Fuck the Catholic Church and anyone that supports them.

http://gawker.com/the-new-york-catholic-church-paid-lobbyists-2-1-millio-1779601553

Oh joy. More bigotry. So all Catholics are to blame for this?

Just the ones that give money to the church.

Anyone that openly supports a criminal organization shares blame. Especially if they're helping fund it every Sunday.

What Chad said.

One can be religious without putting money into a glorified crime organization.

Especially them, but I'd also blame the Catholic voters that pressure the government to go easy on their criminal leaders.

But don't all Catholics by default "support" the church?

Isn't that like saying all Muslims are peados because Mohammed married a 9 year old?

Of course. Because there's no difference between something that happened hundreds of years ago and something happening today. Context is clearly irrelevant.

No, it's not different. You're clearly blaming all Catholics in your thread title and opening post. You're basically saying to them "don't worship otherwise you support child abuse". Sorry, but that's just bullshit. The only people to blame are those who either committed heinous acts or those who helped to cover it up. I don't even accept that argument that donating is in itself supporting such behaviour. Clearly people do not actively follow Catholicism to support child abuses, nor will most of them who donate be doing so with the attention of aiding such activity.

It's just the usual, lazy double standards hipster lefties peddle all the time. "Oh well, it's only Catholics, doesn't matter if we stereotype or take a broad brush approach with them".

All I know is if I were Catholic and I had kids when the scandals first broke over a decade ago, I would no longer have my kids in the church.

They can quit.
They don't have to be atheist, but they can convert to something else.
Happens all the time.
World doesn't explode.
Usually it's for marriage, but you'd think being anti kid rape would be a bigger incentive.
It's not isolated incidents, it's not bad apples, its systemic, and goes all the way up.
And everyone knows it now.
There's no wiggle room anymore.

I think it's a little too late to claim ignorance, given the repeated instances of child abuse and cover ups, child abuse and cover ups, child abuse and cover ups...

For Church supporters to continue to turn a blind eye is pretty despicable.

I don't eat Chipotle to get diarrhea, but by now I know full well what's going to happen after I shove that burrito down my gullet.

Also they are literally supporting this through their donations. God didn't give the Church all its money to help with child abuse cover ups.

Agree with Chup, this news tells us nothing about the membership as a whole. My neighbors and friends are not the reason some priests are pedophiles; they are not the reason the Church tried to hide this behavior; they are nevertheless motivated by the overall message and teachings of their faith.

Which is to turn a blind eye, keep quiet, and fork over the cash. They've been brainwashed by a criminal organization.

All the more reason to quit, and starve them of funding until they collapse.

Is "fuck kids, and protect your buddies who do", in the Bible?
*Runs a search*
Nope, nope, it isn't.
So, by donating to the Catholics, they aren't properly practicing their faith.

Only if they pay regular tithes to keep actual paedophiles active and out of prison. The Catholic Church is different from Islam by actually being one, and just one, concrete organisation. If you support it actively, that's what you're actively supporting. There's a word for a Catholic who isn't part of the Church: Excommunicatio.

When it's $cientology, Chup & gul say nothing about calling it what it is.

So push for reform and vote with your feet.

I don't blame everyman Catholics for the systematic abuses in the church, but parental responsibility and safety should override loyalty to any one church.

But...but, Catholics are all white people, and Muslims are all brown (even though they totally aren't), therefore racism.

Most Catholics I know (a substantial number) believe strongly in reforming the Church, but are working from within to do so. They can't really walk, it isn't the same thing as a Methodist saying that he doesn't care for his pastor, so he'll switch to one of the other protestant congregations in town. There is the church or not the church, there is no sort of church.

I'll match my dislike for the Catholic Church up with anyones, but I do believe they have a point about this legislation. It does sound like more of an attempt to bankrupt the church than anything to do with obtaining justice for sex abuse victims.

While some might well argue that bankrupting the Catholic Church is a good thing in and of itself and you can make a good argument that no church should have that much in terms of material assets, one shouldn't deny that the Catholic Church has done quite a bit of good with their money as well.

A bit of good doesn't negate the abuse of boys around the world, nor the abuses of nuns in certain other parts of the world.

Pope Francis disagrees?

And I would never claim otherwise. And I would characterize it as a lot of good. Nearly every member of my family has at one point or the other been treated in a Catholic hospital and the only disagreement I had with them was that they wouldn't give my wife her birth control pills.

So have the Yakuza.

The fact that a criminal organization does good doesn't excuse all the bad things it has done.

Even though I don't like the Catholic church I don't think they fit the definition of a criminal organization because their purpose is not to conduct criminal activiites.

Yeah, same with the Yakuza. In fact, a lot of successful organized crime organizations run a legitimate "front" business.

Why's it taking so long?
This shit's been going on since the 60's.

So do Hamas.