[InChiefsHeaven]

Originally Posted by C-Mac

First off the issues are with the institution and its leaders...not lay people. Just because your church and leaders are corrupt, no one is saying that you are a "evil Catholic", only you are. The problem I see is that you have not lived long enough, researched enough, expierenced enough to get a good feel of what the Catholic church has been about thru out its history. Just for the record, in all the industrailized nations, church attendance is steadily decreasing and many churches are being closed.

To say that the issue is not with the lay people makes no logical sense. If the church is corrupt, than it's members must be imbiciles, or condone the behavior. This is why Catholics take it personally. We ain't happy about the failures of our leadership, but that is not what is being attacked. What is being attacked is the institution itself, as you just stated. We believe in the institution. If you attack something that someone believes in, they will rise to defend it. The intsitution. Not the actions.

How the heck old do you think I am? Please don't lecture me on history...I'm not some bright eyed Catholic high school kid. I can't for the life of me figure out where you got that I am. BTW, the "evil Catholic" bit was tounge and cheek. Sorry 'bout that...

Again as I stated in post #155, what I dont understand is that the Catholic churches historical and current atrocities are justified by many its followers, by trying to compare it to something else thats possibly corrupt. I suppose its a physcological form of being in denial.

Not at all. Nobody is justifying it. Name me one person who has said that these things are justifyable. You can't cuz people don't. People grasp at statistics about other denominations having the same if not more trouble with it because the attacks make it sound like the Catholic Church is the ONLY church out there that has these problems. But nobody is justifying it at all...