TESTIMONIUM PERHIBERE VERITATI

I respect our Pope,because he is our Pope. He sits in the Seat of Peter. I cannot say i relish his off the cuff airline interviews with the press or that i prefer his style over that of his predecessors but maintain he should be given the respect he is due. As a Catholic it does not help our Church to relentlessly attack a man who is entitled to his opinions even though we may disagree with him;as long as he is teaching sound doctrine. I wish Pope Emeritus Benedict were still Pope. I was just as shocked as anyone when he stepped down but the man was not in the best of health at the time and the role certainly requires it. If you look back though you will recall that some thought Pope John Paul II should have stepped down due to his health and generally the same people criticized Pope Benedict the XVI for doing what they thought John Paul II should have done. I would be dishonest though if i didn't admit that our Church is in crisis.There's no denying it and we're not. The crisis has emboldened anti Catholicism,particularly[but not only]in the United States.There has always been bigotry against Catholicism in the United States.It's usually subtle,but sometimes not so subtle. As it is our secular culture attacks Christianity and the Catholic Church is a big target they are not going to miss. I break the bigotry down to 3 groups: 1. the one just mentioned secular culture combined with militant atheism. 2. anti Catholic denominations. While i love and admire our evangelical brothers and sisters some groups under the Evangelical umbrella have been virulently anti Catholic for years. Nothing new. 3. The last group is a shame. It's a group that calls itself Catholic,whose members are baptized Catholics but think it's the time to change Catholic doctrine;they fail to understand their own Church. It could even be that they understand and don't care. I ran into a secular group on a social media site- i won't name it-that spews a hatred of the Church that the other 2 groups couldn't compete with. The group is pro abortion.Their take;because the Catholic Church had priests involved in a sex abuse scandal the Church has no business preaching about morality to anyone.They also seemed to think the Church tries to impose morality on everyone. The Catholic Church has had sinners from the beginning. Jesus was betrayed by one of his own.One of the main tenets of Christianity is that men ARE sinners. The Catholic Church cannot condone immorality even though it's own members are flawed. I know that the cover up of the abuse was inexcusable but it can be corrected. I also know that pedophilia isn't limited to the Catholic Church. You can find it in all walks of life,among family members and ALL denominations. The other fact about the abuse scandal is that they painted all the priests as pedophiles when many of the abuses were homosexual in nature. I know there's a slim bit of difference-it's all horribly wrong-but there is a legal definition of pedophilia and a legal definition of sex with a minor. MOST priests are not in this category.MOST priests live up to their calling or try to.Unfortunately the few cast a shadow over the many. I feel badly for good priests because now they will always be suspect. All of us, from the victims to Godly priests, would have been better off if the Church had exposed this wound early on. They should have owned up and confronted it. It's horrible that a priest would engage in any kind of sexual activity & this is the worst; that gives us even more reason to point out immorality. The Church doesn't abdicate her responsibility of leading the faithful and speaking truth to the world because men sin, no matter how horrible that sin is. The Church does not force morality on anyone,not even it's own members. We participate in the public square. We have a responsibility to participate in the public square. Our constitution protects that right.You're free to reject it but you don't have the right to shut down the participation of the Catholic faithful in our civic life. Keep in mind we firmly believe in free will. Free will does not mean the Church is going to teach you're free to do what you want without consequences. Free will means neither God nor His Church force you to do or not do anything. Could the Church have handled the abuse better? i don't understand why the people in positions to address it decided to cover it up. I will never understand when they had a problem of this magnitude they decided it would be better to sweep it under the rug. Now that it's in the open the Church is addressing it. It should have been this way all along. The anti Catholic group was trying to use the sex abuse scandal to justify abortion. These groups will use anything they can get their hands on to justify abortion but they relish attacking the Catholic Church. I doubt they care about the victims of the abuse in the Church, as much as they want to use it to attack the Church. The argument for abortion because people in the Catholic Church sin is ridiculous. The argument against Christianity at all because Christians are sinners is absurd. Pro Abortion is not Pro Choice,it's Pro Abortion.The group was angry and hostile. I tried to respond and post there. I was blocked. It's obvious they won't tolerate a different pov especially from someone defending the Catholic Church; not the scandal mind you,but the Church.A big difference. How enlightened can our culture be if it's unwilling to protect human life? As for the Church i remind myself of Jesus promise that the gates of hell would not prevail over her, meaning evil would never destroy her.