On a famous blog today (not Fr. Z's), there are many comments which indicate that people believe that the horrible child abuse scandal has caused the Church to be unpopular.
This is a myth. The Church has ALWAYS been unpopular. The Catholic Church has endured over 2,000 of hatred and persecution, and not necessarily because of the sins of Her members.
As many of you know, following this blog. several members of my family were abused by a priest for years and years as very young children.
All four never gave up the Church, married good Catholics, raised their children Catholics and are still Catholics. They forgave the priest, even though his despicable actions caused them pain their entire lives in one way or another.
Catholics have been treating people badly for a long time. Some Catholic priests have embezzled thousands if not millions of dollars. This happened in my own diocese, which also went bankrupt because of paedophilia and homosexuality among priests.
The sex scandals are not new, folks. And there have always been scandals in the Church.
There is only one reason why the Church is unpopular-because the Fullness of Truth lies within the Church. The true Gospel is taught by the Catholic Church. Truth, Who is a Person, is Present on every altar daily, in the Eucharist.
The Church is not popular because She speaks the truth in season and out of season. The Church will prevail because it is Christ's Mystical Body and the institution created by Christ to lead us all to salvation.
Those who leave the Church or do not join it because of evil priests, evil bishops, evil cardinals, are not looking at themselves. We are all sinners. Look at Christ, not men.
All of us have failed God and brought disrespect to the Church by some action or another. There is no person on earth who is without sin.
It is horrible that we have had to witness the scale of the evils in the Church. But, we are about to witness a purging of the Church not seen in decades, and witnessed by some of our ancestors hundreds of years ago.
Remember, all but one bishop went with Henry VIII and that was St. John Fisher. The rest finally repented under Queen Mary, but terrible damage was done by their apostasy.
The Church has been, is, and always will be unpopular. So what? The truth will prevail and those who want the truth, who seek it, will find it. And, those who want to continue the myth, will do so.
I find the arguments puerile. Pray for the Church, and pray for holy priests, holy bishops, holy cardinals. Pray for holy lay people.