Is the Catholic Church a racist institution?

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“The negro has a religious nature. His docile, cheerful, and emotional disposition is much influenced by his immediate environment, whether those surroundings be good or evil. Catholic faith and discipline are known to have a wholesome effect on the race. Observing men and judges of courts have remarked on the law-abiding spirit existing in Catholic coloured communities. Some elements of the white man’s civilization do not always tend to elevate the morality of the negro. The negro is naturally gregarious, and the dissipations and conditions of city life in many instances corrupt the native simplicity of the younger generation to the sorrow of their more conservative elders. (For a view of religion in these later times among the blacks in the native African home of the race, see AFRICA.) Contrary to a prevalent opinion, the negro, when well grounded in the Catholic faith, is tenacious of it.”
newadvent.org/cathen/12627a.htm

Peace.
 
In a word, no. BTW, Christ was Jewish not African American, Irish, Chinese, etc. Pictures of Christ as anything else always crack me up. It’s called history, not racism. I’m Irish. He probably didn’t look like me either! The important thing is that Christ came and died for all.
 
As a cradle Catholic, I’ve never seen any evidence of that.

BTW, I attended a Catholic parish a couple of months back that had a majority of African-Americans in their parish. No difference in the way they worship (with the exception of the gospel choir!).
 
Being that the Catholic Church is so international, including people of all backgrounds, and expresses itself in so many unique rites, I would say that it is not a racist institution at all.
 
The Catholic Encycopedia, while usually helpful, is not a magesterial document and so may not reflect the teaching of the Catholic Church. Read magestrial documents on these subjects and you will see what the Church actually teaches. Also, a racist institution would not have black saints–like St. Martin de Porres–or have black people in the higher ups–such as Cardinal Arinze. (Also, in certain eras, Negro simply meant Black or African-American, it didn’t necessarily have a racist connotation–it was just the term used)

The Church is Catholic–Universal–because it accepts all people. Here is a good example of this when the new races of people in the New World were discovered (it applied to Africans as well). It’s an encyclical by Paul III from 1537. At this time, the whole world was racist for the most part, but notice what the Catholic Church’s stance is on this subject. Notice how the racists are basically called minions of Satan.

papalencyclicals.net/Paul03/p3subli.htm
 
Exactly the opposite. The Church teaches that racism is a sin.
 
The Catholic Encyclopedia which is online was published in 1909 - 96 years ago.

Go and check the 1909 edition of the Encyclopedia Britanica or the 1909 Websters tell us what they say about negroes.

If you wish to study history you must always put what you learn in the context of the time and don’t view with 21st century eyes.
 
Mike Dye:
Exactly the opposite. The Church teaches that racism is a sin.
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If that is true, why were Hitler, Mussolini and Franco never excommunicated despite being Catholics?
 
Hitler wasn’t actually in communion with the church. Though as an infant he was baptized he didn’t actually practice the faith.

What good would it do to excommunicate someone who isn’t actually in communion in the first place? If someone isn’t in communion, how can they be removed from communion at all?
Wouldn’t such an action have had the result of increasing persecution of Catholics living under the Third Reich (who were already rather persecuted) and thus stopping them in their attempts to save Jews?

These attempts are well documented, but often conveniently ignored. Here for instance is a review of a book, “The Myth of Hitler’s Pope”, a book written by a Rabbi:

lewrockwell.com/woods/woods48.html
 
How can it be, the church is everywhere…

at my parish we have an Aussie priest, a French-Canadian, and a priest from Morroco. Our congregation is ethnically diverse, with Phillipino, Europeans, Indians, Chinese and Australians.

We are all Catholic…one of the beautiful things of the Universal Church.
 
The institution itself is not racist. However, we do have some racists in our parishes. 😃
 
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Pensees:
If that is true, why were Hitler, Mussolini and Franco never excommunicated despite being Catholics?
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Hitler wasn’t Catholic. He hated the Catholic Church. I distently remeber a Hitler Idea about Jesus from history class. What was it? Oh yeah. Jesus was an illigete child of a Jewish W****. That is not a very Catholic stance on Jesus (or Mary). And Mussolini was a “Self-Proclaimed” Aithiest (heard from the History Channel). So those two, what good would it have done to excommunicate them. They wouldn’t have cared.

EDIT: Asteriod, Thanks for the book. I’ll have to go read it.
 
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Pensees:
If that is true, why were Hitler, Mussolini and Franco never excommunicated despite being Catholics?
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Because that’s not what excommunications are used for. Everyone knew they weren’t representing the Catholic faith–they may or may not have been born into it, but by the time they were dictators they had absolutely zero Catholic identity. The kinds of people who are excmmunicated are those who claim Catholicity and so they are excommunicated to relieve confusion among the faithful.
 
Racist? :ehh: Not at all.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
**1935 **The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it:

Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God’s design.
 
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GarryOwen:
Guilty of many things but racism is not one of them.
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It seems rather racist to take an entire group of people and insist that they think and act a certain way.
The Catholic Church today may not be racist but it was in the past. For example, consider how Christopher Columbus and his ‘missionaries’ treated the Native peoples of the Americas.
 
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Pensees:
It seems rather racist to take an entire group of people and insist that they think and act a certain way.
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Excuse me, but…

WHAT?

:whacky:
 
Pensees, PLEASE follow the advice of a previous poster and learn some HISTORICAL CONTEXT. Honi soit que mal il pense.
 
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Pensees:
It seems rather racist to take an entire group of people and insist that they think and act a certain way.
The Catholic Church today may not be racist but it was in the past. For example, consider how Christopher Columbus and his ‘missionaries’ treated the Native peoples of the Americas.
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Oh, dear. I do not believe that was based on race. I believe it was based on religion. That is what missionaries do…bring the Gospel to everybody without regard to race.
Also, Pensees, you asked the original thread question in the present tense, not the past. Which one do you want to discuss?Past or present?
 
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