Catholics how do you answer the claim that Constantine started the Catholic Church?

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I typically don’t bother answering ignorant people. Because to make that claim you would have to be willfully ignorant of basically all facts about the first 300 years of the church. And history in general.
 
There are written records referring to bishops, priests, deacons, episcopal structure, the sacrificial nature of the mass, the “catholic church” throughout the world, metropolitan jurisdiction, the dignity of the See of Rome, all before Constantine. It’s a rather silly claim that Constantine started the Church. He called for a council due to Arianism dividing the Empire, but Constantine did not decide the council or influence it. All evidence suggested that Constantine leaned Arian, anyway, before Nicea concluded with orthodox Trinitarianism, but he accepted what the Council decided.
 
I would simply answer with the truth. Jesus founded (started) the Church on Peter. Constantine, simply gave it an acceptable status in the Roman Empire, bringing to a halt the persecution of the Church over 300 years.
As other posters have said, there is centuries of the writings and teaching of the Apostles and the Early Church Fathers that support that the Church had been established by the time Constantine came to power.
 
Tell them it’s true; that the Church was Lutheran before Constantine.
 
Speaking as someone who has been frankly informed on a number of occasions that Henry VIII started the Church of England, I feel your pain.
 
Show me the evidence- a reputable historian who makes the same assertion. And no, your pastor does not count.
 
How do you answer the claim that the moon landing was fake? Ask for the evidence.
 
Guest1 said:
What answer do you like to give? If you have one that you usually use.
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i ask the claimant to demonstrate how? (and cite Matt 16… Where Jesus said He will build His church on Peter…so did Peter fail? Or did Jesus change His mind in Ad 300 and transferred it to Constantine? and besides…Constantine did not become a Christian till he was close to death)
 
Further, Constantine did not even make Christianity the official religion of Rome, contrary to what many claim - that was later under Theodosius. Connie merely stopped the persecution of Christians.
 
There is a trail of consistent testimony to the Catholic Faith from the Early Church Fathers, some of whom lived before, during and after Constantine.

But even if Constantine “started” the Catholic Church, some successors persecuted the Catholic Church because they were influenced by Arianism or paganism. It was the established religion for only a few years.

By the 400s, the Roman Empire was weakening and scattering, so no one secular power can be credited/blamed for reviving the Catholic Faith.
 
He means explain how Henry VIII didn’t start the Church of England, most likely.
 
joeybaggz said:
I would simply answer with the truth. Jesus founded (started) the Church on Peter. Constantine, simply gave it an acceptable status in the Roman Empire, bringing to a halt the persecution of the Church over 300 years.

As other posters have said, there is centuries of the writings and teaching of the Apostles and the Early Church Fathers that support that the Church had been established by the time Constantine came to power.
Click to expand...
All the popes for the first 300 years were murdered. Constantine stopped that.

Helena, or Saint Helena, was an Empress of the Roman Empire, and mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. Wikipedia

Helena (empress) - Wikipedia


Jump to After Constantine’s ascension to the throne - Helena, or Saint Helena (Greek: Ἁγία Ἑλένη, Hagía Helénē, Latin: Flavia Iulia Helena Augusta; c. 250 – c. 330), was an Empress of the Roman Empire, and mother of Emperor Constantine the Great.
Religion‎: ‎Nicene Christianity Burial‎: ‎Mausoleum of Helena
Reign‎: ‎325 – 330 (5 years)

She mounted an expedition to the Holy Land … and “discovered” the True Cross.
 
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Pilgrimage and relic discoveries[edit]
See also: Early centers of Christianity § Jerusalem
Constantine appointed his mother Helena as Augusta Imperatrix, and gave her unlimited access to the imperial treasury in order to locate the relics of Judeo-Christian tradition. In 326-28 Helena undertook a trip to the Holy Places in Palestine. According to Eusebius of Caesarea (260/265 – 339/340), who records the details of her pilgrimage to Palestine and other eastern provinces, she was responsible for the construction or beautification of two churches, the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, and the Church of Eleona on the Mount of Olives, sites of Christ’s birth and ascension, respectively. Local founding legend attributes to Helena’s orders the construction of a church in Egypt to identify the Burning Bush of Sinai. The chapel at Saint Catherine’s Monastery—often referred to as the Chapel of Saint Helen—is dated to the year AD 330.

The “True Cross” and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre[edit]
Jerusalem was still being rebuilt following the destruction caused by Titus in AD 70. Emperor Hadrian had built during the 130s a temple over the site of Jesus’s tomb near Calvary, and renamed the city Aelia Capitolina. Accounts differ concerning whether the temple was dedicated to Venus or Jupiter.[20] According to Eusebius, “[t]here was a temple of Venus on the spot. This the queen (Helena) had destroyed.”[21] According to tradition, Helena ordered the temple torn down and, according to the legend that arose at the end of the 4th century, chose a site to begin excavating, which led to the recovery of three different crosses. The legend is recounted in Ambrose, On the Death of Theodosius (died 395) and at length in Rufinus’ chapters appended to his translation into Latin of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, the main body of which does not mention the event.[c] Then, Rufinus relates, the empress refused to be swayed by anything short of solid proof and performed a test. Possibly through Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem, she had a woman who was near death brought from the city. When the woman touched the first and second crosses, her condition did not change, but when she touched the third and final cross she suddenly recovered,[d] and Helena declared the cross with which the woman had been touched to be the True Cross.

On the site of discovery, Constantine ordered the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
 
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