Talk:Catholic Church sexual abuse cases/Archive 1

message: I don't like the current page title. It sounds as if the Roman Catholics were making allegations. How about "Catholic church sex abuse scandals"? While I am well aware that other forms of catholicism exist, conventionally it is understood that with the lack of a qualifier we refer to the Roman Catholic Church; besides, I highly doubt that such scandals are limited to that particular denomination.—Eloquence 03:00, Aug 9, 2003 (UTC)
High Church Anglicans take high offence when Catholic is used exclusively to refer to Roman Catholics, as do some other denominations. They also take offence when people talk about 'catholic sex abuse' because they stress it is the Roman Catholic branch of catholicism. As the name of the church is Roman Catholic and the article not about anyone else who considers themselves, it makes logical sense to use the most accurate title that avoids causing offence to others who also call themselves catholic, and who are called catholic by millions of their followers, but whom the article is not about. 
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My understanding is that the term "Roman Catholic" as we use it today was an invention of the Anglican Church during the Protestant Reformation.  The Anglican Church used the terms "Anglo-Catholic" or "Anglican Catholic" along with "Roman Catholic" to imply an equivalency in apostolic sucession and legitmacy of the sacerdotal orders.  I propose that we use the term which the church calls herself: the Catholic Church.  Accordingly, the term "Anglican Catholic" should be used because this is what the Church of England might call itself.  The term "Roman Catholic" is seen used by Rome in one instance, that is in the phrase "Cardinal(s) of the Roman Catholic Church."  When used in this context, "Roman" refers to the particular church,that is the archdiocese, of Rome--historically, the cardinalate was chosen only from among the clergy of Rome proper.  The true term for what Americans and British normally call "Roman Catholic" would be the "Latin Rite" or the "Roman Rite" of the Catholic Church.  The term "RCC" is very commmon among even catholics in the US, but it is a result of the split between England and Rome; and it was used historically exclusively bu the Church of England and other British persons.
:I'm afraid your understanding of the etymology of Roman Catholic is mistaken, although completely understandable.  The term Roman Catholic was in reality an invention of the Roman Catholic Church in England for two major reasons: the Anglican Church considered itself to be the "continuing" catholic albeit reformed church in England, and the term "Roman" differentiated the two.  The term came into being at least one hundred years after the reformation, if I recall correctly, during restoration or the Jacobite years.  The second reason is that the term "Roman" was far better than the contemporary historical pejorative (and offensive) "Papist".  So while it may be easy to think that the modern term "Roman Catholic" is pejorative the historical usage was not: it was a self indentifying term that correctly identified a proud and steadfast minority in the face of apalling persecution.  As an Anglo-catholic nothing would please me more than the reunification of these two churches - it's some centuries overdue.Adamm 20:49, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Title 

message: I'm not really sure how to put this properly, but I remember being given a lecture while at school about the way things were in Ireland up to around the late 1960s, which was offerred by way of explaining the peculiarly high amount of abuse cases in Ireland (mainly in reference to physical abuse); that in many families the youngest son became a priest, with no choice in the matter. 
Does anyone know anything more concrete about this? -- Jim Regan 03:11, 9 Aug 2003 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks, I'd never heard that phrase before, but it makes sense. Come to think of it, I think there's still some of it left; I remember in college, a lesbian friend took us to a gay bar for her birthday, where I heard that one of the guys was a trainee priest simply because it was easier than explaining to his parents why he never brought girls home. -- Jim Regan 03:06, 10 Aug 2003 (UTC)
thread_title:  Forced priests