15 most absurd and unforgivable things the Catholic Church has ever done

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Surely many remember stories from the school curriculum, where it was about the very Inquisition, the burning of Joan of Arc and the trial of Galileo. As regrettable as it may sound, but most of such disgusting deeds came from the Pontiffs. Some of them were approved by the church, and some were even common church practice. And it is not at all surprising that the dark church history contains scandal after scandal, replete with all the vices and taboos imaginable.

1. Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII has been widely criticized for refusing to publicly condemn the Nazi Party, despite conflicting reports as to whether the pope placed the papacy over the plight of European Jews or was trying to prevent German retaliation and ensure the continued success of the Catholic Church's behind-the-scenes efforts to help victims. persecution.

However, in early 2020, documents related to the Pope's military activities, previously stored in the archives of the Vatican, were opened, and they suggest that Pius learned about the mass executions of the Jewish people in the fall of 1942. Historians studying the documents said the adviser dismissed the reports as exaggerated, prompting the Pope to tell the US that the Vatican was unable to confirm the crimes.

New testimony, detailed in the German weekly Die Ziet, confirms that in September 1942, Pius's assistant, the future Pope Paul VI, received an eyewitness account of the persecution of Jews in Warsaw. According to Haarats, in August 1942, Ukrainian Archbishop Andriy Sheptytsky also informed the Vatican about the persecution in the Lvov ghetto. But all attempts to reason with Pius XII were unsuccessful.

2. Deposition

Many have probably heard about the time when there was a systematic cover-up of abuse, corruption and rape by priests who went to the very top of the church. By the most conservative estimate, there were over seventeen thousand victims in the United States alone, and this type of abuse was seen all over the world. When complaints were received, priests and other offenders were released rather than punished.

And today the church no longer denies this. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee acknowledged the seriousness of the problem and agreed to pay compensation in the amount of twenty-one million dollars to the three hundred victims. But such settlements are few and far between. Fortunately, Pope Francis established a tribunal to prosecute the bishops who helped cover up the crime. Child molestation still occurs at the hands of priests fifteen years after the story was published by The Boston Globe.

In fact, in August 2018, The Boston Globe reported that the alleged violations and allegations date back to around 1947. Due to the statute of limitations, only two priests were charged with child abuse. However, in February 2019, Pope Francis publicly acknowledged the systemic abuse and vowed to fight the problem.

The International Union of Supreme Generals used the #MeToo uprising to denounce the "culture of silence and secrecy."With the support of Pope Francis and the support of the women's international community, the Catholic Church claims to be working on this perennial issue in order to solve and eliminate the problem associated with it.

3. Oppression of the Jews

In 1095, when Pope Urban II issued a call for war against Muslims, Christian armies in Western Europe took charge. The pope promised freedom to the serfs if they left, and this encouraged many. In the first Crusade, an army of peasants led by Peter the Hermit was killed by the Turks. When an army of knights followed them and captured Jerusalem, it was said that they killed Muslims until the streets were covered with blood.

This was just the beginning. The waves of the Crusades continued until 1396, marking three centuries of war and untold human suffering. Catholics were certainly not the only religion involved in this massive violence, but Pope Urban II was the most famous.

Cutting off the heads of slain enemies and planting them on lances was apparently a favorite pastime of the Crusaders. The chronicles tell of a crusader-bishop who called the heads of slain Muslims impaled on a stake as a joyful sight for the people of God. When Muslim cities were captured by Christian crusaders, regardless of age, they were killed without trial or investigation - this was the standard procedure for all residents. It is no exaggeration to say that the streets were covered in blood when Christians enjoyed church-sanctioned horrors. Jews who took refuge in their synagogues were burned alive, not unlike their treatment in Europe.

4. Pope Boniface VIII

Boniface VIII (1230-1303) was guilty of many horrible crimes, which together make him look like the sadist of the Roman emperor. Among other things, he watched the complete destruction of Palestrina, a commune that peacefully surrendered. Palestrina was completely destroyed, and Boniface ordered a plow to be driven through it to prove that only earth and rubble were left of it.

Many probably know that priests take a vow of celibacy. But, obviously, Boniface VIII did not take him too seriously. He once entered into an intimate relationship with a married woman and her daughter, but he was even more famous for his talk about how to copulate with young boys is as natural as rubbing one hand against the other. So, obviously, he raped (or at least fornicated) children. It is also worth noting the fact that Boniface VIII simply loved to erect statues to himself, while possessing excessive pride.

5. Joan of Arc - a victim of the church

At one time, Joan of Arc was to a large extent the number one public enemy of the Catholic Church. In 1429, seventeen-year-old Jeanne, believing that God spoke to her, instigated an uprising to drive the British out of France, but some influential Catholics who sympathized with the British were unhappy. The French king Charles VII wisely accepted Jeanne's help in the fight against the British, and together they won several major battles.

When Joan was captured, Charles VII, unsure if he trusted her as God's messenger, turned her over to the church, which did what Catholics do best - put her on trial for heresy without proof. To make the situation even more ridiculous, Jeanne was refused advice, which was contrary to church rules.

Since there was no evidence of heresy, Jeanne was found guilty of one of more than seventy other charges brought against her - wearing men's clothing, in fact, for this she was burned at the stake in 1431 in front of a crowd of thousands. In 1456 Charles VII ordered an investigation into the case of Joan. As a result, she was found innocent and made a martyr. The Church followed her example and canonized her in 1920.

6. Burning of William Tyndale

One might assume that the Church would make the mass distribution of the Bible a top priority. As it turned out, in the 16th century, this was the last thing the powerful Catholics wanted.

But the scientist William Tyndale went against the church. He went into hiding to translate the Bible into English, thereby making it possible for the laity to read it on their own. The church was not happy with this, and when the copies were smuggled across Europe, the Catholic authorities demanded that they be burned.

What about Tyndale? He was seized, tried for heresy and for a daring translation of the Bible, and then burned at the stake. When the church authorities decided it was okay to print English Bibles, they borrowed a lot from Tyndale's translation without finding him right or wrong.

7. Hammer of witches

The Catholic Church was not the only group involved in the witch hunt, but it started with Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of the Witches), a stupid book written in 1487 after Pope Innocent VIII declared that witches were real and a threat (from for their relationship with Satan). He wanted all this to be investigated, so the clergy Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer wrote a book about witches and Satanists, and the hunt for them. And we should give them their due, because it was a colossal success. The book was so popular that for two hundred years it ranked second after the Bible in the sales charts.

8. Pope Leo X and the sale of indulgences

Many have probably heard of indulgences. However, in the 16th century, they got out of control. Pope Leo X had an expensive taste and did not hesitate to use dubious means to satisfy it. In the end, he decided to sell indulgences, appointing to this position the Grand Commissioner of Indulgences in Germany, the Dominican monk John Teztel, who sold absolution for future sins.

9. Organization of the fall of the Order of the Knights Templar

Made famous by The Da Vinci Code, the Knights Templar, a stateless military fraternity assembled to protect Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land, have long been the subject of gossip. They were approved by the Roman Catholic Church in 1129 and were known for their valiant service in the Crusades. They had decent pay, but King Philip IV of France owed them (and others) a lot. Philip took advantage of the growing fear of Templar rule and forced the church to unleash a mighty power over them.

What the church did next was not a great discovery. In 1307, Pope Clement V arrested and tortured church members to obtain false confessions of heresy. In fact, he received enough such confessions to justify the dissolution of the order in 1312. Archbishop Philippe de Marigny, who was investigating the Templars, ordered dozens of people to be burned at the stake. A fine payback for all these battles in the Crusades.

In 2007, a secret document was published showing that Pope Clement V forgave the Templars, and then decided to dissolve them. Historians believe this document is substantial evidence that the church surrendered under pressure from King Philip. Good news for the integrity of the knights, bad news for the church.

10. Burning of John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe (1320-1384), a renowned English theologian and critic of the church, was the forerunner of the Reformation. Among his many criticisms was the conviction that the church should give up its worldly possessions. As you can imagine, this was not an idea that the church was happy to spread. He also promoted and worked on the first English translation of the Bible, hoping to give people direct access to the word of God.

William Courtney, Archbishop of Canterbury, took steps against Wycliffe after retiring. Wycliffe's writing was banned in some areas, but that was not the end of it. It didn't even end when Wycliffe died of a stroke in 1384. Instead, in 1415 (thirty-one years after his death), Wycliffe was declared a heretic by the Council of Constance. They not only ordered to burn his books, but also to exhume and burn his body. And it took them twelve years. So, forty-three years after Wycliffe's death, his corpse was burned and the ashes thrown into the Swift River.

11. Execution of Jan Hus

The church is usually pretty violent with its critics. The execution of Jan Hus, born in 1372, is one of the best (or worst) examples of the Gisite Wars. The Czech priest Hus felt that a church run by people who are naturally flawed must necessarily be flawed, while the Bible, the direct word of God, had no flaws. Therefore, he openly criticized church practices, especially papal schism and the sale of indulgences.

Therefore, not very pleased with Gus, the church convened the Cathedral of Constance and invited him to join them, ostensibly just to chat a little.

Instead of chatting, the Council arrested Hus and put him on trial (and then in jail) for heresy. He was kept in prison and when he refused to renounce his teachings, he was sentenced to death. The church even denied him his last rights before burning him at the stake along with all his labors.

12. Pope Alexander VI

In 1501, Pope Alexander VI (Borgia), who is known to have some rather sophisticated hobbies such as watching horse fornication, surpassed himself. According to historian Tony Perrotte, he invited fifty women to undress at the papal table.

As Perrotte writes:.

13. Pope Innocent IV

The level of church participation in various inquisitions is debatable. It is important to remember that Pope Innocent IV explicitly condoned torture as a method of interrogating the Inquisition in his papal bull Ad extirpanda in 1252 (which probably deserves its own place on this list). The Spanish Inquisition, the most famous of these tribunals, was carried out by Spanish royals and monks who were Catholic but did not work directly for or under the Vatican.

But do not forget about the Roman Inquisition or the highest Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Ecumenical Inquisition, which was one hundred percent the work of the church. In 1542, as part of the Counter-Reformation against Protestantism, the Roman Inquisition appeared. Among those interrogated were Galileo, Bruno and Copernicus. While ecclesiastical heresy was at its peak during the Inquisition, there were a number of other options on the list, including blasphemy, Judaism, immorality, witchcraft, love spell, and anything else that angry papists could "confirm".

14. The trial of Galileo

Church and science, to put it mildly, have a complicated relationship. In 1633, Galileo Galilei, the father of all science, was put on trial by the church for arguing that the sun is the center of the universe and the earth moves around it, and not vice versa. But it didn't matter.

Pope Urban VIII apparently thought otherwise, seeing in Galileo's statement a terrifying heresy. So, ten cardinals were sitting at the trial of Galileo, who was threatened with torture, imprisonment and even burning at the stake. Galileo, in a miserable state of bodily malaise, eventually renounced his beliefs. Because of this, the church treated him condescendingly and instead of being tortured, he was placed under house arrest until he died.

15. Catholic Church and the gay

Not all Catholic missteps come from the past. There have been some questionable things in our time as well, and the Church's relationship with the LGBTQ + community continues to be a source of frustration.

Over the years, the church has donated thousands of dollars to Compañeros, a nonprofit organization that helps Hispanic immigrants gain access to health care, understand laws, and meet other basic needs. That is, until the church found out that Compañeros had teamed up with a gay rights group, at which time Nicole Mosher, executive director of Compañeros, was informed that their funding was in jeopardy.

The Compañeros are just one example of organizations that have been threatened by the church for disobeying the harshest demands of Catholicism.

As one anonymous source states:

But stopping funding to help those in need simply because of association with the LGBTQ + community seems extreme and unfair, especially given the church's doctrine of helping the needy and feeding the poor. Moreover, members of the LGBTQ + community can identify themselves as Catholics and go to church, but cannot receive help from this church. This is all the more difficult to take into account given the church's stock portfolio of just under $ 2 billion.” Accordingly, the conclusion suggests itself that there will always be someone who will control the crowd …

P. S. According to some reports, today the Catholic Church has changed its attitude towards LGBT communities and has become more loyal to people with a gay orientation.

On the topic of religion, you can talk indefinitely, looking for all the pros and cons of such at the same time reliable and contradictory facts that have been disputed for centuries, now and then reinforced by new guesses and versions. However, to be sure of this, it is enough to read the article about what was written in the gospel of childhood and Jesus - the very scripture around which controversy will never subside.