 6:26"

"Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Matthew 5:10-11

A comparison between Jesus Christ and His Mystical Body. He is the head and His Church is His body (Ephesians 1:22-23). You cannot separate the head from the body. They are one.
What happens to the one must also happen to the other.
Reference to Jesus Christ is the first of the lines following, and to His Body, the Catholic Church, the second.

They rebelled against His Authority.
They rebel against its Authority, 2Peter 2:10.

They said Crucify Him, Matthew 27:23.
Heretics have been trying to crucify it for 2000 years.

He is called Beelzebub, Matthew 10:25.
They call it the Church of Satan.

He is a false messiah, Luke 22:70-71.
They say it is a false church.

He called Himself the Son of GOD.
It claims it was founded by GOD, Matthew 16:18.

He called Himself Truth, John 14:6.
It claims to be infallible, 1Timothy 3:15.

He called Himself King, John 18:37.
It says it is the only true Church, Matthew 16:18.

He could not sin.
It has no spot or wrinkle, Ephesians 5:27.

He was not believed by many, Luke 22:67.
It is not believed by many.

He was denied by many, Luke 22:57-60.
It is denied by many.

He was derided, not being understood.
It is derided, not being understood, 2Peter 2:12.

Not understanding Him, they walked away, John 6:66.
Not understanding it, they walked away.

He had many false accusers, Mark 14:56-59.
It has many false accusers.

He was mocked, Luke 23:35-37.
It is mocked.

He was scandalized, Luke 17:1-2.
It is scandalized.

He was hated without a cause, John 15:18-25.
It is hated without a cause.

His accuser, Judas, died, Matthew 27:5.
Its accusers die, but still, the Church lives on to bury its accusers.

His enemies would stumble and fall, John 18:6.
Its enemies stumble and fall.

We have no king but Caesar, John 19:15.
We have no need of it, as we have the Bible.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? John 1:46.
Can anything good come from Rome?

They cried out, "Not this one but Barabbas", John 15:18-25.
It is also rejected by the world.

He bore His Cross, John 19:17.
It bears a cross also, the cross of persecution for almost 2000 years.

He died on the Cross, John 19:30.
It has thousands of martyrs, many on crosses.
"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."
John 15:18-19
The Catholic Church is certainly not of the world, for it is:

A City set on a Mountain, Matthew 5:14.
A Dwelling Place for GOD, Ephesians 2:22.
A Spiritual House, 1Peter 2:5.
GOD's Building, 1Corinthians 3:9.
Mount Zion, Psalms 2:6, Micah 4:7, Hebrews 12:22.
My Church, Matthew 16:18.
Our Mother, Galatians 4:26.
The Bride of Christ, Joel 2:16, John 3:29, Revelation 21:2.
The Body of Christ, Ephesians 1:22-23, Colossians 1:24.
The Church of GOD, Acts 20:28.
The Church of the Firstborn, Hebrews 12:23.
The City of the Living GOD, Hebrews 12:22.
The City of Truth, Zechariah 8:3.
The Congregation of Saints, Psalms 149:1.
The Daughter of the King, Psalms 45:13.
The dispenser of the Wisdom of GOD, Ephesians 3:7-11.
The final authority of GOD on earth, Matthew 18:15-18.
The Fold of Christ, John 10:16.
The Heavenly Jerusalem, Galatians 4:26.
The Holy City, Revelation 21:2.
The Holy Mountain, Zechariah 8:3.
The House of Christ, Hebrews 3:6.
The House of GOD, 1Timothy 3:15, Hebrews 10:21.
The Household of GOD, Ephesians 2:19.
The Kingdom of GOD, Luke 4:43.
The Kingdom of Heaven, Matthew 13:31.
The Lamb's Spouse, Revelation 19:7,21:9
The New Jerusalem, Isaiah 65:18, Revelation 3:12,21:2.
The Pillar and Foundation of Truth, 1Timothy 3:15

Since the Catholic Church is the Body of Christ, it must experience the same passion as He did. He was persecuted and calumnized unjustly, and so must His Church suffer the same trials.
The persecutors and calumnizers should realize that when they attack the Catholic Church, they are really attacking its founder, Jesus Christ Himself.
In rejecting His Church, they are in fact, rejecting Him.

"So now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or work, is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it. Else perhaps you may find yourselves fighting even against God."
Acts 5:38-39
If only the attackers and detractors of the Catholic Church would stop ignoring these verses and heed the very important message they present. They might then notice that no man-made institution could possibly have lasted for 2000 years, while at the same time having to endure the unending attacks of constant slings and arrows from countless heretics and from all quarters.
Now you please tell me, just who is protecting the Catholic Church?

Almost 2000 years later, His ONE and ONLY Church lives stronger than ever.

No matter how hard the persecutors try, His Kingdom will last forever,
Daniel 7:14, Hebrews 1:8.
His Church will last until the end of the world as promised by Him in Matthew 28:20.

"BEHOLD, I HAVE GIVEN YOU POWER TO TREAD UPON SERPENTS AND SCORPIONS, AND OVER ALL THE MIGHT OF THE ENEMY; AND NOTHING SHALL HURT YOU."
Luke 10:19

�
Written by Bob Stanley, March 28, 2002
Updated February 24, 2004

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