What do Christians believe?

The history of how the Catholic clergy has been a large part of Catholicism

Question: What do Christians believe?
Position‹2 of 7›: Catholic Christians
Argument1 of 7›: The history of how the Catholic clergy has been a large part of Catholicism

The Catholic clergy has been a part of Catholicism since the religion was founded. Priests, cardinals, and the pope are well known symbols that have served the community and God for centuries. They have influenced the Christian world for centuries.

The argument

In the Roman Catholic tradition, from the 4th century on, celibacy began to be enforced on priests. However, the Catholic church had centuries of child and sexual abuse at the hands of priests that is only now beginning to be exposed. The Catholic church covered up for the molester priests (and some nuns) for decades and publicly vilified the victims, often threatening excommunication for them and their families if they would not withdraw allegations. Their solution to the problem was often to move the priest to a new parish. The priests were largely protected by the Catholic belief in the infallibility of the church – the Holy Spirit preserves the church from error.

Premises

[P1]In the Roman Catholic tradition celibacy has been enforced on priests since the 4th century, and the clergy has long been central to Catholicism. [P2] The church endured centuries of clerical sexual abuse that it covered up for decades, vilifying victims and merely moving offending priests to new parishes. [P3] The priests were shielded by the Catholic belief in the church's infallibility, that the Holy Spirit preserves it from error. [C] Therefore, this troubled history of the clergy is part of the story of what Catholic Christians believe.

Counter-arguments

This passage is largely about institutional history and grave clerical misconduct, which sits awkwardly under a position headed 'what Catholic Christians believe'. The abuse scandal and its cover-up are matters of the Church's conduct and governance, not articles of Catholic faith, so as support for the position the argument is substantially off-target — it describes failings of clergy rather than the doctrines Catholics hold, such as the sacraments, the creeds and the communion of saints. It also misstates the doctrine it invokes: the Catholic teaching on infallibility is narrow, applying to the pope speaking ex cathedra, and to the Church's settled teaching, on matters of faith and morals; it is not a blanket claim that clergy or the institution cannot err in conduct, and it was not a doctrine that licensed protecting abusers, however much individuals may have hidden behind institutional authority. Recounting a real and serious history is legitimate, but it neither states Catholic belief nor accurately renders the specific belief it names.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] The abuse scandal and its cover-up are failures of clergy conduct and governance, not articles of Catholic belief, so they do not describe what Catholic Christians believe. [Rejecting P3] Catholic infallibility is a narrow doctrine about the pope teaching ex cathedra on faith and morals, not a claim that the institution cannot err in conduct, so it is mischaracterised here.