Okay, so I am a future social studies teacher, and as such i took a lot of history classes. Anyway, I always found there were so many myths about the church, but I could never prove anyone that these were not true except for one or two. Here are some of the examples, (i’ll think of more as they come along). Authentic sources are welcomed very much.
- The Church, outlawed the printing of the bible and didn’t want ordinary people reading. I know that part of this was because they didn’t want errors in translation and interpretation, and that books were very rare at this time. Still though, i’ve never found anything disproving this myth
- The Church used the ideas of fish fridays to support the fishing industry. Now I don’t know how long the fish friday rule has been in place so that would be a start, but this sounds (pardon the pun) fishy to me
- Pope Piux XII was Hitler’s pope. This irks me because he really did all he could, and I show people how he saved certain jews and did speak out, but the reply i get is “well thats a catholic source”. However, I myself even feel the pope could of done more, but he probably would have put himself in a lot of danger
Anyway, those are the big ones I’ve though of, If more come to mind, i’ll post them
In answer to your first question, perhaps this article: “Did the Catholic Church forbid Bible reading?” (
catholicbridge.com/catholic/did_the_catholic_church_forbid_bible_reading.php) will be of some help.
In response to your second question, I think the answer has to do with the fact that before Vatican II, Catholics were required to abstain from meat every Friday. On this point my grandfather once told me a humorous story. My grandfather worked for the Post Office after coming back from WWII. He was one of the only Catholics at work. The rest were mostly Freemasons. They were always making fun of him and harrassing him at work for being a Catholic. On one occassion he said they were all sitting together in the lunch room on a Friday and the only other Catholic co-worker in the lunchroom - a very tall, muscular “Coal Cracker” (as my grandfather called him) - turned to my grandfather and aksed, “What are you eating today?” My grandfather said, “A cheese sandwich.” The Coal Cracker said, “That’s what I have too.” And then the Coal Cracker turned to my grandfather and gestured to the Freemasons saying, “Look at these guys eating meat like a bunch of dogs.” My grandfather said after that he never had another problem with the Freemasons.
In response to your third question regarding Hitler, I would just say that Hitler hated the Catholic Church. A 1948 deposition by Gen. Karl Wolff, the SS commandant for Italy, revealed that the Nazis had plans to kidnap the pope, kill countless cardinals and seize the Vatican.
The following prominent Jews defended Pius XII: Golda Meir, Rabbi Herzog, Rabbi Finkelstein, Rabbi Safran, Jeno Levai, Moshe Sharett. Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide wrote in his
Three Popes and the Jews (1967) that Pius “was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands.” After Rome’s liberation, the chief rabbi of the city, Dr. Israel Zolli, expressed his immense gratitude to Pius for his bravery and for having saved so many Jews. I think that I’ll take the words of these Jewish leaders over the words of Rolf Hochhuth and John Cornwell.
As to the issue of the Concordat that is invariably brought up, I would note that Cardinal Faulhaber is reported to have said: “With the concordat we are hanged, without the concordat we are hanged, drawn and quartered." In Rome the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pacelli, told the British minister to the Holy See that he had signed the treaty with a pistol at his head. Hitler was sure to violate the agreement, Pacelli said. One of the crucial terms of the Concordat with Germany was that German officials were to regard baptized Jews as Christians. Pius ordered the monasteries, convents, and churches of Italy to issue false baptisimal certificates to give to Jews who were in hiding. He ordered his nuncio in Turkey (Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII) to prepare thousands of baptisimal certificates for refugee Jews arriving in Istanbul. The reality is that secretive, delicate Catholic diplomatic maneuvering in the face of a superior foe, saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
So, the general rule of thumb would seem to be that, if someone asserts a thing, they bear the burden of proving that it’s so… right? So, then… what proof of these things have been presented to you? Nothing? Well, then… issue resolved, right? 