The Pope

I don’t know what it’s like where you live Varian, but in Norfolk, at primary level it can be quite difficult to find a village school which is not CoE state aided. My own children attended the community local primary school which happened to be Catholic so I can say that church schools do cover other beliefs and teach understanding of them, while the state school they later attended did not.

Bringing up children in a faith can add to their life experience, providing it isn't oppressive. It's damaging when it's cold, critical and rejecting of any other ideology.

My children went to a CofE high school in our neighbourhood. All the children studied religion to GCSE, which included the study of all the major faiths. They were taught to respect other faiths and to question their own. As parents themselves now, they remain part of a large friendship group that began in school. Some of them continue the tradition of christenings, Church and sending their children to the schools they attended, others don't.The 'indoctrination' they received to respect others and to live a decent life seems to be serving them well.
A new family member has a Muslim background, she's a very welcome addition. The two families get on well. That's surely how life should be.
I find some comments about those of us with some kind of faith unnecessarily judgemental.
I remain of the belief that mystical, magical, closed institutions (including families) provide a good place for abusers to lurk, to hide their true nature. It's for all of us to be vigilant and aware that they look like us, act as we do and unfortunately, don't have two horns and a tail to warn us.

I have always found many atheists to be judgemental of people of faith and have a need to declare they are as caring of their fellow man as those of faith but not heard the reverse.

Varian, SIL is not religous at all in fact did not do his childhood confirmation, that descision was left to his adoptive parents no pressure from the Jesuits in any way.

Sorry, my earlier post I meant to say the prevailing view within the church establishment, not the views on this thread.

TBH I have no time for the pope. He presides over a church that over the centuries has hoarded wealth, instilled guilt, created institutions that with inbuilt cruelty, and now we know it has covered up sexual abuse. He will not change all that either for the past or the future.

No institution that denies normal sexuality to its clergy and decrees that all sexual acts should be capable of creating a new life is likely to be healthy.

No one can change the past. Sex does mean creating a new life unless infertility probems, it is contraception which prevents a new life.

I think he will change what he can but it is not a one man band , same as any government

The sadness for me is that so many good people have had their lives blighted by the shocking strictures & interpretations of God’s word,by mere mortals who themselves are behaving in a very ungodly fashion. Let’s not forget that Jesus was sent by God to change this.
The current Pope does appear to be more in tune with this & the reality of some people’s lives, let’s hope he will instigate more compassionate changes within the RCC.

Bridgeit, I so hope the same. I think things will move slowly, contraception is used by millions of RC’s, just because JRM has said he is against it doesn’t mean all members of this church think the same.

I find it astounding that someone like JRM can say he's against contraception, or that he's never changed a nappy. This is 2018 or had he forgotten or indeed always lived in some kind of alternative universe.
Pope Francis does seem to be a genuine man of faith. The attacks on him appear to come from more traditional elements within the Vatican. Who knows?
What we do know, without doubt, is that the two main Christian churches in the UK have both covered up abuse, both dismissed allegations, both supported men who have subsequently been confirmed to have sexually abused children or other very vulnerable individuals.
Without wishing to in any way minimise the horrors perpetrated by priests, vicars and other so called men of god, we have to acknowledge the bravery of the people who have now talked of their experience. It follows we must acknowledge the changes in society, in the police, the Church and other agencies that created an atmosphere in which it became possible for allegations to be made.
There are other faiths in which this hasn't yet taken place.

The Angclican Church and the RC Church, there are other denominations in the Christian Church, Baptist, Pentcostal, Methodist, Salvation Army, I think possibly why we haven’t heard of abuse in these churches is the fact women are very much to the fore, when I was a child in the fifties and attending a Baptist Church, the minister was always male but there was ‘the big seat’ where the Deacons sat , my grandmother ,died before I was born , was a Deacon, her sister was when I was a member, women ran Band of Hope, prayer meetings etc. Women have always been prominent in the Salvation Army The Anglican and RC Churches were dominated by men, the most women could do was play the organ and arrange flowers. Does this in anyway explain a possible reason why?

And let's not forget the crystal Methodist - Flowers I think his name was.

I was referring to multi cases of abuse not saying abuse never happen in those churches, no different to it happening in schools , doctors surgeries etc. I thought my post made that clear, obviously not.