The RCC in Boston

Our church has a Constitution and I believe that
the building, etc... is held in trust.

I really feel that it is wrong to sue a church
or for the STATE to investigate a church. Should
a church be able to investigate the state?

A person may sue another person, but it isn't
correct to sue a church. The Church belongs to
GOD and isn't up for grabs.

 

Most likely the person suing is no longer going to be a member of that church, they may even decide to not have anything to do with churches after something like that happening. They have the right to sue. By a trust do you mean it is protected from lawsuits? Who has control of the trust, the pastor the congregation? Who can disolve it and cash out?

So, are you saying no one should be able to sue the Catholic Church too, or just your church? This seems unfair to the victims.

God Bless

 

The yearly elected board of deacons

 

What PROFIT is it to gain the WHOLE WORLD and
lose your soul. Years ago the evil doer would
have been stoned and that would have be that...

Why should blood money be placed on the crime?
Sorry, other then lots of love and counseling
I see only greed. Mostly, it is the lawyers.
They do want their cut...

 

I doubt if every year the names change on the trust and the property. I am just curious as to how it works in the independent church world.

I would never go for churches having some sort of immunity from suits. Anyone and their dog can start a church and claim immunity. Church of Scientology even Satanic Churches could claim immunity. Within the Catholic Church, the Bishop is responsible for the churches in his diocese. I just wondered how responsibility worked with independent churches, if the pastor just disappeared in the night leaving a path of lawsuits and problems.

God Bless

 

Hi A_Christian,

You wrote, "Sorry, that would not happen in the church I attend."

I'm glad that you have great confidence in your local fellowship, but I wouldn't be so bold if I were you. Anything is possible with fallen human beings, and you may find yourself eating your own words in the future when you place such confidence in mere men who are peccable.

Here's a Scripture verse that should be instructive for you with regard to sinners in the Christian Church.

The topic of Jesus’ third discourse in the Gospel of Matthew is the kingdom, spoken of through parables (cf. Mt 13:1-58). In the parable of the weeds among the wheat, Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep, the man’s enemy came and sowed weeds alongside the wheat, and subsequently, the weeds grew up alongside the wheat. The slaves of the sower ask the sower if they should pull up the weeds, and the sower replies, "No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest" (Mt 13:29-30). Later, Jesus explains this parable:

"He who sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom; the weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers" (Mt 13:37-41).

Jesus also likens the kingdom to a dragnet thrown into the sea (cf. Mt 13:47-50), which collects both bad and good fish, the wicked and the righteous. With these parables, we must conclude that in this world, we find both sin and evildoers within the visible kingdom. These evildoers who appear visibly to be in the kingdom remain the sons of the evil one, whereas the saved are truly the sons of the kingdom. The latter are both visibly in the kingdom and truly of the kingdom. When the kingdom is equated with the visible Church, we are able to see the correlations and make sense of these parables.

We should be careful not to propose and spread the age-old heresy of Donatus (i.e., Donatism), which condones the uprooting of the weeds through our judgment and therefore, seeking a puritist or "perfect" Church; remember, the Church is a haven for sinners, a hospital for the lepers.

At the same time, we should uphold the positive law of the state in defending the common good by means of defending social and individual justice. This means prosecuting those who sin in such a way as to offend the positive dictates of public law.

 

"Sorry, that would not happen in the church I
attend."


That's part of the point. The guy moves on to the next Church that will take him. There is one of the stories at the website where a girl was molested by a guy who molested three girls at the previous gig. Why didn't the previous gig get him behind bars. I don't have the link offhand but there are many sites that have an article on line that say that in Protestant Churches there are 70 INSURANCE CLAIMS A WEEK for sexual misconduct. Now are there 70 arrests a week? If there is I am not hearing about it. Are Protestant Churches revealing the dirty little secrets behind all these claims. Not that I know of. The pastor at a friend of a friends church (bapist) had sex with three teenage girls. Still pastorin. Note the cap letters in about the third story. EXPERTS SAY THIS SCANDAL GOES WAY BEYOND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Blessings

 

I have seen a range of statistics on sex scandal in Protestant Churches. From 6% at best to 30% percent at worst of all Protestant pastors have had affairs. Likely somewhere in between. At any rate the statistics are for current practicing pastors so it seems they are not all removed. Another statistic said that 70% of pastors knew another who had been in an adulterous affair. Seems like somebody knows something.

 

Curtis always has a point.

Curtis, did I see you use balance in a sentence. Keep trying and someday you will actually know what it means. I don't like posting the Baptist pastor stories but there is always an underlying point of anti-catholicism to your posts. Your obsessed with it. Perhaps you should find a religion (baptists) with a little more doctrine to fill your time. What is there after your saved. No meat. Just milk.

 

Curtis, you still have not answered my question.

If your numbers are correct, why hasn't the prosecuter acted on it?

Could it been that there is a difference between an accusation and a provable crime?

Or do you think that the Church controls the prosecuter's office?

 

Hello Brother Curtis --

Haven't spoken to ya in a while.

Listen, that figure you gave of some 400 parishes. Is that nationwide or worldwide. (Couldn't be that many in just Boston I think).

You know, either way, considering the size and scope of the Church, it really represents a very small percentage of the whole.

That is not to excuse what happened. But perhaps Thess and others here git a bit tired of having this stuff rubbed in our faces and being told that because there is a small minority of sinners who actually have sinned, the whole Church is wrong.

Curtis, that really ain't cricket and I think that deep in yer heart, you know that!!!

God's best.

 

Remember Phoenix, Ariz Year 2003 as another nail in the casket !

 

Curtis, you still have not answered my question.

If your numbers are correct, why hasn't the prosecuter acted on it?

Could it been that there is a difference between an accusation and a provable crime?

Or do you think that the Church controls the prosecuter's office? </font>[/QUOTE]What do you say, Curtis?

 

Bro Curtis says:

I would say that the way the Catholic Church is being attacked by the Press, by other Christain denominations, by priest with in Her and by people and poletitions that say they are "Good Catholics" proves to me beond a shadow of a doubt that She is the true Church that Jesus Christ himself started.

Read the following article and show me any other denomination that comes under attack from all sides to the same extent that the Catholic Church does.
catholiccitizens.

So Bro. Curtis keep em coming cause you make my faith stronger. For that I thank you very much.

God Bless

John