No individual other than Jesus Christ is “the church”. We individuals are part of The Body of Christ, and that goes for every priest, bishop, and pope who has ever been baptized into The Church. They are all broken, and that’s the whole reason Christ became human in the first place.

There have been corrupt popes in the past. Popes with mistresses, popes who killed and tortured, and even popes who sold the Papacy. But, despite these human beings being human, The Church has endured, and modern-day saints like Mother Teresa continue to be formed and inspired by Jesus Christ through the Catholic Church.

Your faith must not have been that significant, that a few worse apples (abusers) among the bad apples (all of us) have turned you away from the beauty of The Eucharist, from the Communion of Saints, from the Church that Jesus Christ himself founded. The same church that He emphatically promised that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against.

I pray that you find a kind of faith that is not swayed by the brokenness of humanity, but that allows you to stay the course, with your eyes on the perfection of Christ.

Far from abandoning the institution, just find a better relationship. One which is not abusive. People who stay in the Church think it will change. It has not. “Christ is the Way”, not the Catholic Church. Again, don’t confuse the two.

In your previous article, mentioned above. You spoke of a revolution. My husband is a convert to Catholicism, albeit an Eastern Catholic branch. I, as a child taken away from the church and protected in a time of madness (1969-2014) I was reconciled within this Eastern lifeboat. But I am very much a Latin Catholic. I went to a Latin Solemn High Mass and heaven was opened for me there. Join the revolution, take a step into an FSSP parish or the local diocese’s Latin Mass. Revive your spirit, find your religion.

Hi Francis,
i can appreciate your comments as someone who has found peace with my decision to walk away from the Church. Everyday, each of us has to decide what we can and cannot live with. I feel that the Church left me by not following the greatest words Jesus ever spoke…the foundation of His salvation for anyone who wanted to follow Him to Eternal life…”Love me with all your heart and love one another”. To me, clearly, the Church has FAILED on these simple words. In my opinion the Church is not loving Christ nor one another when it KNOWINGLY harbors child rapists. I had hopes with Pope Francis…so many things I like that he has done. But, the one thing I thought he MUST do…remove those bishops and cardinals who still serve despite being shown to have had knowledge of abusive priests. He knows who they are…just as Benedict and John Paul 2 did. The legionaries of Chist, Marcel Marciel, Cardinal Dolan( who put 50 million in a cemetery fund in Milwaukee so it could not be used to compensate abuse victims….the diocese then whet bankrupt and survivors got ZERO…sooooooo WRONG!). The more I read, the more I am confident in my decision. The Catholic Church is not a place I can remain and call myself a follower of Christ…I am confident that when I meet my Savior hHe will embrace me as His faithful servant. Peace.

I see it Mary’s way too, and that’s the side I must come down on, given Jesus’ flat-out promise that not all the power of hell would overcome His Church.

Faithful catholics are faithful by trusting in Him and His Church (His Mystical Body) alone, despite everything else. Let us never give in to temptation to abandon the Church.

The decision is made for me by Christ, which makes ALL the difference. If I had depended on my own understanding, I’d have been consumed – taken over – by rage at the abuse we’ve uncovered within our catholic world, I’d have damned the Church for it, and I would have nothing anymore to do with it. Would this not have seen me standing with the Pharisees, men for whom Jesus was not the Way? To my soul’s ruin I’d have thrown out the Baby with the bathwater, and who does that serve but Satan?