Dear Micheal,
I appreciate your genuine efforts to express your views. Thanks a lot for that.
Yes, we all know that Catholicism is declining in the Western world in a fast pace. It's not only Catholicism - the other Christian denominations are the ones who loose their ground much faster. I can see that in Australia. Australia is supposed to be an Anglican fortress because of its British migrant history. Anglican and other protestant churches were the predominant churches in Australia till near past. But in spite of an overall decline in its performance, Catholic church now emerges as the single largest and most vibrant church in Australia. As far as the reports we receive, this trend is continuing around the Western world.
I just mentioned this to show that the problem of "erosion of faith" is not simply the problem of Catholic church. May be they are better positioned to tackle it.
Now about the 3 reasons you have put forward to explain the decline in Church performance.
The child-sex scandals in the Western Catholic church is a shame. We all share the shame and responsibility. That's human fault. That's what we call sin (we call a spade a spade). We accept it and repent. Necessary measures have to be taken to handle the issue. But that cannot be the reason to put whole universal community at gun-point. I always felt that Western media, the so called 'liberals' and champions of child-welfare - attacked Church with a kind of vengeance. That's not right and not acceptable. Christ gave more respect to the woman caught in adultery!
Sins of few priests won't bankrupt the moral strength of Pope Benedict or the Church. They are up and arm against Church not simply because some priests abused children, but because even in face of that humiliation, Church tried to uphold its moral stands against many other issues, which that section of the society wanted to change.
Now, the second point: homosexuality. I have never touched this area before. I didn't want to involve! Since you have raised the issue, I am putting my few cents.
Homosexuality is still a point of debate. As you claim, no one has categorically proved anything regarding homosexuality. It not like the Galilee incident where Church clinged to the notion of a earth-centric planetary system! Church is much open and progressive now. The whole argument about homosexuality (as an inborn/genetic/personality thing) is very pre-mature to comment. Those who push for homosexuality claims are going far more than the science itself (which cannot be the answer for all question, after all). Remember, science first told light is a particle, then a wave, then particle-wave and so on and so forth. Let's don't jump into conclusions.
Here are few links which deals with this issue (the last link is the public comments, it's interesting to go thru them):
http://www.narth.com/docs/istheregene.html
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=4529843&page=1
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/comments?type=story&id=4529843
The final one. Yes, I am from India. Church is flourishing there in spite of our struggles in living in a highly pluralistic society. You may categorize it as one of the "countries with low levels of ...". I get your point, religion/church is for the poor and uneducated.
About 400 years back, when the first colonial shipmen came to India, to do trade, India controlled 23% of world's wealth (which no other country had ever done in the history). Yes, we did have our mistakes in handling those "guests" and our own infightings. We lost - a bit. But just bouncing back, with all the lessons learned from history.
I just said this to mention that the Catholicism in India has a legacy of 2000 years - from St Thomas, one of the apostles of Jesus (The so called US was not even known that time) and we have seen everything - history, culture, wealth, vedas, knowledge, sastras (science), maths, exploitation, poverty, freedom, democracy, market - and survived. And we will - the Church will. I can see the contempt in that argument (typical to many of my Western friends), but you got it wrong there Micheal.
Peace!
=====================================================
PS: This is a response to the message by Mr Micheal, which can be accessed as the previous post
I appreciate your genuine efforts to express your views. Thanks a lot for that.
Yes, we all know that Catholicism is declining in the Western world in a fast pace. It's not only Catholicism - the other Christian denominations are the ones who loose their ground much faster. I can see that in Australia. Australia is supposed to be an Anglican fortress because of its British migrant history. Anglican and other protestant churches were the predominant churches in Australia till near past. But in spite of an overall decline in its performance, Catholic church now emerges as the single largest and most vibrant church in Australia. As far as the reports we receive, this trend is continuing around the Western world.
I just mentioned this to show that the problem of "erosion of faith" is not simply the problem of Catholic church. May be they are better positioned to tackle it.
Now about the 3 reasons you have put forward to explain the decline in Church performance.
The child-sex scandals in the Western Catholic church is a shame. We all share the shame and responsibility. That's human fault. That's what we call sin (we call a spade a spade). We accept it and repent. Necessary measures have to be taken to handle the issue. But that cannot be the reason to put whole universal community at gun-point. I always felt that Western media, the so called 'liberals' and champions of child-welfare - attacked Church with a kind of vengeance. That's not right and not acceptable. Christ gave more respect to the woman caught in adultery!
Sins of few priests won't bankrupt the moral strength of Pope Benedict or the Church. They are up and arm against Church not simply because some priests abused children, but because even in face of that humiliation, Church tried to uphold its moral stands against many other issues, which that section of the society wanted to change.
Now, the second point: homosexuality. I have never touched this area before. I didn't want to involve! Since you have raised the issue, I am putting my few cents.
Homosexuality is still a point of debate. As you claim, no one has categorically proved anything regarding homosexuality. It not like the Galilee incident where Church clinged to the notion of a earth-centric planetary system! Church is much open and progressive now. The whole argument about homosexuality (as an inborn/genetic/personality thing) is very pre-mature to comment. Those who push for homosexuality claims are going far more than the science itself (which cannot be the answer for all question, after all). Remember, science first told light is a particle, then a wave, then particle-wave and so on and so forth. Let's don't jump into conclusions.
Here are few links which deals with this issue (the last link is the public comments, it's interesting to go thru them):
http://www.narth.com/docs/istheregene.html
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=4529843&page=1
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/comments?type=story&id=4529843
The final one. Yes, I am from India. Church is flourishing there in spite of our struggles in living in a highly pluralistic society. You may categorize it as one of the "countries with low levels of ...". I get your point, religion/church is for the poor and uneducated.
About 400 years back, when the first colonial shipmen came to India, to do trade, India controlled 23% of world's wealth (which no other country had ever done in the history). Yes, we did have our mistakes in handling those "guests" and our own infightings. We lost - a bit. But just bouncing back, with all the lessons learned from history.
I just said this to mention that the Catholicism in India has a legacy of 2000 years - from St Thomas, one of the apostles of Jesus (The so called US was not even known that time) and we have seen everything - history, culture, wealth, vedas, knowledge, sastras (science), maths, exploitation, poverty, freedom, democracy, market - and survived. And we will - the Church will. I can see the contempt in that argument (typical to many of my Western friends), but you got it wrong there Micheal.
Peace!
=====================================================
PS: This is a response to the message by Mr Micheal, which can be accessed as the previous post
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