CHURCH

HISTORY
(Study Notes)

By

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro, MCCJ

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 CHURCH HISTORY
(Study Notes)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. The Church during the Apostolic Age and the Roman Empire

II. The Church in the Middle Ages: Division and Basic Structure

III. The Church in the Modern Age. The Opening of a New Era

IV. The Historical Circumstances of the Protestant Reformation

V. The Council of Trent

VI, The Church in the Contemporary Era. The French Revolution

VII. The Church and Liberalism: The 1st Vatican Council

VIII. The Church, the Industrial Revolution and the Social Question. Communism
and the Russian Revolution

IX. The Second Vatican Council

X. The implementation of the Council and the present situation of the Church

XI. The Church in Asia

ALOKULUM, October 1979

MANILA, November 2011

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 THE APOSTOLIC AGE (33-100 AD)

What is the Church?:

I. PENTECOST: The Holy Spirit
II. The understanding of the early Church about itself:
The first Christians were calling themselves:
- Brothers and sisters
- Saints or saved ….
III. Relationship with the Synagogue:
- The Jewish heritage the O.T.
- The breakage: Jewish Rites and Council of Jerusalem
(50 AD).
IV. The call to the PAGANS: Antioch: “The Christians”.
- The persecution (40 AD) and the spreading of the
Gospel to the nations.
- St. Paul: a great missionary;
a great theologians: - Faith
- Grace and Law
- The Church, Body of Christ
- The destruction of Jerusalem (70 AD) and a further
thrust of missionary development.
V. The birth of the New Testament:
- The Writings: Gospels, Letters, Acts, …
- Relationship between Bible and Tradition. The Canon.
VI, The elements of the early Christianity:
- Jesus, The Risen Lord (Kyrios)
- Faith and Love
- Baptism and Eucharist
- The Apostles and apostolic Churches: Leadership in
the Early Church: Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons.

THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE (100-476 AD)

I. EXTRAORDINARY SPREADING OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE

ROMAN EMPIRE:

Reasons:
a) The Jewish and pagan expectations;

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b) The Jewish DIASPORA and the political unity of the Roman
world under the Roman emperors: one common Language
(koiné) and roads;

c) The extraordinary appeal of the Christian message and the

Christian example of life.

II. PERSECUTIONS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE:

a) The main reason of persecutions in the refusal of the Christians

to practice the official pagan worship and the worship of the
emperor which the emperors regarded as a sign of loyalty to
their authority. To refuse meant to rebel and be punished.

b) The main persecutions:

- Nero: St. Peter & Paul;
- Domitian: St. John;
- Trajan: Pope St. Clement, Ignatius of Antioch;
- Marcus Aurelius;
- Septimius Severus;
- Decius: Saint Lawrence
- Valerianus;
- Diocletian: Saint Agnes.

c) The persecution lasted for 250 years: “The blood of Martyrs

is seed of new Christians” (Tertullian). Not all the Christians
were martyrs. Many more were “lapsi” meaning fallen
Christians. Dealing with the “lapsi”, the Church developed
the PENITENTIAL DISCIPLINE.

The many thousands of martyrs and especially some of them

of special importance became object of veneration: Mass
was said over their bodies or relics, they were looked upon as
examples of Christian life and they were considered as
intercessors in front of God. This is the origin of the CULT
OF THE SAINTS in the Catholic Church.

d) The Persecutions ended in the year 3I3 AD, with the Edict
of Milan by emperor Constantine, after his victory over
Massentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge.

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 III. INTERNAL DIVISIONS –HERESIES- AND THE STRUGGLE
TO OVERCOME THEM.

a) Theology (Faith looking for understanding) is the study of the

Christian message or doctrine. In the early Church, theology was at its
beginning. Many questions were still unanswered and different
opinions about Christian truth gave origin to divisions: heresies. The
struggle to overcome these divisions was very hard. It was conducted
especially through the ECUMENICAL COUNCILS and the study and
writings of the FATHERS OF THE CHURCH.

b) Main Heresies:
(1) ARIANISM: it was started by a certain Arius, who was a priest
at Alexandria in Egypt, around the year 3I8 AD. The idea was that
Jesus is not God, but a very good man possessed by God, but a mere
creature.
An ecumenical (general) council was summoned at NICAEA (325
AD).There the divinity of Christ was proclaimed “as one in substance
with the Father” (omousious) and the famous CREED OF NICAEA
was composed. The most outstanding bishop who fought against
Arius was ST. ATANASIUS who was exiled many times by the
emperors who were in favor of Arianism.

(2) The heresies connected with the understanding of the unity of divine
nature and human nature in Christ:

i. NESTORIANISM: from Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinopolis,

who did not fully recognize the divine nature in Christ and was saying
that Mary was not the mother of God (Theotokos) but only the mother
of Christ (Christotokos). In the year 431AD, a council was called at
Ephesus: the unity of Christ’s person, the second person of the Holy
Trinity, was defined where human nature and divine nature meet. Christ
was called theanthropos (God-Man) and Mary theotokos (mother of God).
A great bishop who fought against Nestorius was Cyril of Alexandria.

ii. MONOPHYSICISM: was an exaggeration on the other side: only

the divine nature was stressed, reducing Christ’s humanity to nothing.
The champion of this theological view was Eutyches, abbot of a

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monastery near Constantinopolis. In the year 451AD, the ecumenical
council of CHALCEDON put an end to the controversy and, under the
influence of pope LEO THE GREAT, it defined that in Jesus Christ, the
divine and human natures are present in the unity of one person: the person
of the divine Logos or Word. In this union (Hypostatic union) rests the
whole redemption by Christ: the doctrine of salvation.

(3) Heresies connected with the doctrine of salvation (Soteriology):

i. PELAGIANISM: from Pelagius, a British monk. He was saying that

the human nature is good and that Jesus helped us only with his good
example. Man can reach salvation with his own strength; the grace of Jesus
is only a help.

ii. MANICHAEISM: from Mani, a Persian of the III century, he took

up the pagan doctrine of the two principles: the God of Evil (O.T.) and the
God of Goodness (N.T.). The body comes from the principle of evil;
consequently, Mani preached extreme severity against the body up to the
point of forbidding marriage.

iii. DONATISM: Donatus, a bishop in Northern Africa, was the

beginner of a schism which opposed an organized church of the PURE or
SAINTS to the official Church. St. Augustine, The great bishop and Father
of the Church, was defeated in his efforts to overcome Donatism with
peaceful means and was driven to the position of justifying the intervention
of the public authority (coercion or force) in order to stop Donatism. This
principle will bear poisonous consequences in the following centuries of the
history of the Church. The Arabs arrived in North Africa, during the VII
century and found a church divided and weak and destroyed it.

St. Augustine had fought successfully against Pelagianism with his

principle: QUI CREAVIT TE SINE TE NON SALVABIT TE SINE TE /
God who created you without your cooperation will not save you without
your cooperation. The doctrine of grace and freedom remained somehow
opened and it will be taken up by Luther and the Protestant Reformation.

(c) This time sees also the developing of Theology and the appearance of
great figures of scholars and bishops in the Church, who with their teachings
and writings, helped to overcome the heresies and developed theological and

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biblical studies and constitute the backbone of Christian TRADITION.
They are called the FATHERS & DOCTORS of the Church.

The most famous ones are:

- for the Western Church: - St. Ambrose of Milan;
- St. Augustine of Hippo;
- St. Jerome;
- St. Gregory, the great (pope);
- for the Eastern Church: - St. Athanasius;
- St. Basil;
- St. Gregory Nazianzen;
- St. John Crysostom.

IV. THE BARBARIANS AND THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

THE CHURCH AND THE BARBARIANS.

During this time, the great institution of the Roman Empire comes to
an end.
1. The capital is transferred to Bysantium (Constantinopolis) by emperor
Constantine. Nowadays it is called Istanbul.
2. The Roman population had become corrupt and soft.
3. New peoples were pressing at the borders of the empire: primitive tribes,
coming from the North and from the East of Europe and Asia: VANDALS,
HUNS, OSTROGOTHS, LOMBARDS, FRANKS, VISIGOTHS. They
were very fierce and were attracted by the richness of Rome. First they were
kept outside the borders by the Roman Army. Then they started invading
the territory of the empire:
- 410 AD: The Vandals of Alaricus destroy the city of Rome, looting;
- 452 AD: The Huns of Attila are stopped by Pope Leo, the great, just
outside Rome.
- Eventually, they spread all over the empire: - Visigots and Vandals in
Northern Africa; Franks in France; Lombards in Italy; Huns in Hungary, etc.
4. The authority of the empire being far away at Constantinopolis (the
Western Empire had collapsed in 456), the only defender of the people was
the Church: the Pope and the Bishops. Far from being destroyed by the
BARBARIANS, the Church fought to convert them to Christianity and, at
the same time, to save the great works of the Roman civilization. The great
missionary movement for the conversion of the new peoples includes some
famous names:
- St. Patrick in Ireland;

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 - St. Boniface in Germany;
- St. Cyril and Metodius in the East (Slavic peoples);
- St. Augustine of Canterbury in Britain;
- And some famous women, too: St. Clotild in France (wife of Clovis,
king of the Franks); St. Theodolinde, wife of Theodoricus, King of the
Lombards.

But with the missions to the Barbarians, we enter in a New Era:

THE MIDDLE AGES.

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 THE CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE AGES
DIVISION AND BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES
(500 – 1500 AD)

1. The Middle Ages is the period which goes from the fall of the Roman
Empire to the eve of the Protestant Reformation or Revolution. During this
long period, the Church had to face the conversion of the new nomadic
peoples who emerged from the territories of Eastern Europe and Asia and
entered Europe and North Africa (The Barbarians).

2. The decline of the political influence of the Roman Empire is replaced by

a new power: the German tribes, which are unified under the leadership of
the Franks and their king: CHARLEMAGNE( Charles The Great), giving
birth to the so-called WESTERN HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE.

3. During the course of these happenings, we have the origin of the

PAPAL STATES, which were born out of the effort to keep the pope’s
independence and freedom among the political confusion of the ages, but
which will bring also very many problems to the Papacy throughout the
following centuries.

4. The appearance of MOHAMED AND THE MOSLEM RELIGION is

one of the greatest features of the Middle Ages: the Moslem conquest of the
Middle East and North Africa constituted a threat to the very existence of
Christianity. Against the Moslems, there is the movement of the
CRUSADES.

5. The effort of the Church to free herself from the influence of the Political
Power gave rise to a terrible tension and struggle between the Pope and
the Emperor in the so called QUESTION OF INVESTITURES. The Pope
comes out on top. The Church enters an age of splendor and revival, but the
unity of Europe is broken because of the decadence of the Holy Roman
Empire. We have the emergence of the different national states.

6. The climax of the Christian Middle Ages brings about a revival in the life
of the Church, especially with the appearance of the so called MENDICANT
ORDERS: The Franciscans and the Dominicans. A great step forward in
philosophy and theology coincides with the flourishing of the first
UNIVERSITIES. The appearance of the VERNACULAR LANGUAGES is

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accompanied by the development of the arts: everywhere beautiful
romantic and gothic cathedrals are built and magnificent series of paintings
brings the message of the bible to the masses.

7. The cultural revival brings about the movement of the RENAISSANCE

in which the seeds of the modern mentality appears that will produce the
Protestant Revolution. The Eastern Church breaks away from the Catholic
communion and the Eastern Roman Empire falls under the blows of the
Moslem Turks.

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 THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN AGE

THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA

The three new elements which contributed to the change into a new era in
the history of the Church and of the world, from the Middle Ages to the
Modern Age, are:

I. The Renaissance

This word means re-birth and it describes the new interest, among the
educated people of the XV and XVI centuries, in the ancient civilization of
Greece and Rome. Italy was the leading country in the Renaissance
Movement.

The followers of this movement were called humanists. The works of the
ancient literature and art were studied and imitated very much: as a
consequence a great revival of art and literature took place. Church
people, especially Bishops and Popes, were very much involved in this
movement.

Beautiful churches were built, among them the famous basilica of St. Peter
in Rome. The greatest artists of that time were Michaelangelo, Leonard of
Vinci and Raphael. But, unfortunately, the work of building and producing
such nice things put stress on material prosperity and brought an
exaggerated pressure on the faithful because of taxations.

Moreover, the mentality of the Church Leaders was affected by the pagan
influence of the Greek and Roman civilizations. The moral behavior of the
Church Leaders became very loose and great scandals appeared in the
Church. The Renaissance Popes became notorious for their low moral
behavior: especially immorality, greed for money and nepotism. The worst
of all was Pope Alexander VI (Borgia).

The reaction against exaggerated taxes and the desire of a reform in the
Church were among the reasons which provoked the Protestant
Reformation.

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 II. The Discoveries

The 12th October 1492, Christopher Columbus, captain of three small

ships (Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria) belonging to the King of Spain, after
crossing the Atlantic Ocean, reached America. He thought that he had
reached Asia (Japan), but afterwards it became clear that a NEW WORLD
had come in touch with Europe.

The consequences of this discovery were enormous: new peoples and

civilizations came to the knowledge of the old world: new crops and
materials (e.g. Tobacco, rubber, cocoa, potatoes etc.) were known; and a
new dimension was achieved in the idea of the world. Traveling especially
by sea increased very much and eventually a new great missionary era
took place for the Church.

Two nations of Europe were very much involved in the discoveries: Spain
and Portugal. A sailor by the name of Vasco de Gama was the first to sail
around Africa (circumnavigate): he was a Portuguese. As a consequence of
their activity, the great sub-continent of Latin America is now having the
largest Catholic population in the world and the Philippines is the only
Catholic/Christian country of Asia.

III. The Protestant Reformation (Revolt/Revolution)

Germany was the country which contributed most to the third and most
important movement of the age: the Protestant Reformation or Revolt. This
brought about the BEAKING UP OF THE UNITY in the visible body of the
Church and the birth of the Protestant Churches.

A. Some reasons which favored the Protestant Reformation:

(1) The corruption in the Leadership of the Church and in religious life.
The Popes and the Bishops were very much involved in worldly matters,
like buildings and wars, harassing the Christian countries with taxes. The
main offices in the Church were in the hands of nobles families, which
were distributing them to their relatives without thinking if they were fit or
not. In this way, bad Cardinals were electing bad Popes and bad Popes were
choosing bad Cardinals. It was a vicious circle. Many good people in that
time, even Saints, were hoping and struggling for a Reform in the

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Church; but the Leadership of the Church fell short of it. When it came, it
was too late in order to avoid the division.

(2) The emergence of the different nationalisms as a consequence of the

decadence of the idea of empire and the desire to break away from the
financial and political pressure of papal Rome. Especially kings and princes
resented the interference of the authority of the Church in worldy matters.
The Protestant Reformation, when it came, was favored by the civil
authorities in their desire to grab the properties of the Church and to be
free from its influence.

(3) Bad theology and poor quality of the popular devotion (piety).

Against the corruption of the Church at that time: there developed some
Trends in theology and in devotion or piety which prepared the Protestant
Reformation:

• The stress on the “spiritual and invisible church” or the “Church of

the Holy Spirit;

• The tendency towards personal devotion or individual piety

(DEVOTIO MODERNA) without much concern about the
Sacraments, the Mass and Liturgy;

• A distrust of human reason and human nature as totally incapable

of Reaching God: only God’s grace and faith, as we find them in the
Holy Scripture, can be a foundation for theology and spirituality or
spiritual life.

These trends of thought were present in the Church at that time and they
were not necessarily meant to provoke a major crisis in the life of the
Church, if it were not for the action of one person who turned them
deliberately against the official Church. This person is an Augustinian priest
and religious by the name of MARTIN LUTHER, the beginner of the
Protestant Reformation.

THE HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PROTESTANT

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 REFORMATION OR REVOLUTION

1. MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546), an Augustinian monk, as an individual

and a theologian, was obsessed by the problem of justification and by the
fear of damnation. (Luther’s private agony).

2. At a certain moment (the experience of the tower), he was struck by St.

Paul’s words (Rom, 1:16-17): “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel: it is the
power of God saving all who have faith-Jews first, but Greeks as well- since
this is what reveals the justice of God to us: it shows how faith leads to faith
or, as scripture says, ‘The upright man finds life through faith’. Luther
conceived justification as coming exclusively from God’s grace, to be
achieved by faith alone (sola gratia; sola fides). The individual is assured of
his salvation by the words of the Scripture, without the mediation of the
Church (sola scriptura; individual interpretation).

3. In 1517: the spark which gave origin to the Protestant Revolt is the stand
that Luther took against the collection of money through the preaching of
indulgences. He wrote 95 Propositions and sent them to the Bishops,
expounding his new Doctrine about justification by faith alone and not by
any good work including indulgences.

4. 1520: Pope Leo X sent the letter EXURGE DOMINE, telling him to
retract his wrong ideas, under threat of excommunication. Instead Luther
wrote three pamphlets, condemning the Pope and the Central Government of
the Church and asking the German Princes to rebel against Rome. In
December of the same year, he burned publicly the letter of the Pope,
cutting himself from the communion of the Church and becoming a rebel.
He felt strong because he had many followers especially among those who
wanted a reform in the Church.

5. 1521: The emperor CHARLES V called Luther to a meeting in

WORMS and asked him to submit to the Pope. Luther refused, saying that
he will only obey the Scripture. On his way back from the meeting, he was
kidnapped by the soldiers of prince Frederick the Wise of Saxony, his
protector, and taken to WARTBURG CASTLE secretly, saving him in this
way from the hands of the Emperor. There Luther translated the New
Testament into German and directed the movement of revolt which spread
everywhere in Germany. Emperor Charles V, who was supposed to enforce

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the Law against Luther, was away for 9 years because of the business of his
great empire.

6. THE REVOLT SPREAD AMONG THE PEASANTS who took

advantage of the situation to ask for justice and freedom from their
landowners. But Luther turned against them and exhorted the Princes to
suppress and kill them. Since then the movement of reformation fell more
and more in the hands of the Princes interested in grabbing the properties
of the Dioceses and Religious Orders.

7. 1529: Charles V comes back and wants to enforce the decision taken at
Worms. The Princes who have turned on Luther’s side protest strongly:
this is when the Reformers are first called: PROTESTANTS. The
emperor as well as the Protestants are eager to settle the matter during a
COUNCIL of the whole Church.

8. 1555: The Peace of AUGSBURG: Charles V has resigned. The new

emperor, Ferdinand, decides to put an end to the fight, recognizing the
division which has taken place. The principle followed to reach the
agreement is: CUIUS REGIO EIUS ET RELIGIO, which means that the
Prince of the place will impose his Religion (whether Catholic or Protestant)
to his population. Those who refuse must emigrate or face the
consequences.

The peace and the settlement were meant to be provisional. The final
settlement was supposed to come from the Council which had started in
Trent. But instead the separation or split in the Church was completed. The
council of Trent, for which emperor Charles V, and many others good
minded people, had struggled so much, was only effective for the Catholic
Church and brought about the long awaited REFORM of the Church.

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 THE COUNCIL OF TRENT (1545-1563)

1. The Council had been conceived and hoped for as an occasion for
clearing the points raised by the Protestants. The Reformers (or Rebels)
were meant to be there. But when it was, at last, summoned, things had
already gone too far.

The Protestants appeared only in 1552, during the second session, and they
wanted the Council to discuss everything again by the authority of the
Scripture alone. Moreover they wanted the Bishops to be free from the
authority of the Pope. A dialogue was no longer possible.

The Council of Trento was therefore an internal affair of the Catholic

Church, meant to establish the true Catholic doctrine and to take the
disciplinary measures in order to reform the bad state of the Church.

2. The Council was faced with two tasks: and to answer the Protestants
to reform the Church. The two tasks were carried out simultaneously or at
the same time in the three Sessions of the Council. In answering the
Protestants, the Council did not enter into argument or polemic, neither did it
mention their names. It only clearly established the Catholic doctrine
About the points which were attacked by the Reformers. It also condemned
heretical doctrines opposed to the teaching of the Council, but without
mentioning the names of any heretic.

3. THE POINTS TOUCHED BY THE COUNCIL ARE:

a) The sources of Revelation are two: Church Tradition and Holy

Scripture: both to be considered with equal reverence and love and to be
interpreted under the authority of the Church. This was against the
protestant idea of Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone).
b) With the Original Sin, Human nature was wounded but not
absolutely corrupted. Man is free to answer God’s initiative of salvation
and to cooperate with it. Therefore, Justification comes completely from
God and from our free cooperation, not from God’s grace only, as a cloak
which covers our sins (sola gratia, sola fides). The believer who stands in
grace and who acts out of faith and out of love, can perform rewarding good
works.

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 c) The Sacraments, as channels of grace together with faith, were
stressed and their number (7) was fixed authoritatively against the
Protestants who believed only in Baptism an Holy Communion.
d) Eucharist was upheld as sacrifice and meal. The real presence of Jesus
was defined by means of the doctrine of transubstantiation, i.e. the bread
and wine are really and substantially changed into the Body and Blood of the
Risen Christ.
e) The sacramental character of absolution in Penance was stated together
with the sacrament of Order or ministerial Priesthood (Deacons, Priests,
Bishops) and the sacrament of Marriage.

4. THE DISCIPLINARY LINES FOR THE REFORM OF THIS CHURCH

WERE AS FOLLOWS:

• the establishment of Seminaries for training the ministers of the

Church (Priests);

• the rule and obligation of residence for Bishops and Parish Priests;

• the reform of Liturgy: the Missal, the Breviary and the Ritual;

• auricular confession;

• the canonical form of Marriage in front of a priest;

• the Catechism of the Catholic faith to be taught in the parish schools

of Christian Doctrine.

CONCLUSION:

All these decrees and regulations contributed to a renewal of the Church

and shaped the face of Catholicism up to the present time (II Vatican
Council).
But the Council of Trent was only the beginning of a great wave of
renewal and Religious fervor: the Holy Spirit raised up a great number of
holy men and women who implemented the decrees of the Council
especially by the example of their lives.

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 At the same time, the great missionary development towards the newly
discovered parts of the world gave back to the Catholic Church the
quantitative consistence reduced by the Protestant split.

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 THE CHURCH IN THE CONTEMPORARY ERA

THE CHURCH AND THE REVOLUTIONS

The modern world in which we live is the result of some great historical
happenings which brought much change in the relationship between
people and in their way of life.

The main ones are:

• The French Revolution (XVIII century);

• The Industrial Revolution (XIX century):

• The Russian Revolution (XX century).

The Church was caught up in these revolutions in different ways: as

Christian community, it lived through them: it suffered from them,
contributed to them and was enriched by them. Sometimes these historical
movements appeared to be against the Church as an institution or even
against Christianity itself. But eventually they contributed to the growth of
the Church and of mankind as a whole, offering new opportunities to the
preaching of the Gospel and contributing to the development of the world of
the present time.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789 – 1815)

A. THE ENLIGHTENMENT:

The French Revolution is the consequence of the Enlightenment which

developed throughout the whole XVIII century. The Enlightenment is a
movement of thought or ideas which stressed the power of the human
reason as the dominant force in human affairs. The Church contributed
very much to the Enlightenment through the studies of many Christian
scholars, priests and religious. Modern science (the knowledge of the laws
of nature) and technology (the way of applying this scientific knowledge to
the needs of human life in order to improve it) started to grow at a great
speed.

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Especially the dignity of the human person was very much enhanced by
means of the Declaration of Human Rights. When these ideas were
applied to the political systems of government, they gave origin to great
changes (revolutions), sometimes in a peaceful way, sometimes violently.

I. The first Declaration of the Human Rights took place on the occasion of
the Declaration of American Independence and the birth of the United
States of America (1776).

II. The second and most important one took place during the French
Revolution which had a great impact in the history of Europe and of the
world. We shall study the main features of the history of the Church during
the French Revolution.

B. REASONS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION:

The movement of the French Revolution was mainly a political one, aimed
at changing the form of government: from monarchic and aristocratic to
democratic (from the power of the king and few rich people to power
sharing by the majority of the people); from monarchy (the rule of the King)
to republic (the rule of the representatives of the people).

I. The French Revolution with the Church:

The main reason of the French Revolution was the increasing divorce or gap
between the institutions of the state and the real way of life of the French
people. The political power was held by the king, the nobles and the higher
clergy. But the economic power was in the hands of the III Estate: the
BOURGEOISIE (the traders, artisans and some workers). The expenditure
of the state was too high and the king Luis XIV called a meeting of the
three General Estates: the Clergy, the Nobles and the Bourgeoisie in
order to find a solution to the problem.

The meeting started with a solemn procession of the Blessed Sacrament. 47

Bishops and 208 Parish Priests were present in the meeting.

The meeting gave origin to the revolution when the III Estate and the clergy
decided to join forces in order to oppose the nobles and to give France a
Constitution (20th June 1789). This was called the Oath of the Tennis
Court.

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As a consequence, the meeting became NATIONAL ASSEMBLY with the
aim of giving France a Constitution. The new constitution opens with the
declaration of the right of man and of the citizen. The Ideals of the French
Revolution are summarized in the motto: Freedom, Equality and
Brotherhood (Liberté, Egualité, Fraternité).

II. The French Revolution against the Church:

Very soon a strong group in the National Assembly turned against the
Church:

1. They voted the taking over of the Church property in order to rescue the
bankruptcy of the state. Church property were sold at low cost.

2. They interfered in the condition of the religious: suppression of convents

and Religious homes.

3. The CIVIL CONSTITUTION OF THE CLERGY: independence from

the Pope; Bishops and priests chosen by the people; oath of loyalty to the
Constitution of the French State.

The majority of the French Bishops and Priests refused to take the oath
and started to live a clandestine life or to go into exile. The Church
became divided between JURORS and NON-JURORS. The King signed
the Constitution but then he regretted, and, especially after the Pope had
condemned the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, he tried to escape but was
captured. The nations around started waging war against France. The
Government was in a confused state.

In September 1792: massacres of priests and religious took place in

many parts of France.

III. The French Revolution against Christianity:

Against the threat of foreign invasion, the government was taken over by a
special Meeting called the NATIONAL CONVENTION and then the
COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY: monarchy was abolished, the King
and Queen were executed (January 1793). From that time up to 1795 it was
the reign of TERROR. Thousands of people (nobles, priests, loyal
Christians) were executed by means of the guillotine. The men responsible

21
for the terror were MARAT, DANTON and ROBESPIERRE. They wanted
to crash Christianity. They changed the name of months, and of days, they
abolished Sunday and made attempts to start a new Religion:

November 10 1793, the goddess REASON was enthroned in the cathedral of

Notre Dame in Paris and Christianity was officially abolished. This was the
darkest point of the French Revolution. But the people got tired of abuses
and killing. Robespierre was executed and the republic was taken over by a
committee of five men called the Directory. The persecution decreased but
the conditions of the Church was poor especially because of lack of priests
and religious and division among the Bishops.

IV. The French Revolution against the Pope:

In the meanwhile, the French Army obtained victory against the enemies and
started to invade the other countries of Europe and to spread the ideas of the
French Revolution. This happened because of a young general by the name
of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. Rome was captured and the Pope Pius
VI was taken prisoner and died in exile (1799).

In that moment, many people thought that he had been the last pope. His
death, they thought, was the death of the Church and of Christianity as well.

But it was not so. A new Pope was elected in a conclave in Venice, Pius
VII, a holy man. He went back to Rome and was welcome by the people.
Meanwhile Napoleon became First Consul in France and, during the short
years of peace (1802-4), he understood the need of bringing peace to the
hearts of the French people. Therefore, he negotiated a CONCORDAT with
the new Pope (1801). Christianity was declared the religion of the majority
of the French people, the division among the Bishops was healed, and, with
the new freedom, the Church improved very much.

In the year 1804, Napoleon declared himself emperor and started waging
war to many countries in Europe in order to bring them under his control.
Only England remained free. When he invaded the Papal States, the Pope
excommunicated him and Napoleon took the pope to France as his prisoner.

Napoleon invaded Russia and was defeated (1815). He died in a small

island (St. Helena) reconciled with the Church. Pope Pius VII went
back to Rome in triumph.

22
C. CONSEQUENCES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION:
1. The democratic and republican ideas of the French Revolution
spread throughout the world and gave origin to the movements of national
independence in many countries of Europe and America. As a consequence,
many revolutionary movements came into being and undermined the old
system of government.
2. The new system of Government was more in the hands of the
people(democratic) and it favored the separation of the state from the
Church.

3. As a consequence, the Church lost much support and wealth, but

gained in freedom and became closer to the conditions of life of the
common people.

4. Bishops and priests became more united, coming from every level of
the population and there was an extraordinary flourishing of new
religious congregation dedicated to social and missionary work.

5 The thousand of French priests and religious who went into exile in
England and America, contributed to the progress of the Church in
those countries. The end of the French Revolution coincides with
the beginning of an extraordinary missionary age of the Church.

6. The devotion to the person of the Pope and his authority increased
enormously all over the world as a consequence of the Pope’s unjust
suffering and of his final victory against Napoleon. It was a moral authority
based not on political or military power, but on the spiritual prestige of the
Popes.

7. The persecution which the French Revolution caused to the Church,

made the authority of the Church suspicious of the new current of
modern ideas and inclined to be conservative in outlook especially in
its relationship with LIBERALISM.

THE CHURCH AND LIBERALISM

(XIX Century)

23
1. The century that followed the French Revolution (1814-1914) was one of
great changes in different dimensions of life: political, social and economic.
In some ways it was the continuation of the process started by the
Enlightenment and spread by the French Revolution and Napoleon’s
ventures. The movement of ideas that underline these changes is called
LIBERALISM and the Church had to face it.

2. The word “Liberalism” comes from the Latin word “Libertas” which
means FREEDOM and it shows the main feature or characteristic of this
ideology which influenced every aspect of man’s life: the stress on man’s
freedom in every field.

3. Political Liberalism: During the XIX century we see the development

of the INDEPENDENCE movements: many countries of Europe and South
America become independent from foreign domination and united.

At the same time, there is a movement towards DEMOCRACY: that is the

rule of the people themselves against the authority of the kings. In the
different countries, new CONSTITUTIONS appear, following the example
of the American and French constitutions. These constitutions were meant
to limit the power of the Rulers and to make the people share in the
government of the countries.

This took place completely especially with the coming of the general
elections and the appearance of political parties. This change was very
important and it prepared the political atmosphere of the present,
contemporary world in which we live.

(a) The CONSEQUENCES for the life of the CHURCH were:

• separation of the state from the church: this separation is based on the
principle of freedom of religion. Sometimes it was done in a friendly
spirit, like in England and America, leaving the Church free to possess
material goods and exercise its pastoral mission. Other times it was
hostile: persecuting the Church, taking the Church’s properties and
preventing the Church from doing its pastoral work.

24
 • Freedom of speech, press and association: this new climate gave the
Church a new chance of announcing the Gospel, but it was also a
danger for religion because many anti-Christian ideas were spread
among the people.

(b) THE ROMAN QUESTION: the hottest political question of the XIX
century was the problem of the Papal States (or Roman Question).
Through the movement brought by Liberalism, Italy was becoming united
and freeing itself from foreign domination. An obstacle to this aim, was the
presence of the Papal States right in the middle of Italy. On one side, the
Italian patriots, many of whom Catholic, wanted their country to be united
and to have Rome as its capital; on the other side, the Popes believed that
they couldn’t renounce the territory of their state which they believed was
necessary for the independence of their universal mission as heads of the
Catholic Church.

The tension was terrible and it explains, in a way, the hard feelings which
developed between the Popes and Liberalism. In the year 1870, the Italian
government occupied militarily Rome and put an end to the temporal power
of the Popes and to the Papal States. The Pope retreated in the Vatican and
considered himself a prisoner. This tense situation continued up to the year
1929, when Pope Pius XI signed an agreement with the Italian government
(Lateran Treaty) by which the small state of VATICAN CITY was
created in order to insure the independence of the Pope and peace was
restored.

The political power of the Pope was reduced almost to a nothing, but his
moral and spiritual authority increased in a way unheard of before.

4. Intellectual liberalism: The tendency towards freedom which, in the

political field, was directed against the authority of the kings, in the field of
ideas (like science, philosophy, etc.) tended to eliminate the influence of the
authority of Religion and to stress the autonomy (independence) of every
discipline.

A. Development of science and technology

• Science: The XIX century is a great one for the development of

science, especially medicine, chemistry, biology, physics, etc…

25
 • The new discoveries in the field of science were applied to the needs
of human life by technology: many inventions of new machines (like
the steam engine, telephone, etc.) increased the power of human
beings over nature and the environment, contributing to the rising of
the present industrialized society.

• This wave of discoveries made humanity proud: there arose the idea
that we could solve all our problems with science, and therefore there
is no need of Religion any more. This idea is called SCIENTISM.
Religion was seen as a product of ignorance.

• It was believed that we could improve not only our material life but
even our moral and spiritual life by means of science and this
improvement will have no end (the myth of PROGRESS).

• There came the idea that everything developed from matter, including
human beings (MATERIALISM and the theory of EVOLUTION) and
that there is no God, but man is god to himself (ATHEISM).

B. The attitude of the Church:

Many scientists were good Christians and many Christians contributed to the
development of modern ideas of progress and freedom. But the general
attitude of the Church was one of mistrust and opposition to the modern
mentality.
The Popes, especially Blessed Pius IX, fought bravely against the anti-
Christian ideas of the age:

(1) December 8 1854: the proclamation of the dogma of

Immaculate Conception of our Lady. This religious happening was
interpreted as a challenge to the unbelieving ideas of the time. The dogma
was accepted with joy by the Christian people and contributed to increase
the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary as defense against the materialistic
mentality which was threatening the Christian Faith. In 1858, the
apparitions of our Lady to a young girl Bernadette Soubirous, at Lourdes,
France, seemed a confirmation from heaven of the courage of the Pope.
Huge crowds of people started going to Lourdes in pilgrimage, up to the
present day and many miracles of healing happened.

26
 (2) In the year 1864: the SYLLABUS: This is a list of the wrong
ideas of liberalism which was published by the Pope in order to warn the
Christian people. This document was very much opposed because it seemed
to condemn not only the errors against Religion, but also the achievement of
the age which were becoming the way of life of modern society:
democracy, freedom of speech, press, opinion, etc….
Although it encouraged the idea that Christianity is the enemy of
progress, the Syllabus was a courageous step in order to show that
everything in human life (economy, politics, ethics) is under the
authority of God and cannot be free from it.

(3) The most important happening of the time was the FIRST
VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL (1870), in which 750 bishops, out
of about 1000, from all over the world, took part. The Council was meant to
react against the errors of the time, especially materialism and atheism. As
we have seen before, the great Ecumenical Councils of the past had dealt
with the problem of Christ, God and Man; of the Holy Trinity in God; of
Justification and the Sacraments.
Vatican I spoke about four main points: God, Revelation, Faith and
the Relationship between reason (science) and faith.

• God, who is one, free and personal, is the Creator of all things,
distinct from them and independent of them.

• There are two kind of truth: those in the natural order, which reason
can attain by itself; and those in the supernatural order, which
Revelation alone can teach us.

• The act of faith is rational and free; it is an act both divine and human.
The domain of faith and reason (of science and religion) have definite
boundaries and there cannot be disagreement between faith and
reason, since God is the author of both orders of truth.

But the main topic of the Council was the definition of the primacy and
infallibility of the Pope when he speaks “ex chatedra” as head and
spokesman of the Church about matters of faith and moral. Never
before the spiritual authority of the Pope had been in higher consideration in
the whole Catholic world.

27
 Other points were in the agenda of the Council like the authority of the
Bishops and the nature of the Church, but the Council was never finished.
In the same year 1870, the city of Rome was occupied by the Italian army
and the Council was interrupted.

CONCLUSION:

The reaction of the Catholic world to the wave of ideas brought by

Liberalism had been strong. It had been necessary in order to strengthen the
Christian principals. Under the Pope Leo XIII, a move was made
towards a reconciliation: the principles of democracy were recognized and
the way was open for Catholics to participate in political and social life, and
in this way to bring the Christian principles into the life of modern society.
The process of contact and understanding between the Church and the
modern world and its aspirations will reach its highest point in the II Vatican
Council (1963-65) which dedicated its longest document to this problem:
“The Church in the Modern World” and one whole document to the question
of religious freedom (“Gaudium et Spes” and “Dignitatis Humanae”).
The Church, to fulfill its duty and mission, always needs, not only to
accept what is valid in the development of society, but also to warn against
dangers and errors.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

THE CHURCH, THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION

1. ECONOMIC LIBERALISM AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:

With the development of science and technology, a great change came in

the society of the XIX century especially in the most advanced countries like
England and Germany: the industrial revolution and the development of
capitalism. Big factories were started in which a great number of goods
were produced by means of newly invented machines.

28
 Great masses of people left the countryside and came to work in the
factories, swelling up the population of the cities. There were no laws to
protect the workers, because, according to the principles of Economic
Liberalism, the salaries were fixed through bargaining between the bosses
(capitalism) and the workers (proletarians) who were in this way terribly
exploited. They could be forced to work up to 15 hours a day, children and
women were also engaged without protection; no social securities,
insurances and pensions were in existence. This was called THE SOCIAL
QUESTION.
The State had nothing to do with the regulation of work because the main
liberal idea of the time was non interference (laissez-faire): the State had
only to favor the free play of the market place, of the market laws.
Society had changed profoundly and a new outlook was necessary. We
see therefore the development of SOCIALISM: a social theory which
intends to abolish the private property of the means of production and
come to the rescue of the workers.

2. KARL MARX AND COMMUNISM

The most important of the socialist thinkers is Karl Marx, a German

philosopher and economist, the founder of the modern Communist
movement, who, in 1848, published the famous Communist Manifesto
with the motto: “Workers of the whole world, unite!”.

According to K. Marx, the only true reality is the economic reality. He

sees the history of mankind as the struggle between people for the
possession of material goods (class struggle). Because of the law of private
property, mankind is divided into exploiters (bosses or masters) and
exploited (workers). The new industrial revolution and capitalistic
movement has brought the tension to a breaking point: accumulation of
wealth on one side, and accumulation of misery on the other side.

There will come a moment, when, through a violent revolution, the

workers will abolish the private property of the means of production and
start a new order in which no person will exploit another, but property will
be in common and everyone will receive according to his needs. THIS
IDEAL SITUATION IS COMMUNISM. The Communist Party is the
union of the workers in order to overthrow the capitalistic world and bring
about this revolution.

29
3. COMMUNISM AND RELIGION

K. Marx was a materialist and an atheist. He said that the only reality
is matter, and human beings build up their life through work. But, in the
capitalistic system, they is robbed of the fruit of their work by the bosses.
Because of this we are unhappy and alienated. Private property is a theft and
the original sin of society. Religion is the instrument of the capitalists
because it helps them to dominate the workers and keep them quiet with the
hope of heaven. God does not exist and religion is the opium of the
people.

When the workers will overthrow the capitalistic system, abolish private
property and start the communist society, they will enjoy the fruit of their
work, they will be happy and religion will disappear.

The main work of K. Marx is a book called THE CAPITAL which

became like the Bible of the new messianic religion of the Communists. We
shall see later on how the ideas of K. Marx were implemented in Russia and
how Communism became known and practiced by many other countries in
the world. The communist movement was the greatest movement of
ideas and change which appeared in the modern world and because of
his international success, it can be compared only with the spreading of
Christianity itself.

4. THE CHURCH AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION

The success of the communist and socialism movements was possible

only because Christians were slow in understanding that the new social
problems needed a new approach. The preaching of the Church was still
based only on the principle that the rich had to come to the help of the poor
out of charity. Because of this delay, a gap was created between the
Church and the working class which is not yet healed.

But in the second part of the XIX century, the social teaching of the
Church developed enormously and Catholic movements started organizing
the workers in TRADE UNIONS in order to fight for a new social order.
This social movement on the part of the Christians was encouraged by
POPE Leo XIII, with his encyclical: RERUM NOVARUM (The new

30
things), 1891, which applied the Christian principles of the Gospel to the
new social condition.

The Pope condemned the materialistic and revolutionary ideas of

Communism and, at the same time, the liberal ideas. He said that work is
not a good to be put on the market, but it is connected with the dignity of the
human person. He spoke of just salaries, or working hours, working
regulations, of the right of the workers to organize themselves in trade
unions so as to improve their conditions and of their right to go on strike if
necessary. He spoke of the social function of private property and of the
duty of the state to bring about social laws and reforms in order to bring
equality and harmony among different social classes.

The teaching of the Popes about social matters developed throughout the
decades up to the present day. The most important documents are the
encyclicals of the last Popes: John XXIII: Mater et Magistra (The Church,
Mother and Teacher); Paul VI: Populorum Progressio (The Progress of the
Peoples); John Paul II: Laborem Exercens (On Human Labor).

5. THE WELFARE STATE IN THE FREE WORLD

Meanwhile the social movement of the Christians prevailed in the

Western World, also because of the political commitment of the different
Christian Democratic Parties. Without the communist revolution, the most
advanced industrialized countries of the world like the United States of
America and the countries of the European Community are those in which
the conditions of the working class are far better off than in any part of
the world, communist countries included.

This came about also because of the Social-Democrats Movement by

which, since the last decades of the XIX century, Socialists abandoned the
revolutionary ideas of K. Marx and followed a path of loyalty to the
democratic institutions of the State and of social advancement through
reform. This course was influenced to a large extent by the Christian Social
Doctrine.

In this way, Social Catholicism contributed to the defeat of the

Communist threat and to the very survival of Christianity and showed
that the principles of the Christian Religion far from being the OPIUM of the

31
peoples, could express an astonishing vitality in solving the problem of the
modern age.

6. THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND THE SPREADING OF

COMMUNISM

An extraordinary chance for the implementation of K. Marx’ communist

ideas came in Russia, in the year 1917, when the Tzarist Monarchy
collapsed as a consequence of the Russian defeat in the World War I (1914-
1918). The Marxist ideas had remained largely only on paper up to that
moment, because in the most advanced industrialized countries, the social-
democrat and Christian-democrat movements had made the workers take a
different direction.

But in Russia, a small group of Marxists called BOLSHEVICS, led by

LENIN, gave origin to the Russian Revolution which overthrew the corrupt
tsarist regime an started the first communist government.

The Russian revolution brought about a violent change with millions

of dead; private property was abolished, religion was crushed and
atheism was imposed as the only ideology of the Russian people. Great
improvements in the life of the people were the result of the Revolution and
Russia became a great industrial power under the communist rule. But
freedom was lost for the Russian people and a bloody dictatorship took hold
of the country especially during the long rule of Stalin who enforced his iron
grip by means of secret police, executions and concentration camps.

The influence of Russia became worldwide through the organization of

communist parties throughout the world. Wherever a communist party came
to power, Christianity was crushed, Bishops and priests imprisoned and
killed, Catholic organizations abolished, churches and seminaries closed.
This happened in Mexico (under Calles, 1924), Spain (civil war 1936),
Cina (1948), and in the countries of Eastern Europe which fell under Russian
domination after the World War II (1939-1945). Because of the systematic
persecution and the overwhelming number of martyrs, the Communist
threat to the survival of Christianity can be compared only to the one
under the Roman emperors.

The Popes condemned atheistic communism on several occasions,

especially Pius XI with the encyclical: Divini Redemptoris (1937) and Pius

32
XII. The Church survived and even came to a new vitality (Poland): the
influence of Christianity was still strong in Russia itself where it contributed
to the underground dissidents movement which fought in order to bring back
religious and democratic freedom and the respect for human rights in that
country.

Eventually the Russian Communism collapsed because of internal implosion

and the influence of pope John Paul II and the “Solidarity” movement in
Poland. The external sign of the collapse of Communism was the
dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The end of the communist state in
Russia contributed to the disappearance of the Communist movement in the
world scene. Communist States remain in China, North Chorea, Cuba and
Vietnam in different stages of change to adapt to the globalization of World
Capitalism.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

THE SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL

The most important church event of the XX century is undoubtedly the

Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962-1965) which was called by
pope John XXIII with the intent of bringing the Catholic Church up to date
(aggiornamento) in order to make her pastorally more efficient and in line
with the times and especially giving a chance to the ecumenical cause,
working for the full unity with the Orthodox Churches and bringing the
Protestant churches closer as a consequence of the changes in the Catholic
Church brought by the Council.

The blossoming of the Catholic Church.

33
The period immediately following the conclusion of WWII saw an
extraordinary expansion of the Church. The missionary wave which had
started under Gregory XVI continued during the second part of the XIX
century and the first half of the XX. The largest harvest was gathered in
Africa, but also in all part of the world the missionary effort brought about
abundant fruits.

The sign of this was the establishment of the local churches with their
bishops all over the world. When the more than 2500 bishops gathered in
Rome for the opening of the Council (250 from Africa) the development of
the Catholic Church became apparent and it was clear that the Church, for
the first time since Pentecost, ha reached the ends of the earth. The
vocations were many both to the diocesan priesthood and to religious life
and the moral authority of the popes, especially Pius XII, was enormous.

The world had emerged from the trauma of WWII, the wind of
independence was blowing for the so called colored peoples. The first
country to become independent from Great Britain was India. The
independence of most of the countries of black Africa is contemporary to the
starting of Vatican II. The United Nations seemed to represent the beginning
of an era of peace, prosperity and respect for the Human Rights. This is also
the time of an extraordinary economic boom in the European countries and
in North America. The threat of Communism coming from Russia seemed to
be contained. A wave of optimism was sweeping on the face of the world.
To this positive approach, pope John XXIII meant to respond with the
Ecumenical Council which intended to be of a pastoral nature since it didn’t
aim at counteracting any special heresy or error.

The event of the Council and the Council Documents.

Vatican II was opened officially by John XXIII on October 11 1962. It
lasted for four sessions. After the first session, pope John XXIII died and
it was pope Paul VI who took over the great commitment of the Council
and brought it to a happy conclusion. It was officially closed on
December 8 1965. After the second session, in January 1964, Paul VI went
in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where he met with the Ecumenical
Patriarch Athenagoras: two strong signs of inspiration for the Council: the
going back to the Gospel origins and the promotion of Christian unity.
Vatican II was an extraordinary time for the Catholic Church and had a great

34
impact on the world at large. The media were present at the Council in
strength and representatives of all Christian denominations were invited as
observers.

Vatican II produced 16 Documents: 4 Constitutions, 9 Decrees and 3

Declarations. The most influential document is the Dogmatic Constitution
on the Church Lumen Gentium. The emphasis on the Church as identified
with the “People of God” in the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit had wide and deep consequences. The pyramidal concept of the
Church, usually identified with the Hierarchy and only in her institutional
aspect, gave way to the Church as “sacrament (sign and instrument) of the
communion with God and unity among all men”.

In different forms the Council promoted consultation among the hierarchy

and the involvement of the laity. The collegiality of the Bishops found its
main expression in the Synods. At diocesan and parish level, the respective
councils acquired a juridical status. The mission of the laity was recognized
as coming directly from their baptism: they are the priestly people of God.
The baptismal priesthood of the laity is expressed in the post-conciliar time
especially by the Small Christian Communities and the Movements (Opus
Dei, Focolare, New Catecumenal Way, Community of Sant’Egidio,
Communion and Liberation, etc.). However, the new era of the Church
needs new Saints, like the era of the Council of Trent. That was the
conviction of pope John Paul II himself who proclaimed more saints during
his pontificate than all the other popes before him together.

The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Verbum Dei, was the result
of the revival of the interest about the Bible in the Catholic Church and a
promotion of the biblical knowledge and devotion among the faithful. It was
boosted by the innumerable translations of the Holy Scriptures into the
vernacular languages also at the service of the church’s liturgy now
celebrated in the various languages of the faithful.

The Constitution on the Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium was the first to be

published and its implementation gave the most evident sign of the change
brought by the Second Vatican Council. The Liturgy in the vernacular
languages and the main celebrant facing the congregation were
momentous changes of a way of worshipping that had lasted more than
a thousand years.

35
It was generally well accepted and appreciated and stimulated the creativity
of the peoples of different cultures to equip their celebrations with new
songs as expression of their own sentiment and cultural background. The
Missal, the Breviary and Ritual were reformed and in 1983 the New Code of
Canon Law took in the changes and the terminology of the Council in
juridical form.

The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et

Spes is the document that attracted the greatest interest and attention of the
world public opinion in as much as it embodied the Church’s social doctrine
and touched very crucial aspects of life as atheism, culture, and the total
condemnation of war. The first sentence of this constitution is perhaps
the most famous expression of the Council: “The joy and hope, the grief
and anguish of the men of our time, especially those who are poor or
afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the
followers of Christ as well”. The document is expression of a positive,
optimistic perception of the modern world and its progress.

Of the other documents, the most remarkable are the Decree about
Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio that promotes the cause of the unity of
Christians by considering the different Christian denominations in what they
have that unites more than in the differences. The same approach we find in
dealing with the non-Christian religions in the Declaration Nostra Aetate.
Very important and the sign of a great change is the Declaration Dignitatis
Humanae by which the Catholic Church accepts the principle of freedom.
The implementation of Vatican II and the present
situation of the Church
The time of Vatican II represented the peak for the Catholic Church. Very
soon the implementation of the Council especially in the reforms regarding
its internal life(e.g. Priests and Religious) brought about an unexpected
wind of rebellion that gave origin to the largest exodus of priests and
religious to be compared only with what happened at the time of the
Protestant Reformation. Dogmatic and moral theologians ventured in
uncharted and controversial fields causing reaction and polarization in the
Catholic Church. The implementation of the Council was the commitment
and the anguish of the popes: the subtle and tormented Paul VI and
especially the powerful and charismatic Blessed John Paul II in his very long

36
pontificate of 27 years. It is still the challenge of the present pope Benedict
XVI.

In 1985 a Special Synod of Bishops was convened to evaluate the impact of

the Council and its implementation. The evaluation was substantially
positive. John Paul II had expressed the same position earlier the same year:
“Vatican II remains the fundamental happening of the contemporary Church:
fundamental in order to deepen the spiritual riches entrusted to her by Christ
himself who through her and by means of her prolongs and shares with us
human beings the Mysterium Salutis, his redeeming work. Fundamental also
for the fruitful contact with the contemporary world for the purpose of
evangelization and dialogue at all levels and with all people of good will”.

A very important moment in the life of the contemporary Church was the
celebration of the great jubilee of the 2000 years of Christianity when
Pope John Paul II officially asked forgiveness for the sins of the Church
committed in the previous centuries and once again managed to visit the
Holy Land and perform emotional signs of dialogue with the Jews and the
Moslems. The preparation of the Great Jubilee stimulated the search and
documentation about the Christians who had witnessed Christ through
martyrdom. An impressive documentation was collected that showed how
the XX century had been a century of martyrs.

The fundamental orientations of Vatican II constitute the official

position of the Church in its leadership and in the body of the faithful:
Ecumenism and the search for unity among the Christians, respect and
tolerance and dialogue towards the non-Christian religions and acceptance of
the principle of freedom in the civil life of society and collaboration with the
positive forces in society for justice and peace. But new challenges to
Christian life and the life of the Church are again appearing in the
world’s changed circumstances.

The population explosion and the movement of migration have increased

considerably the non-Christian population of the world and brought large
numbers of non Christians into the traditional areas of Christianity especially
in Europe. The process of secularization and the spreading of materialism
and consumerism has eroded the Christian practice in Europe and North
America. A wave of militant atheism is claiming the minds of the members
of the developed countries. Pope Benedict XVI is the champion in the

37
fight against “Relativism” or the lack of absolute truths in the
understanding of the world and life and in the moral world.

The wrong enlargement of the concept of Human Rights to abortion,

practicing homosexuality and assisted suicide is creating a gap between the
position of the Catholic Church and the life practice of large sectors of the
population. Reaction to the past colonization often becomes persecution for
the Christian communities in countries in which they are minority. The
pressure of Islam is reducing almost to zero the Christian presence in the
Middle East and especially in Palestine. The conciliatory attitude of the
Catholic Church in ecumenical matter has offered a weak flank to the
unforeseen attack of very numerous new Protestant sects totally alien to
ecumenism. But it is the lack of vocations to the diocesan priesthood that
is perhaps the greatest threat to her survival and progress in the future.

The times of optimism seem to have past and be over. The Catholic
Church appears to live through a moment of contraction, weakness and
persecution, once again like the boat of Peter embattled by the huge waves
of time, but always trustful in the wisdom and faithfulness of the helmsman
and especially in the mysterious presence of Jesus Christ, the Lord of
History, who has promised his Church that “the gates of the underworld
shall never prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

This last part is the expression of the opinion of the writer: we are too
close to what is happening to be able to give a realistic, balanced and true
historical evaluation. The opinion of the writer should be taken with a
critical attitude: other people may have other opinions or legitimately put a
different emphasis on the contemporary happenings.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro, MCCJ

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

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 THE CHURCH IN ASIA

1. THE ASIAN CONTEXT in the document Ecclesia in Asia by

Blessed John Paul II:

“The Incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, took place in a

definite historical and geographical context, Palestine, a country of the
Near East, in Asia. The history of the Church in Asia is as old as the
Church herself, for it was in Asia that Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon
his disciples and sent them to the end of the earth to proclaim the Good
News and gather communities of believers.

Following the Lord’s command, the Apostles preached the word and
founded Churches. From Jerusalem, the Church spread to Antioch, to Rome
and beyond. It reached Ethiopia in the South, Scythia in the North, and
India in the East, where tradition has it that Saint Thomas the Apostle
went in the year 52 A.D. and founded Churches in South India. The
missionary spirit of the of the East Syrian community in the third and forth
centuries, with its center in Edessa, was remarkable. The ascetic
communities of Syria were a major force of evangelization in Asia from the
third century onwards. They provided spiritual energy for the Church,
especially during time of persecution.

At the end of the third century, Armenia was the first nation as a whole to
embrace Christianity. By the end of the fifth century, the Christian message
had reached the Arab kingdoms, but for many reasons, including the
divisions among Christians, the message failed to take root among these
peoples. Persian merchants took the Good News to China in the fifth
century. The first Christian Church was built there at the beginning of the
seventh century. During the T’ang dynasty (618-907 A.D.), the Church
flourished for nearly two centuries. The decline of this vibrant Church in
China by the end of the first millennium is one of the sadder chapters of the
history of God’s people in the continent.

In the thirteen century the Good News was announced to the Mongols and
the Turks and the Chinese once more. But Christianity almost vanished in
these regions for a number of reasons, among them the rise of Islam,
geographical isolation, the absence of an appropriate adaptation to local
culture, and perhaps, above all, the lack of preparedness to encounter the
great religions of Asia. The end of the fourteen century saw the drastic

39
diminution of the Church in Asia, except for the isolated community in
South India. The Church in Asia had to await a new era of missionary
endeavor.

The apostolic labors of Saint Francis Xavier, the founding of the

Congregation of Propaganda Fide by pope Gregory XV, and the directive
for missionaries to respect and appreciate local cultures all contributed to
achieving more positive results in the course of the sixteen and seventeen
centuries.

Again in the nineteen century there was a revival of missionary activity.

Various religious congregations dedicated themselves wholehearted to this
task. Propaganda Fide was reorganized. Greater emphasis was put in
building up local Churches. Educational and charitable works went hand in
hand with the preaching of the Gospel. Consequently the Good News
continue to reach more people, especially among the poor and
underprivileged, but also here and there among the social and intellectual
elite. New attempts were made to inculturate the Good News, although they
proved in no way sufficient. Despite her century-long presence and her
many apostolic endeavors, the Church in many places was still considered as
foreign to Asia, and indeed was often associated in people’s minds with the
colonial powers.

This was the situation at the eve of the Second Vatican Council; but
thanks to the impetus provided by the Council, a new understanding of
mission dawned and with it a great hope. The universality of God’s plan of
salvation, the missionary nature of the Church and the responsibility of
everyone in the Church for this task, so strongly reaffirmed in the Council’s
Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity Ad Gentes, became a
framework of a new commitment.

During the Special Assembly, the Synod Fathers testified to the growth
of the ecclesial community among many different peoples in various parts
of the continent, and they appealed for further missionary efforts in the years
to come, especially as new possibilities for the proclamation of the Gospel
emerge in the Siberian region and the Central Asian countries which have
recently gained their independence, such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
A survey f the Catholic communities in Asia shows a splendid variety by
reason of their origin and historical development, and the diverse spiritual

40
and liturgical traditions of the various Rites. Yet all are united in
proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ, through Christian witness,
works of charity and human solidarity. While some particular Churches
carry out their mission in peace and freedom, others find themselves in
situations of violence and conflict, or feel threatened by other groups, for
religious or other reasons. In the vastly diversified cultural world of Asia,
the Churches faces multiple philosophical, theological and pastoral
challenges. Her task is made more difficult by the fact of her being a
minority, with the Philippines as the only exception, where Catholics are in
the majority.

Whatever the circumstances, the Church in Asia finds herself among peoples
who display an intense yearning for God. The Church knows that this
yearning can only be fully satisfied by Jesus Christ, the Good News
from God for all nations….The Spirit of God, always at work in the history
of the Church in Asia, continues to guide her. The many positive elements
found in the local Churches, strengthen our expectation of a new “springtime
of Christian life”.

One solid cause of hope is the increasing number of better trained,

enthusiastic and Spirit-filled lay people, who are more and more aware of
their specific vocation within the ecclesial community. Among them, the lay
catechists deserve special recognition and praise. The apostolic and
charismatic movements too are a gift of the Spirit, bringing new life and
vigor to the formation of lay men and women, families and the young.
Associations and ecclesial movements devoted to the promotion of human
dignity and justice, make accessible and tangible the universality of the
evangelical message of our adoption as children of God (Romans 8:15-16).

At the same time, there are Churches in very difficult circumstances,

experiencing intense trials in the practice of their faith. The Synod Fathers
were moved by reports of heroic witness, unshaken perseverance and steady
growth of the Catholic Church in China, by the efforts of the Church in
South Korea to offer assistance to the people of North Korea, the humble
steadfastness of the Catholic Church in Vietnam, the isolation of Christians
in such places as Laos and Myanmar, the difficult co-existence with the
majority in some predominantly Islamic states.
The Synod paid special attention to the situation of the Church in the Holy
Land and in the holy city of Jerusalem, “the heart of Christianity”, a city
dear to all the children of Abraham. The Synod Fathers expressed their

41
belief that the peace of the region, and even the world, depends in large
measure on the peace and reconciliation which have eluded Jerusalem so
long.

I cannot bring to an end this brief survey of the situation of the Church in
Asia, though far from complete, without mentioning the Saints and
Martyrs of Asia, both those who have been recognized and those known
only by God, whose example is a source of spiritual richness and a great
means of evangelization. They speak silently but most powerfully of the
importance of holiness of life and readiness to offer one’s life for the
Gospel. They are the teachers and the protectors, the glory of the Church in
Asia in her work of evangelization.

With the whole Church, I pray to the Lord to send many more committed
laborers to reap the harvest of souls which I see as ready and plentiful (Cf.
Matthew 9:37-38). At this moment, I call to mind what I wrote in
Redemptoris Missio: “God is opening before the Church the horizons of
humanity more fully prepared for the sowing of the Gospel”. This vision
of a new and promising horizon I see being fulfilled in Asia, where Jesus
was born and where Christianity began. (Ecclesia in Asia, 9, 1999).

2. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN ASIA

THE MISSION IN ASIA DURING THE ANCIENT AND MIDDLE

AGES.

THE NESTORIAN MISSION.

Since the beginning Christianity was brought to Persia (Cf. Acts 2:9
“Parthians, Medes, Elamites and inhabitants of Mesopotamia”), according to
a legendary account, by Peter and Thomas, more probably by Bartholomew
and Thaddeus and it developed. The center was Edessa. Ephrem the Syrian,
saint and doctor of the Church, was a teacher at the theology school of
Nasibis. Unfortunately, this Church became follower of the heresy of
Nestorius, but it kept its vitality with monasticism and missionary activity.

The Nestorian missionaries spread Christianity in Central Asia and there

were Episcopal sees there like in Samarkand. The Nestorian missionaries
reached China in 631. They received permission from the emperor to
spread the “Luminous Doctrine”, as Christianity was then known in China.

42
People were converted, monasteries and dioceses were erected. Something
of its history was recorded in the Nestorian Monument erected in 781 and
discovered in 1625 near the capital Sian. Later, the opposition of the
emperors and the spreading of Islam eroded the Nestorian Church. By the
10th century it disappeared.

MISSION TO THE MONGOLS AND CHINA IN XIII AND XIV CENTURIES.

In 1206, Gengis-Khan unified the Mongols and conquered almost the whole
of Asia. After his death his kingdom split. China and Mongolia remained
under the so called Great Khan and the capital was Karakorum and then
Khambaliq (Beijing). Since the beginning, the popes had sent envoys to the
Mongols, like fray John of the Pian del Carpine (1245-7). Mark Polo, a
Venetian merchant, reached the Great Khan in his several journeys described
in his book “The Million”. Catholic priests were invited to go there and
spread Christianity.

Fray John of Montecorvino and companions reached there and started

a Christian Church which developed to the point of having up to 30.000
faithful. But then isolation and the new dynasty of hostile emperors were an
obstacle and eventually the Christian community practically disappeared.
The great hopes for the conversion of the Mongols were dashed by the army
of Timur-Leng (Tamerlan) who conquered Central Asia and turned to Islam
with his people, in this way cutting off communications with the West.

The Dominican and Franciscan mission to the Mongols of XIII and XIV
centuries, although not successful, was remarkable because it was a very
courageous one, without military and diplomatic coverage. The first
opening of the West to the East, made overland.

THE MISSIONS IN ASIA AT THE TIME OF THE RENAISSANCE

AND PROTESTANT REFORMATION.

Saint Francis Xavier arrived in India in 1541. He came from the South
and by sea. He worked in Southern India, destroying pagan temples and
doing mass conversions. He then was in other areas. In 1549 he started the
church in Japan. He died in an island facing China where he intended to
reach in 1552. He was only 46 years old.

43
In the course of his missionary experience he developed a better method
preparing the way of the modern missionary style: learning the language of
the people one evangelizes and using local personnel as helpers. He also
wrote extensive reports that gave a sense of continuity to the missionary
work and are a source of information for the historians.

The mission to Japan and China continued with Fr. Alexander

Valignano SJ. The Jesuits were famous for their capacity to adapt to
the local customs and cultures. In China the most famous missionary
was Matthew Ricci (Li-Ma-To) and in India Robert De Nobili. Both
found problems about certain local rites that they accepted, especially
connected to the ancestors. This attitude attracted many people to
Christianity: but then, they provoked a controversy: first approved then
condemned and finally again approved.

These controversies made the missionary work among those populations

lose momentum. Then, eventually, much ground was lost when the Society
of Jesus (Jesuits) was suppressed in 1760. Goa was the center of the
Catholic Church in Asia: the Goanese clergy was formed in the seminaries
of the Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits. When the Jesuits were
suppressed, Goanese priests took their place in the missions in Asia and even
in Africa. The arrival of the Dutch (1636) and English Protestants (1639)
reduced the influence of the Portuguese and Spanish missionaries and
damaged the expansion of Catholicism.

INDONESIA
The islands of Indonesia were under the Portuguese influence but the
Muslims had spread already and then the Dutch Protestants took over… The
Moluccas (Spice Islands) are properly a group of islands in Easter
Indonesia, famous for the spices (cloves, mace and nutmeg). Discovered
by Ferdinand Magellan in 1511 (10 years before the Philippines), they were
evangelized by Portuguese missionaries and settlers, but the success was
limited given the prevailing presence of the Muslims and later the
occupation by the Dutch Protestants (XVII century). At present, there are
some islands with majority of Catholic like Flores and East Timor.
Elsewhere, there are minority groups of Christians.

JAPAN.
Saint Francis Xavier arrived there in 1549. He was enthusiastic of the
character of the Japanese. Other Jesuit missionaries followed, they learned

44
the language and adopted the customs: great impact, many converts. After
50 years, there were almost one million Catholics. But there was slow
pace in forming the local clergy. In 1601 the first three Japanese priests
were ordained. By 1640 they were only 50 of whom only 10 diocesan. The
territory was first under Goa, then Macau; in 1596, Nagasaki became the
center.

The divisions among missionaries, Franciscans and Jesuits and

especially the arrival of the Protestants provoked a persecution. In 1597,
there is the first group of 26 martyrs with Paul Miki. The persecution
became more cruel and caused thousands of martyrs. The Christians were
forced to tread on the image of Christ (“efumi”). In 1637-39, the Christian
chiefs (“daimyo”) they rebelled but were defeated (Shimabara Rebellion).
Thirty thousand Christians were executed.

Some Christian groups survived, but the absence of priests and the isolation
and the passing of time affected their beliefs. When the Christian
missionaries came back to Japan around 1850, some of these Christians
could not flow back into the new Catholic communities and remained
separated in a kind of sect: the Kakure Krishitan. Only in 1941,
Christianity was recognized as one of the religions in Japan.

Catholics are now around 400.000 and are becoming more numerous
because of the immigrants like the Filipinos. The profile of the Catholic
Church is high in the estimation of the Japanese people, also because of
education and charity works. The weak points are lack of vocations to the
ordained ministry and the same threat that is in the European and
North American Churches: materialism and secularization.

CHINA.
The Portuguese occupied Macau in 1554. There was a prohibition for
foreigners to enter the Chinese territory. S. Francis Xavier died in 1552,
trying to enter China. Permission was given in 1583 to Frs. Matthew Ricci
and Michael Ruggieri, Jesuits under Fr. Alexander Valignano. They learned
the language and the Chinese literature, they presented themselves like
Buddhist monks and then like Chinese scholars and professors.

Ricci wrote in Chinese: “The True Doctrine about God”, a small book
that became a classic of Chinese literature. Ricci drew the world map with
China in the middle position and baptized the first learned man, Paul Hsu. In

45
1601 the Jesuits were at the court of the emperor in Beijing. There they were
allowed to build a church and worked as scientists at the court.

Many other Jesuits followed Ricci and Barbieri. They evangelized and
baptized tens of thousands Chinese and built churches in every major
city. The rivalries with other religious orders and the question of the Chinese
rites regarding the ancestors (rites that were accepted by Ricci and
condemned by pope Benedict XIV in 1704) brought persecution from the
emperor. Eventually, the suppression of the Jesuits in 1775 caused the crisis
of the Chinese missions. The formation of the local clergy was delayed
and they were very few when they were badly needed. The persecution
brought about the prohibition for foreign missionaries to enter China.
Consequently, the number of Christians who survived was small.

COREA
In 1784, a Korean person, coming back from Beijing where he had met the
Catholic Church, brought with him some Christian writings. From this
episode, the first group of believers in Christ originated, without a
priest. The first priest, later on, fell victim of persecution, but Christianity
survived and spread.

INDOCINA
There was Malacca that was the seat of a bishop, but the presence of Islam
was an obstacle. In the north, Christianity spread more easily, especially in
Vietnam where French missionaries developed the area. A great missionary
was Alexander De Rhodes. Local priests and religious were started and
developed rapidly. But persecution struck and many martyrs gave their
witness of blood. Thailand was barren land because of the strong Buddhist
tradition, Tibet and Nepal were touched but with little results.

CRISIS AND RE-AWAKENING OF THE CATHOLIC MISSION IN

ASIA.

The French Revolution brought the Catholic missions to a standstill. Even

the office of Propaganda Fide was moved to France by Napoleon in 1808.
The revival came with the fall of Napoleon and the Restoration. Four factors
contributed to the revival and the success of the missions: 1. The interest
and the involvement of the laity: the Pontifical Mission Societies

46
(Propagation of the Faith, Saint Peter for the formation of the Clergy and the
Holy Childhood) were substantially lay initiatives of support for the
missions by means of prayer, financial fund-raising and vocations.

Very famous the French woman Pauline Jaricot who is the founder of the
Work of the Propagation of the Faith. 2. The extraordinary blossoming of
religious congregations and Societies of Apostolic Life dedicated to the
Missions. One of them is that of the Comboni Missionaries dedicated to the
African Missions. 3. The impulse given by pope Gregory XVI, Mauro
Cappellari, who had re-opened Propaganda Fide in Rome (1817) and then
was made pope. The “patronado” was abolished and the “Ius Commissionis”
gave opportunity to the different religious institutes to work more orderly
and efficiently.

There was another important factor for the spreading of the missionary
work: 4. The European countries tended to occupy and submit the rest
of the world (Colonization). The largest unit was the British Empire. Then
France, Germany, etc…This is the time of Colonialism. On the one hand, it
helped the spreading of Christianity, especially because of the involvement
of the missionaries in education and health care. On the other, it was an
obstacle because the colonial mentality tended to despise the other cultures
and civilizations. We are at present suffering from a reaction to the
colonization: this partly explain the persecution of the Christian
communities wherever they are minorities.

INDIA
Under the British rule, the Christian and Catholic Church enjoyed freedom
and developed schools and hospitals. But the obstacle of the division of
society into castes closed the way to the Gospel to a great majority of
Indians: only the lowest castes and the tribal peoples entered the Church.
India became independent in 1948. The ancient rites of the Christians of
Saint Thomas were recognized by Rome (Malabaric and Malankaric rites).
In 1952, the first Indian cardinal was nominated in the person of his
eminence Valerian Gracias. At present, Christianity is represented by
about 20 million Catholic and about 80 million Protestants.

Minority Churches are in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand,

Myanmar (Burma) often facing hostility and discrimination. Almost
inexistent is the Church in Cambodia and Laos, but strong in Vietnam
with almost 10 million faithful and many vocations, but with difficult

47
relationship with the communist government. In INDONESIA there are
flourishing Catholic communities in some islands (Flores, Timor) with many
vocations, but with sometimes difficult relationship with the Muslim
majority.

CHINA
It was always a privileged target of the missionary effort of the
universal church. The interference of the colonial powers, especially
France, was a liability for the missionary work and there were strong
reactions like the massacre of Tin Sin (1870) and especially the Boxers
Rebellion (1900) with the killing of about 30.000 Christians. The growth of
the Church was steady. In 1926 we have the consecration of the first
Chinese bishops and the acceptance of the Chinese rites under the
pontificate of Pius XI.

The person who prepared this was a great Belgian missionary, Fr.
Vincent Lebbe (Lei-Ming-Yuang i.e. Thunder in the distance). This had
not happened since the consecration of the first Chinese bishop in absolute,
Gregory Luo Wenzao, in 1685 by Mons. Bernardine Della Chiesa, vicar
apostolic of Beijing. In 1946 the local church in China was honored by
the choice of the first Chinese cardinal Thomas Tien. Then came the civil
war with the victory of the Communists with Mao-Tse-Tung. All the
missionaries were expelled (1948) and the attempt was made to create a
national church cut off from the Pope.

At present, the situation is substantially the same. The Catholic population

has grown to about 12 million. In the meantime, Christianity is also spread
within the Chinese society by many protestant groups, given their greater
mobility and the system of the house church. Christians in China are thought
to be more than 100 million.

A consistent and lively Catholic community is present in Singapore and

South Korea. Minor groups of Catholics are present in the islands of the
Pacific Ocean. We remember here the hero, Saint Damian De Vesteur,
the apostle of the lepers in the island of Molokai (+1889) who became a
leper himself). At present, the local church with local hierarchy is present
everywhere. In Asia, however, with the exception of the Philippines,
Christianity is the religion of a tiny minority of about 3% of the population.

48
The situation of vocations to the priesthood and religious life is good but the
revival of the non-Christian religions oftentimes brings with it persecution of
the Christian minorities (India, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Myanmar,
etc…). Moreover, the frontline of mission is also for Asia the spreading of
materialism and secularism caused by globalization and the consumer
society.

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