The man who wrote this statement lives in Tucson and is a great guy. Lorraine and I are fortunate to have him as a friend. I’m happy to publish this for him.
Frank Douglas | Tucson, AZ | February 27, 2011
Why I Left the Catholic Church
I grew up in a Catholic family. I went to a Catholic school. I married a Catholic girl in the Catholic Church. I sent my son to Catholic schools. I attended mass regularly.
I was a member of the local diocese Catholic Social Service Board of Directors for four years and then served as President for two more years. I worked on the building Fund Committee of two churches; I also contributed to the building fund of a local seminary no longer in use. Then at 80 plus years, I stopped going to church. My decision to leave the Catholic Church wasn’t made overnight. The change in me gradually began to enter my mind as I slowly was losing respect for the church leaders that I had been taught all my life to trust.
Priests raping, sodomizing and molesting God’s children. Bishops secretly moving these sexual abusers from parish to parish without making it known to anyone, thereby placing more unsuspecting children in harms way. These actions by the bishops had to be made with the knowledge that other children would be molested, yet their choice was made to protect the abusers and the reputation of the Catholic church. Unforgivable. There is no possible justification for bishops to even have considered such a criminal action.
Rape, sodomy and molestation of children are crimes punishable by law. Anyone complicit in the protection of a sexual abuser is also committing a crime punishable by law.
More than fifty percent of the bishops in the United States were involved in the movement of pedophiles. Bishops were involved in making large financial settlements in order to keep known sexual abusers from being prosecuted. Then, they removed these priests from the ministry but allowed them to enter the general population without having to register as sex offenders. Again, knowing full well that these pedophiles could possibly molest other children. Unforgivable.
It also was learned that a large number of these sex abusers were secretly placed in other jobs within the Catholic organization. All this has been made public knowledge. Priests sexually abusing children, bishops moving them from parish to parish, billions of dollars of church funds used to make large financial settlements including the payment of high-priced law firms advising the bishops.
Almost ten years has gone by since the sex scandal within the Catholic Church received national attention. No bishop has been removed or reprimanded by the pope. The sex scandal has surfaced in a number of other countries. Still the pope has not held anyone accountable.
Not only have none of the hierarchy been held accountable for their actions but they are still in complete control of everything Catholic.
These criminals continue to run every parish and every diocese in this country as though they believe all is forgiven. They continue to apologize for the harm that has been done to the Catholic Church without any indication what-so-ever as to having been the persons responsible. Without ever admitting that their actions have been criminal. Sins maybe but nothing criminal.
There is also another problem within the Catholic Church that the bishops have failed to resolve. Millions of dollars are being stolen from Sunday collections and the procedures they installed in most parishes were not made mandatory.
I am not the only Catholic leaving the Catholic Church. Millions have left. More will continue to leave if and when it dawns on parishioners that by remaining they are condoning failed leadership and leadership that is never going to be held accountable.
The only other possibility for change is if the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is taken to the highest court in the land and charged for their crimes. At the present time, it appears that the USCCB is above the law.
Tomasso Tucson
Advocate for Bishops Accountability
Read more at reform-network.net
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