When I heard that the U.S. Catholic priests and bishops assembled in Vatican City, Italy on April 25, 2002 to discuss how to deal with the paedophile and porn-loving priests, I wonder if they even brought their Bibles with them. Did they even think of consulting the Word of God to understand the proper way to deal with these sins? Consider the following proposed "solution" revealed on June 4, 2002 by the "Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse":

This committee will be revealing the details of their "recommendations" to a group of bishops meeting in Dallas, TX June 13-15, 2002.

I am a Pentecostal, Bible-believing Christian striving to be a disciple of Christ. I am not a member of the Roman Catholic Church, which teaches that rites, repetitions and rituals are more important than relationships. We should judge the above solution by the Word of God. Under the new covenant in Jesus Christ, where does the scripture say a priest should be defrocked if caught sexually abusing a child in the future? Where does it even talk about conditions for defrocking? Where does it say that clergymen who victimized more than one child in the past also would be removed and all such violations would have to be reported to authorities? Is any of their solution in the Bible? Did they even consult the Bible for answers? Did they make intercessory prayer for divine knowledge and divine answers to these questions? It doesn't appear so.

The Word of God deals with these type of situations almost exclusively in a couple passages. Since I believe the Bible is the infallible Word of God, I believe it is relevant for our lives today. But it doesn't appear that the Catholic church decided to consult it in resolution of these "modern-day" problems.

In the book of I Corinthians, Paul learns about a serious sexual sin that arose in the Corinthian church, then gave instructions to them on how to deal with it. In a later letter, he admonished them to let the brother back in the church after sufficient punishment. Here is the initial passage in I Corinthians 5:

Later, in the second epistle to Corinth, chapter 2, Paul seems to refer back to this situation after some time has passed:

The instructions are relatively simple:

1. Call a meeting of the church members to discuss the situation
2. Cast the member out of the church - for the purpose of destroying the sinful nature of the flesh
3. While the member is excommunicated, do not have fellowship with the member - do not even eat with the member
4. This lack of fellowship will cause the member to realize the sin that has been committed
5. Once the member has made amends with the offended person(s), and with God, the church is to welcome the member back, forgive and comfort the member
6. Don't let it get to the point where the member becomes so discouraged that the member cannot recover

If this member is allowed to remain in the church, notice the consequence according to Paul: soon all members would be affected. As it grows and spreads like a cancer, it causes murmuring, backbiting and division in the church. Now, isn't this EXACTLY what we are seeing in the case of the Catholic church currently? Some want to allow them to continue in the church...some want them excommunicated and taken to court...some want there to be zero-tolerance...some want it to be two strikes and you are out.

Not only are the Roman Catholic priests not following the instructions in the Word of God, they are hiring public relations firms to deal with all the negative publicity they are receiving over this. Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has hired Sitrick and Co. public relations firm to place ads in several Los Angeles newspapers, saying they are doing "everything humanly possible to ensure that these situations do not occur again." Mahony will also be at the June 13-15 Dallas conference where he will advocate a "zero-tolerance" policy for priests who abuse children. Not only has he hired this public relations firm, but he is looking for a benefactor to pay for the ads!! (ii) Now where did Paul say anything about hiring a public relations firm to brainwash the public into believing everything is peachy, and it is time to come back to the church?

When it all comes down, the archdiocese's of the United States are scrambling to come up with a solution because of M-O-N-E-Y, money. The Almighty Dollar has stopped flowing into the church, and that is a HUGE problem for them. They must look and act as if they are being tough on these priests in order to save face and get people to start attending again, and most importantly, start giving their money again.

Consider this report on the woe's of certain dioceses:

The biggest culprit in this entire problem is the lie of celibacy. Pastors and teachers of the gospel were not told in the Word of God to never get married nor have sexual relations with a wife. In fact, in I Timothy 3:2, Paul tells Timothy that bishops of the church may have a wife. That is because it would cause exactly what is happening now if ministers were to abstain from sex. Priests are brought up surrounded by men in seminaries, they are kept separate from women, and they develop ties to children who are training in the priesthood or being brought up in the faith. Because all their sexual energy and tension is bottled up for so many years, it is released in sins against self (masturbation) and sins against others (child molestation, solicitation of prostitutes, homosexuality, pornography rings, rape, etc.).

Unfortunately, the Catholic church will not change the lie of celibacy, and that is exactly the way Satan wants it. The more human souls he can pull into this religion, the more souls he has a chance to lock up in eternal hellfire. According to a story published on April 25, 2002 on Zenit.org:

How sad - reliance on science instead of the Word of God. Reliance on "Church" tradition instead of the Word of God. Reliance on our own understanding and ideas instead of the Word of God. His Word never changes - but somehow, the Catholic church is justifying changing its rules for dealing with sin. I submit that if their rules were based on the Word of God in the first place, there would NEVER be a reason to change them. Just think how many amazing preacher's kids would not have been born if evangelical Christian denominations practiced celibacy, and would never have had a chance to minister and continue on the tradition of pastor. What a huge difference that would have made!

Here is a short explanation from the Catholic church on why celibacy is a "good thing" in their eyes:

Consider this passage from Matthew 18:

When I read this, I shudder when I think of what these celibate priests have done to the "little ones". Many commentaries I have a read try to call these "little ones" not children, but instead those that are new in the faith, or those who think they are least in God's kingdom. That is COMPLETELY ridiculous when you consider the context of the setting.

From verse two, we see that Jesus called a child to him, and I can imagine him picking up the child and setting him on his lap, then addressing the crowd while looking at the child. This passage clearly pronounces an unusual woe on the offender of little children. Unfortunately, celibate priests have been drawn into this practice over and over again. Woe unto them, says the Lord Jesus, and it would be BETTER for them to tie a heavy round stone around their neck and throw them into the sea than to face the woe of offending a little one.

Below are several sites which detail what went on during the June 13-15, 2002 conference of United States bishops and priests:

It's so sad to see that NONE of the dialogue included a discussion of the scriptures I have illuminated in this commentary.