How the Catholic Church
Survived Two Thousand
Years
!
Athena von
Oech
Section:
Tuesday,6:15
EDGE
12/6/02
Introduction
On
theDay of Pardon in the Year of Jubilee, 2000 years after the birth of
JesusChrist, Pope John Paul II and several other high members of the Catholic
Churchperformed a prayer of forgiveness and confession, apologizing for all
thewrongdoings of the Church. The Pope said later that they had been preparing
todo this for several years, but had chosen the year 2000
to make it more significant; this was atime to celebrate the progress of
the Church but also wipe the slate clean byasking forgiveness. A Cardinal
began:
Let us pray that ourconfession and repentance
will be inspired by the HolySpirit,
that our sorrow will beconscious and deep,
and that, humbly viewing thesins of the past
in an authentic“purification of memory,”
and to grant them mercy.
Thisspeech had a huge impact, dominating the media worldwide for the
next week withseveral high officials of various faiths and interest groups
either lauding thePope for his work or criticizing him for not having gone far
enough in hisapology. His speech also touched on the role of the Church. The
Church defineditself in its infant years as a human phenomenon with the divine
inside. It wasobviously made up of humans but as Church scholar Luigi Guissani
phrased it,“[the Church’! ;s] existence surpasses the human reality of
itscomponents” (1). The Pope hoped to apologize for the human elements ofthe
Church that had harmed its ability to represent the divine, and to askforgiveness
for those who had been hurt.
Inthe same vein, two years later the Pope urged others to forgive those
who hadharmed them. On January 1, 2002 the Pope delivered another speech that made
asplash and received attention —his New Year’s Day Message forPeace, “No Peace
Without Justice, No Justice Without Forgiveness.”Although this is obviously a
direct response to the terrorist attacks fourmonths earlier, he was also
addressing all conflict, war and killing betweengroups and individuals. He
asserted that the formula for peace is a combinatio! nof forgiveness and
justice. Further, he insisted that humans should never forcea faith on others;
to do so was to deny another person his or her humanity. Onecan propose a faith
but should never impose it.
Bothof these speeches received so much attention because of their
revolutionarymessages: they both went against the common rhetoric of the Church
over thepast 2000 years. Further, the Popeactually
apologizing for the wrongdoings of the Church poses several questions:“Why did
the Pope need to apologize: what ills did the Church, itsofficials and it
followers commit that required the Pope to publicly clear hisconscience by
apologizing for them? Further, to what extent did the Churchembody both human
and divine e! lements in the past, and to what extent does ittoday?” To
understand the Catholic Church today it is essential tounderstand the society
it was born into and how the culture and politics of thepast 2000 years have
shaped the Church and the Bible itself. After oneacknowledges the behavior and
dogma that dominated the papacy in theChurch’s history (including the papal
infallibility clause stating thatthe Pope being God’s voice on earth, can do no
wrong), one can see howrevolutionary these speeches really were.
TheEarly Church
Effectivelyunderstanding the Catholic Church today requires one to unders!
tand how theculture and politics of the Roman Empire shaped the structure of
the Church andthe Bible itself. Jesus lived in what is modern day Palestine,
which was partof the Roman Empire. Judaism and Hellenistic Greek traditions
were the dominantreligions of the day. Several sects of Jews existed but
although they agreed onthe basic tenets of Judaism —there is only one God,
God’s peopleought to follow certain guidelines and God would fulfill his
promise—they spent most of their time bickering over how to serve God.
Theearly Church faced several struggles such as maintaining the purity
ofChristianity, defining the structure of the Church and surviving the
constantattacks on Christians by the Roman Empire. One of the Church’s
firststruggles! was to define itself vis-à-vis the Jewish tradition and
theRoman World. Both Paul and the Book of Acts reveal questions and issues
theearly Church wrestled with. For example: “Should Christianity be its
ownreligion or a new sect of Judaism?” “Which books should be includedin the
Bible and which were the works of heretics?”
Thepolitical and cultural environment of the early Roman Empire aided
the spreadof Christianity but also threatened the purity of the nascent
religion byallowing for other religions to mix with it. The philosophies of
Plato andSocrates, preaching that the human soul was immortal and that another
invisibleand purely rational world existed that was more permanent, were
popular.Further, Stoicism, which preached high ! moral values was also popular.
BothPlato’s ideas about the afterlife and the Stoics’ emphasis onliving morally
influenced Christianity. At the same time, they made it easierfor individuals
to understand Christianity within that framework; thus, theideas of eternity
and having high moral values already made sense to people inthe Roman Empire
(Chadwick, 69).
TheChurch also claimed that heretics were working to rupture the faith
bypreaching incorrect theology. Two schools of thought— the Gnostics
andMarcion— worked to disprovethe
doctrine of the early Church. Marcion denied that God had created the worldbut
believed that God was loving. In his list of books that should appear inthe
Bible, he omitte! d the Old Testament entirely, declaring that the God ofthose
books differed from the loving, caring God Jesus spoke of(González 29).
Itis evident that the Church’s attitude with disagreeing parties at
thetime would carry on through the Protestant Reformation and the
CatholicCounter-Reformation in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries. By
labelingparties that did not agree with them “heretics,” that is people whowere
purposely spouting lies to harm Christianity, the Church created anenvironment
where there was one truth and where multiple interpretations ofevents and
scripture were forbidden. To further combat groups splitting offfrom the Church
and claiming to represent Jesus Christ and Christianity betterthan the Church,
the Church had! to clearly define itself and its beliefs, aswell as the
organizational hierarchy of its members. In the early years, Churchleaders
worked to draw genealogical lines from themselves to the apostles toshow their
entitlement to these positions of power.
Further, they chose books of the Bible based on theirinterpretation of
the events in Jesus’ life that had occurred severalyears before. They agreed to
include the Old Testament because they thoughtJesus was the savior God had
promised in earlier times; by sending Jesus ChristGod was fulfilling that
promise.
Christianity’srelationship with the culture and the State of the day
also severely influencedthe creation of the early Church, how it responded to
the perse! cution ofChristians, and how it defined itself in that world. In the
early years afterJesus’ death it was not the Empire that attacked Christians,
but Jewishofficials. In fact, the Empire officials often had to step in to
protectChristians against the Jew’s attacks. From the end of the First
century,however, to 313 treatment of Christians grew to be much worse.
Emperorsactively sought out Christians in their homes and killed them if they
would notrecant their faiths (González, 25). It was not until 313 with the
Edictof Milan that Christians were free to worship without fears of being
killed.Looking at the first few centuries of the Church’s existence paints
aclear portrait of an institution struggling to survive in a heretical
worldunfriendly to Christians. The Church needed to nail down its beliefs and
createa hierarchical organization of church officials to support itself.
!
TheMiddle Ages
Afterthe fall of the Roman Empire in 476 several groups of barbarians
invadedEurope. Christians saw the once stable environment fall into a state of
chaosand Christian worship tried to treat death , pain and disorder by focusing
ondeath, sin and repentance. Communion was similar to a funeral service. As
ancientculture started to disappear in the presence of the barbarians’
newtraditions, the Church worked more fervently to preserve itself. While in
theearly years the term “pope” or “papa” was a term ofendearment for any
Bishop, it soon became applied to only the highest figure inthe Church. This
single figurehead functioned as God’! ;s present message onearth and provided a
symbol of stability in the chaotic environment.
Thereign of Charlemagne brought a period of strength and influence for
the papacybut soon after, it entered into a long period of decline and
corruption. Afterthe Schism of 1054 in which the Western Latin speaking side
split from theEastern Greek side, Europe became ruled increasingly by the
feudal system. Mostbishops were nobles of high standing so they also served as
feudal lords. Thisadded to the moral corruption of the Church over the next
hundred years.Although the Church proclaimed the Crusades were necessary to
recover the HolyLand from the infidel Muslims in the name of God, most
Europeans went for lessholy reasons. As the feudal system severely limited the
options fo! r thosewithout land and the system of primogeniture meant that only
the first born sonwould receive the family’s land, landless peasants and nobles
hoped to createda better future for themselves by claiming the land from the
Muslims. Thefeudal system was extremely influential one the development of the
Church: itcorrupted bishops and inspired men without land to leave their homes
to fightin the Crusades (González 52). The Crusades led to military monastic
orders and an increase in trade.Cities were inundated with money. As most goods
were made in and used in thehome, there had been little use for money in
previous years. The introductionof money into society allowed the Church to
become more corrupt in the comingyears by selling indulgences and
ecclesiastical positions.
&nb!
sp; By 1303 the power of the
papacy felt adecline as it fell under the rule of France. The French would humiliate popes by
forcing them to dothings to France’s advantage, writing them off as acts that
supported thepapacy. In the 14th century, the popes were little more than
puppets to France,and they were not powerful enough to resist. While France was
engaged in thebloody Hundred Years War and working to raise funds to fight, it
forced thepopes to elect French men to positions as cardinals and
bishops(González 60). If these newly appointed cardinals did not like thePope’s
policies and politics, they would dethrone the Pope and elect anew one who would
better support France. The situation grew even worse with theGreat Western
Schism in which two popes claimed to be the heads of the Church.In 1409 ! the
Council of Pisa met with the mission of reforming the Church. Theydisposed of
the two current popes and elected a new one but the first twoignored the
legitimacy of this council and its decision (González
62).
Bythe 15th century the papacy gained freedom again by developing a
thoroughsystem of collecting funds; if it could sustain itself from the inside,
itwould not need to support of France. This led to the sale of indulgences
andsimony, in which wealthy nobles could buy their way into high Church
positions,which they would then manipulate to gain further wealth. At the same
time moreand more theologians were questioning the legitimacy of the Catholic
Church anddenouncing the way it was raising and spending
money.
TheSixteenth Century: The Expansion of
Christianity in the New World
In
the Sixteenth Century, the make upthe Catholic Church changed significantly.
While it gained several new convertsfrom the New World, several princes,
disgusted with the Church’spractices converted their towns to different sects
of Protestantism. A decadeafter Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain led the
Inquisition in their own country,they sent people over to new land of the
Americas to conquer the natives andconvert them to Christianity. Despite
protests of writers like Bartolome de lasCasas, Isabella and Ferdinand sent
ships to carry the me! ssage ofChristianity
and offer salvationto the ignorant natives of the New World. In 1521 missionary
expeditions beganand by 1532 the extensive Incan empire had been conquered.
Several papal bullsapplauded the work of the Spanish and Portuguese monarchies
and these crownsnominated bishops to organize the Church in colonies. In fact,
Churchhistorian, Justo González comments ironically that the Church and
Stateworked together “as if the former were an arm of the latter’spolicies”
(González 68). They started the encomienda
system which entrusted the natives to Spanishofficials. The officials would teach
Christianity to the indigenous people andin exchange for such a service natives
were required to work for the trustees.As Christian law prohibited taking land
unfairly, trustees first invitednatives to accept the Christian faith. Their
refu! sal was reason enough for war.Over the Sixteenth Century the Catholic
Church provided theologicaljustification for the conquest and conversion of the
ignorant natives throughcolonial expansion thinly concealed as missions.
Isabellaand Ferdinand believed in both the Inquisition in which they
expelled theMuslim Moors and the Jews from Spain and in forcefully converting
thousands ofpeople they were doing the work of God. Not only did the Pope at
the time notcondemn them, he sporadically supported the work they were doing.
By imposingtheir faith on the natives they believed they were giving them the
gift ofeternal salvation and carrying out the work of God. It is crucial to
understandthat in this time period, one had to be Christian and have the
righttheological unde! rstanding to be saved. Thus, as groups of Catholics
convertedto Protestantism in the same century, each faith thought the other
would not goto heaven because of its misunderstanding of the Bible.
TheProtestant Reformation & The Catholic
Counter-Reformation
TheCatholic Church never would have imagined the influence that the priest
MartinLuther and his 95 Theses would have. There had been, after all, heretics
in thepast that had not managed to shake the foundation of the Church. When
theChurch realized that the severity of the movements it launched it
CounterReformation movement. Johannes Eck argued with Luther and tri! cked him
intoadmitted he had been preaching beliefs, which according to the Catholic
Church,were heretical. As a heretic, the Pope condemned Luther and threatened
toexcommunicate him if he did not recant his statements. Luther did not, and
inthe Spring of 1522 found himself excommunicated from a Church he had
onceloved. After it excommunicated Luther, the Church continued to denounceheretics
—those who were purposely leading God’s flock astray withdeceit— and would
often kill them. The Pope believed heretics werecommitting one of the worst
sins possible by denying their followers access toheaven.
PopePaul IV vowed to eliminate abuse and corruption and strengthened
andcentralized the power of the papacy. Further, he worked to defend
traditionald! octrine and in 1545 called the Council of Trent. Over the next
eighteen yearsthe Council of Trent worked to tackle practical every doctrinal
subject andnailed down what the Catholic Church believed. Over the next 500
years theCatholic Church tended to abide by the strictest most literal and
traditionalinterpretations of the Bible in response to the Protestants. This is
oftenstill the case today.
Nineteenth Century
In theNineteenth Century the Catholic Church responded to Protestantism’s
eageralliance with technology and modernity by proclaim! ing that several
modern ideasand practices were heretical. Pope Pius IX condemned democracy,
freedom ofconscience and even public schools. He wrote “The Syllabus ofErrors”
proclaiming the evils of modern ideals. At the same time the FirstVatican
Council created a clause announcing the infallibility of the Pope; asthe Pope
was God’s voice on earth he can do no wrong as God can do nowrong. Thus, theologians whointerpreted scripture
in terms of modernity —that is, through a lens thatdiffered from the Pope— were
condemned and excommunicated. Pope Pius IXalso began to emphasize dogma of the
immaculate conception which was probably afurther reaction to the Protestants’
viewing events as metaphors. Becausethe Popes succeeding Pope Pius IX followed
his lead, the Nineteenth Centurycontinued in the Catholic Church until the
death of Pius XII in 1958 (González80).
The Catholic Church in theTwentieth Century
& Today
Byviewing the speeches through a historical lens, one can more easily
seeunderstand how revolutionary they were. Although for the most part the
Popedoes not name specific groups that have been wronged by the Church, most
peopleread that he was apologizing for the silence of Pope Pius XII during
World WarII. From his election in 1939 until his death in 1958 he only
publiclymentioned the horrors Jews were facing in Germany and Poland once in 1942
! in aprayer for those who were being killed at no fault of there own. He said,
Let us pray for all those whohave suffered
offenses
against their human dignityand whose rights
have been trampled.
andthen, “Let us acknowledge the forms of acquiescence in these sins
ofwhich Christians too have been guilty.” Most priests and rabbis claimedt! his
was an apology for the silence of the Pope during Holocaust and severalwere
upset that he did not go far enough: he merely alluded to this instancewithout
explicitly saying it.
ThePope further mentioned the forceful conversion of the native people
of the NewWorld by saying,
Yet Christians have oftendenied the Gospel;
yielding to a mentality ofpower,
that have violated the rightsof peoples,
and shown contempt for theircultures
and religious traditions.
Thiscarries a similar theological bent as his New Year’s Message of
Peace whichinstructed people to propose their faiths to others but not impose
it. Whilefive-hundred years ago, the Catholic Church applauded the efforts of
Ferdinandand Isabella in converting thousands of people, now the Pope is
apologizing forand denouncing this action.
Finally,the Nineteenth Century trend of disdain for science is evidenced
when the Popesaid:
Let us pray for those who aremost defenseless
the unborn killed in theirmother’s womb
or even exploited forexperimental purposes
by those who abuse thepromise of biotechnology
and distort the aims ofscience.
PopeJohn Paul II chose specific instances in history where he felt the
Church andits followers had erred to apologize for. By asking forgiveness from
God andthe various groups who had been injured in the past, the Pope proved
hownecessary and healing forgiveness can be.
Conclusion
WhenGary Wills, author of Why I Am A Catholic came to speak at
Stanford amonth ago, he began with the question: “How many of you define
theCatholic C! hurch as an institution that never changes?” It is preciselythat
attitude today which often seems antiquated, traditional and slow tochange that
provided for its survival for 2000 years. The Church had to defineitself in its
infant years and only allow the strictest interpretation of theBible to
survive. In the Middle Ages, in order to preserve itself in the world,the
Church often became more worldly, prizing wealth and selling offindulgences and
ecclesiastical positions to gain enough power to not be conqueredby power
hungry monarchies. Pope John Paul II recognized the errors the Church—the
“Bride of Christ” according to Church apologist JohannesEck— and asked God for
forgiveness in order to wipe the slate clean forthe next millennia.
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