Catholics how do you rationalize the Church's history and all the atrocities it has committed through the ages

Answer 1

The Church has not committed atrocities. People have.

Some of these people were Catholics, but that does not change the fact that Church Doctrine on Faith and Morals is infallible. People, on the other hand, are not infallible.

By the way, who were your ancestors, and what atrocities did they commit?

Answer 2

I tend to live in the here and now, which is bad enough, however, I do not rationalize or make up stories that are false. I would look at it with my eyes open, and not covered with rose-colored lens. I am too small to be the judge of such a large thing. But if I had to I'd say a couple things:
1)history doesn't always paint an accurate picture, we all know that history is written by the winner, and as well, nobody likes to write about the boring bits.
2)and some entities, even such a collective one, goes through growing pains. There are times in an individual's life where they make mistakes, there are also times in an organization's growth where mistakes are made. The question is: did they learn from it?
3) Third point is that the atmosphere of the time is not the same as the atmosphere of our day, where technology and knowledge are at our fingertips. There was a great deal of secular ignorance at the time as well (the world was thought to be flat, and spontaneous generation was the norm in science)

Answer 3

How do atheists rationalize the atrocities that atheists have committed?

Russia
China
Pol Pot
North Korea

See, it isn't just Catholics - it is humanity.


BTW, I realize that the Church of the past has made some mistakes. Jesus is the head of the Church, but it is run by humans and we all make mistakes.

Answer 4

The same way I rationalize humans and all the atrocities they've commited through the ages.

Answer 5

I can answer this question by asking you: how does any citizen of any country rationalize the actions of its ancestors?

How do Americans rationalize the brutality of slavery? How do Germans rationalize the Holocaust? How do Ugandans rationalize Idi Amin?

Do the people of these countries today renounce their citizenship because of the horrible things that were done before them within their borders? The simple answer is: no.

In other words, there are lots of examples of modern people continuing within a structure that has committed atrocities, but who have tried to learn from mistakes and improve their institutions and their lives.

Does that make sense to you?

Answer 6

We do not rationalize what some people in the Church's history have done from Peter's three denials of Jesus to the present day.

The Catholic Church
+ Was always filled with sinners
+ Is filled with sinners
+ Always will be filled with sinners

Some of these sinners will fail and do terrible things.

However many of the 'so called' atrocities in a history written by Protestants are not quite the atrocites they seem. I am not saying that Catholics are innocent of all wrongdoing just offering the chance that they are not as bad as the Protestants claim.

+ The Crusades +

Muslim armies had conquered much of northern Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Spain, which had been some of the most heavily Christian areas in the world.

Thousands, and possibly millions, of Christians died during this drive to eventually bring the entire world under Islam.

The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II to check the advance of the Muslims and regain control of the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

I am sure that some atrocities were committed by both sides during this war but by most people's judgment this was a just war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Crusade

+ The Inquisition +

Modern historians have long known that the popular view of the Inquisition is a myth. The Inquisition was actually an attempt by the Catholic Church to stop unjust executions.

Heresy was a capital offense against the state. Rulers of the state, whose authority was believed to come from God, had no patience for heretics. Neither did common people, who saw heretics as dangerous outsiders who would bring down divine wrath.

When someone was accused of heresy in the early Middle Ages, they were brought to the local lord for judgment, just as if they had stolen a pig. It was not to discern whether the accused was really a heretic. The lord needed some basic theological training, very few did. The sad result is that uncounted thousands across Europe were executed by secular authorities without fair trials or a competent judge of the crime.

The Catholic Church's response to this problem was the Inquisition, an attempt to provide fair trials for accused heretics using laws of evidence and presided over by knowledgeable judges.

From the perspective of secular authorities, heretics were traitors to God and the king and therefore deserved death. From the perspective of the Church, however, heretics were lost sheep who had strayed from the flock. As shepherds, the pope and bishops had a duty to bring them back into the fold, just as the Good Shepherd had commanded them. So, while medieval secular leaders were trying to safeguard their kingdoms, the Church was trying to save souls. The Inquisition provided a means for heretics to escape death and return to the community.

Most people tried for heresy by the Inquisition were either acquitted or had their sentences suspended. Those found guilty of grave error were allowed to confess their sin, do penance, and be restored to the Body of Christ. The underlying assumption of the Inquisition was that, like lost sheep, heretics had simply strayed.

If, however, an inquisitor determined that a particular sheep had purposely left the flock, there was nothing more that could be done. Unrepentant or obstinate heretics were excommunicated and given over to secular authorities. Despite popular myth, the Inquisition did not burn heretics. It was the secular authorities that held heresy to be a capital offense, not the Church. The simple fact is that the medieval Inquisition saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.

Where did this myth come from? After 1530, the Inquisition began to turn its attention to the new heresy of Lutheranism. It was the Protestant Reformation and the rivalries it spawned that would give birth to the myth. Innumerable books and pamphlets poured from the printing presses of Protestant countries at war with Spain accusing the Spanish Inquisition of inhuman depravity and horrible atrocities in the New World.

For more information, see:
The Real Inquisition, By Thomas F. Madden, National Review (2004) http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/madden200406181026.asp
Inquisition by Edward Peters (1988)
The Spanish Inquisition by Henry Kamen (1997)
The Spanish Inquisition: Fact Versus Fiction, By Marvin R. O'Connell (1996): http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0026.html

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 7

There's been stuff done by religions ever since the beginning of human history. Everyone's fair game on this subject. I pray to epona my best friend next door prays to Bel. come a war between Epona and Bel, if I were an over zealous head case, I would kill my friend who prays to Bel.
(As an example only) because my religion dictated it. Thank fully Epona is more kindly than that. But even in World war 2 Churches fell into lines with the Governments veiws So you can't blame it all on the Churches.

Answer 8

whilst the management of the catholic church stated as himself "pope" or father in violation of the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ in [Matthew 23: 9-10] and don't call any individual in the international your father; for One is your Father, He who's in heaven. and don't be stated as leaders; for One is your chief, that is Christ. The pope is commonly generic by using fact the vicar of the son of god. in the event that they are in regards to the Son of God written interior the Holy Scriptures/Bible, they are misled and incorrect for [Hebrews thirteen: 8] Jesus Christ is the equivalent the day in the previous today and at contemporary, particular and perpetually. [Hebrews 7: 22-24] lots the greater additionally Jesus has become the coverage of a stronger covenant. And the previous priests, on the only hand, existed in greater suitable numbers, once you communicate that they have got been prevented from persevering with, yet He, besides the undeniable fact that, by using fact the He abides perpetually, holds His priesthood thoroughly. Atrocities to the people of the international, the holy inquisition whilst the catholic government burned at stake people who did no longer sense and joined their church, compelling the late pope, till now than this present one, to say sorry to the international for such dastardly act of catholic church for burning at stake alive some 3 hundred,000 persons in the process the dark a while of the inquisition. This became revealed interior the newspaper metro and accrued by potential of way of the newspaper the international over besides the undeniable fact that plainly subdued by using certainty lots of the leaders of maximum wealthy worldwide places belong to their church. To God be the attention!

Answer 9

This isn't just a Catholic thing, either in centuries past or now. Generalizations like this are pretty useless. Besides that, someone can claim to be Catholic but not live at all like the Bible says they are to live. Why judge those who are true believers according to the deeds of hypocrites? It'd be much more productive to pray for those in the Catholic Church to come to a saving knowledge and personal relationship with Christ instead of just throwing stones.

Answer 10

I'm not a Catholic or believer.Catholics have a cruel history it's true.However,they've done a much better job of facing up to it,then most.Islam and even Mormons and Protestants you don't hear them admitting anything.At least I don't.