To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant. -Cardinal John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Introduction, 5 One area where detractors of the Catholic Faith direct the most attacks is at her history. Secular humanists hold up events like the Galileo affair in an attempt to show that the Church is against progress; the Crusades are put forward by pro-Islamic apologists as an example of Christian jihad; Protestants consistently draw upon lurid tales of worldly popes from the Renaissance or the 10th century as evidence in support of their condemnation of the papacy as the Whore of Babylon; anti-Catholic polemicists attempt to mar the reputation of Pius XII regarding his role in the holocaust. These historical attacks are veiled doctrinal attacks. A condemnation of the Crusades is really a veiled way of saying, The Catholic Church has abandoned Christs precept to love our neighbor. A polemicist who brings up the Galileo affair is not just criticizing the way the Church behaved four centuries ago, but is sending a message to Catholics today: The Church was wrong then. It can be wrong today. Not to say that the Church has not made some prudential errors over the centuries. But too often, the truth of history is obfuscated to serve the ends of anti-Catholic agitators who would use the history of yesterday as a means of tearing down the Church of today. It is my hope that, through this page, Catholics can at least find a trustworthy account of our own history and see that, far from being ashamed, our history is one of the most glorious treasures of the Church.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 02:30:44 +0000
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