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Full title: From a Moral-Historical Perspective, This Crisis is Worse Than You Realize Contrary to Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s early and oft-quoted assessment, the Catholic Church is in fact facing a “massive, massive crisis.” Greater clarity about the nature of this crisis can be had by looking at the larger moral-historical perspective. There is only one reason why pedophilia is even a moral issue today: historically, the Catholic Church made it one. Sex with boys and girls, but especially boys, was an accepted part of ancient Greek and Roman culture, the culture into which Christ Himself, and hence the Church, was...

Rome -- Repeatedly over the last three days, media agencies have asked me to comment on the following question: Did Benedict XVI really resign just because he's old and tired, or was it really because of the sexual abuse crisis, the Vatileaks mess, and the various other meltdowns that have occurred on his watch? My answer has been that it's not an either/or. Benedict may not have quit "because of" the pedophilia scandals or any other specific controversy, but it's hard to believe they didn't play a role, at least as background. One can certainly take Benedict at his word...

Nineteen Roman Catholic bishops, nine of them Americans, have resigned since 1990 in the context of sex scandals. U.S. cases: --Cardinal Bernard Law, archbishop of Boston, on Friday, following months of criticism for his mishandling of sex abuse claims against priests. --Bishop J. Kendrick Williams of Lexington, Ky., on June 11, following allegations he abused two minors and an 18-year-old decades ago, which Williams denied. --Auxiliary Bishop James McCarthy of New York, on June 11, after apologizing for affairs with adult women. --Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, following May 23 news that his archdiocese paid $450,000 to a man claiming...

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... Led the American Bishops into Error, and How that Contributed to Problems in the American Catholic Church First of all, let me say that for most of my life, I was either non-Catholic or anti-Catholic so I never blindly followed the Teachings of the Catholic Church. Later on in my life I realized that the Churches claim to be a least as old as the Orthodox Church, and yet to be not based on a single Nationality, but have Universal membership, made me decide to take a closer look at the Churches teachings. After several years of study regarding...