Hello Bhandare, Not so quick cowboy! Let think this together-
By contribution of money, you mean Sunday collection, whether or not offered as tithe. Well most do not comprehend this and are good at rationalizing where their money is better spent, but that is not the point. The organization if of course the Catholic Church and the recent pious mumblings of Cardinal Mahoney of LA-being a prince of the Church, to mean allegiance to the Vatican, where the buck or the Euro should stop at. And then we have this sad fact of pedophilia. So what do you think we are all thinking?
One may only glean the following from what you write. Perhaps you are saying- move away from a organization that certainly appears to condone pedophilia. Yes it must be quite true that the 2 billion paid so far in Boston and LA has come from Sunday collections-perhaps invested in who knows what, etc. Perhaps the Church will go back to selling indulgences. Imagine a commodities market in Indulgences. The worshipper is interested in communing through the intercession of the church. There are many who are communing directly, but then run along to the church to get baptised, and indulge in the other sacraments-except usually Confession. The pro conciliation made more Catholics communicants and less penitents! But again my point here is to get you to see that correlationships of the order that you are resorting to are spurious and shallow.
Ask, what are the opinions of people or christians on this net. Those of us who wish to weigh in will do so. Others may not. This is not about belling the cat. Or is it? If then, tathastu! But, sarvesam purnam bhavatu, would be preferable.
Have you made other such binaries? How about pedarasty? Annulments? The children of even a single Catholic in the union having to be brought up as Catholic! Is charging high interest wrong/unconscionable? What do we think? This is not about generating false equivalences. It should be about avoiding one to one simplistic correspondences. Going furher-sati, and child marriage, and the nature of widowhood. So is Hinduism messed up? Should we only respect atheists who come from Hindu stock and reject practicing or even cultural Hindus, because their predecessors came from a religious perspectives which indulged however sparingly in the earlier mentioned practices. Of course not. Furthermore, conceptually, can most Christians understand the abstractions of Sanathan Dharma. Or what may be construed a kind of abstraction but not seen as such in Catholicism-the transfiguration of the body into wine. Do we really understand this, or at least do many? I see more of the Christ-ness in the Hindu than in the Christian. Having said that does my bent towards ecumenical beliefs mean I am still a Christian for attempting to understand non-Christian values, thoughts and ideas? Believe it or not, in the minds of many Christians and Roman Catholics I am not. So when you say that ducking pedophilia is tantamount to condoning pedophilia; it is not so direct. This is a Vikram and Vetal scenario!
But what we can certainly do is to try and answer your questions. We owe it to you but on certain conditions. You on your part cannot expect any among all the goanetters to categorically state their positions. Some can, some cannot, some are just overwhelmed, and others simply will not. But you can certainly ask. Imagine being told that ones dad raped a six year old or for that matter raped anyone. Do you feel too many words will be coming out too easily. Get the point.
Anyway, hang in there. Venantius J Pinto
