Is Critique of the Catholic Church's history Catholic Bashing

The reason I am posting on this subject is an indirect reference to the fued between
a friend Mr Beamish and Rightminded on Rocco's site. There has been heated rhetoric, but the charge of Catholic bahing has occured and I want to put my opinion on what is fair and over the top.

I want to state that while I consider Mr Beamish to be a friend , Rightminded does lack certain social skills. This being stated the rhetoric is a bit over the top. The relevance of my kinship with Barbara Striesand seems to be an amusing topic for Rightminded. I am sure if we shook anyones family tree a few nuts would fall out. This is an example of the decided lack of social graces that Rightminded is often guilty of. Whereas Beamish has friends in abundance, Rightminded has few defenders, but the topic is Catholic bashing.

I have done posts before on the pedophelia scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church. My contention remains that each and every day Catholic Charities help multitudes more people than the tragic few who were tragically wronged. Large organizations, like the Catholic Church, sometimes forget why they exist. Any Church exists to meet the spiritual needs of its congregants. This is the prime mission for
any Church. The Church failed to put the needs of the congregants first and shuffled problem priests around. However, the Church has apparently gotten the message and is attempting to fix the problem. The over the top media feeding feeding frenzy has been almost as disgusting as the original scandal. I am certain one can find similar stories about sexual abuse in public schools. However, we do not consider holding Teachers Unions accountable if they shuffle members around, perhaps we should.

On a pratical level the legal feeding frenzy is apalling. When little Wendy wants to get a quality education will she go down to a trial lawyers office. When Victor gets AIDS and needs social services will these attorneys lift a finger. When Joe becomes homeless will these lawyers provide him with a meal and mental health services. Will
the ratings driven talking heads provide these services. Thanks to the feeding frenzy and avalanche of lawsuits the Catholic Church is having to close schools, Churches and reduce services. Has the feeding frenzy of lawsuits hurt or helped more people? The policy of moving pedophile priests around was unforgivable. However, to
dismiss all the good work that the Catholic Church does each and every day is also unforgiveable.

The Catholic Church has admitted a series of great wrongs commited against the Jewish people. Thus any discussion of these topics does not seem to be unwarranted.
The unspoken real crime of the Crusades were the Jews who were needlessly killed along the way to liberate the Holy Land. The Crusades were a series of defensive reactions caused by centuries of Muslim territorial campaigns against Christians. Muslims seem to forget their predatory Jihads and mistreatment of Pilgrims as well as indigenous Jews and Christians.

The Church's record on Israel is also a legitamate point of discussion. The Catholic Church for whatever reason has not recognized Israel. We can speculate on the reason for that for years. John Paul 2 was the best of a rather poor lot. Much of the improvements in the Church's policy towards Jews and Israel was engineered by the current Pope.

These topics and what the historic role of the Church in the Western Colonial and Slave trading era are also legitimate topics. However, these points should be discussed within a rational framework. Colonialism and Slavery were universal norms
and not exclusive to Western Civ. The notion that indigenous people had rights and slavery was wrong stem from Christianity. Using the current morality to criticize Universal wrongsis disproportionate. Moreover, the vast majority of poeple who put the Catholic Church uder scrutiny readily give Islam a free pass for far more abhorent abuses. More black slaves were taken in the Eastern Slave Trade. Muslims are still on a series of lnd stolen in Colonial conquest. Moreover, they are demanding more land from a people they brutalized for 1400 years. They also make these claims while violating human rights of non-muslims today.

The greatest acheivement of the Pope is removing all the Liberation Theology nuts from its ranks. This is also one of the many reasons for the over the top media feeding frenzy on Church Scandals. A sect of clerics with a fealty towards a genocidal totalitarian philosophy ( Marx) was a great problem. The Church was 100% correct in booting out advocates of this philosophy.

I wish that those who have problems with Rightminded would ignore him. Some of the disdain is warranted, but it counter productive at this point. I wish that all the parties that are involved in the flaming at Rocco's site including Rightminded would remember it is Rocco's house. Lets try and stay on topic like good guests. This goes for everyone including me.