Orphans Addendum

Further to my article "The Bible on Orphans" (Investigator #191) I quote the following statistics, available on various websites, of charity and health-care centres run by the Catholic Church:

5,287 hospitals, including in America (1,530) and Africa (1,321);
15,937 dispensaries, including in Africa (5,177); America (4,430) and Asia (3,300);
610 Care Homes for people with Leprosy, mainly in Asia (352) and Africa (192);
15,722 Homes for the elderly or chronically ill or people with a disability;
9,552 orphanages, mainly in Asia (3,660);
11,758 creches, mainly in Asia (3,295) and America (3,191);
13,897 marriage counseling centres, mainly in Europe (5,664) and America (4,984);
3,506 social rehabilitation centres and 35,746 other kinds of institutions.

I've seen letters in newspapers, and articles by atheists, calling for the dissolution of the Catholic Church due to child abuse by priests, but without explaining who will replace its tens of thousands of centers for the public good. Priestly perpetrators of child abuse have been estimated at 2% of priests and is being tackled. In contrast child abuse by the general citizenry has been estimated at 10%, but no one for this reason clamors for the dissolution of the governments.

There are also religious cults and sects which have persistently predicted the destruction of Catholicism. One, which has a high child abuse rate of its own, has even set repeated dates for that destruction and been wrong every time, yet has itself established no orphanages, no hospitals, no care homes for the elderly — nothing for the general good.

It's a biblical prediction that there would come unfaithful hypocrites whose agenda hinders [the good work of] others. In Jesus' words they "beat their fellow servants". (Matthew 24:48-51; 25:41-46; 7:15-20)

Anonymous