Can anyone point me to any actual persecution or mass discrimination of Catholics in the US today?

[JDPriestly]

136. The Catholic Church is perceived as a monolithic entity.

Last edited Mon Mar 18, 2013, 06:36 PM - Edit history (1)

That is probably because of its top-down, hierarchical structure.

There was a story some months ago about a Protestant pastor who was sexually abusing people in his congregation.

The difference between that story which resulted in the shaming of the individual pastor and the stories about the Catholic Church which have resulted in the condemnation of the entire Church was that the Catholic Church because of its organization is more involved in what each priest does. A lot of Protestant churches are more loosely organized. Some of them are just individual groups, each led by a pastor pretty much.

Protestants do not identify with the hierarchies of their churches and are not as easily viewed as responsible as individual members or pastors for the aberrant behavior of individual pastors or youth leaders quite simply because of the relatively loose organization of the churches. Generally, if something happens, say pedophilia, in a Protestant church (and it does as shown by a lot of legal documentation), at least nowadays, the person who commits the crime has no organization to protect him or her. The criminal is pretty much on his/her own. There may be exceptions, but generally not.

The problem for the Catholic Church was that it was moving problem priests around and protecting them. For the Catholic Church, the pedophilia was a problem of the Church. It should have turned the priests in to the police but did not -- probably for perfectly understandable spiritual reasons as well as its desire to protect its organization.

Further, the Catholic Church has its own country, the Vatican, which purports to have diplomatic status. I can't think of another church that claims to be a country. I understand that was a big problem for Italy during the banking scandals involving the Vatican Bank in the 1970s and 1980s.

So, one of the reasons that the Catholic Church and its members are held responsible for things when that is not true of other churches is that the Catholic Church has a top-down, hierarchical structure.

There are big advantages to the Church for that, but there are also huge disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that the huge bureaucracy and hierarchy is unwieldy. It cannot "change its mind" quickly and easily. Some other churches can although not all of them do. Some of the other churches just hold a convention, have lay and clergy delegates and vote on resolutions and the outcome is the policy of the church. The Catholic Church has a tougher process. The bishops work their ways up in the Church. The laity doesn't have the same power that they have in Protestant Churches. This and the idea that the Pope can speak directly the word of God tend to make it harder for the Catholic Church to adapt to changes in society. Again -- this has both advantages and disadvantages.

The Anglican and Methodist churches are somewhat similar to the Catholic Church in their form but they also have a lot more lay involvement in their governance, though not as much as many of their members would like especially with regard to the assignment of pastors.

So those are some of the reasons, I think, why "the Catholic Church" is viewed as one huge body and the members of it are more readily viewed as agreeing with whatever the Catholic Church says.

I do hope that the Catholic Church will find a way to deal with the drawbacks of its organization. And remember, there are huge drawbacks to the more democratic organizations of some of the other churches. For example, sometimes a few members of a Protestant Church break off and then dispute who really owns the church's assets. Big problem. That can be very costly and cause a lot of anger. There probably isn't any perfect alternative.

I would not interpret criticism of the Catholic Church as criticism of individual Catholics. And I think Catholics can be very proud of the wonderful social work, charity and healing that their Church does. In part the Catholic Church is so effective in that work because of its hierarchical organization. It is much better organized than are the other churches with regard to getting things done.

I remember what a young woman who was doing her medical residency said when she had to choose between two jobs, one in a hospital not affiliated with a religion and one in a Catholic hospital. Now, mind you. She was not a Catholic, but she said what she liked about the Catholic hospital was that when a patient died, the doctors and nurses and those who had cared for the patient met in the hospital chapel to pray together. She really liked that. So there are many aspects of the Catholic religion that Catholics can be very proud of.