Criticism of the Catholic Church

Criticism of the Catholic Church subsumes critical observations made about the current or historical Catholic Church, in its actions, omissions, structure, or nature; theological disagreements would be covered on a denominational basis. Criticism of the Catholic Church in previous centuries was more closely related to theological disputes, but it must be noted that these theological disputes often reflect and parallel material and political disputes (for example, aristocratic support for Protestantism in 17th century England stemming from the desire to legitimate the seizure of Church lands). In the Twentieth Century, criticism relates more to a clash of philosophy, e.g., humanism vs. Christianity.

Opposition to leadership

Primacy of the Pope

Main article: Primacy of the Roman Pontiff

Supremacy of the Pope

Main article: Papal supremacy

Papal supremacy is the political governing power of the head religious leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope. Overall, papal supremacy is the seldom used power of a Pope to take command of the Catholic Church, and be able to govern and command the Bishops and Priest as he sees best fit for the Catholic Church and its believers.

Anti-clericalism

Main article: anti-clericalism

Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious (generally Catholic) institutional power and influence in all aspects of public and political life, and the encroachment of religion in the everyday life of the citizen. It suggests a more active and partisan role than mere laïcité. The goal of anti-clericalism is to reduce religion to a purely private belief-system with no public profile or influence. Anti-clericalism has at times been violent, leading to attacks and seizure of church property. Anti-clericalism has tended to be associated with the left of the political spectrum, and with middle and working class intellectuals.

Anti-clericalism in one form or another has existed through most of Christian history, and is considered to be one of the major popular forces underlying the 16th Century reformation. The philosophers of the enlightenment, including Voltaire, continually attacked the Catholic Church, its leadership and priests. These assaults led to the expulsion of the Jesuits from most Catholic countries by 1800, and played a major part in the wholesale attacks on the very existence of the Church during the French Revolution.

Opposition to Catholic doctrine

“Evangelicals do not find any biblical warrant for the office of the papacy or the elaborate structure of the Roman Catholic Church,” Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., told Baptist Press.

“Further, the Catholic system's emphasis on merit, works salvation and veneration of Mary and the saints are issues that those committed to ‘sola scriptura’ could never endorse or affirm,” Akin continued. “While we can appreciate the moral stand on life and marriage of the papacy, we will resolutely maintain that our High Priest is Jesus Christ in whom we have direct access to the true and living God.”

Mark DeVine, associate professor of theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., noted, “As Protestants and evangelicals, we deny any special authority to the pope or any other religious leader. We insist that all things be tested by Scripture. We accept the authority of Scripture over all human authority –- as evangelicals and even more so as Protestants. We stand under the Word of God.”

[4]

Catholics considered as not being Christian

Historically, many non-Catholics have openly declared Catholics to be "non Christian." Recently, however, this rhetorical device has lost favor, and it is rare that a non-Catholic will overtly mete out that judgment. Most major denominations that will venture to make public pronouncements on the subject will only go so far as to state that Catholics are "apostate Christians," meaning that Catholics are no longer Christians according to whatever standards the accuser is using at the time. They argue that the Church is at variance with the Bible on any number of theological points, ranging from disagreement with veneration of the apostles and saints, to disagreement with the notion that baptism is necessary to salvation, to disagreement with apostolic succession and Church hierarchy, and Church teachings that faith alone will not justify the Christian (e.g. "Satan believes too").

Dr. Ken Matto asserts "The Roman Catholic Church has been around for about 1700 years. With each passing year they continue to grow more apostate. They are not a Christian denomination but instead could easily be categorized as a cult."

Cartoonist Jack Chick asserts in his pamphlets, which are riddled with Bible verses to support his statements, that the Catholic catechism is incompatible with Biblical teaching and that Roman Catholics are not Christians. In fact, his pamphlets teach that Satan rules the Catholic Church , as well as all religions other than Chick's own.

Catholic teaching considered as unbiblical

Some Protestants charge that Church teachings are unbiblical. The contention is that such teachings were late inventions and not part of the original deposit of faith. The Catholic notion of traditio refers to what is passed down, and it is generally considered that the Church predates the Bible in written form. As a result, the institution, in the Catholic faith, of the Church on Earth is an organic growth responsible for the Bible, descended from Christ, and it changes as the world changes.

Protestants who attack the Catholic Church's reliance on tradition cite the doctrines of "sola scriptura" (Scripture only) and "sola fide" (faith only). These scholars hold that the position of the Reformers regarding justification was pronounced as anathema by the Roman Catholic Council of Trent in 1547.

Some opponents of Sola Scriptura argue that, rather than being a return to fundamental Christianity, it is actually more of an innovation than traditional Roman Catholic beliefs. For example, the "salvation through faith alone vs. faith and works" controversy depends on how you read the Epistle of James. The Catholics hold the Epistle of James as important. In the earliest editions of his Bible, Luther wrote his now famous comment: "The St. James Epistle is really an epistle of straw compared to [St. Paul's letters], for it lacks this evangelical character."

In response to these charges, Dave Armstrong argues that, far from straying from the Bible, Catholicism is biblical. He asserts that Catholicism is the only Christian religion that is in full conformity with what the Bible clearly teaches. To demonstrate this, Armstrong (a former Protestant campus missionary) focuses on those issues about which Catholics and Protestants disagree the most: the role of the Bible as a rule of faith, whether we are justified by faith alone, whether doctrine develops, what the Eucharist really is, veneration of Mary and prayer to the saints, the existence of purgatory, the role of penance in salvation, and the nature and infallibility of the papacy. "A Biblical Defense of Catholicism" by Dave Armstrong with foreword by John A. Hardon, S.J.

Church tradition

Protestants critical of the Catholic Church often attack its reliance on what is referred to as "tradition" by the Church.

Catholic apologists counter that the notion of "church tradition" does not mean custom. Traditio is that which is handed down — Catholics believe that the whole "deposit of faith" was given by Christ to the apostles. Tradition, the written part of the larger tradition, are the scriptures which, the Church says, must be interpreted in the context of the community founded by Christ.

Saints

It is common practice among Catholics to pray to Mary and other saints for supplication, or request help of some sort. Some Protestant Christians argue that in order for Mary and the saints to actually hear all the prayers directed to them, they would by necessity be required to possess the attributes of omniscience and omnipresence, thus allowing them to know all the requests made by either ultimate knowledge or by actually being present with each supplicant simultaneously. Christians hold that only God possesses the attributes of omniscience and omnipresence.

The argument is used against the presence of the guardian angel and in some radical Protestant sects against the presence of an aggressive Devil. Christians have historically believed that only material beings occupy time and space: as spirits, saints and angels do not occupy space. This would suggest that angels and saints do not need to be omnipresent or omnipotent to answer prayers.

Marianism

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, asserted "The issue of Mary remains one of the hottest debates on the Protestant/Roman Catholic divide, and new proposals for Marian doctrines are likely to ignite a theological conflagration. At stake is not only the biblical understanding of Mary, but the integrity of the work of Christ."

"Evangelicals naturally wince when Catholics exhibit Marian devotion. The entire structure of Marian theology is so foreign to the Bible that evangelicals have difficulty understanding how such an unbiblical notion could have arisen, much less gained near supremacy in Roman Catholic popular devotion. How can the veneration of Mary not lead to a decrease of devotion to Christ? " [5]

Catholic apologists reply by insisting that Mary is not worshipped. Further, the same arguments against devotion to Mary can equally be applied to devotion of any of the saints or apostles.

Papal infallibility

Main article: Papal infallibility

In Roman Catholic theology, Papal infallibility is the dogma that the Pope is preserved from error when he solemnly promulgates, or declares, to the Church a decision on faith or morals.

This doctrine has a long history, but was not defined dogmatically until the First Vatican Council of 1870. In Catholic theology, papal infallibility is one of the channels of the Infallibility of the Church. Papal infallibility does not signify that the Pope is divinely inspired or that he is specially exempt from liability to sin.

The Old Catholic Churches, organized in the Union of Ultrajectine independent Catholic Churches, resisted Papal infallibility along with the First Vatican Council's dogma of Papal primacy of universal jurisdiction.

Ordination of women

In recent times, the Catholic Church's exclusion of women from the ordained clergy, and so from many of the most important decisions, is seen by some as unjust discrimination (at a time when feminist and other movements have advocated equal access for women to traditionally male professions).

As a result of feminism and other social and political movements that have removed barriers to the entry of women into professions that were traditionally male strongholds, in the latter quarter of the twentieth century many women in a handful of countries sought ordination into the Roman Catholic priesthood.

The Church is convinced it is not free to change this practice, which is traced back to Jesus himself, and has declared the matter closed for discussion. Yet, at the same time the Church has also been praised by many historians as having raised the dignity of women relative to their treatment in the pagan societies (e.g. the Roman paterfamilias had absolute authority over them). Women were treated by medieval knights as ladies, a custom characterized by gentleness and reverence inspired by the Catholic Church's veneration for a woman, Mary, as the greatest of all saints.

The Roman Catholic position (as well as that of the Orthodox and other ancient churches), is that this has been the clear teaching of the Church since the time of the Apostles. As the Priest is acting 'in persona Christi' (that is, in the Person of Christ) and Christ took the body of a man, the priest must be a man. In particular, in the sacrifice of the Eucharist, the priest acts in representation of Christ. Furthermore, Jesus chose only men to be the twelve apostles and because priests and bishops are successors to the Apostles, only men can become priests and bishops.

On May 22, 1994, Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (Priestly Ordination) which reaffirmed the traditional position, and concluded:

Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.

Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Luke 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.

Within Roman Catholicism itself, debate on the subject now focuses on whether this statement is meant to invoke extraordinary papal infallibility (see the concept of the extraordinary magesterium) and raise the rule that women cannot be Roman Catholic priests to the level of an irreformable dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. That disagreement as to the status reached to the heart of the Church. However, its infallibility was confirmed by the CDF in its Responsum Ad Dubium on October 28, 1995, when they responded to a Bishop's inquiry with the following:

"This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff, exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith.

The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved this Reply, adopted in the ordinary session of this Congregation, and ordered it to be published."

Critics accused some of those attached to Ratzinger's Congregation of trying to make the document sound infallible to try to kill off the debate, in effect spinning a fallible document as infallible. Such an accusation has been made in the past, notably Pope Paul's encyclical, Humanæ Vitæ about which one conservative curial cardinal stated "the Holy Father has spoken. The issue is forever closed."

However, these criticisms are based on a faulty understanding of the doctrine of infallibility. What is missed by those who make these criticisms is that "what has always been taught" is as infallible as a solemn definition that springs from the Pope's Infallible Magisterium. That which has always been taught by the Church is a part of its Universal Magisterium, which is as infallible as such solemn definitions as that used to define the Assumption of Mary. In fact a mere layperson is considered to be infallible when he would simply repeat what the church has always taught.

Clerical celibacy

Main article: Clerical celibacy

The Catholic Church's discipline of mandatory celibacy for Latin-Rite priests (while allowing very limited individual exceptions) is criticized for differing from Christian traditions issuing from the Protestant Reformation, which apply no limitations, and even from the practice of the ancient Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, which, while requiring celibacy for bishops and priestmonks and excluding marriage by priests after ordination, do allow married men to be ordained to the priesthood. Some also claim that mandatory priestly celibacy appeared only in the Middle Ages. There are those who see the tradition as unrealistic.

It is argued that abolishing the rule of celibacy and opening the priesthood to women would update the Church's image as more relevant to modern society, and would solve the perceived problem of an insufficiency of candidates for priesthood in Western countries.

Some also trace to this rule with the recent criticism of the Church, particularly in the United States, which has centered around the Roman Catholic sex abuse cases. The failure of some bishops to take action against offending priests is reported to have undermined the Church's moral authority among some segments of the public. Others respond that non-Catholic groups that have sought "relevancy" have sometimes been seen as instead "dumbing down" religion, and that, in spite of admitting ordination of women and having no rule whatever of celibacy, mainline Protestant Churches too are experiencing difficulty in drawing people in the same countries to ministry. Within the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church itself, seminaries and dioceses that are more insistent on traditional values and on fidelity appear to be more, not less, successful in attracting vocations to the priesthood. The problems of the sexual scandals says some observers is rooted in the doctrinal confusion created by some Catholic sectors, who misinterpreted the real teachings of the Church during the Second Vatican Council.

Traditionalist and sedevacantist Roman Catholics

Traditionalist Catholics see the Church's recent efforts at reformed teaching and (liturgical) practice (known as "aggiornamento"), in particular the Second Vatican Council, as not benefitting the advancement of the Church. Some groups, claiming the Church has betrayed the core values of Catholicism, have rejected some of the decisions of the Holy See that they see harmful to the faith. They have in common the firm adherence to the pre-conciliar Traditional Latin Mass.

Others, a numerically minor group, go so far as to characterize the current Pontiffs of the Catholic Church as heretics. Several groups, known as sedevacantists, claim that the current Pope (as well, perhaps, as some of his immediate predecessors) is not legitimate. Sedeprivationists claim the post-conciliar Popes are still materially Popes, but formally non-Catholics due to formal personal and public heresy.

Another tiny, extreme group of Vatican II opponents, known as conclavists, have appointed papal replacements: see list of conclavist antipopes. These groups are estimated to compromise not more than a few hundred Catholics worldwide.

On the other hand, some non-Catholic historians have been seeing a clear continuity of the teachings of the Church throughout the centuries, a "handing over" (traditio) of "living faith" which according to George Weigel "inspires innovative thinking."

Use of Latin

Before the late 1960s the most known part of the Catholic Church, the Latin rite, used a liturgy exclusively said in Latin. The absolute use of the ancient language of Rome, along with some less relevant parts said in Ancient Greek and Hebrew, in the Western Church's traditional rite Mass has been severely criticized during recent times.

During the Reformation the Protestants almost totally rejected the use of Latin as "hocuspocus".

The French Catholic Church in the 18th century adapted vernacular missals in some dioceses. In 1794 the Synod of Pistoia, firmly influenced by Jansenism, rejected the use of Latin and demanded the use of the vernacular. In the 19th century the "Old Catholic" anti-primacy movements adopted the vernacular liturgy along with other reforms. In 1962 the encyclical Veterum sapientia of Pope John XXIII instructed priests and seminaries to hold to the all-Latin Mass and to promote studying the Latin language. While the Second Vatican Council for the first time allowed the use of the vernacular in the liturgy of the Mass, it also demanded conservation of the use of Latin and stimulated of Latin Gregorian chant. The new, 1970 edition of the reformed Roman Missal allowed for a world-wide use of the vernacular in the Eucharist for the first time.

While many non-Catholics applauded the decision to drop Latin, its virtual disappearance caused distress and anger among some Catholic lay faithful and among conservative Roman clergymen.

Human sexual behavior and reproductive matters

Some criticize the Church's teaching on sexual and reproductive matters. The Church requires members to eschew homosexual practices, artificial contraception, and sex out of wedlock. The procurement or assistance in abortion can carry the penalty of excommunication, as a specific offence.

Although some charge that the Catholic Church rejects sex for purposes other than procreation, the official Catholic teaching regards sexuality as "naturally ordered to the good of spouses" as well as the generation of children.

Some criticize the Church's teaching on fidelity, sexual abstinence and its opposition to promoting the use of condoms as a strategy to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS (or teen pregnancy or STD) as counterproductive.

Opposition to birth control

Roman Catholic opposition to birth control has been criticized as adding to overpopulation, poverty and destitution. Others also argue that their refusal to allow missionaries to discuss condoms in Africa has added to the AIDS epidemic there.

Supporters of birth control argue that economic growth which allows for a high population density without poverty is a direct function of the availability of birth control, as it leads to smaller families (as is the case in all nations which allow birth control), which in turn have more purchasing power to support themselves and provide their children with education, which is universally recognized as necessary for sustainable growth.

Supporters of birth control argue that the dependency on child labor is a vicious circle. A higher availability of children as labor forces pushes down wages; more children require more food, which in turn requires the employment of children to bring in the food.

Most scientists dispute the Church's position on condom security, and argue for a mixed approach of preventive measures instead. Some utterly reject sexual abstinence education as misleading (see sex education, sexual abstinence).

Nevertheless, the Church stands by its doctrines on sexual intercourse as defined by the Natural law: intercourse must at once be both the renewal of the consummation of marriage and for the purpose of procreation. If each of these postulates are not met, the act of intercourse is, according to Natural Law, an objective mortal sin. Therefore, since artificial contraception expressly prevents the creation of a new life (and, the Church would argue, removes the sovereignty of God over all of Creation), contraception is unacceptable. The Church sees abstinence as the only objective moral strategy for preventing the transmission of the AIDS virus.[6] [7]

The church may be on the brink of altering this position somewhat. There is a movement within the church, reportedly involving several powerful cardinals (see [8]), to sanction the use of condoms in marriages where one partner has AIDS. It is debatable whether this move (if implemented) is an intended reponse to public and scientific criticism of the church's opposition to birth control or the result of a shift in theological thinking among church leaders. Whatever the reason, it represents a profound change in church doctrine among a clergy currently widely regarded as very conservative on many social issues. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, President of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, has stated that Pope Benedict XVI asked his department to study the issue as part of a broad look at several questions of bioethics. However, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal López Trujillo, in an interview reported by Catholic News Agency on May 4, 2006, said that the Church "maintains unmodified the teaching on condoms", and added that the Pope had "not ordered any studies about modifying the prohibition on condom use."

Social justice

While it is criticized in many places, the Catholic Church also has contributed much to society through its Social Doctrine which has guided leaders to promote social justice and by setting up the hospital system in Medieval Europe, a system which was different from the merely reciprocal hospitality of the Greeks and family-based obligations of the Romans. These hospitals begun to cater to "particular social groups marginalized by poverty, sickness, and age," according to historian of hospitals, Guenter Risse. The Catholic Church as opus proprium, says Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est, has conducted throughout the centuries from its very beginning and continues to conduct many charitable services—hospitals, schools, poverty alleviation programs, among others.

Historical controversies

See separate articles Crusades and Inquisition.

The present Church is also accused by some of crimes committed throughout its history, such as the actions of the Inquisition.

Aside from discussing specific cases, the Church's response is that Catholics are "fallen human beings" no less than non-Catholics and that indeed Church members, including the hierarchy, have been involved in and responsible for crimes, but that this individual guilt cannot be transferred to the body of the Church spreading through the ages. In 2000, Pope John Paul II asked publicly for pardon "for the sins of Catholics throughout the ages".

The Inquisition

Main article: Inquisition

During periods of the Medieval era, the Church responded to claims of heresy through the Office of the Inquisition. During this time in history, before the separation of Church and State, an accusation of heresy could be construed as treason against lawful civil rule, and therefore punishable by death. Some were condemned by false accusation so that their lands, titles and goods would be forfeited to local rulers. In many cases, the Inquisition saved lives by providing a trial rather than summary execution.

While Pope John Paul II apologized for certain historic excesses in May 1995, many historians, even non-Catholics, have seen that there may have been some exaggeration on the negative role played by the Church in the Inquisition. These scholars point out that the Inquision began as a way of protecting Europe from the covert penetration by the Turks who led some violent attacks against Christian coastal towns. These historians say that it is difficult, if not unhistorical, to judge by present day standards the threats, issues and resources which the leaders of that time were faced with.

Abuse scandals

In 2002, a major scandal errupted in the U.S. Catholic Church when a wealth of allegations of priests sexually abusing children surfaced. Adding to the furor were revelations that the Church was aware of some of the abusive priests, and simply shuffled them from congregation to congregation instead of taking action. The scandal led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law from the Boston archdiocese.

See also

• Roman Catholicism's links with democracy and dictatorships
• Sex abuse scandal

Notes and references

• This one appears lost: ³ Technically each diocese operates separately of its neighbours, while religious orders in each diocese are not answerable to or under the control of the local bishop. As a result suspicions about the behaviour of secular priests (priests belonging to the diocese) were not always reported to other dioceses or to religious order-run schools or hospitals, while abuse by religious priests (priests belonging to a religious order) was not always relayed by his order to the diocese and its schools. The most notorious example involved Fr. Brendan Smyth, a Norbertine Order priest in Ireland, whose activities (known about since 1945) were not reported to diocesian clergy let alone the police. In 1994, Brendan Smyth pleaded guilty to a sample set of 17 charges of sexual abuse of children in Belfast from a far longer list. A number of dioceses, the Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh and Smyth's own order publicly blamed each other and accepted no responsibility themselves for the failure to stop Smyth over 47 years.