Sunday, April 11, 2010

Proud Catholic

We know that media reporting is generally biased towards bad and sensational news. It appears especially at this time in the attacks on the Church and the Pope. Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States, namely the Catholic Church?

A sin is a sin and we must not condone it, but there is much goodness and hope in our world that we must be aware and be proud of.

We Catholics have much to be proud of, thanks to a Prominent Jewish Businessman who is not a Catholic. God sure did use him mightily in writing/researching these facts.


Proud of Being Catholic (Excerpts of an article written by Sam Miller, prominent Clveland Jewish businessman -( NOT CATHOLIC )

Do you know - the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday at the cost to your Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of 18 billion dollars. Your graduates go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92%, all at a cost to you. To the rest of the Americans it's free.

The Church has 230 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 700,000 students. The Catholic Church has a non-profit hospital system of 637 hospitals, which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people - not just Catholics - in the United States today.

But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage.

At this point in our original posting of his letter, Mr. Miller cited statistics indicating rates of sexual misconduct among Protestant Ministers, one of which claimed that "10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia." The Reverend Rob Pollock of Vancouver B.C. showed us that this statistic was false. We thank the Rev. Pollock, and have removed the entire paragraph which compared rates of sexual misconduct among Catholic priests and Protestant Ministers. We apologize. The Reverend Pollock's email, which alerted us to the error, and which traces the roots of the erroneous statistic to an article in Sojourners magazine, is posted in the comments section below. To continue with Mr. Miller's letter:

This is not a Catholic problem. A study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.

The Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the Church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests that have probably been totally weeded out by now. Walk with your shoulders high and you head higher. Be a proud member of the most important non-governmental agency in the United States. -Then remember what was written in Jeremiah: "Thus says the Lord: Stand by the earliest roads, ask the pathways of old. Which is the way to good, and walk it; thus you will find rest for your souls." (Jer 6: 16).

Be Proud to speak up for your faith with pride and reverence and learn what your Church does for all other religions. ..... Be Proud That You're A Catholic.... .. OR not yet a Catholic

Tho are interested in the full text:
http://fratres. wordpress. com/2008/ 06/24/redemption -comes-through- the-jews- jewish-businessm an-sam-miller- whaps-anti- catholic- bias-in-news- media-full- text/
Submitted by Dee Lynd.18 April 2008

1 comment:

Rob Pollock said...

I am writing to bring your attention to a significant error in the speech by Sam Miller as posted above.

The statement "10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia" has no basis in fact! Phew! We Protestant pastors may be bad. But we're not THAT bad!

In the original speech Mr. Miller cites a July/August 2002 Sojourners article by Rose Marie Berger in which she misinterprets statements from Penn. State Prof. Philip Jenkins regarding sexual abuse by Protestant ministers.

In the original article Berger writes...
"Philip Jenkins concludes in his book "Pedophiles and Priests" that while 1.7 percent of Catholic clergy have been found guilty of pedophilia (specifically of boys), 10 percent of Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia." (This quote is used in Miller's speech)

To which Philip Jenkins responds (Sept/Oct 2002)...
"I regret to say that the statement is baloney. I never said it, and it's not true!... Every time this ten percent statement appears attributed to me, I try to debunk it, but these things have a life of their own. I have no idea what the actual proportion of pedophile protestant clergy is, but I would be amazed if it was more than a fraction of one percent."

Sojourner Article... http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0207&article=020741d

Sojourners apologized to its readers for passing on erroneous information and revised the article, removing the incorrect and defamatory information. But not before Sam Miller got a hold of it!

Regrettably, Miller's speech has spread like wildfire within the Catholic community by way of the internet and e-mail. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites, blogs, forums, facebook pages, and news services that have posted it.

As a Protestant minister I am truly saddened that such false witness can be so uncritically accepted and further disseminated by so many within the Catholic community. It seems that we still find it easier to believe the worst about our neighbor rather than dig a little deeper for the truth.

This post should be removed or corrected in the interest of honesty and ecumenical respect.

Your Brother in Christ...(I hope!)
Rev. Rob Pollock
Vancouver, BC
CANADA