The Catholicism Thread

Symmetry required Laurel starting this.

actually official Church literature is riddled with stuff that might shock you as far as what they concede is legend, tradition, nonsense, etc. Buy The New Jerusalem Bible and read the footnotes in the Pentateuch, the Church kinda does not fuck around w/that stuff, Catholics invented intellectualism you know

― five gone cats from Boston (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, March 16, 2011 1:22 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

man NO ONE EVER GAVE ME A GOOD EXPLANATION. Every religion teacher, up to the moment of my Confirmation, was flummoxed. "Lesse, you guys know God The Father, and we've studied God The Son, and as for The Holy Spirit, well, see..." whereupon they start quoting Ben Kenobi in the first Star Wars.

― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, March 16, 2011 1:22 PM (4 minutes ago)

these fuckin guys

i STILL don't know what CCD stands for

The name for catechism class?

catholic compulsive disorder

Catholic Church Druids?

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_CCD_in_the_Catholic_Church_mean

Huh, I had no idea, despite attending for several years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confraternity_of_Christian_Doctrine

According to canon law, Mary was conceived without original sin. It would not do for the Son of God to emerge from an impure vessel. As for Anne and Joachim, I was never taught their legend in Catholic school: I read about them on my own in a big book of saints that fascinated me in seventh grade.

Are Scotland and Northern Ireland the only places where Catholics are loosely thought of as being on the left of the political spectrum?

I had no idea what CCD meant either despite having gone for every year up until made my confirmation at 15 or so. We just called it "religion".

Went to an all-girls Catholic HS. Stopped taking communion sometime during my junior year. Annoyed the hell out of the nuns for the rest of my time there because I refused to buy into a lot of the BS that was spewed esp around abortion and contraception/adolescent sex. Atheist ever since.

my overall apathy towards catholicism at the time was probably largely due to the fact that CCD was always after school on mondays

Maybe should also add that as far as I can remember I never believed in any of it to begin with so I didn't have any crisis of faith or anything, I just realized that I didn't have to keep doing certain things I had always done simply because my parents made me.

We just called it "religion".

^this.

i don't consciously remember ever hearing anyone in my diocese speak ill of homosexuality or abortion but after my little bro was born we almost entirely stopped going to church because we didn't want to be "that family" with the screaming baby

so it's possible i missed out on that juicy stuff. i usually just kinda zoned out after about twenty minutes

I went to a Catholic elementary school. Some reasonable nuns, some crotchety ones, a single crazy incontinent one.

as a Cub Scout I earned a medal for attending Mass 30 (?) days in a row.

when my uncle died last year the church where the funeral services were held had a stained-glass LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL anti-abortion window, tho

See we had sexual health classes in my HS where the nun - no joke - drew a stick figure on the board, called her Fertile Myrtle and taught us about sex. Sort of. I would ask questions about birth control and they would say we're not allowed to talk about those things. Then I would ask why. I was probably pretty annoying tbh but I didn't care and I wouldn't let it go. It infuriated me. We also had a HUGE Pro Life group who would go to the big walk for life each year and that was another thing I was pretty insistent on questioning. It didn't go over very well.

i had nuns as teachers for a time when i was very young. They used to batter us. Dont remember much else about them.

I dont think i have v much catholic guilt, but how does one know, really.

Are Scotland and Northern Ireland the only places where Catholics are loosely thought of as being on the left of the political spectrum?

Isn't this true in America as well, at least historically, with immigrant groups such as Irish Catholics, Italians, etc. (whose backgrounds alligned them with class struggles and a fight for social equality) forming strong urban Dem voting blocks? Today, the Spanish-speaking (Catholic) vote (which I think is the fastest growing Catholic group in the U.S.) also swings Dem. Or do you mean something else by "left"?

Since Catholic doctrine forbids, AFAIK, the death penalty and "unjust wars," I think assigning an overall political right-left position is a fool's errand -- the sex issues aside.

I mean, there was a notable socialist undercurrent in American Catholicism early in the 20th century, and I suspect an unusual % of the religious orders' members still tend that way. (No hard evidence of this.)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oc2k_vjt8Ic/SqEZNtbmR4I/AAAAAAAAAt4/gHmZP315-bM/s320/dorothy+day.jpg

All our parish priests were nice normal guys except for one semi-retired guy who would rail against the sins of abortion and divorce at every opportunity, also against people who came to Mass late. He also tried to kill me once, kind of.

!!

i once had to deliver something to the catholic workers association in NYC and they were all super-nice!

CCD classes (we also just called it "religion class") was sometimes hilariously baffling, especially the year they tried to explain sex and the Catholic church's position on it.

Most memorable: our teacher told us that if we had sex before we were married, we would be "like half Christmas trees."

I have never been able to figure out what that metaphor was supposed to mean.

I don't know either, but it's got to be better than the lesson where they take a single rose and then crumple it up and bruise and tear off the petals and then say, "This is what you'll be if you let boys touch you...and WHO would want THIS?!?"

omg

okay, that's so insane!!! Wow

Heh, my CCD teachers never even approached sex, thankfully. All I remember about CCD is that my teacher's very cute son was a budding artist and spent the whole time sketching in a notebook.

One of my former roommates is now a priest & he was the first really right-wing guy I ever knew. I remember him hyping to me Dr. Laura back in the mid 90s. He was pretty rah-rah military, anti-Clinton; right-wing in a way that seems kinda quaint now that those days are gone.

I love this guy & it made me sad to hear about what going to seminary was like. I don't kiss & tell so no details here.

I stopped going to CCD, or what they called "youth group" by that point (post-confirmation), when the "teacher" played "Stairway To Heaven" one night to show us how pop culture could speak in an enlightened way on heaven.

also, at our pre-confirmation retreat a centerpiece of the weekend's formal activities was listening to, and then discussing, "Livin' On A Prayer".

my dad went to seminary for a bit.

I love this guy & it made me sad to hear about what going to seminary was like. I don't kiss & tell so no details here.

What is this shit?? Totally not fair.

OK I dated someone for most of college who was two years older than me and had been raised very Catholic. He was no longer a believer but did, in fact, have a lot of guilt and anguish over that fact. He was also actually really interested in religion in general and thought about going to divinity school. When he was graduating college he was approached by one of the brothers from his HS and offered the chance to enter this one year program where he would live with the brothers in their house and they'd hook him up with a job at a school in NYC. At first he completely dismissed the idea but once the summer after he graduated had passed and he didn't have any plans he took them up on the offer. Obv he wasn't supposed to have a girlfriend since he was supposed to be sort of feeling out the role of a priest so I was his "friend" and he would smuggle me in the house every once in and while after we'd been out in the city and then we'd do it on their basement couch and I'd leave before morning. God that seems so disrespectful now but I wasn't really thinking about that at the time. P glad I don't believe or otherwise I'm pretty sure I'd be going straight to hell. In the end we broke up and he did not become a priest.

haha, the details are really just kinda tawdry & "political" in lots of bad ways & I suspect this guy is gonna be a big shot someday in the church so I don't want to spill any seed here.

xp subtle braggin imo

Oh, post-confirmation we had this thing where you were assigned to a small group (like no more than 8 kids) that every Sunday night would meet at the house of a married couple who would lead discussions about God and life and stuff. I did that for a year (9th grade) until my inchoate doubts about Catholicism began to coalesce into a more-articulate aversion, and my parents (who were both raised Catholic but by no means doctrinaire) allowed me to drop out.

xxp I think I understand the jizt of your argument.

my dad went to seminary for a bit.

Mine, too, actually. Seems kind of funny now, as he now considers himself an atheist.

I briefly considered the priesthood too.

Alfred, I have absolutely no idea, why but until this thread I thought you were Jewish.

err misplaced comma there

my pastor growing up always hinted strongly that i should think about seminary. poor guy.

i went to catholic school grades 2 thru 12. had my doubts from a very young age. my dad's side of the family were old-school superstitious irish catholics. this was the time of vatican II - when I started school the nuns wore full-on black habits than covered everything, like in the sound of music. they all took men's names. by the time i was in 8th grade, the nuns who hadn't left the convent wore civilian clothes and switched back to their given names, sister mary jerome became sister laetitia. in high school there were folk masses with acoustic guitars and happy-happy songs. one of the younger jesuits had long hair and organized a charismatic group, "jesus freaks" in the parlance of the time.

I hung out with some Jesuit priests about a decade ago; they lived in a gated community & had the best stocked liquor cabinet I'd ever seen. They told me that the maid service kept it filled. Despite being married at the time, I considered joining the priesthood that night.

folk masses were the worst

nothing in the parts of the bible you read in church seems to back up god as being this sort of god.

That's funny, I would say pretty much THE ENTIRE OLD TESTAMENT backs up god as being this sort of god.

really. Jehovah = kind of a prick

I think I've mentioned I semi-regularly attend a gay Catholic org's Masses -- in an Episcopal church, bcz the NY diocese exiled them years ago -- and the Sign of Peace takes awhile. Lots of hugging.

xpost yeah but judaism (at least from my outsider's perspective) always seems like such a life-affirming tradition to me. confusing...

I really hope Ronan did the open mouth/tongue out pose with some "come hither" eye motions to that lady, though.

I think I've mentioned I semi-regularly attend a gay Catholic org's Masses -- in an Episcopal church, bcz the NY diocese exiled them years ago -- and the Sign of Peace takes awhile. Lots of hugging.

― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Friday, March 18, 2011 3:39 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

LOL. Love this.

I still take communion (not that I have the opportunity to frequently). I don't care about it enough either way to not take it (though I guess I feel sort of hypocritical about it -- maybe everyone does?). And it's a good opportunity to get up and walk around, and, um, flirt with the priests, or whomever gives out the sacrament in your churches, I guess.

I remember always sorta wanting to do the toungue thing once I got up there because it just seemed so weird but I always chickened out.

Virg, off topic for a sec, I just emailed you but maybe you don't use that address anymore?? The 3@rthlink one.

tongue out seems a little too 'thorn birds'

omg Thorn Birds!!!!

yes.

I stopped taking Communion too. Kinda weird at first to just sit there in an empty pew, but hey.

My step-mother never took Communion. It took me awhile to find out why. She had divorced her first husband and then later, married my father (a Mormon, ha!) In her and her church's eyes, she was a practicing adulteress and that was all there was to that.

Big reason I left. I mean, c'mon.

And yeah, as an altar boy, I saw some gross ass tongues.

(@ L., That's the one. Just checked it, replied, etc. Man, this is such a day for slacking off.)

I did help someone find a daily prayer book earlier today.

Went to a Catholic school from first through eighth grade. After confirmation, I was out of there like a shot.

man NO ONE EVER GAVE ME A GOOD EXPLANATION. Every religion teacher, up to the moment of my Confirmation, was flummoxed. "Lesse, you guys know God The Father, and we've studied God The Son, and as for The Holy Spirit, well, see..." whereupon they start quoting Ben Kenobi in the first Star Wars.

― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, March 16, 2011 1:22 PM (4 minutes ago)

I don't recall a Star Wars part, but I had a very similar experience.

at my wedding last year i'm almost certain the rabbi quoted 'fellowship of the ring'

wrt discussion of saints earlier can i just

the saints and all the martyrs

only ever received communion the old open mouth way, that's pretty much how it was done in my parish through the 70s at least

Kind of weird reading about all you irregular attenders still taking communion - that's up there with some serious shit in the sins list in my part of the world.

agreed.

i mean you guys better hope it's all bullshit cos if not

never really heard that sin...and here i was thinking wanking would send me to hell.

is it a sin to enjoy a fine wine?

theologically I was aware that you weren't supposed to take communion unshriven but tbh it doesn't seem to stop my wife and I'm pretty sure she hasn't been to confession since the 1980s

confession...what a complete load of shit that was. even as a child i fabricated sins, obviously subconsciously realising how fucking weird it would be to tell a stranger something you genuinely felt bad about.

http://www.catholic.com/library/Who_Can_Receive_Communion.asp

To receive Communion worthily, you must be in a state of grace, have made a good confession since your last mortal sin, believe in transubstantiation, observe the Eucharistic fast, and, finally, not be under an ecclesiastical censure such as excommunication.

Out of habit and out of fear of what those around them will think if they do not receive Communion, some Catholics, in a state of mortal sin, choose to go forward and offend God rather than stay in the pew while others receive the Eucharist. The Church’s ancient teaching on this particular matter is expressed in the Didache, an early Christian document written around A.D. 70, which states: "Whosoever is holy [i.e., in a state of sanctifying grace], let him approach. Whosoever is not, let him repent" (Didache 10).

Not sure if it's habit or fear or if people just like queuing or something.

hot eucharistic ministers, we covered this

i just got bollocked, she last went in 2009 apparently

During an "All right, now does anyone have a question?" segment at the end of one of my fourth-grade religion classes, I asked my teacher if she knew whether St. Francis was vegetarian or ate meat -- if he ate meat, that would make him a pretty lousy animal protector. The class chuckled, the teacher said, "Very funny," and that was it. Thanks for your insight.

My church/school was named after St. Francis and I thought it was weird that all the fundraiser dinners centered around ham, turkey, chicken, steak.

The best part about going to church was sitting behind U-M basketball coach Steve Fisher and getting donuts afterward.

The best part about going to church with just my dad: being able to wear jeans and Starter jacket and bailing immediately after communion.

oh yeah, gettig ready for mass was the biggest pain in the arse. Getting your hair brushed with extreme prejudice, wearing the awful shite your mum had picked out the previous christmas that had to do you for the year, baths! Everything!

At least when i was 13 i could go on sat evening and chill with friends after, i was nearly big enough to dress myself at that stage

This thread is bringing back memories. When my mom, a nice Irish Catholic girl, married my dad, a WASP, they couldn't stand behind the alter, where the true devotees stand, but had to stand in front of the alter, where those embarking on "mixed marriages" were banished. This was probably better for her family than the fact that her older sister secretly eloped when she was a senior in high school, to an Irish Catholic but from the wrong side of the tracks, and didn't tell her parents until after she had graduated.

Cardinal Edward Egan Just Withdrew His Apology For The Catholic Sex-Abuse Scandal

I think you meant to post this in the 'shit that looks like an Onion article' thread... oh wait. :(

Jesus, Joseph and Mary, that blogger nails him but good. Deservedly so.

i thought the church was against withdrawal

Responding to the BBC ‘This World’ programme entitled ‘The Shame of the Catholic Church’, broadcast on 1 May 2012, Cardinal Seán Brady has issued the following statement:

On Tuesday 1 May 2012, the BBC ‘This World’ series broadcast a programme entitled ‘The Shame of the Catholic Church’ on the BBC Northern Ireland network. In the course of the programme a number of claims were made which overstate and seriously misrepresent my role in a Church Inquiry in 1975 into allegations against the Norbertine priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

In response to the programme I wish to draw attention to the following:

Six weeks before broadcast (15 March 2012) I drew the attention of the programme makers to a number of important facts related to the 1975 Church inquiry into Brendan Smyth, which the programme failed to report and which I now wish to restate for all other media who report on this matter:

• To suggest, as the programme does, that I led the investigation of the 1975 Church Inquiry into allegations against Brendan Smyth is seriously misleading and untrue. I was asked by my then Bishop (Bishop Francis McKiernan of the Diocese of Kilmore) to assist others who were more senior to me in this Inquiry process on a one-off basis only;
• The documentation of the interview with Brendan Boland, signed in his presence, clearly identifies me as the ‘notary’ or ‘note taker’. Any suggestion that I was other than a ‘notary’ in the process of recording evidence from Mr Boland, is false and misleading;
• I did not formulate the questions asked in the Inquiry process. I did not put these questions to Mr Boland. I simply recorded the answers that he gave;
• Acting promptly and with the specific purpose of corroborating the evidence provided by Mr Boland, thereby strengthening the case against Brendan Smyth, I subsequently interviewed one of the children identified by Mr Boland who lived in my home diocese of Kilmore. That I conducted this interview on my own is already on the public record. This provided prompt corroboration of the evidence given by Mr Boland;
• In 1975 no State or Church guidelines existed in the Republic of Ireland to assist those responding to an allegation of abuse against a minor. No training was given to priests, teachers, police officers or others who worked regularly with children about how to respond appropriately should such allegations be made;
• Even according to the State guidelines in place in the Republic of Ireland today, the person who first receives and records the details of an allegation of child abuse in an organisation that works with children is not the person who has responsibility within that organisation for reporting the matter to the civil authorities. This responsibility belongs to the ‘Designated person’ appointed by the organisation and trained to assume that role. In 1975, I would not have been the ‘Designated Person’ according to today’s guidelines. As the Children First State guidelines explain (3.3.1):‘Every organisation, both public and private, that is providing services for children or that is in regular direct contact with children should (i) Identify a designated liaison person to act as a liaison with outside agencies and a resource person to any staff member or volunteer who has child protection concerns.(ii) The designated liaison person is responsible for ensuring that the standard reporting procedure is followed, so that suspected cases of child neglect or abuse are referred promptly to the designated person in the HSE Children and Family Services or in the event of an emergency and the unavailability of the HSE, to An Garda Síochána.’;
• The commentary in the programme and much of the coverage of my role in this Inquiry gives the impression that I was the only person who knew of the allegations against Brendan Smyth at that time and that because of the office I hold in the Church today I somehow had the power to stop Brendan Smyth in 1975. I had absolutely no authority over Brendan Smyth. Even my Bishop had limited authority over him. The only people who had authority within the Church to stop Brendan Smyth from having contact with children were his Abbot in the Monastery in Kilnacrott and his Religious Superiors in the Norbertine Order. As Monsignor Charles Scicluna, Promoter of Justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith confirmed in an interview with RTÉ this morning, it was Brendan Smyth’s superiors in the Norbertine Order who bear primary responsibility for failing to take the appropriate action when presented with the weight of evidence I had faithfully recorded and that Bishop McKiernan subsequently presented to them;
• The following statement from Monsignor Scicluna had been made to the BBC programme makers six weeks in advance of its broadcast but was not acknowledged by them in any way: ‘It is clear to me that in 1975 Fr Brady, now Cardinal Brady, acted promptly and with determination to ensure the allegations being made by the children were believed and acted upon by his superiors. His actions were fully consistent with his duties under canon law. But the power to act effectively to remove Brendan Smyth from priestly ministry lay exclusively with the Abbot of Holy Trinity Abbey in Kilnacrott and his superiors in the Norbertine Order. This is where the sincere efforts of Bishop McKiernan and others like Fr Brady to prevent Brendan Smyth from perpetrating further harm were frustrated, with tragic consequences for the lives of so many children. I know that in his role as President of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Brady has worked tirelessly with his fellow bishops to ensure such a situation could never occur again and that the civil authorities in Ireland are now promptly informed of allegations of abuse against children. We have all learned from the tragic experience of the Church in Ireland but also from the sincere efforts of so many lay faithful, religious, priests and bishops to make the Church in Ireland an example of best practice in safeguarding children.’;
• In fact, I was shocked, appalled and outraged when I first discovered in the mid 1990’s that Brendan Smyth had gone on to abuse others. I assumed and trusted that when Bishop McKiernan brought the evidence to the Abbot of Kilnacrott that the Abbot would then have dealt decisively with Brendan Smyth and prevented him from abusing others. With others, I feel betrayed that those who had the authority in the Church to stop Brendan Smyth failed to act on the evidence I gave them. However, I also accept that I was part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past;
• As to other children named in the evidence recorded during the Inquiry process, I had no further involvement in the Inquiry process once I handed over the evidence taken. I trusted that those with the authority to act in relation to Brendan Smyth would treat the evidence seriously and respond appropriately. I had no such authority to act and even by today’s guidance from the State I was not the person who had the role of bringing the allegations received to the attention of the civil authorities. I was also acutely aware that I had no authority in Church law in relation to Brendan Smyth or any other aspect of the Inquiry process;
• Today, Church policy in Ireland is to report allegations of abuse to the civil authorities. It recognises the Gardai and HSE as those with responsibility for investigating such allegations and that any Church investigation should not take place until the investigation by the civil authorities has been completed. I have fully supported this policy and have worked with my fellow Bishops and the leaders of Religious Congregations to put this policy in place;
• The programme made reference to a statement I made in the course of an RTE interview in which I suggested that if my failure to act on an allegation of abuse against a child led to further children being abused, that I would then consider resigning from my position. The programme failed to point out, however, that I gave this answer in response to a question specifically about someone in a position of ‘Management’, someone who was already a Bishop or Religious Superior with ultimate responsibility for managing a priest against whom an allegation has been made. In 1975, I was not a Bishop. I was not in that role. It was misleading of the BBC programme to apply my response to the RTE interview on a completely different situation to my role in the 1975 Inquiry.

It is my view that the ‘This World’ programme has set out to deliberately exaggerate and misrepresent my role in these events. The programme suggested that no response to their questions had been provided before the programme was completed, whereas in fact a comprehensive response had been provided to the programme six weeks in advance and only days after the ‘door-stepping’ interview with me in Limerick.

I deeply regret that those with the authority and responsibility to deal appropriately with Brendan Smyth failed to do so, with tragic and painful consequences for those children he so cruelly abused. I also deeply regret that no guidelines from the State or the Church were available to guide the sincere and serious effort made to respond to the allegations made by the two boys interviewed in the Inquiry process. With many others who worked regularly with children in 1975, I regret that our understanding of the full impact of abuse on the lives of children as well as the pathology and on-going risk posed by a determined paedophile was so inadequate. It is important to acknowledge that today both the Church and the State have proper and robust procedures in place to respond to allegations of abuse against children. I fully support these new procedures which include the obligation to report such allegations promptly to the civil authorities. I have worked with others in the Church to put these new procedures in place and I look forward to continuing that vital work in the years ahead.

The Cardinal told RTÉ News in an interview, broadcast in December 2009 after the publication of the Murphy Report, that he was confident Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick will “do the right thing” in terms of considering his position in the wake of criticism in the Dublin diocesan report.[17] He also said in that interview “If I found myself in a situation where I was aware that my failure to act had allowed or meant that other children were abused, well then, I think I would resign.”

If I found myself in a situation where I was aware that my failure to act had allowed or meant that other children were abused, well then, I think I would resign.

ur bad at resigning imo

maybe this is the better thread for this

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/us/nuns-speak-about-vatican-criticism.html?ref=us

"The Vatican ordered a “doctrinal assessment” of the women’s leadership conference in 2008 after years of concerns about its direction. The conference was formed in 1956 to provide communication and coordination among communities of sisters, and is a canonical organization, which means it answers to the Vatican. The assessment concluded that the leadership conference had hosted speakers who “often contradict or ignore” church teaching; had never revoked a statement from 1977 that questioned the male-only priesthood, and focused their efforts on serving the poor and disenfranchised, while remaining virtually silent on issues the church considers great societal evils: abortion and same-sex marriage."

yeah you don't say. as usual the nuns are fuckin awesome

― twittering spinster (k3vin k.), Saturday, June 2, 2012 1:54 AM (15 hours ago)

http://ncronline.org/news/women-religious/lcwr-president-speaks-pain-and-process

im. surfing channels and came up on the weird religion channels and we're one of them now (fair enough obv) and theyre having a mass for the CLOSING OF THE HOLY DOOR why has this mystical shit been kept hidden from us i would totally have stuck out my teens in a religion with cool fantasy titles like that

door opens to the vortex of limbo iirc

bit fucked that its only coming up as a priority now wha

a few christmases ago the priest gave a strangely retro sermon in which he talked about hell and stuff, and along the way he stressed the need for us to reject "the glamour of evil"

it was a phrase i'd never heard before and it made me want to be evil more than i imagined possible.

bishops vs DT

http://www.austindailyherald.com/2016/11/bishops-ask-trump-for-humane-immigration-policies/

I'm seriously not making this up, but at St Bernadette's Church (v small, old post-war cinema in middle of large council estate converted into a church) in Bradley, Hudds. We had a psycho/pedo priest. His sermon was once along the lines of "what I do in my time is none of your business - unless I'm committing mortal sins by the book - gtf out of my face". This guy sexually abused loads of kids in Plymouth and Bradford before he landed on this gig and got a long prison sentence in the 90's. He scared the shit out of me back then and knew it. I put my hand out for the holy communion host once, and he boomed "ARE YOU A CATHOLIC?" right in front of the whole congregation and even my older sis was so paralysed with fucking primal catholic fear she didn't dare say shit to stick up for me.

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Catholic+priest+is+jailed+for+sex+attacks+on+boys.-a061434015

This is the one, I might have got his CV a bit wrong from memory - but this is him.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44169484

all of chile's bishops offer the pope their resignations over their part in sexual abuse scandals

My favorite Catholicism thread on ILX.