Just when you think it's safe to be Catholic

So I have gone through all the sacraments personally, with the exception of nunhood and death. I have learned the major parts of the Bible and the Catechism. I go to Mass. OK OK. Not every week, but I go a lot. OK OK. It depends. I am struggling with the concept of faith again in my life and I have missed a lot of Masses. But I still consider myself Catholic.

So we (Catholics that is) have taken hits because of the way the fools dealt with the pedophiles. Mind you - it is a well known fact that pedophiles join lots of vulnerable groups to get access to children: other churches, the Boy Scouts, clowns, heck even teachers themselves have been infiltrated. It's a bad thing, but don't let that make you believe that Catholics believe it's OK to molest children just because a few idiots tried to cover it up. It just aint so.

I didn't see a lot of US press on this, but thought it interesting:
Muslim suicide attackers massacre Catholics in Baghdad church

OK - so that is a terrible thing and I am certainly not trying to Muslim bash. Lord knows the Crusades don't make the Catholics looks too good. Heck, let's take a look at Yugoslavia and the Serbs for a second... OK Find it curious that the American press did not make much of it. Yet if there was some idiot priest somewhere who grabbed little Johnny's buttocks that would be the headline on tomorrow's paper.

Let's get one thing straight: the Church is not about abusing young children, some stupid people in the Church protected the idiots, but I don't know a single Catholic who joined the group because they didn't get accepted into NAMBLA. This behavior sickens most Catholics. Don't confuse some of the stupid people who do stupid things with the ideals that bring people to the institution.

Yes, it can be really hard to be a Catholic at times.

But after all the penance, the public ridicule, Vatican II, that Italian priest whose sermons went on and on and on, it's going to get a lot harder:

Catholics to learn new wording for Mass

Oh gosh - the one place I could go and mindlessly pass through the ritual while contemplating bigger things, and now I am going to have to pay attention and learn something new. uugghhh