Catholic Church

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The Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the world, with over one billion adherents.^[1] It comprises one of the three great divisions of Christianity, together with Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

The Church consists of those Christians who are in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, who is generally called the Pope, currently Pope Benedict XVI. The Church teaches that the Pope is the successor of St. Peter, whom Catholics regard as the original leader of Christ's apostles and as the first Bishop of Rome.

The Pope and the rest of the international leadership of the Church are based in Vatican City in Rome. Vatican City is an independent state in its own right, and is the smallest state in the world in terms both of geography and of population.

The split between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy dates to the eleventh century. The split between Catholicism and Protestantism occurred some time later, in the sixteenth century. It is generally known as the "Reformation", though Catholics sometimes refer to it as the "Protestant Revolt". The principal issues of contention between Catholics and Protestants are known as sola scriptura (the doctrine that the Bible alone is the final authority for Christians, which denies the authority of the Church) and sola fide (the doctrine, popularized by Martin Luther, that faith alone, as opposed to faith expressed in good works, is sufficient for salvation).

The Catholic Church has a complex hierarchy of clergy, including:

"Roman Catholic" versus "Catholic"

Cathedral of Malaga, Spain.

The term "catholic" (from the Greek katholikos) means "universal", and its roots in ecclesiastical parlance go back to the early years of Christianity. Some Protestants believe that (Roman) Catholics do not have the right to monopolize the term, and so prefix it with the adjective "Roman". Some Catholics object to this nomenclature, precisely because it denies the status of the (Roman) Catholic Church as the universal Church of Christ. Historically speaking, the term "Roman Catholic" was coined in nineteenth-century Britain as a euphemism to replace insulting terms such as "papist" that had previously been in use.

The Catholic Church is made up of thirty-one distinct branches or "rites", including the Byzantine Rite, the Ambrosian Rite (only in Lombardy, a northern Italian region) and the Maronite Rite. By far the largest Rite, and the most prevalent in the West, is the Latin Rite, and Catholics sometimes use the term "Roman Catholic" to denote this component of the Church.

History

Early Years

The Catholic Church traces its authority to Jesus through the apostle Peter. The Church sees the Bishops as the natural successors to the apostles, and reasons that since Peter was the leader of the apostles, Peter's successors should lead the Bishops and hence all of Christianity.^[2]

Catholic Growth in the Imperial Decline

Until the early fourth century AD Christianity enjoyed mixed reception in the Roman Empire and Christians were frequently subject to persecution. In the 310s Christianity became legalized and shortly thereafter became officially recognized by Constantine. In the following years Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular became increasingly powerful in the Roman Empire, although Arianism remained strong. In 380 AD, Theodosius I established the Catholic Church as the official religion of the Roman Empire. While the Empire continued to decline, Catholicism and Christianity continued to grow both among those directly under the Empire and among the barbarians until Rome was sacked by Alaric in 410. Alaric was an Arian Christian. After the collapse of the Western Empire, the Catholic Church became the most powerful political and religious force in Latin-speaking Europe and by the 8th century had achieved near total religious dominance with the removal of the last significant Arian groups.

Great Schism

During the 11th century, the Great Schism occurred between the church in the West and Eastern Orthodox Church. This schism occurred over a variety of issues, especially those dealing with how much authority the Pope had. The causes were not purely religious, but cultural and geographic elements also played a role. Although later attempts at reconciliation occurred, such as at the Council of Basel, the two remain separate to this day although both accept many of each others sacraments.

Late Middle Ages

Beginning in 1092 and continuing until the end of the 13th century, the Crusades occurred. These were a series of religious wars instigated by the Church against various other groups, especially the Muslims. Despite the focus on removing Islamic control of the Holy Land, the Crusaders massacred Jews and sacked Constantinople.

During this time period, the Inquisitions started and would continue through the Protestant Reformation. The medieval inquisition focused on rooting out Cathars, while the later inquisitions such as the Spanish Inquisition focused on people who were believed to be secretly practicing Judaism or Islam.

Reformation and Counter-Reformation

In 1517, Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation which initially focused on the giving of indulgences but eventually grew to have a wide variety of different causes and issues. Eventually, Protestants rejected the notions of saintly intercession, the authority of the pope and many of the sacraments. This eventually led to a series of religious wars in Europe and the Protestant-Catholic split became one of the dominant themes in European events until modern times.

1815 to 1914

Pius VII

Pius VII (1800-23) was stripped of powers by Napoleon but made a striking comeback after Napoleon's fall in 1815. Pius VII was a deeply religious Benedictine, and a theologian; he lived simply and avoided nepotism. His unusually able Secretary of State Cardinal Consalvi won the restoration to the Pope of most of the territories in Italy which Napoleon had seized. He reinvigorated numerous monastic orders and helped create new societies for men and women, especially those engaged in teaching and missionary work. Most important was the restoration of the Jesuits in 1814; they had been suppressed in most countries. They grew larger and even more influential in the 19th century.

Conservatism

After 1800 the Papacy became the center of conservatism in Europe in reaction against the liberalism of the French Revolution and its admirers. The Papacy recognized that throughout Europe millions of peasants and poor folk were devoted to the saints and traditions of the Church; the Popes responded energetically by promoting new Marian devotions (such as the rosary). Rome had fallen into disrepair and Pius VII began the restoration of the city's artistic glories, an enterprise that continues into the 21st century. ^[3]

Ultramontane vs Gallican

The "ultramontane" tendency in the Church centralized more power and authority in the Papacy. It was opposed by the "Gallican" tendency, especially in France, to give national churches more control over their affairs. The ultramontine forces generally won out, especially with the declaration of papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council in 1870. The ultramontane forces cited the old doctrines of Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) and Francisco de Suárez (1548-1617) to bolster the papal claim to absolute power in spiritual matters.

Gallicanism in France was damaged by the rise of ultramontanism in the 1850s and the devotional revolution that shifted piety to devotions sponsored by Rome. Gallicanism was officially suppressed by the First Vatican Council in 1870, which established the paramount authority of the pope as a matter of dogma. However informal manifestations of Gallicanism continue in some countries, especially China. In Canada, the Irish clergy fought for ultramontanism against the French clergy, who were Gallican. The Irish won out with the support of the Vatican.

After Vatican II, 1962-65, the multiple and often confused controversy among Catholics over papal authority and infallibility largely ended, though opposition to both remained.^[4] ^[5]

Facing Modernity

Despite dire predictions, the Church adapted to modernity in its own way and increased its role in people's lives in the 19th century. The Church escaped irrelevance by using the same means as did emerging nation-states; establishing more administrative and doctrinal centralization in Rome; establishing a homogeneous culture, aided especially by universal use of Latin; promoting new rites and folk devotions, especially those focused on Mary and other favored saints; promoting pilgrimages to holy sites; encouraging clergy to endorse and lead regional nationalist movements that focused on historic languages and cultures; creating many new teaching orders and establishing Catholic schools and colleges; supporting intellectuals and publishing houses; enhancing papal power; and cultivating an image of both theologiocal canonical and moral superiority. Of special importance was the missionary activity, based especially in Germany, that was in competition with Protestant missions in China, India, Africa and other non-Christain lands. The Jesuits proved highly adept at promoting the Papal cause. The Pope thereby became less symbolic and more powerful. There was internal dissent among some Catholic intellectuals, such as historian Lord Acton in Britain and theologian Ignaz von Döllinger in Germany, who opposed the declaration of the dogma of papal infallibility.

Syllabus of Errors

The Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX in 1864 rejected the liberal doctrines of the modern world.^[6] It denounced pantheism, naturalism, nationalism, indifferentism, socialism, communism, freemasonry, and other modern views. The Pope claimed for the Catholic Church total control over science and culture. The liberals viewed this as a declaration of war by the Church on modern civilization. Its repercussions within France, the U.S., Britain and other countries were resounding, nearly destroying the liberal Catholic movement and furnishing a powerful weapon to the anticlerical faction, or (in the U.S.) to anti-Catholic Protestants. Opponents stressed the Papacy had become intolerant and medieval and largely political in nature.^[7]

Facing Liberalism

Burns (1990) takes a sociological perspective on the Papacy's long battle with liberalism. He shows how the papacy, in reaction to the rise of the liberal states of the 19th and 20th centuries, gradually reformulated Catholic ideology within the limited autonomy they possessed and carefully subordinated social and political issues to more purely religious and moral issues as they constructed an ideological opposition to liberalism.

In Germany in the 1840s the ultramontane movement used mass meetings and pilgrimages to combat the growth of liberalism and modernism. However the abnti-clerical liberal press attacked these mass meetings, and in response a large number of Catholic newspapers emerged in Germany starting in the 1840s. To ensure their own survival, these newspapers championed the liberal idea of press freedom. In addition, local clubs were established to mobilize the Catholic working class. These clubs tried to end discrimination against ordinary Catholics by working to establish freedom of religion and freedom of thought and by entering the electoral process. With the unification of Germany in 1870, the new nation faced the problems of consolidation, one of which was secularization. The laws dealing with secularization opened a poltical battle between Bismark and the Protestants and liberals on one side, and the Catholics on the other, called the "Kulturkampf." The Catholics organized their own political parties and protected their interests by voting as a bloc into the 1930s, when the Nazis closed down all other parties.

Freemasons

In many countries the Church faced off against the Freemasons, a secret society that was politically active in numerous countries. The Papcy coordinated a counterattack. For example in Brazil, the religious question in the 1870s centered on the Masonic controversy and the struggle between regalist and ultramontane forces. One method of counterattack was to found Catholic universities. Thus Mgr. Ignace Bourget, second bishop of Montreal, Canada, founded Laval University, as a Catholic reaction to a liberal and secularist outburst in Quebec. Bourget said the university would be the principal instrument for "wresting the elite from the clutches of liberalism."

Women

A spiritual revolution took place in the 19th century, moving individuals to personal piety. There was a much greater emphasis on the role of Mary, and a greatly increased involvement of women; the number of sisters and nuns increased from 20,000 to 400,000 between 1815 and 1914.

Camp (1990) traces the treatment of women. In the late 19th century the papacy began to revise its public teachings about the proper role of women in the Church and society. From Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) to Pope John Paul II (1978-2005), papal social pronouncements reveal an evolution in attitudes toward a woman's proper "place" from the view that women are passive subordinates to men in all spheres of life to the current teaching that lay and clerical women are equal but complementary partners with men in religious, political, economic, and social endeavors. However, the papacy has remained firm in the conviction that ordination to the priesthood is for men only.

Social changes

Urbanization brought millions of peasants out of the villages to industrial cities, where church facilities were few.

Arts

The arts provided a refuge from modernity in the form of a nostalgic aesthetic. Church architecture saw the revival of the medieval Gothic style. Romantic literature, for example by Chateaubriand, helped inspire a Catholic revival. In music, Catholic churchgoers were likely to be exposed to an officially sponsored revival of a cappella singing in the manner of Palestrina. The rapid development of symphonic and operatic forms affected sacred music, resulting in many masses, requiems, and te deums for large orchestra and chorus, sometimes even composed by skeptics such as Berlioz and Verdi.

Politics

In politics as democracy and popular government spread, religious motivations moved people into one party or the other. The parties in such battles tended to be different depending on the religious configuration of a given country. In Catholic countries such as France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, sharp confrontations emerged between clericals and anti-clericals; in countries with mixed Catholic and Protestant populations such as Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Britain and the U.S., political splits occurred along confessional lines. In the U.S. the great majority of the Catholics -- led by the Irish--became Democrats. In Germany the Catholics formed their own Center party to fight off attacks from the Protestants, such as the Kulturkampf.

The British attempt to impose Protestantism on Ireland not only fueled the Catholic revival there but also contributed to its spread via emigration – not only to the U.S. and Canada, but also to Australia, New Zealand, and England itself, increasing the Catholic population in all of these. Quickly the Irish took control of the Church in each country and created a new system of schools, colleges, hospitals and charities. The Poles, having lost their nation state in the 1790s, turned to an intense religiousity, that preserved national identity, and which they carried with them to industrial centers in the U.S. and Germany.

20th century

Vatican II

The "Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican" (called Vatican II), which was in session from 1962 to 1965, made major changes to official Catholic theology and liturgy. Liturgical changes included the introduction of the possibility of having Mass in local languages instead of entirely in Latin. Theologically, the council deemphasized somewhat the centrality of Mary while also adding a new emphasis on individual and personal holiness. It recognized the possibility of salvation for Jews, Muslims, and Protestants.

Reactions among Catholics to Vatican II fall into three camps. "Liberal" Catholics, drawing on the established Catholic belief in the "journeying" nature of the Church, see Vatican II and the new period that it marked in Catholic history as representing a significant advancement in our understanding of the divine revelation contained in the Gospels which justifies major changes in Catholic belief and practice. "Conservative" Catholics (including the recent popes) hold that the decrees of the Council, properly understood, are wholly in line with the historic Catholic faith, and that they should not be used as an excuse for unwarranted innovations. "Traditional" (or "traditionalist") Catholics regard the teachings of Vatican II as problematic, or even as heretical, and tried to operate churches using the old liturgies.

Sacraments

The Roman Catholic Church has seven sacraments: