Witch Hunt

[servus_Mariae]

When somebody brings up witchhunting to defame or think negatively of Catholicism, what should I answer? Is it a hoax or exaggerated?

 

[juno24]

When somebody brings up witchhunting to defame or think negatively of Catholicism, what should I answer? Is it a hoax or exaggerated?

Ask them for specific examples. If they really do want to discuss it (instead of just flinging accusations) they will have specific cases in mind. It is not up to you to defend something so nebulous. It is up to them to substantiate their claims. You can discuss the topic rationally once they do that.

 

[Nita]

When somebody brings up witchhunting to defame or think negatively of Catholicism, what should I answer? Is it a hoax or exaggerated?

It’s something I personally would prefer to avoid. Is the person bringing it up a Protestant? If so, you might remind them that the witch hunting that took place here in America (eg Salem witch hunt) was conducted by Protestants.

 

[CentralFLJames]

You might remind them of the Protestant revisionist history that wants to use subjective emotionalism and hysteria to decry the Catholic Inquisitions at the same time it wants to forget its own greater travesties by the secular governments under the Protestant “Church” (which at that time made its monarchs and secular leaders its “church” leader). The true history bears out that the laity preferred Catholic Inquisitional courts over secular ones since they were so lenient and had a real standard of justice requiring eye witness accounts. The secular systems used under Protestantism rule could kill and torture a person under mere claim of witchcraft. The inquisitions resulted in only a few hundred executions (of those proved in court under real justice principals to be true satanic worshipers and self admitted unrepentant heretics who refused to recant when given the chance). Whereas Lutheran Germany for example burned 26,000 or so woman generally believed to be witches just on someone’s claims.

This Protestant tradition of “witch hunting” follows the Protestants to America as they flee to here to escape the general tyranny of their fellow Protestants they put in positions of authority to replace the Catholic popes; where witchs are again burned at the stake or executed in various places. So far none have been so bold to claim this was an American tradition.

Witch Hunting like “revisionist history” (and “Reformation” in general) is a shameful Protestant Tradition that many Protestants try to subscribe to Catholics since they claim to have no traditions and know that we admit that we do.
Findings of Catholic Inquisition Symposium:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition

In 2000 Pope John Paul II called for an “Inquisition Symposium” and opened the Vatican to 30 external historians. Their findings called into question certain long-held beliefs. It emerged that more women accused of “witchcraft” died in the Protestant countries than under the Inquisition. For example, the Inquisition burned 59 women in Spain, 36 in Italy and four in Portugal, while in Europe civil justice put to trial close to 100,000 women and burned 50,000 of them.[11][12] Some 26,000 persons condemned as witches died in Germany.[13]

James

 

[survive]

The witch hunts started with laywomen (and a few laymen) accusing women (and a few men) of cursing their property because some things were happening that people didn’t understand. The Church largely defended those accused of witchcraft, far from doing the accusing. It was the Catholic church first, later every major Protestant power in Europe and North America, that banned witch hunting on the grounds that there was no way of knowing whether witches even still existed; there was no way of findng out whether someone was a witch; and there was a slim to none chance a Christian was even vulnerable to a witch’s curses if there were such about in the first place. The Christian leaders also outlawed it on the grounds that the trials were leading to cruelty and slander, and had to stop immediately.
The total number of people executed as witches was most likely around 200,000 in two continents in four hundred years, a quarter to a fifth of them men, and the accused persons we know much about all seem to have been stricken with dementia, which causes strange behavior. There was no Church conspiracy to get rid of (choose one) a) an ancient remnant of paganism b) midwives c) herbalists d) smart women e) a rival Christian group… Rather, there were several separate waves of hysteria caused by unexplained, distressing events, leading to a cruel campaign that the Catholic as well as Protestant leaders were trying to quell.
I believe much of this is in the CA library. If not, I might find the time to track down sources.
Does this help?