A note to Catholics

Last updated on: November 2, 2014 at 10:18 pm by Dave Griffey

A note to Catholics 2014-11-02T22:18:00-04:00 Dave Griffey

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Get over it. Fact is, from the Reformation and before, the Church was more than willing to send to their deaths those who ran afoul of the Church and its authority. Yes, tales of the Church running amok, butchering millions of helpless doctors and scientists and any thinking person because the Church opposed smart people is an exaggeration.

Nonetheless, the atmosphere out of which the Protestant Reformation was born was one where the Church was increasingly comfortable turning to the burning stake or other similar approaches for dealing with trouble makers. Even such notable and celebrated Saints as Thomas More chose to send Protestant dissenters to a horrifying, torturous death.

Oddly, had the Church not responded with such heavy handed and purposely deceitful tactics in its dealing with Luther, the Reformation may not have taken hold. As it was, Luther, for all his own foibles, couldn’t’ help but look the sympathetic figure against a Church that was increasingly seen as corrupt and wicked on a good day by a growing segment of European Culture. The fact that nobody doubts the Church wouldn’t have done to Luther what it did to Huss in earlier times, only solidifies the sympathy most had for Luther’s cause.

Yes, Protestants would also return the favor. And the acts committed by both Protestants and Catholics and others during that period that began long before Luther was born, has left Jesus with no small number of black eyes.

So while it’s always noteworthy when we might have discovered something new, or added a piece to history, remember: in our post-Christian world, most only hear this as proof that those Christians were just as murderous as everyone says they were. Many today don’t separate between the Catholic and the Protestant. The simply blame the Faith. And since plenty of blood can be found on the hands of both sides, it does little good to try to act as if one side was the innocent victim, and the other the villain. It’s enough to say it happened, without trying to suggest some strange fluke by one side in an otherwise beautiful period of peace and tolerance. That’s when it gets embarrassing.

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