Catholics Selling Properties to Pay Sex Abuse Claims


The Catholic Church of Canada has been ordered to sell about 40 pieces of its properties to pay victims of sex abuse by clergy. Some of them are properties no longer used because of declines in membership. Some seem to be land bought for speculation of future churches that never materialized. Nevertheless, a good question is why it ever had, and still has, so much wealth and property. 

When the topic of large payouts from many Catholic dioceses resulting from sexual abuse by clergy is discussed here, often the response from devout Catholics is, "You and others who hate the Catholic Church just want to destroy it."  No one can destroy the Catholic Church or most any other church. It takes no money to have religious gatherings is someone's home or is a public park. A religion that exists because followers believe in its tenets requires no money at all. When the purpose of a denomination or religion is to amass wealth and property, it's reasonable to ask how much religion it has.

As an example, let's take atheists. National atheist organizations have members who pay dues. The largest one, Freedom From Religion Foundation, has one expensive property which houses its offices. If this property was lost for whatever reason, atheists and probably that organization would just keep going on with volunteers. That is, in fact what nearly all local atheist groups do. They own no property and have no staff. They are perfectly happy to not owe or own. Unlike large Christian organizations such as the Catholics, their purposes are elsewhere.

The public record shows Catholic diocese have tried to hide and shelter money so it will not be given to the sexual abuse victims. While I believe the Catholic Church should defend itself in court, it is of questionable morals and ethics to move money around to avoid paying victims of its abusers. 

Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 22, 2022 at 6:03 PM

    Well, where are our good Catholic friends now? Perhaps out looking for the unmarked graves at old Native schools?..

    ReplyDelete

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