Cliff notes report on a recommended book which we have purchased and read

The book is entitled The Real Story of Catholic History.

It was written by Steve Weidenkopf.

Dated 2017.

Introduction

“Many anti-Catholic historical myths originated with Protestant revolutionaries.” (20)

The Early Church

“Protestants advocate myths about this era because their movement depends on the belief that the Catholic Church is a corruption of the early Church, and hence that the Reformation was a return to the apostolic faith.” Yet we know that the early Church was the Catholic Church, and the real story of history illustrates the continuity of the Faith through the centuries.” (23)

MYTH: “Jesus was not a real person. He was a mythical figure created by Christians.” (25…)

“What would inventing the story of Jesus have brought them but a painful death?”

“If Jesus did not exist then the apostles were lying, and the Church would not have grown and thrived over the centuries.”

“Both Christian and non-Christian sources clearly document [his] existence.”

MYTH: “The Christian faith is just a repackaging of pagan myths.” (31…)

“Roman pagan propagandists . . . criticized it for being too new.”

“. . . Christians prided themselves on being different from pagans. Indeed, it was this difference that led Rome to persecute the Christian.”

“. . . one reason why the membership of the Church grew so rapidly [is] the Church offered what paganism did not.”

MYTH: “Christians borrowed Christmas and Easter from pagans.” (35…)

“Whatever form these attacks take, their objective is always the same: to sow doubts in the minds of believers, and confirm those in the minds of unbelievers.”

“. . . early Christians went out of their way to demonstrate how different they were from the pagans.”

Fixing the date for Christmas on December 25 had more to do with Jewish tradition than pagan custom. In Jewish tradition, March 25 was celebrated as the date of Abraham’s [near-]sacrifice of Isaac. . . . . The early Christians . . . dated both [Jesus’s] conception and death to March 25. If the Incarnation occurred on March 25, then it follows that the Nativity occurred nine months later on December 25.”

MYTH: “Catholic beliefs about the Blessed Virgin Mary are derived from pagan sources.” (39…)

“The title Mother of God is not borrowed from pagan myth, but rather reflects the reality of who Mary’s son is and what the Church has taught about both of them from the beginning.”

“The Church’d Marian teachings are rooted in Scripture and (Sacred) Tradition . . . “

“. . . Catholics do not worship Mary [emphasis added}.”

MYTH: “Shortly after Christ founded the Church, it underwent an apostasy, becoming the corrupt Catholic Church. The true Christian faith went underground until the Protestant Reformation.” (43…)

“. . . the Church in the Roman Empire was ‘a clearly delineated body corporate based on numerous exact doctrines, extremely jealous of its unity and of its precise definitions, and filled as no other body of men . . . with passionate conviction.’” – Hilaire Belloc, Europe and the Faith

“Belloc also identified the main characteristics of the early Church, which are still present in the Catholic church today ; the Church was a distinct and unique organism, highly disciplined, and ruled by bishops, of whom the chief was the bishop of Rome.”

“These characteristics . . . are clearly illustrated in the writings of the early Church Fathers . . . before A.D. 100.”

“. . . the Catholic Church teaches today . . . what was taught by the early Church ; including belief in the Trinity, the Incarnation, the primacy of the successor of St. Peter, the hierarchical structure of the Church, and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.”

“. . . the Church does not create doctrine but rather receives it, preserves it, and proclaims it to others.”

“. . . the historical record proves the early Church was the Catholic Church.”

“. . . [recall] Cardinal John Henry Newman’s . . . axiom that ‘to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.’”

MYTH: “The Catholic Church caused the fall of the Roman Empire.” (49…)

The early Church . . . in fact supported the Roman state spiritually through prayer, and materially by individual Christians joining the army, working as imperial officials, and paying their taxes.”

MYTH: “The Catholic Church suppressed certain books of the Bible (for instance, the gnostic gospels) to control Jesus’ message.” (55…)

“The Church . . . suppressed . . . heretical books because they were not of apostolic origin, were not inspired [by The Holy Spirit], and were simply false.” [emphasis added]

MYTH: “Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, thus institutionalizing the Catholic perversion of the true biblical faith.” (59…)

“Constantine did not make the Catholic faith the official religion of the Roman Empire . . . nor did he outlaw paganism.”

“His Edict of Milan . . . simply gave legal recognition to the Church and repealed a Roman law . . . making it illegal to be a Christian.”

“Protestant[s] . . . claim that Constantine perverted the Catholic faith . . . [b]ut the historical record does not bear that out.”

MYTH: “The early Chritians believed Jesus was just a prophet, and not divine. The Catholic Church at the Council of Nicaea in 325 altered that belief by declaring Jesus to be God.” (63…)

“. . . the early Church was unmistakably Catholic in its teachings, organization, and practices.”

“The Gospels testify to his divinity most clearly in his interactions with demons, who unmistakably acknowledge his divine status.

“Proof that the early Church believed and preached the divinity of Jesus can be found not only in Christian sources but also in non-Christian ‘hostile’ sources.”

“. . . although modern critics of the Church claim that the belief in Jesus’ divinity was a creation of the Catholic Church in the early fourth century, the historical record, both Christian and non-Christian, decisively indicates otherwise.”

The Middle Ages

MYTH: “The collapse of Rome ushered in the Dark Ages of ignorance and misery.” (71…)

“. . . European life in the years 500 to 1000 . . . saw several major technological advances . . . “

“. . . Islam . . . had the greatest negative impact on Europe after Rome fell.”

“. . . the evidence is clear that the light of Christ, through the influence of his Church, burned brightly during a period some believe was full of darkness.”

MYTH: “After the fall of Rome, the Church persecuted pagans and practiced conversion by the sword.” (75…)

“The myth . . . is not supported by the historical evidence. In fact, the contrary is supported – the Church peacefully evangelized the pagan tribes . . .”

“Many of the missionaries underwent bloody martyrdoms . . .”

“The gospel spread in Europe not by the sword, but through the loving witness of those who embraced the truth of Jesus and his Church.”

“Charlemagne’s forced conversion of the Saxons was an isolated incident in Christian history and was undertaken for political and national security concerns, and it was not commanded by the Church.”

MYTH: “The Church began mandating clerical celibacy during the Middle Ages so that it could acquire the clergy’s family property.” (81…)

“. . . celibacy . . . dates to the early Church and is rooted in Christian . . . tradition[, a]s a discipline (not a doctrine), . . .”

“The myth . . . [was] heavily influenced by the writings of Martin Luther.”

“The Church did not use celibacy to acquire . . .”

“Clergy and religious renounce marriage to serve the Church and its faithful more fully in imitation of Jesus Christ.”

MYTH: “Medieval churches kept Bibles chained up to prevent people from reading Scripture for themselves.” (87…)

“The myth . . . comes from . . . Martin Luther.”

“. . . the belief that the pope is the only interpreter of Scripture . . . is not Church teaching . . .”

“Luther . . . put forth the idea that all Christians should be able to interpret Scripture for themselves, a[n idea] that would lead to a multitude of rival Protestant denominations.’

“The amount of labor that went into each [hand-]copy of the Bible led to preventing their theft . . . by . . . chaining them . . . [So] these were security measures, not efforts to keep Scripture from the faithful.

Indeed, protecting an expensive Bible by securing it allowed greater, not lesser, access to it.

“Moreover, the practice was not exclusive to the Catholic Church ; Protestants also utilized [it].”

The Crusades

MYTH: “The Church called the Crusades to slaughter Muslims.” (93…)

“. . . myths about the Crusades . . . originated in the writings of Protestant revolutionaries, especially Martin Luther.”

“The Crusades . . . were not offensive wars . . . but rather defensive wars . . . to retake ancient Christian lands conquered by the Muslims.”

“. . . to defend their fellow Christians[,] Bl. Pope Urban II responded to the Byzantine emperor’s call for help . . . “

“. . . defending Christian indigenous and pilgrims . . .”

MYTH: “Crusaders were motivated by greed.” (97…)

A Crusader was voluntarily motivated by the chance to die for Christ, by love of neighbor, and by concern for his own salvation.

Pope Urban . . . made it clear the indulgence was granted only to those who participated ‘for devotion alone, [and] not to gain honor or money.’”

“Crusading was expensive, and usually had to be financed by selling family lands and property.”

“It is estimated it cost a First Crusader four to six times his annual income . . .”

“The vast majority of Crusaders who survived . . . returned home poorer . . . .

“The reward for going on Crusade was spiritual, not material.”

MYTH: “Medieval Islamic culture was far superior to that of Catholic Europe.” (101…)

“. . . works were . . . translated into Arabic . . . and assimilated and laid claim to by Muslims.”

“Moreover, many non-Muslims . . . who are credited with intellectual and cultural advancements are falsely identified as Arab and Muslim.”

‘Arabic numerals’ were of Hindu origin and assimilated by Muslims.”

“It was not uncommon for technological advancements to be lost when Muslims occupied Christian or jewish territory.”

“The wheel disappeared in Egypt, North Africa, and Spain after the Islamic conquests there . . .”

“In contrast, the Middle Ages in Christian Europe were witness to dramatic technological advancements . . .”

“Muslims left no written records of their impressive conquests and did not produce significant original art or architecture . . .”

“Many buildings identified as Islamic are [actually] repurposed Christian churches.”

MYTH: “The Crusades are the reason for modern Islamic hostility toward the West.” (105…)

“On the contrary, the Crusades were all but forgotten in the Islamic world until the nineteenth century.”

“Rather than blaming the disintegration of the once mighty empire on the sultans and their policies, al-Hariri put the onus on the historical boogeyman of the Crusades.”

“Arab nationalists used the Crusades as an excuse for the poverty, corruption, and violence of the 20th-century Islamic world.”

“. . . the Crusades were only a small and relatively insignificant portion of Islamic history, since they did not accomplish their primary objective . . . “

The Inquisition

MYTH: “The Church created the Inquisition to enforce absolute conformity in religious belief throughout Europe.” (111…)

“Heresy in the medieval world . . . was regarded as both an ecclesiastical and a secular crime.”

“Heresy tended to flourish in areas without strong central political authority.”

“Another factor was the state of the clergy. . .:” if priests were mostly “corrupt, worldly, unchaste, illiterate, . . . ignorant of the Faith”, and guilty of simony.

“The Spanish Inquisition was created to deal with a unique situation in 15th-century Spain, . . .dating from the Muslim conquest of Spain in the 8th-century.”

“The myth of an all-powerful, brutal Inquisition originated . . . with Protestants who aimed to discredit the Church.”

In reality, the medieval inquisitors . . . were focused on the charitable work of saving souls and protecting the unity of the Church and society.”

“A heretic . . . was a danger to society, the Church, and indeed himself, and [so] the Church established inquisitions to avert those dangers.”

MYTH: “The Inquisition frequently used sadistic torture methods, and killed millions of people.” (117…)

“ . . . torture was never used as a punishment for heresy.”

“The use of torture was governed by . . . strict protections for the accused”

last resort

applied by secular authorities (i.e., “the Church never executed”)

appeals allowed

several groups exempted (e.g., children)

a physician present

The purpose of the inquisitors was to investigate heresy and, where it was found, to encourage voluntary confession, repentance, and reconciliation [with] the Church.”

“. . . the historical record proves [the] number [of exectuees] was relatively few.”

about “30 per year”

Protestant England hanged 750 per year around the same time

“. . . the historical record clearly demonstrates that the Spanish Inquisition used [torture] in only 2% of cases.’

And that it “executed . . . people . . . in the low four figures – . . . lower even than the number executed in Protestant countries for ordinary crimes and witchcraft.”

MYTH: “The Inquisition controlled the minds of Catholics by creating an Index of Forbidden Books.” (123…)

“. . . book burning was one of the methods utilized by Church and state authorities to get rid of heretical works that threatened the souls of the faithful and the safety and security of society.”

with “the advent of the printing press that Church authorities began reviewing books prior to publication and creating lists of prohibited books.”

‘Authors were also allowed the opportunity to defend their work against a negative report, and to revise a prohibited book to allow for its publication.”

“Safeguarding the faithful from harmful literature . . . the Index was intended to help a theologically untrained public [to] avoid dangerous books that could endanger their faith and immortal souls.”

“. . . it was undertaken by the Church not to stifle free thought or discovery, but rather to protect the faithful, not unlike . . . parent[s] deeming certain books and movies to be inappropriate for their children.”

MYTH: “The Inquisition initiated the great witch hunts in Europe and the New World, leading to millions of innocent women being burned at the stake.” (129…)

“. . . the 9 million figure had no historical basis, and was fabricated by American feminist Matilda Joslyn Gage in 1893.”

“. . . prosecution of witches . . . reached its zenith during the Enlightenment, not during medieval times”

“In Germany, the center of the witch-hunting frenzy, witch hunts were more common in the Protestant regions than [in] the Catholic ones.”

“. . . the historical record proves that secular courts . . . were more concerned with witchcraft.”

“. . . Spanish inquisitors focused their efforts on preaching and catechizing rather than physical punishment or confiscation of property.”

“. . . indeed there are examples of inquisitors saving people from being burned as witches by the secular authorities.”

In the century from 1540 - 1640, “the Inquisition remanded only 12 people to the state for witchcraft and sorcery.”

“. . . it was primarily anti-Catholic and antireligious writers and civic officials who” pushed witch hunting in Europe and the New World

Renaissance and Reformation

“The historical record . . . illustrates how the Church was the great patron of the arts and scientists throughout the centuries.”

“Indeed, many scientific fields were inaugurated or advanced by the Church’s clergy!”

Mendel → genetics

Lemaitre → Big Bang theory

etc.

MYTH: “The Renaissance witnessed a revival of classical arts and culture, which the medieval Church had long suppressed.”

“There were many innovations and achievements in the areas of art, architecture, and scholarship during medieval times that laid the foundations for the Renaissance.”

The Church advocated the establishment of schools and a standard curriculum, and created the university system

“The Renaissance[‘s] . . . great works of art . . . never would have been possible but for the Catholic Church, which not only commissioned these works and provided their subject matter but also defended the creation of art.”

“. . . the Church defended art from the heresy of iconoclasm”

“The Italian Renaissance did not begin in a vacuum ; it was built on the foundations laid by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages.”

All the leading Italian Renaissance artists were Christians

MYTH: “The Church forcibly castrated boys to preserve their high voices for singing in church choirs.” (141…)

“. . . the castrati . . . did exist, but it was not the Church which facilitated the abhorrent practice”

“Canon law forbade castration”

“Indeed, the penalty for performing castrations was excommunication”

“The height of popularity for the castrati coincided with the decrease in Church power and influence resulting from the Protestant Reformation and the secularizing Enlightenment.”

“Since many of [the castrati] did not finish music school or find gainful employment, the Church established charitable organizations to care for them.”

MYTH: “The Church is opposed to science, and persecuted Galileo for teaching that the Earth revolves around the Sun.” (145…)

Pope Gregory XIII fixed the Julian calendar, giving us the Gregorian calendar we use today

“The truth is that most of the dramatic scientific advances in the 16th- and 17th-centuries were made by faithful Christian scholars [see book for list]

“Martin Luther was vehemently opposed to the heliocentric theory.”

the Galileo case is really about “the arrogance and duplicity of Galileo himself”

“Galileo demanded that the Church accept his . . . theory of heliocentrism”

“Galileo admitted he went too far in the book”

“Galileo’s intention was . . . to offend the pope.”

Yet the Church dealt with him quite leniently:

limited house arrest

five-room suite

personal servant

never tortured nor imprisoned

MYTH: “The Church sold indulgences and ecclesiastical offices. These abuses led to the Protestant Reformation.” (153…)

“Abuses of Church teachings do not invalidate the teachings themselves.”

“Indulgences are ‘the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.’”

“The Church is able to grant indulgences because it is ‘the minister of redemption’ and, with the authority given it by Christ, it ‘dispenses and applies . . . the treasury of the satisfaction of Christ and the saints’ to the faithful’ – (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1471).

“The granting of indulgences . . . can be traced to the early Church”

“. . . preaching that indulgences for almsgiving could free a soul from Purgatory . . was not Church teaching.”

“Although there was nothing wrong in principle with the granting of indulgences for the giving of alms, some less than scrupulous preachers misled the faithful into thinking they were receiving a “get out of Purgatory” card for themselves or a loved one”

Luther “was condemned because he called into question the authority of the pope to even grant any indulgence at all . . . which [is] heresy.”

“Luther was not condemned for questioning the granting of indulgences for contribution to the rebuilding of St. Peter’s [Basilica]”

MYTH: “Corruption in the Church was so bad that only something radical like the Reformation could fix it.” (159…)

“There is no doubt that the Church was in need of reform . . . . The question is whether it was so corrupt . . .that it was beyond reform from within.”

“. . . the notion that it was so thoroughly corrupt that only a complete revolution could fix it is a Protestant myth aimed at justifying the Reformers’ cleaving of Christendom.”

“The seeds of this 16th-century revolution were sown in the 14th-century, when the Church was riven by two significant events:

The Avignon Papacy

The Great Western Schism

Urban VI’s election was “compelled by a Roman mob”

so Clement VII was elected

eventually another claimed the papacy as well

of course only 1 of the 3 was actually validly elected

“True reform comes from within, and seeks to preserve what is good.”

“Revolution is an external action that aims at destroying an institution and creating something wholly new.”

“The leaders of the Protestant movement . . . were revolutionaries who sought the complete destruction of the Church – but they failed, because the Lord promised that the gates of hell will never prevail against it.”

MYTH: “Luther and the other Reformers were the first to translate Scripture into vernacular languages, which the Church had previously forbidden.” (163…)

“Once the Church finalized the canon of Scripture in the 4th century, efforts began to make it more accessible to the laity.”

“The Church was not against vernacular translations of the Bible, (indeed it actively fostered such translations, but was against bad vernacular translations, which could easily lead to heresy”

“Contrary to popular belief, Luther’s German translation was not the first in that language, as there were 36 previous [German] translations.”

“Concerning translation of the Old Testament, Luther hoped to ‘make Moses so German that no one would suspect he was a Jew.’”

MYTH: “The Reformers were holy men who struggled heroically to free the true Christian faith from the superstitions of Rome.” (167…)

‘Martin Luther and John Calvin . . . were arrogant men bent on refashioning the Christian faith to their own liking

“They viciously attacked their critics.”

“Luther was bombastic, rude, and vulgar”

“Calvin . . . railed against fellow Protestants when their theology did not agree with his.”

“Calvin created a theocracy in Geneva that interfered in the private lives of all citizens [there].”

“Luther suffered throughout his life from . . . spiritual problems”

he agreed with nominalist ideas

“He adopted the heresy that Scripture alone is the authoritative source of divine revelation.” [sola scriptura]

Luther’s image of God . . . was a tyrannical and wrathful judge who delights in tormenting sinners.”

“[H]e wrote that “this belief drove him to ‘the very abyss of despair so that I wished I had never been created. Love God? I hated him!’”

His “contention that the pope had no authority to grant indulgences was outright heresy”

he “attacked the sacraments”

“he called for the torture and murder of the pope and cardinals”

“he denied free will”

he “called for the eradication of the Mass”

“he married a former nun”

he advised a German noble that he could enter a bigamous marriage and lie about it

“Luther’s revolutionary writings led to outbreaks of violence throughout Germany.”

“mobs destroyed churches, burned sacred art, and profaned the Eucharist”

Luther . . . called on the nobility to suppress the rebellion with all necessary violence”

they killed 130,000 peasants

he “put forth an 8-point plan to rid Germany of its Jews”

MYTH: “After freeing Europe from the clutches of the Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation inaugurated an era of peace and prosperity.” (171…)

“heresy breeds violence . . . . Every heresy has produced division and bloodshed ; the [Protestant] Reformation was no exception.”

“Martin Luther . . . advocated violence.” – “Luther exhorted German nobles to ‘smite, slay and stab, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous , hurtful or devilish than a rebel.’ The nobility obliged by killing more than 100,000 rebels. Luther later took responsibility, sort of, for the mass killings.”

[Luther] raged that the pope and cardinals should be arrested and have their tongues ‘torn from their throats and nailed in a row to the gallows tree.’”

He also declared his wish ‘that thunder and lightning would strike them, hellfire burn them, the plague, syphilis, epilepsy, scurvy, leprosy, carbuncles, and all manner of diseases attack them.’”

“Violent tendencies in the nascent Protestant movement were not confined to Martin Luther.”

Ulrich Zwingli

Jan Mathys

John of Leiden

“The century following Martin Luther’s death was witness to an orgy of blood and violence such as Europe had never seen, and caused by the so-called Reformation.”

“Most of the major European countries were involved in religious conflicts, some of which lasted decades.”

“In 1566, Protestant rebels in the Low Countries (modern Netherlands and Belgium) sacked more than 400 churches during 4 days of bedlam, iconoclasm, profanation of the Eucharist, and torture of Catholic monks and priests.

This all led to an 80-years war between Protestants and Catholics, which ended in 1648, after nearly 4.5 million people had been killed.

“The effects of the Protestant Revolution were devastating . . .”

“Politically, . . . with the creation of new nations that opposed the Church’s influence and authority, lessening its ability to temper the whims of secular rulers.”

“Spiritually, the Revolution’s principle of private judgment and private interpretation of Scripture led ultimately to the worship of self and the rise of nationalism, in which the state is exalted above the Church as the supreme authority in all things, to disastrous effect.”

“Many of the modern world’s present evils – such as secular humanism, moral relativism, state control of religion, and the driving of Christian influence from the public square – are consequences of the Protestant Revolution and its radical teachings.”

“[The Protestant Revolution] certainly did not result in the peace and prosperity [that] its defenders claim for it.”

MYTH: “Queen Elizabeth I of England ushered in a new golden age for her people, who greeted the new Church of England enthusiastically.” (177…)

“The Tudor family came to the throne of England by means of violence, and it continued to use violence throughout its reign.”

“It was Henry VIII and his children who would divorce the Church in England from Rome, secure the success of the Protestant Revolution, and ensure for generations the notion that an English patriot had to be anti-Catholic.”

“Henry dissolve[d] the monasteries and confiscate[d] their property, which he used to enrich himself and his friends.”

“. . . Archbishop Cranmer[‘s] Book of Common Prayer revised the liturgy and changed the ordination rite . . . to remove the sacrificial nature of the priesthood.”

“Protestants dubbed {Queen Mary Tudor] ‘Bloody Mary’ . . ., but the historical record paints a much different picture of a queen beloved by her people and [a] deeply pious [Catholic].’

“. . . Elizabeth I’s reign . . . was marked by . . . open persecution of Catholics . . . [--] the first state-sponsored persecution of the Catholic Church In Europe since the Roman Empire.”

‘’Good Queen Bess’ was in fact a figurehead monarch controlled by men hungry for power and determined to keep the wealth they stole from the Catholic Church.”

Her government “developed an intelligence network . . . to capture underground Catholic priests in England.”

“Parliament passed laws”:

“illegal to be Catholic in England”

“a capital crime to say that the pope was the head of the Church in England”

“any Englishman who helped or harbored a Jesuit, or who converted an Englishman to the Catholic faith, was . . . guilty of treason and put to death”

“. . . the belief that Queen Elizabeth I was one of the greatest English monarchs, whose subjects were loyal Protestants and who ushered English into a golden age of prosperity[,] is not borne out by the historical record.”

“Elizabeth was the most anti-Catholic ruler in Europe since the time of the Roman Empire, putting to death countless men and women whose only crime was adherence to the Catholic faith.”

The Modern World

“The Enlightenment ushered in an era of skepticism and moral relativism that attacked the fundamental teachings of the Faith. ‘Enlightened’ thinkers recognized the need to lessen and eradicate the Church’s influence in the sphere in order to spread their nefarious ideals. So, they began a smear campaign to discredit the Church that included twisting the historical record.”

“Embracing a false notion of freedom, the modern world attacks the Church because it teaches [that true] freedom is rooted in responsibility and charity and not in personal desire. Opponents claim [that] the Church seeks to control the minds and actions of the faithful by demanding blind obedience to outdated teachings. Critics fail to realize that the Church is not beholden to earthly power but serves only her founder, Jesus Christ.”

MYTH: “In the twentieth century, the Church was the willing tool of fascists.” (183…)

“The 20th-century was one of the most difficult for the Catholic Church.”

“The evil ideologies . . . each . . . agreed . . . that the Catholic Church should be suppressed . . .”

“The Spanish Civil War”:

“. . . attacks on Catholics were widespread and ferocious.”

“Republican forces killed 6,832 priests and religious, including 284 nuns . . . [and] 12% of the Spanish clergy were murdered. . . “

“. . . some publicly [killed] by being put in an arena with wild animals – a sight not seen in Europe since the Roman persecutions.”

“Nearly 50% of all churches in Spain were destroyed.”

“Almost 1,000 of those clergy who were killed have been canonized, and another 2,000 causes for canonization have been opened.”

“. . . the record shows that the Church reluctantly supported the Nationalists because the Republicans were violent atheists who persecuted the Church.”

“The Church, which was not to blame for the bloodshed, was more anti-Communist than pro-Nationalist.”

MYTH: “Pope Pius XII did nothing to help the Jews during World War II.” (187…)

Actually, Pope Pius XII:

“learned Hebrew from one of his many Jewish friends”

“Intervened . . . on behalf of the Jews”

“denounced anti-Semitism”

“grant[ed] visas to Jews trying to escape”

had 1,000’s of false baptismal certificates printed up for Jews

“there are many examples of Pius . . . speaking out against Nazi treatment of Jews”

“But Pius understood that he had to tread carefully [so as not to] make a bad situation worse.”

e.g., “When the Dutch bishops publicly denounced Nazi mistreatment of Jews . . . , the Nazis retaliated by increasing the number of Jewish deportations.”

“That’s why it was not only bishops in Nazi-occupied territory but Jewish leaders themselves who cautioned Pius against speaking out too forcefully against the Nazis.”

“. . . he was praised for his wartime assistance to the Jewish people:

“The chief rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, who later became a Catholic – taking the pope’s own name, Eugenio – remarked that ‘no hero in all history was more heroic than Pope Pius and his readiness to defend the children of God.’”

Many “conveyed sincere gratitude for the efforts of Pius XII and the Church on behalf of the Jewish people during the War[, including:]

The World Jewish Congress

The American Jewish Committee

The Jewish Theological Seminary of America

The Anglo-Jewish Association

The Jewish Assistance Committee

The Union of Italian Jewish Communities

Golda Meir”

“The claim . . . that Pope Pius XII and the Church did nothing to help the Jews during World War II is intended to undermine its moral standing . . . , and thus its influence in moral matters.”

MYTH: “After World War II, the Church helped fugitive Nazis escape justice.” (193…)

“Pius . . . ordered Church officials to cooperate with the investigations, with the result that the Church provided voluminous evidence to the prosecution.”

“The Pope also assigned a Jesuit to assist the prosecution’s legal team.”

“Pius XII created the PCA (the Pontifical Commission for Assistance) . . . to help displaced Italians . . .”

Unfortunately, some Nazi war criminals utilized the PCA under false pretenses to escape Europe and Allied justice.”

“But to suggest the Church was complicit in that is pure malice.”

“Unfortunately, [this] myth is hard to eradicate because there were indeed some Catholics who supported the Nazi and fascist causes.”

“But the sins of individual Catholics are not the sins of the Church [nor] . . . the pope.”

“. . . the historical record does not support the accusation that the Church or Pope Pius XII knowingly gave assistance of any kind to fugitive Nazis.”

MYTH: “The Church prohibits birth control to control women’s lives, and to increase the number of Catholics.” (197…)

“. . . it is not true [that] the Church is against ‘birth control per se ; . . . but there are moral ways to achieve that end, which can be chosen, and immoral ways, which cannot.”

“‘Contraception ‘ is the choice, by any means, to impede the procreative potential of a given act of intercourse.”

“The prohibition on such acts goes all the way back to [the book of] Genesis in the Old Testament, which tells the story of how Onan was struck dead by God for committing the sterile act of coitus interruptus.”

[Note that “t]he early Protestant revolutionaries were no less opposed to contraception. . . . [Indeed, a]ll Christian denominations affirmed the ancient teaching against the use of contraception – until the 20th century.”

“. . . at its 1930 Lambeth Conference, The Anglican Church became the first of many [Protestant] denominations to permit the use of contraception.”

But not the Catholic Church, which still holds to the ancient prohibition.

“Neither is it true that the Church prohibits the use of contraction in order to increase its numbers.”

“Critics . . . ask why the Church cannot just change its teaching? The simple answer is the Church has no authority to do so, as it is not the author of the moral law and therefore cannot be its arbiter . . . and can never declare to be permissible that which is not . . . .”

“Pope Paul VI warned of several consequences of widespread use of contraception . . . which have all come to pass

a rise on conjugal infidelity

a general lowering of morality

a loss of respect for women

the use of contraception as a weapon in the hands of public authorities”

MYTH: “The Church seeks to impose its teachings on democratic societies by telling its members how to vote.” (201…)

“There is, in fact, considerable statistical proof that Catholics do not vote as a bloc . . .”

“found [that] . . . Catholics based their choices on economic and social factors, as well as popular opinion.”

“The Church allows its members to make their own political choices and urges them to be good citizens.”

The Papacy

“‘The abominable and horrid priesthood of papists came into the world from the devil . . . The pope is a true apostle of his master the hellish fiend, according to whose will he lives and reigns. . . . The laws of the pope are empty mockery and lies, that the popish priesthood is nothing more than a sign and outward show ; the popish Mass, which they call a sacrifice, mere idolatry, and worse idolatry even than that of which Jews or heathen are guilty or ever have been guilty.’ – Martin Luther”

“Although there have been some popes who caused scandal by their personal behavior . . . , the vast majority . . . have been holy men . . . who toiled for the good of . . . souls, [and], many of whom gave the ultimate witness in martyrdom.”

“A frequent attack tries to show that the early Church did not recognize the primary authority . . . of the pope, which (it is claimed) [came] much later . . . . [But t]he writings of the Church Fathers and the historical record prove the fallacy of that myth.”

“The accompanying myth, created by the early Reformers, that the pope is the Antichrist and the Church is the Whore of Babylon [is] . . .still believed by many Protestants.”

MYTH: “There was once a female pope named Joan.” (207…)

“. . . absence of any credible evidence.”

“The myth is first recorded in the 13th century – more than 400 years after the alleged event took place, and there are no contemporary sources for it, though such a shocking story, if true, would surely have been heavily documented.”

“Catholic historians have consistently denied [this], as have some atheist scholars who . . . recognize its absurdity.”

Also, there is no room in the well-documented line of popes for a Pope Joan in the 9th century.”

“. . . the story of Pope Joan might have been invented in mockery of Pope John VIII (r. 872-882), who was seen as politically weak and personally effeminate.”

MYTH: “The history of the papacy is rife with greedy, lustful, worldly, and incompetent popes.” (211…)

“It is paradoxical but true [that], although the Catholic Church – the Mystical Body of Christ – is holy, all of its members are sinners . . .”

“That there has been a handful of personally immoral popes does not discredit the papacy itself . . .”

“. . . but serves as a reminder that it is ultimately the Holy Spirit, not mere men, who has guided, guarded, and preserved the Church throughout its 2,000-year history.”

“‘When one remembers how the Catholic Church has been governed, and by whom, one realizes that it must be divinely inspired to have survived at all’ – Hilaire Belloc”

“There have been 266 popes from Pope St. Peter to Pope Francis, of which 81 (or 30%) have been canonized as saints.

Note that there is a difference between infallibility (cannot teach error) and impeccability (cannot commit sin)

Anti-popes are “men who falsely claimed to be pope when a legitimate pope was reigning”

“There have only been 31 of them . . . one of which renounced his papal challenge, died a martyr, and was canonized a saint.”

MYTH: “Throughout the Church’s history, popes have been concerned mainly with acquiring wealth and political power.” (215…)

One [of many] refuting examples: “Amidst great political chaos in Rome, [Pope St. Gregory the Great (r. 590-604)] . . . cared for the poor, built hospitals, protected the Jews, and helped finance the rebuilding of the city.”

As the first pope to use the title “Servant of the Servants of God”, Gregory undertook these things not to increase papal power but out of charity.”

“Christ established the papacy as a spiritual office whose primary mission is to preserve the Faith and unify the Church.”

“Historical circumstances brought about the acquisition of temporal land holdings . . ., but . . . they were distractions and causes of consternation for the popes.”

“The loss of the Papal States . . . enable[d] the popes to engage the world free from worldly concerns.”

“In keeping with their mandate from Christ, the popes are bent not on conquest but on conversion.”

MYTH: “The pope is the Antichrist, and the Church is the Whore of Babylon.” (219…)

“Christ founded the papacy . . . “

“The pope is Christ’s representative on earth, [thus] by definition is not the Antichrist.”

“The Church is the instrument of salvation through which Christ communicates grace and truth to the world, and is [therefore] not the Whore of Babylon.”

“. . . the Antichrist is a single person, not” a series of men (the popes)

“Luther declared that he wished ‘to be free and not a prisoner of any authority. The only thing that I will profess as trustworthy is what I recognize as true.’

“In rejecting the Church’s, specifically the pope’s, authority, Luther paved the way for his revolution.”

“To win converts and succeed in his plan to end the Church’s influence in Germany, Luther applied negative biblical imagery to the papacy and the Church.”

“Luther also called for the destruction of the sacramental system, . . . “

MYTH: “The Early Church did not recognize the primacy of the papacy.” (223…)

“The historical sources attest that the early Christians recognized the universal primacy of the bishop of Rome [-- that is, the pope].”

“The belief in the primacy of the bishop of Rome is rooted in Sacred Scripture.”

“Jesus . . . grants Peter special authority . . .”

Missionary Activity

“Catholic missionaries undertake the arduous task of evangelization for the love of God and those they serve . . .[ ; ] the historical record illustrates that . . .”

“Successful evangelization efforts always focus on utilizing indigenous culture and language, not replacing it with a foreign substitute,”

MYTH: “The Church sent missionaries around the world in search of gold and land for European kings.” (229…)

“The Church is a missionary organization in its very essence.”

“. . . Jesus . . . commanded his disciples to ‘make disciples of all nations . . . ‘“

Catholic missionaries are “motivated by one reason alone: love” of God and neighbor.”

“Only such love can motivate someone to endure the physical hardships and deprivations, and the constant risk of death, that are typical of a life dedicated to bringing souls to Christ.”

“‘No one can know this feeling unless he has experienced it.’ – St. Jean de Brebeuf”, missionary to the Native Americans

“Only a hardened cynic could believe that they undertook their dangerous journeys for worldly rather than godly motives.”

MYTH: “Catholic missionaries mistreated, enslaved, and forcibly converted native peoples in the New World.” (233…)

This myth is “in clear opposition to the historical record.”

“. . . the chaplains who accompanied [the conquistadors’] expeditions were meant to provide for the spiritual needs of the Spanish as well as the indigenous peoples.” They “focused . . . on preaching the gospel and speaking out against colonial abuses of the native peoples.”: – “When they were witness to mistreatment of the Indians, they complained to the highest levels of government.”

Zumarraga “fought hard against the enslavement of the Indians”

de Las casas was “remembered as ‘Father to the Indians’”

St. Peter Claver serve[d] the African slaves” [, baptizing] more than 300,000 Africans!”

St. Junipero Serra “found[ed numerous] missions along the 600-mile Spanish colonial supply line” up and down the California coastline

“They should be remembered . . . not with acrimony . . . but with the reverence and respect they so clearly deserve.”

MYTH: “Catholic missionaries worked as spies for foreign governments, and were rightly punished and executed for it.” (241…)

“The belief that Catholic missionaries were spies of a foreign government was not unique to 16th-century England ; it was also prevalent in the 20th century in the Soviet Union.”

“. . . the historical record clearly shows that those saintly and heroic [priests] were intent solely on ministering to persecuted Catholics, for which ‘crime’ many of them suffered agonizing martyrdom.”

MYTH: “Christopher Columbus was an agent of Western imperialism, cultural destruction, and genocide.” (247…)

“Christopher Columbus . . . really was a devout Catholic deeply concerned for the eternal salvation of the indigenous peoples he encountered.”

He ordered his men “to treat the indigenous people well and especially to respect the women.”

“When members of his expeditions mistreated the native peoples, he punished them severely.”

He rescued captured indigenous.

“. . . his primary motive was to find enough gold to finance a Crusade to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims, . . .”

“In further proof that Columbus did not plan to rely on slave labor, he asked the [king and queen] to send him Spanish miners to mine for gold.”

“ . . . he [also] asked Church authorities to send missionaries to the New World.”

A Mixed Bag

MYTH: “The Church is one of the wealthiest organizations in the world.” (255…)

“. . . those who argue for the divestiture of the Church’s temporal holdings make the same [mistake] [that] Judas [did] when he complained about the woman[’s] anointing Jesus with costly ointment (John 12:5).”

“. . . most [of these possessions] . . . came to the Church in the form of gifts.”

“. . . God commands sacred spaces and ornate (and expensive) liturgical vessels for worship (see Exodus, Numbers, 2 Chronicles).”

“In obedience to the Lord’s commands, the Church throughout its 2,000-year history has shown concern for the poor and downtrodden in the form of countless hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens, and other charitable efforts.”

“. . . the Church is not monolithic in its finances. Each diocese is financially independent, so the pope could not liquidate [a diocese’s] assets even if he wanted to ; the same goes for most Catholic religious orders and organizations.”

“Thus, the Church doesn’t actually hold the billion in assets it is reported to have.”

“The 2013 Consolidated Financial Statements of the Holy See [a.k.a., the Vatican] and the Governorate showed a combined profit of only mls_upp_t_1699302918_raw.txt1 million.”

“. . . the Church regards its priceless inventory of material possessions as belonging to humanity, and regards itself not as the owner of these temporal goods but as their steward.”

MYTH: “The Catholic Church is responsible for more wars than anything else in history.” (259…)

“When wars undertaken by Islam (50% of the 123) are factored out, the number of wars caused by religion falls to only 3% of the total.”

“That the Catholic Church is not the cause or wars or sponsor of violence can be traced to the fundamental tenets of the Faith, which favors peace and comity over war and conquest.”

Note that “[t]he 20th century, in which the Church’s influence was relatively weak, is widely considered the bloodiest hundred years in history.”

“Far from being the greatest perpetrator of violence, the Catholic Church has most often been its [greatest] victim, especially at the hands of godless fascism, Nazism, and Communism, which were[/are] guilty of hundreds of millions of deaths.

“. . . at least 100 million people have died from Communism”, which is atheistic.

‘History clearly shows that . . . the Catholic Church is not the chief cause of war. . . .”

“. . . indeed, if its teachings were followed by more people more resolutely, the world would be a much more peaceful place.”

MYTH: “Sexual abuse is a pervasive problem among Catholic clergy, probably because of mandatory celibacy.” (263…)

“Although critics contend that sexual abuse of children is more prevalent withing the catholic priesthood than elsewhere, the statistics do not bear that out.”

“Most . . . .abuse is committed by family members . . . not by clergy.”

“4% of active priests were accused of abuse between 1950 and 2002, and only 149 of them were ‘serial abusers (10 or more victims), representing just 1/10 of 1% of all priests in the United States.”

“Moreover, almost ½ of abuse cases involve now-deceased priests, who committed their crimes between 1970 and 1985, during the height of the Sexual Revolution.”

“The number of credible allegations has substantially declined since 1985, with only 8 cases of alleged clerical sexual abuse reported in 2010, compared with 63,527 [overall] cases nationwide.”

“Sexual abuse is more apt to occur in the nation’s public schools than in Catholic churches.”

“Tragically, at least one student per day is sexually abused in the New York City public school system.”

“. . . celibacy is not to blame for the sins and crimes of some members of the Catholic clergy.”

“The sexual abuse crisis does not discredit the Church’s teachings on sexuality or its discipline of . . . celibacy.”

“The solution to the crisis of sexual abuse is for the Church to continue preaching the truth about human sexuality.”

MYTH: “The Church is, and always has been, an oppressor of women.” (269…)

“It is a sad irony that the organization that has done more to protect, elevate, and celebrate the . . . dignity of women is attacked [as] . . . devaluing them.”

“The Church has always defended women’s (authentic) rights.” [An example of a non-authentic right would be to abortion.]

“. . . the historical record reveals that the Church has been arguably the greatest friend to women that they have ever had.”

“. . . the exclusion of women from priestly ministry is rooted not in discrimination but in Christ’s plan for his Church, for which he set an example by choosing only men to be his apostles[, the first priests].” – It “cannot be changed.”

“Jesus did not discriminate against women ; indeed, they played important roles in his ministry, which was unique for the time [period] in which he lived.”

“He restored the divine plan for marriage by abrogating the Mosaic dispensation for divorce . . . , an evil that harms women more than men.”

“And the fact that the most exalted person (besides Jesus) . . . [of all] is a woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is not a priest, ‘clearly shows that the non-admission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of less dignity.’”

“Since apostolic times the Blessed Virgin Mary has occupied a unique position in the Church, and her veneration [not worship] has been central to Catholic spiritual life.”

“Devotion to Mary increased in the Middle Ages and helped foster greater appreciation for women, as seen in the medieval concepts of courtly love and chivalry.”

“And women were attracted to the Church precisely because it did not classify its members into stratified groups ; all were welcome, and all were equal in Christ Jesus.”

“When the Church was at its height of influence on secular society in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, women played important roles in both the secular and ecclesial spheres.”

But “when Europe passed from the Age of Faith to the anti-religious, so-called Age of Reason, government discrimination against women increased.”

“. . . the complete subjugation of women in Islam is virtually ignored.”

“. . . child marriage continues to be practiced in many Muslim nations.”

“Muhammad, Islam’s founder, was a polygamist whose favorite wife was only 6 years old when they married.”

“Protestantism has had its own flirtations with polygamy . . “

“In 1534, when the radical Anabaptist seized the city of Munster, their leader, John of Leiden. Declared compulsory polygamy . . . and then proceeded himself to take 16 wives. When one of his wives asked permission to leave the cult, he had her publicly beheaded.”

MYTH: “Shadowy organizations such as the Knights Templar and Opus Dei have at various times secretly controlled the Church.” (277…)

“The true history, nature, and missions of both the Knights Templar and Opus Dei disprove the false claims of their critics, whose real aim is to do harm to the Church.”

“The Templars were founded to defend the liberated areas of the Latin East after the First Crusade.”

Templars were known for their ascetic practices . . .”

Templars vowed to [among other things] protect Christian pilgrims from Muslim harassment on the [way] . . to Jerusalem, . . . and to defend any Christian attacked by a Muslim.”

Opus Dei . . . members . . . commit themselves to following the universal call to holiness . . .”

Opus Dei’s mission is simply to sanctify the domain of ordinary work, not to gain power or influence in the vatican . . .”

MYTH: “The Church has a long and ugly history of anti-Semitism.” (285…)

“It is simply not true that the Church has ever taught or tolerated hatred of Jews.”

“In fact, the Church has always taught that salvation comes from the Jews, and that hatred for any race of people is utterly contrary to the gospel.”

“The popes have a long history of defending the Jewish people from persecution:

freedom of worship

condemned anti-Jewish violence

forbad forcible conversions

granted full citizenship

forbidding mistreatment of the Jews

live peacefully in Rome and the Papal States

excommunicated “any Christian who harassed Jews on account of the pestilence”

Endorsed the Balfour Declaration, calling for a Jewish homeland in the Holy Land

Pope “Pius . . . said, ‘It is impossible for a Christian to take part in anti-Semitism. It is inadmissible. Spiritually we are all Semites.’”

“Indeed, wrote Cecil Roth, the Oxford University Chair of Jewish History, . . . ‘only Rome, among the capitals of the world, is free from having been a place of Jewish tragedy.’”

“. . . the Crusades provide examples of the Church protecting the Jews.”

“. . . local bishops . . . protected the Jews by giving them refuge in their personal residences.”

“. . . irony that the Church is accused of anti-Semitism, despite all the evidence to the contrary, when it was[/is] leaders of other religions who actually encouraged violence against the Jewish people.”

Martin Luther’s “plan to eradicate Jews from German society”

“Islam’s founder, Muhammad, had several hundred Jewish men . . . executed”

“. . . Muslim[-] . . . sponsored terrorist attacks against Jews . . .”

“. . . the terrorist Palestinian Liberation Organization [the PLO]

MYTH: “The Church used to approve of or at least tolerate slavery.” (291…)

“. . . this one does not withstand scrutiny of the historical record.”

“One former slave even rose to become pope!”

“. . . as the Church’s influence increased, the institution of slavery decreased, until it was completely eradicated in Christendom.”

“. . . from 1435 to 1890, a succession of popes condemned the slave trade in no uncertain terms.” [documents] – “Papal denunciations of slavery were . . . harsh and . . . frequent. . . “

“. . . automatic excommunication.”

2 types of slavery

“The Church has consistently . . . condemned the practice of ‘unjust servitude’ . . .”

“In the case of ‘just title servitude’ the Church has always demanded humane treatment . . . and even encouraged . . . emancipation.”

“. . . the Church made[/makes] no distinction between slaves and freedmen in its membership. The equality of believers in a highly class-stratified society was one of the attractions that the Church held . . .”

“. . . ironic that the Church is falsely accused of slavery when the wholesale enslavement of Christians by Muslims . . . is all but ignored.”

One cannot “equate the immoral behavior of [some] individual Catholics [who may have been involved in slavery] with official Church teaching.”

MYTH: “The Church’s teaching on homosexuality changed, since there used to be a Catholic marriage rite for same-sex couples.” (295…)

“. . . the brother-making ceremony . . . from Byzantine Church sources . . . was not a homosexual marriage rite. . . and was never used by the Church in the West.”

“Homosexual activity [is] clearly condemned in both the Old and New Testaments, and consistently by the Church ever since.”

“The Church has consistently taught that marriage is between a man and a woman, and is divinely ordained.”

“God is the author of marriage, so it follows that [we] have no authority to modify marriage . . . “

“The Church teaches that homosexual acts are ‘intrinsically disordered’, contrary to the natural law, and under no circumstances to be approved.”

“Yet the Church also reminds the faithful that [no] persons should not be discriminated against, but [all should be] treated with . . . respect . . .”

:And it is not just homosexuals but all Christians who are called to live chastely.”

MYTH: “Marie Antoinette was a selfish and decadent Catholic queen who callously told her starving subjects to ‘eat cake’.” (299)

“There is no basis for believing she ever said it, and it was never attributed to her during the [French] Revolution.”

“Historians now believe the infamous quote was spoken . . . 72 years before Maria Antoinette was born!”

“Not only is the quotation a fabrication, but it is also completely contrary to wat is actually known about Marie”[,] (a “devoted Catholic wife, mother, and queen), who cared very deeply for the sufferings of the French people, as illustrated by her establishment of soup kitchens in Paris to feed the hungry.”

MYTH: “The alleged ‘Miracle of the Sun’ at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, was actually a mass delusion.” (305…)

“October 13, 1917, was a dark, damp, rainy day in Fatima, Portugal. Tens of thousands of people gathered to witness the promised miracle.”

“It has been described as the 10–minute ‘dance of the sun’ across the sky. Multiple eyewitnesses described it as something like a ‘fireworks display’ . . .”

They also “told how their clothes and the ground, previously soaked from the rain, miraculously became completely dry.”

“. . . mass hallucination”?

No, because that “fails to account for eyewitnesses who were not physically present at the site . . . but who also saw the sun dance.”

No, because that does not take into account the reticence of [previously?] atheistic eyewitnesses, who “came away believing that something supernatural indeed had occurred.”

Note that “the Church itself treats any alleged apparition . . . with skepticism, withholding judgment until a thorough theological and scientific investigation has taken place. It is only in rare cases that the Church deems a particular apparition worthy of devotion[, as it did this one].”

“Indeed, ‘[this] was the most spectacular, abundantly recorded miracle in history since Jesus Christ walked the earth.’”

MYTH: “Catholic historians cannot be trusted because their faith compromises their objectivity.” (311…)

“The fundamental error here is in thinking that secular historians are somehow more able than religious ones to transcend their personal perspective.”

“The fact is, ‘the rejection of some or all religious truth is every bit as much an intellectual position as is the acceptance of religious truth. Both the believer and non-believer have a point of view. Objectivity does not derive from having no point of view.’”

“Every historian brings to his subject a worldview. The honest historian admits this, but does not allow his beliefs to warp his view of past events.”

“Catholic historians must not merely defend the Church against its enemies . . ., but bring to the study of historical events the knowledge that our world is fallen yet redeemed, and that the central and crucial role in history is [held] by Jesus Christ. This enhances rather than detracts from the study of history.”