Enslaving and killing people is not part of spreading the Gospel.
I’m still a little bothered that if in the present, Hitler, Franco and Mussolini have still not been officially condemned by the Catholic Church. Martin Luther was excommunicated for making solid criticisms of the current state of the church. But these three men were responsible for genocide.
Did you not read the encyclical I posted above (post #5)? Seriously dude, do your reading before making your claims.
You must have also missed my post on excommunication above (post #13).
Maybe because they are dead!
My particular congregation includes people from Ethiopia, Egypt, and other Middle-Eastern peoples. The Catholic Churches in my town, however, are mostly white. But then again, this is mostly white of a town.
Mainly, what I am talking about is European Catholicism. Was Hitler ever officially condemned within his lifetime?
if you have any depictions of Christ in your home or even your church are they depicted as a Jewish Christ? I doubt it, most depictions I see are of a white Christ with blue eyes and blonde or brown hair. So for one to have a Black Jesus is just to identify. Though it shouldn’t matter what Christ looked like.
Ditto! I also chuckle when I see a black St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was a white man- that’s a historical fact. We have several black priests in our diocese who are from Africa. We also have several from South America and other eastern countries. The Catholic church is the most diverse in the world.
Interesting. How do you think it does this? Why in heaven’s name would it help my children to understand the Incarnation better to have Christ portrayed as a black person or a fair skinned, red head? This, in itself, would seem a little racist to me and certainly a little anti-semitic. Was Christ any less because he was Jewish? Are we ever going to get a portrait of Christ perfectly? No but he wasn’t black and he wasn’t a red-headed Irishman nor a Swede. For the record, I wouldn’t be happy if St. Martin De Porres was depicted as a blond hair blue-eyed guy either.
Several isn’t quite accurate. There were 3 of African decent - whatever that means. I certainly wish Kodak had been around since the birth of Christ! What does it matter anyway? The pope is the pope of all! If Cardinal Arinze had been elected, I’d have been every bit as happy!!! He would have been every bit my pope whether he looked like Irish like myself. The Catholic Church doesn’t focus on color, it focuses on humanity.
Browse the medieval pictures of the crucifixion, see the roman soldiers and you will see how the soldiers were in the middle ages, go to Ethiopia and you will see ethiopean icons of Jesus, Mary and the saints, all displayed pretty dark.
San Martín de Porres was a much more decisive man that generally presented, though
This article was written sometime in the 19-teens, and is more indicative of the culture and time in which it was written than the teaching of the “church”. There are many determinations that the church cannot make in itself; it often depends on the observations of scientists and other social observers to inform it’s own conclusions. This particular example, to me, is very indicative of scientific attitudes that were in place throughout the early 20th century in the West. This kind of discussion (casual and highly stereotyped observation of racial differences) is about the polar opposite of our own time (allergic to any such discussion of possible physical/mental/emotional/pathological racial differences). It’s pretty ugly to our modern sensibilities, but there it was nonetheless.
You seem to be equating condemnation and excommunication. They are very different things. Condemnation, theologically, is the eternal damnation of a soul to hell. As such, the Church does not have the power to condemn anyone, officially or no; in fact, her specific teaching is that no one has this power over any soul (“judge not lest ye be judged…”).