stopping my kids going to a Catholic Church

[jennyslinger]

I know religion is contentious so I'd like to say up front that I am a confirmed atheist and my DH is a confirmed catholic. This is not about the rights or wrongs of believing in god.

DH wants DS and DD (when she's 4yo) to go to our local Cathocis church to attend sunday school and get involved with other church activities.

I have read so much over the last few years about the child abuse cover-up in the Catholic Church. For this reason I have told DH and his family that the kids will not be going.

DH says I am fussing over nothing.

I asked DH he knew a nursery had covered up child abuse would he be happy with the kids going. He says this is not the same.

Am I being unreasonable?

pigletmania, I know you didn't ask me, but I agree with Battykoda and have no compunction about being forthright about any religion, unfortunately Catholicism is the one I am forced to deal with most. I'm pretty 'forthright' about Jehovah's Witnesses when I get the chance too (my mum was one).

The rhythm method is as effective as you make it. For max. effectiveness you need to be very regimented about temping at the same time each day.

I didn't miss your point, just wanted to emphasise that in Catholic eyes it's unnatural intervention in conception that's the issue, not technology per se.

I can't speak for Catholics picking and choosing. I'm lapsed. I just think that worthwhile religion is more than the sum of its parts.

I am not a religious nut but I really dont like it when people put Christianity down and would not deare to do the same to other faiths publically. It seems as thought its alright to put Christianity down but not other faiths, its the dont go there attitude!

Why is not agreeing with the Catholic point of view catholic bashing? I really really don't understand.

Oh, and yes, the Catholic Church does teach that active homosexuality is wrong. It's OK to be a celibate homosexual.

It also teaches that the use of condoms, even if the intention is to prevent disease rather than pregnancy, is wrong. It teaches this in areas of sub Saharahan Africa where the HIV virus is endemic.

I give up... every Catholic/ Catholic sympathiser has wholeheartedly contemned the abuse and cover-ups, but argued that every Catholic shouldn't be tarred with the same brush.
I don't call athiests idiotic for not believing, so don't refer to Catholics as if they're in the land of the fairies. It's disrespectful.

Seeker its not that, its the sweeping statements of the op. I dont agree with a lot of Catholic doctorine but to make genralised statements without elaborating and evidence for some of the stuff that was said against the Catholic church.

pigletmania - thats not what's being discussed. I am forthright about Catholics because of the child abuse cover ups, because this thread is about the Catholic faith and becuase they exclude whole sections of society because of sexuality, I have already stated I do not agree with any faith or organistion that does the same.

I would dare to do (speak my mind) the same about anything. Not sure what your getting at here piglet.

i am a teacher with a CRB check (obviously)but when i volunteered to help out with the children's liturgy at our local catholic church I had to have a separate one. Child protection is very high profile and there are always at least two adults present with the children. An adult cannot even take a child into the adjoining kitchen with the door open unaccompanied.
Please be assured that your children would be as safe at sunday school as they would at school.
Also, sunday schools etc tend to be run by volunteer members of the congregation not priests and bishops so given that the recent publicity has been about priests etc, you don't really have any more grounds for concern at church than anywhere else.

According to this article priestly rates of abuse of children were 0.4%, ie, less than half a priest per hundred priests.

Your children are ten times less likely to be abused by a priest than elsewhere.

The article (in The Guardian, hardly known for promulgating the RC viewpoint) concludes:

'objectively your child is less likely to be abused by a Catholic or Anglican priest in the west today than by the members of almost any other profession'.

But pamplemousse, surely any intervention is reproduction is unnatural? I just don't get why charting is fine, but wearing a condom isn't. But then as I've said before, its all bollocks to me anyway.

And I am proud to be an equal opportunity basher, but I don't know much about, say, the Muslim faith so I don't get into discussions on it. Also, the muslim faith has little effect on my life, while Christianity unfortunately does. I do think all religion is nonsense though, and if someone is going to try to impose their beliefs on me I will be happy to argue with them about it, christian, muslim, hindu, whatever.

Pamplemousse I am not a catholic but i disagree with tarring all catholics with the abuse lable, all the Catholics I know are appaled and horrified by it.

I think we'll always disagree on whether god is any more real than Santa, homeopathy, crystals or Greek mythology.

That is not my issue.

My issue is whether DS and DD should be educated and socialized by the Catholic Church as an organization?

pigletmania, all the Catholics I know condemn it too. However quite a few knew it was going on and did sod all about it.

Well they won't be 'educated' any more than about 30 minutes children's liturgy a week.

They are far more at risk from your family and friends than from anyone they will meet at church (see article I linked to). If you want to reduce the risks of paedophiles getting hold of them you should ban access to your children from any adult friends or family.

Then you'll be completely safe.

Oh that's OK then. Of to church we go, let pretend nothing happened.

Well as a result of it there are much tighter safeguards in Britain, I know that my church is very strict and everyone working with children in the Church is CRB checked and references too. They have a child protection committee in the Church too.

At my Church i meant they have a child protection committee.

The idea behind the ban on contraception as per Humanea Vitae was due to the thought that widespread use of contraception would lead to a general lowering of moral standards, a rise in infedelity and a lessening of respect for women by men. Its not the same as taking an asprin.

A church commission on birth control and population had reported two years prior to Humanea Vitae that birth control was not intrinsically evil and that the issue of contraception was one for Catholic couples alone to decide.

Many Catholics believe that the ban on contraception in right and stick to it, many believe it is right and feel guilty for not sticking to it, many believe that it is theologically flawed and a matter for individual couples. There are loads of us, its barmy to expect us all to have identical theological views and moral standards.

JS;

Re; My user name.

I think you'd have a hard time finding anyone in the music industry openly homophobic....probably due to the the fact that most of them are bi-sexual..

Your point is therefore pointless...

Just like this thread..which is why I will now hide it.

ABRIDE - THANKS FOR THAT, CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE PUBLIC WOULD BE LIKELY TO COVER UP THE ABUSE AND ALLOW IT TO CONTINUE TO HAPPEN?

oops sorry for shouting!

you are homophobic yet you actively support daftpunk who opening campaign against your core ideals. Nothing strange there then?

For me, it isn't just about the abuse. It's about the cover up and the redistribution of priests guilty of child abuse and it happening again and again and again.

I am that the upper echelons of the church cover up the abuse like that and I no way agree with it. What is being done about it? Is it still being covered up?

Thank you for the explanation tapeworm, very interesting. But I don't expect all Catholics to have identical views, I just expect them to follow the rules of their own church, and in my experience very few do.