Dishonesty in the Church
There are stories that come out from time to time that are just disgusting concerning the church. Here is one of them.
VATICAN CITY-- Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Philadelphia archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali on Tuesday, sending him into retirement as the archdiocese faces accusations that it covered up a long-running priest sex abuse scandal.
The Cardinal has been under pressure for his handling of the sex-abuse scandal. In his eight-year tenure, a pair of grand jury reports, one in 2005 and one released in February, have rocked the archdiocese by accusing church officials of covering up abuse allegations against priests.
February's scathing report resulted in unprecedented criminal charges against a former secretary of clergy for allegedly transferring pedophile priests without warning new parishes.
The grand jury accused church officials of keeping 37 clergy in active ministry despite credible claims that they had sexually abused young people. The allegations came nine years after U.S. bishops promised at the height of the clergy abuse crisis to oust all predators from ministry.
Now how can a church system be so inept about this issue that they overlooked the ramifications of predatory sex offenders being given new venues to practice their sickness? One of the reasons this gets a pass in the Catholic Church is because their system is scripturally flawed. They hold to traditions equal to the inspiration of scripture, and celibacy for clergy is one of those forced traditions that is not scriptural. Not all will have the gift of celibacy, and the sexual drive, especially among the younger priests is huge. Now as a former Catholic I understand all the support by the church to elevate the marriage between the priest and his bride the church, but it's not working. We, the church are the Lords bride, no where does it say the church is our bride. Again, tradition that has no scriptural bearing. How can you have 37 cases in one church district all molesting young people and not think you have a problem? How can anyone in the Catholic church support the system that is supporting these offenders? There is no excuse for this crime....none. God's call upon His leaders is a greater call because of the responsibility they have to represent the message of the gospel. They are called to be the prophets, teachers, pastors, evangelists, and apostles all geared to do one thing, "elevate the Name and teachings of Jesus Christ." The scriptures are clear, sexual sin needs to be punished and extracted from any church or religious group.
The catholic church much like the protestant church has some serious issues with their traditions. Many of these traditions are based upon the experiences of former leaders who wrote about these traditions as if they were handed down from Moses, or Jesus, or the Apostles. The stuff these three handed down to us are the scriptures, and they were Jews, connecting together their story to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There was no Rome, no catholic church, no Lutheran church, no catechism, nothing but the Hebraic Roots underlining God's plan of salvation, to the Jew First, and then to the Gentile. This is one of the main reasons the Hebraic Roots conference was developed, to set the record straight theologically, and allow God to bring us back to the roots of His story. If you have more interest in how we can begin this process of coming back to God's original plan for the church consider coming to a free conference being held in the Twin Cities this October 13-15, 2011. Here is a link for you to learn more about the conference and register your attendance.
http://www.hebraicrootsconference.com/
Keeping it honest and truthful....K
Larry Kutzler
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