I appreciate it, but there's no need to be delicate: sexually abusing minors is evil. It's especially evil when a priest does it, since they hold positions of special influence and, of all people, should be best acquainted with how evil sunders the soul from God (priests are specifically trained to hear confessions, absolve people of sin, and advise them on how to avoid sin).
So that's the categorical statement.
More concretely, every adult in our archdiocese receives training on the risks of sexual abuse and I regularly hear the sex abuse scandals addressed during homilies. So it seems like the church, as an organization, is taking steps to address the issue.
But to step back and take a wider view, I think Catholicism acknowledges the brokenness of human beings, but reserves eternal judgement for God. So most serious Catholics are not going to walk away from the church because there is evil inside of priests. There is evil inside all of us. But we are called to do battle with evil. For most of us, that battle is within our own hearts, but certainly we must also root out systemic evil within the Church.
And finally, I see this line of thinking a lot from atheists wrt religion, but I think it is more widely applicable. Which is this: "people have done evil in the name of (or under the banner of) this religion and I will choose to only consider that one particular thing when measuring the moral worth of this religion." So in this case, it would be "the Catholic Church facilitated the mass sexual abuse of minors, therefore it is evil and should be done away with." But I think we have to consider the good that people and groups do when measuring their moral worth. In this case, I would point to all the charitable works done by the church and its faithful as worthy of your consideration.
To see how essential this expanded consideration is, I think it helps to slot in institutions which have less emotional valence than the Catholic Church (or Christianity or whatever). For instance, there have been many cases of school teachers sexually abusing students. Yet I don't think anybody would argue that the entire institution of school should be done away with or that adherents to schooling should walk away from it. After all, school is a crucial institution where many children thrive and where most teachers are grinding out good acts on a daily basis.
> So most serious Catholics are not going to walk away from the church because there is evil inside of priests. There is evil inside all of us. But we are called to do battle with evil. For most of us, that battle is within our own hearts, but certainly we must also root out systemic evil within the Church.
I'm shooting from the hip here and I don't have CCC citations to back me up, but I want to say that the Church herself is not (and cannot be) inherently corrupt, because it is the mystical body of Christ. We must remember that actions of individual members of the Church (no matter how influential or high up they may be, even to the utmost) may be evil or disordered, but the Church will persist.
Christ included Judas among the twelve. The shenanigans some folks in the Church get up to these days don't exactly compare. Indeed, seeing that the Church has persisted these 2000 years despite schisms, etc, was a small part of what convinced me that it is the one true Church.
So that's the categorical statement.
More concretely, every adult in our archdiocese receives training on the risks of sexual abuse and I regularly hear the sex abuse scandals addressed during homilies. So it seems like the church, as an organization, is taking steps to address the issue.
But to step back and take a wider view, I think Catholicism acknowledges the brokenness of human beings, but reserves eternal judgement for God. So most serious Catholics are not going to walk away from the church because there is evil inside of priests. There is evil inside all of us. But we are called to do battle with evil. For most of us, that battle is within our own hearts, but certainly we must also root out systemic evil within the Church.
And finally, I see this line of thinking a lot from atheists wrt religion, but I think it is more widely applicable. Which is this: "people have done evil in the name of (or under the banner of) this religion and I will choose to only consider that one particular thing when measuring the moral worth of this religion." So in this case, it would be "the Catholic Church facilitated the mass sexual abuse of minors, therefore it is evil and should be done away with." But I think we have to consider the good that people and groups do when measuring their moral worth. In this case, I would point to all the charitable works done by the church and its faithful as worthy of your consideration.
To see how essential this expanded consideration is, I think it helps to slot in institutions which have less emotional valence than the Catholic Church (or Christianity or whatever). For instance, there have been many cases of school teachers sexually abusing students. Yet I don't think anybody would argue that the entire institution of school should be done away with or that adherents to schooling should walk away from it. After all, school is a crucial institution where many children thrive and where most teachers are grinding out good acts on a daily basis.