The Church and the Bubonic Plague

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I have been debating with my brother in law over Benedict’s comment on condoms in Africa. One of the arguments that he used was that during the bubonic plague, the Church was busy debating how many angles would fit on the head of a needle, not helping the people. Today they are saying condoms should not be used, but are doing nothing about AIDS.

I am looking for two things:
  1. Is there a source where I can read about Church history in the 1340s? Specifically, what where the Church’s social outreaches like? What were they doing about the plague?
  2. A good source for what the Church is doing today in Africa to help combat AIDS.
Thank you and God Bless!

Fermat
 
Interesting question.

One needs to keep in mind that the “Germ Theory” of disease transmission did not gain any currency until the 17th Century and the first bacteria were not discovered until after the invention of the microscope.

The 14 C. Church had nothing to work with except to comfort the sick and to bless the dying. They were not aware of how the disease was passed, what the vector and the cause were. They only knew that people were getting very sick and dying an awful death. Of course not everyone who caught the plague died of it and those who had a mild case became immune but no body understood why either.

I will let others supply you with links as to what is being done about AIDS. At least we are aware now of viruses and how they can be spread so we have several advantages over the Church in the time of “The Black Death”.
 
the pope recently canonized a “plague saint”, a religious who died because he cared for plague victims, and he is only one of many such, canonized and those anonymous unrecognized heroes. Plague was recurrent during the middle ages and even up to the industrial age, not a one-time event. In general what organized medical care there was in the middle ages was offered under church auspices, through the monasteries, religious orders of clerics and laypersons dedicated to hospital work, and so forth. any good solid church history, (Warren Carroll’s is the best) or reliable social history of Europe during the time should give a good background.

it is also a fact, definitely in Asia, but in Africa as well, that the majority of agencies working with AIDS and HIV victims–and their families including orphans–are also run under Church auspices, or other Catholic charitable organizations. They have done much to alleviate the superstitions that prevent people from behaving responsibly and understanding the disease. there is a recent thread with a lot of links, but not on this forum, so it will take me a while to find it and will try to get back later today with actual links.

here is result of quick google on AIDS Africa Catholic Church
several links including those to CRS and Jesuit Aids project give your answers
search.yahoo.com/bin/search?fr=ybr_sbc&p=AIDS%20Africa%20Catholic

also search on AIDS Africa here for recent forum discussion
 
fermat said:
I have been debating with my brother in law over Benedict’s comment on condoms in Africa. One of the arguments that he used was that during the bubonic plague, the Church was busy debating how many angles would fit on the head of a needle, not helping the people. Today they are saying condoms should not be used, but are doing nothing about AIDS.

I am looking for two things:
  1. Is there a source where I can read about Church history in the 1340s? Specifically, what where the Church’s social outreaches like? What were they doing about the plague?
  2. A good source for what the Church is doing today in Africa to help combat AIDS.
Thank you and God Bless!

Fermat
Click to expand...
So what if there were people in the Church at the time debating how many angels could dance on the tip of a needle, we still have plenty of people who are in the universities working on some pretty esoteric things. That in would not negate that there could be lots of outreach then, as there can be now.
 
Most of what your brother is saying are myths and modern legends.

If anyone ever debated how many angels could stand on the head of a pin, in the old saw, it was a small part of the theological and philosophical study that always goes on in academia. The Church in the middle ages provided the ONLY hospitals available for people.

As far as AIDS goes, the facts back the Pope. Countries which have pushed condoms as a “cure” for AIDS like southern Africa and the Thailand, have seen AIDS rate rocket. Why? Because condoms inevitably fail, while encouraging the false belief that promiscuous sexual practices can be continued “safely.”

Countries like Uganda and the Phillipines where marital fidelity and abstinence have been stressed, are the main areas where AIDS has been kept in check.

See
nytimes.com/2003/04/20/world/low-rate-of-aids-virus-in-philippines-is-a-puzzle.html

lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06020308.html
 
No theolgian in Catholic history has seriously debated the question of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. This was a modern fabrication designed to parody and thereby discredit scholastics. It started innocently enough–seems like nothing more than a humourous jab in the 1600’s by a Protestant theologian. But it’s taken on a life of its own, because, guess what? People like discrediting the Church unfairly. If they don’t they might have to accept that what it’s saying is true, and then they and their sins are in an awful lot of trouble.

Theologians were discussing such questions as “Is there a God?” “What meaning is there in suffering?” “Whether the soul is immortal?” and the virtuous life in general, which, though they don’t count as direct aid, are nonetheless useful questions. Furthermore, scholastic theologians were a tiny fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the Christian Church in Europe in that century.

Your brother-in-law’s comment betrays both deep and irrational animosity towards the Church and the Scholastics who invented such useful things as the scientific method, the university, and the entire modern world as we know it, as well as a deep-seated hypocrisy, since I’m guessing he’s a well-educated individual whose never lifted a single finger on behalf of–never even met, I’ll bet–an AIDS victim in Africa.

Once he’s set himself up as a latter-day non-Catholic Mother Theresa, he can start wondering aloud about the Church’s sincerity during the Black Death. At that point, he will undoubtedly be an intellectually honest enough individual to know something about Middle Ages history before saying ignorant and slanderous things about the Catholic Church.

Hope that helps. 🙂
 
Actually, one of the giant ironies of the Black Death is that the Catholic Church tried to help people SO much, that it actually may have been a contributing factor to the problems that later led to the Reformation. Most good Catholic priests (both parish priests and those in the orders) tried to tend to the massive numbers of sick and dying, give out the Last Rites, and bury the dead. However, this would also lead to a huge number of them getting the plague themselves and dying, due to their close proximity. This led to several problems. First, the clergy that survived could often be priests of a lesser caliber. Although they survived, they did so by fleeing the plague and neglecting their duties. Second, the huge number of deaths in the clergy caused a priest shortage, and many unqualified and corrupt candidates entered the church. These problems helped to spawn the corruption that then led to the Reformation around a century later, since the corruption spanned both the bottom and the top levels of the church. (In the 900s AD, there was a similar problem with corruption, but this was dealt with effectively due to the Cluny Reform Movement, led by the religious orders (specifically, Cluny Abbey in France. This is when the Investiture Struggle was solved, celibacy was imposed as a rule, in part, to combat corruption, and the College of Cardinals was developed.)

In short, the huge numbers of Catholic priests that died is testament to the fact that they WERE doing their job, and trying to help in huge numbers. They died in far greater percentages than the lay population.
 
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