Nitro Express
09-27-2011, 10:21 AM
The Catholic Church in Austria is having a lot of trouble. In 2010 alone, 87,000 people left -- mostly or entirely due to the growing sexual abuse scandal, it seems. There's little reason to think that 2011 will be any better, especially since more than 800 people have filed new complaints of priestly molestation in just the past year alone.
It's easier to resist calls for reforms, even easy and obvious reforms, when an institution possesses a lot of respect and authority. Whatever reasons the institution gives for dismissing reforms, people will tend to give them the benefit of the doubt -- that's what respect and authority buy you.
But the contrary is also true: as an institution's respect and authority decline, so too does the willingness of people to accept the status quo. This can be true even when the proposed reforms are unconnected to the reasons for declining respect. When reformers can make the case that they are connected, though, support for reforms will be even greater.
This is a serious problem for the Catholic Church as a whole. They used to have a lot of respect and authority, even with non-Catholics. Today, even many Catholics have lost a lot of respect for Catholic institutions. This has made it much harder to hide the crimes of priests, to convince people that the crimes are isolated actions of a few bad apples, and to avoid costly lawsuits.
It only takes one rebellious generation to totally gut centuries of bullshit. Once that generation teaches their children something else it's curtains for the old system.
It's easier to resist calls for reforms, even easy and obvious reforms, when an institution possesses a lot of respect and authority. Whatever reasons the institution gives for dismissing reforms, people will tend to give them the benefit of the doubt -- that's what respect and authority buy you.
But the contrary is also true: as an institution's respect and authority decline, so too does the willingness of people to accept the status quo. This can be true even when the proposed reforms are unconnected to the reasons for declining respect. When reformers can make the case that they are connected, though, support for reforms will be even greater.
This is a serious problem for the Catholic Church as a whole. They used to have a lot of respect and authority, even with non-Catholics. Today, even many Catholics have lost a lot of respect for Catholic institutions. This has made it much harder to hide the crimes of priests, to convince people that the crimes are isolated actions of a few bad apples, and to avoid costly lawsuits.
It only takes one rebellious generation to totally gut centuries of bullshit. Once that generation teaches their children something else it's curtains for the old system.