Why Isn’t Membership in the Catholic Church Down to ZERO by Now?

Because it exploits magical thinking and has mastered show business

Here we go again, from the Associated Press, 25 July 2024: Missouri lawsuits allege abuse by priests, nuns; archdiocese leader in Omaha among those accused. Here are three excerpts:

“Among those named is Omaha Archbishop George Lucas. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in St. Louis County Circuit Court said the unnamed accuser was 16 when he met Lucas at the now-closed St. Louis Preparatory Seminary in the late 1980s, where Lucas was a priest and dean of education. The lawsuit accused Lucas of sexually abusing the boy multiple times and offering better grades for sexual favors.”
 

“I categorically deny the accusation made by an anonymous person,” Lucas said. “I have never had sexual contact with another person.”

“The investigation in St. Louis followed the release of a 2018 report in Pennsylvania that cited the abuse of more than 1,000 children by hundreds of priests since the 1940s and the efforts of church leaders to cover it up.”

Just how widespread—just how systemic—is this problem in the Catholic Church? I decided to do a Google search, “Catholic Church Sexual Abuses Cases by Country,” and was stunned to see a HUGE Wikipedia article that provides abundant detail in country after country around the world.

Thus Richard Carrier called it correctly in his 10 September 2018 essay, What’s the Harm? Why Religious Belief Is Always Bad:

“…the Catholic Church is an international rape factory. And has been for decades; possibly untold centuries. Religious belief not only allowed that to happen, it is still allowing it to happen, as believers refuse to leave the church, refusing to effect any substantive reform that would prevent it, refusing to find a less deadly and destructive religion to believe in and support.”

Why isn’t the pope holding a news conference every week, bringing the world up-to-date on Vatican efforts to correct this systemic evil? For example: 

·      Here’s what we’re doing to screen candidates for the priesthood. We’re especially suspicious of anyone who claims never to have had sexual contact with another person. We sense danger there.            
·      This week we have handed over to the police this many priests for their abuse crimes. 
·      This is how we’re coming along with training programs to prepare priests for working with children.
·   We have been in intense prayer mode with God the Father, beseeching him to designate the Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven, as Abuse Monitor. That is, whenever a priest is about to abuse a child, she will appear in the room to give him a few solid punches. 

But why would the Holy Father bother to do this, when as Carrier as pointed out, believers refuse to leave the church? Catholicism has certainly lost its tight grip in Italy, Spain, and France—for example—but why make matters worse by calling attention to the church’s systemic evil? 

The church has to keep its eye on the prize: the primary gimmick is the promise of eternal life, which was a product sold by other dying-and-rising savior cults in the ancient world. Folks who accept magical thinking to escape death can minimize priests abusing children. The Catholic Church found magic potions celebrated in John 6:53-58, the emphatic promise that eating the flesh of Jesus, and drinking his blood are vital for achieving eternal life. What could be more perfect scripture as the basic for transubstantiation? And every time one goes to Mass, this miracle is there for the taking: “It’s our ticket to heaven!”

And, of course, the Church has turned this into high drama, complete with impressive ceremonies, music, elaborate sets—immense churches with art work, huge sculptures of Mary and Jesus—and spectacular

costumes. This is what I mean by mastering show business. It’s a way of diverting attention from the ghoulish idea of eating a god. If people really bothered to think about that too much, precious religious beliefs might take a big hit. For quite a while now on Facebook, I have been seeing brief reels showing Catholic ceremonies—both indoor and outdoor—and they are very impressive indeed. Magical thinking and show business get the job done! So it will be a very long time before membership in the Catholic Church is reduced to zero.

By the way, it’s not just the Catholics who have been plagued by sex abuse scandals. I did a Google search for this systemic problem among Mormons and Southern Baptists as well—they’re got the same problem. The super devout—no matter the denomination—seem determined to show that the apostle Paul’s claim in Galatians 5:24 is nonsense: “And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Paul’s sexual urges seem to have been non-existent, and he was sure that Christ was the source of this release from desires of the flesh. But that’s not how humans are built, and no amount of phony bragging can change that. It is truly one of the mysteries of Christianity that abuse of children doesn’t bring down the wrath of its god. 
 
 
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of two books, Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes, the first of which is Guessing About God (2023) and Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also now available. 
 
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
 
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.