Quote Originally Posted by nonpareil View Post
They provided a lot of education and nursing /medical services for Catholics at a time when no one else was inclined to do so.
Sure , they made many mistakes, often shrugged off or covered up those mistakes and failed to move with the times, but many of their mistakes were repeated or worse things were done around the world by plenty of non- Catholics.
Is is easy to look back from the ivory tower of the present , to past times when things were very different and people thought very differently.
I think it is also true to say that the Catholic Church does a lot of good at a local community level, though I must add that is from an outsiders perspective.
I remember reading years ago that if the state provided all the community services currently provided by the church, it would add 5% to income tax.