The New York Times is at it again, bashing the Pope for his alleged failure to prosecute a child-molesting priest and, by implication, faulting the entire Roman Catholic Church.
The Times makes no secret of its lofty disdain for the church, and it's a waste of time taking it to task every time it unleashes a diatribe against the church or features a story exposing the alleged sins of Rome. After all, it really can’t help itself — despising any institution that insists that there is a higher power than the ultra-liberal side of the national Democratic Party is de rigueur.
It has been asked why newspapers would carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States, namely the Catholic Church.
It has been noted that:
- The Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students every day at the cost to that church of $10 billion, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of $18 billion. The graduates go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92 percent. It has 230 colleges and universities in United States, with an enrollment of 700,000 students.
- The church maintains a nonprofit hospital system of 637 hospitals that account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people — not just Catholics — in the country.
- The fact remains that the media are vindictive and try to denigrate in every way the Catholic Church. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage.
- Catholics should know and remember that 12 percent of 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38 percent acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church; 41.8 percent of clergy women reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17 percent of laywomen have been sexually harassed.
It also has been reported that a study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again — even in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.
As one observer has noted, the Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests who probably have been weeded out by now.
As that observer concluded, Catholics should walk with their shoulders high and their heads higher. They are a proud members of the most important nongovernmental agency in the United States.
Then remember what Jeremiah said: “Stand by the roads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”
“Be proud to speak up for your faith with pride and reverence and learn what your church does for all other religions,” the observer notes, adding, "Be proud that you're a Catholic."
Phil Brennan writes for Newsmax.com. He is editor and publisher of Wednesday on the Web (www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist (Cato) for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He is a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association For Intelligence Officers. He can be reached at pvb@pvbr.com.
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