UNITED STATES
The Philly Post
Beth Capriotti
As if my faith hasn’t been tested enough lately, last week I awoke to the news shows discussing yet another scandal in the Catholic Church. The pedophilia scandal was successful in altering my perception of priests and the priesthood and the lack of divinity in both. Yes, I said divinity. I grew up as a practicing Roman Catholic. We were taught by the scary, mean old nuns that priests were somehow above human frailty, a higher calling gave them a status somewhere between us sinners and God. Yea, right, I know. Now I think they’re all just men. Some good ones and some bad ones, but just men in the end, either answering a calling or finding refuge in a system that not only allows them to indulge their own demons but protects them while they do it at the physical and emotional expense of children.
Even though it’s been years now and the continued exposure of pedophile priests and their protectors just doesn’t seem to end, I decided to try to understand that debacle and somehow separate it from my faith. Spirituality is important in this world, and Catholicism is the only club I belong to, so I soldiered on and hoped that the Church would clean house.
This latest scandal seems to indicate that the Pope’s house isn’t so clean either. There have been some shady shenanigans going on within the Vatican to further the wealth and power of the Holy See. Geez, and I thought they were there to protect the Holy Gospel and the Holy Church, not line the pockets of some very long red robes. Hmmm, more men behaving badly.
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