Catholicism

AN INTRODUCTION
K

Beginnings to c. 110 C.E. became almost completely obscured by later

emphasis on his miraculous birth and status as
The Encyclopedia of Catholicism seeks to cover the only Son of God.
the landmark people, movements, institutions, To those who see in the gospel only a spiri-
practices, and doctrines of Roman Catholicism tual (and not a political) message, the religious
from its earliest origins. It is most important for historian has to point out that the term gospel was
Christians and Catholics to realize that Christi- commonly used in various pagan Roman altar
anity emerged from the matrix of late Judaism. inscriptions dedicated to the “savior” Augustus
Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew; he was born a Jew; Caesar (who had brought peace to the empire).
he lived as a Jew; he taught and preached as a Jew The title the gospel of Jesus Christ, with which the
within the religious concerns of Judaism; and he earliest canonical gospel, Mark, begins, must be
died as a Jew. In short, Jesus was not a Christian. seen as a “counter-gospel” to the gospel of Caesar.
The term did not even arise until late in the first Jesus’s message and person evoked many dif-
century, c. 95 C.E. (Acts 11:26). The historical ferent responses from the earliest times. The “Gos-
understanding of Jesus cannot be seen apart from pel of Q,” which probably reflects the views of the
the theo-political situation in ancient Judea, as earliest of Jesus’ followers in Galilee, contains nei-
the Holy Land was called. Jesus appeared in the ther birth nor Resurrection stories. Matthew sees
midst of the conflicts and compromises of Phari- Jesus as a Moses-like lawgiver and reflects a very
sees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, and others, Jewish tradition that was taken into Syria; Mark
who were all under the thumb of Roman power. sees Jesus through the lens of Hellenistic wonder-
In the reconstructed “Gospel of Q” Jesus workers; and Luke—an apologia christiana to the
speaks very much as a “prophet like” Moses Roman authorities of his time—presents Jesus as
(Acts 7:37) or Elijah (Mark 6:15); he called the founder of a new, legitimate religion. Scholars
for the renewal of the terms of the Covenant have uncovered multiple gospel traditions, some
between God and the Jewish people and for of them unorthodox from a later standpoint.
bringing the gospel in word and deed to the dis- Jesus was many things to many people: prophet,
enfranchised population of Galilee. This aspect lawgiver, miracle-worker, messiah, Son of God,
of Jesus’ own self-understanding and mission founder, savior, wisdom teacher, enlightener, and

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 Catholicism: An Introduction xv J

so on. A view common to an earlier age could “heroes” as Sts. Perpetua and Felicity (d. c. 203)
wind up being heretical in later circumstances. inspired admiration among many Romans, and
One thing is certain: the gospel spread rapidly even some members of the imperial household
from Galilee to Judea, Samaria, and Antioch, and, converted. Memorials at martyrs’ tombs gave rise
through the missionary activity of Paul, to Greece to the later practice of veneration of the saints
and Asia Minor. By the end of the first century, it and pilgrimages to holy sites. The attacks also
had begun to spread far and wide into the known attracted the attention and the eventual conver-
Roman world, which stretched north to York in sion of members of the philosophical schools
England, west to Gibraltar, south to North Africa, such as Justin Martyr (c. 100–c. 165), who began
and east to Syria. Perhaps Christianity spread to write apologies in defense of Christianity. The
under the broader mantle of the “mystery reli- apologies became the basis for framing the gospel
gions,” all of which promised personal salvation, in the language of Hellenistic philosophy, leading
immortality, and intimacy with a deity beyond the to the development of Christian theology in a
public civic religion of the Roman Empire and the more formal sense.
imperial cult. Soon various assemblies or churches Internally, however, Christianity experienced
arose in urban centers, welded together through intense disputes. One can witness an early exam-
the central rituals of baptism and the Eucharist. ple in 1 John, which insists that the Logos
Differing traditions, customs, and even theologies became flesh while criticizing “false prophets”
were built up under the names of apostles: Paul who embraced what looks like the beginnings of
in Asia Minor; Thomas and Matthew in Syria and Docetism, which taught that God is pure spirit
farther east; Paul and Peter in Rome; and John and could not become incarnate (1 John 4:1–3).
in Asia Minor. Tradition has both Peter and Paul During the second century, ideas that what would
being martyred in Rome, two events that became later be deemed “heresy” bloomed everywhere:
central for later Catholicism. Marcionism, Montanism, and many varieties of
Gnosticism. Many early Christian thinkers such
as Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 215) embraced
Persecutions and Disputes (110–313) varying tendencies of Neoplatonism that bordered
on Gnosticism.
As Christianity spread throughout the empire and The lines between heterodoxy and orthodoxy
more and more people came to espouse the gospel of began to be drawn. The orthodox tradition fought
Jesus Christ, Christians started coming to the atten- heresy on two fronts. First, early in the second
tion of the Roman authorities. Emperor Nero (d. 68) century the church began to assume a hierarchy
pinned the great fire of Rome on the Christians in of bishops, priests, and deacons who could boast
64, bringing about the first of the great persecutions an unbroken “apostolic succession” in teaching
and expulsions. This pattern was repeated on a large and practice from the first apostles. This served
scale under Domitian (d. 96), Trajan (d. 117), the to curb the influence of the freewheeling Gnostic
philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180), teachers, who in fact were following the wander-
Decius (r. 249–251), and Diocletian (r. 284–305), ing lifestyles of the original apostles. Second, the
until Constantine I and Licinius issued the Edict of early theologians—Irenaeus of Lyon (d. c. 200),
Milan in 313, tolerating Christians. Hippolytus of Rome (d. c. 236), and Tertullian of
Romans accused Christians of flagitia (incest, Carthage (d. c. 225)—developed what came to be
cannibalism, lechery), superstition, and atheism— known as the rule of faith, the church’s tradition
the latter for not sacrificing to the Roman gods. of teaching on creation, redemption, and sancti-
Probably no more than 1,000 martyrs were killed fication, which was used to undermine the argu-
in the entire era of persecution, but such Christian ments of the “heretics.” The rule of faith served
K xvi Encyclopedia of Catholicism

as the foundation of later creeds and provided Helena, Constantine’s mother, began a massive
the criteria for admitting biblical books into the building project in the Holy Land, beginning with
canon of Scripture. Modern historians have been the Church of the Holy Sepulcher; Constantine
more generous to Gnosticism, the losing party himself began building the Old St. Peter’s Basilica
in the struggle, following the discoveries of early and laid the foundations for major churches
Gnostic texts at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945–46. in Constantinople. This architectural explosion
The orthodox side showed the first lineaments of gave Christianity its first grand edifices, which
what we now call early Catholicism: a hierarchical were tinged with imperial splendor. The basili-
church, creedal beliefs, and an emphasis on sacra- cas of Constantinople and Ravenna were further
mental life as opposed to the Gnostic reliance on ornamented with jewel-like mosaics of Christ as
free prophets, mythopoetic treatises, and spiritual Pantokrator (Ruler of All) and Mary as Theotokos
enlightenment. (Begetter of God). The Christ image took on the
Christian art first showed itself in funerary regal posture of the churches’ imperial donors.
inscriptions and catacomb depictions. The first The rise of monasticism in Egypt was a very
churches were house churches, some of which important development in the history of Chris-
were gradually modified to enclose baptisteries tendom. The pattern soon went from the solitary
decorated with wall murals, such as at Dura Euro- hermit (St. Anthony of Egypt) to the communal
pos. Christian sculpture first appeared in a sig- monastery (Pachomius), as monastic communities
nificant way on sarcophagi or stone burial caskets, spread from Egypt to Palestine, Asia Minor, and
which were carved in late Greco-Roman style. The the West. St. Athanasius’ Life of Anthony inspired
first image of Jesus was as the Good Shepherd, monastic foundations of men and women from
painted on the earlier models of Orpheus and Syria to France and Ireland. St. Basil established
Apollo. the model rule for the East and St. Benedict for the
West. There is no evidence that Jesus led anything
like a monastic life. There is not even evidence
Imperial Christendom (313–600) that he was not married, as most Jewish teachers
of his time would have been. Monks could point
The next phase of Christianity produced what we to Jesus’ time of temptation in the desert (Mat-
now know as Christendom, a realm unified around thew 4:1–11), but the monastic impulse grew out
a common religion and governed by Christian of traditions of repentance, conversion, and philo-
rulers. The three factors that brought this about sophical discipline. Over the next millennium the
were the toleration and eventual establishment of monastery became the repository of both religious
Christianity as the state religion beginning with and secular learning, the laboratory for new
Constantine I, the flourishing of monasticism, and inventions in agriculture, and the seedbed for the
the first seven ecumenical councils. medieval universities. English and Irish monks
Church historian Eusebius of Caesarea (d. c. would return to the Continent to missionize the
340) offered up a flattering portrait in his Life of German tribes of the North.
Constantine, but the emperor seems to have had The first seven ecumenical councils, pre-
his finger to the wind when he decided to toler- ceded by many local synods, achieved three
ate Christians in 313. Similarly, when he called major things: they fixed the canon of Scripture,
the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325), he they clarified the definition of the nature of Jesus
was not so much seeking orthodoxy as political as Christ and Son of God, and they clarified the
unity in the empire. Subsequent emperors had a theology of the Trinity. The Council of Nicaea
tendency to slide into Arianism when the occa- (325) introduced the new term homoousios, or
sion allowed. “of the same being,” to establish the equality
 Catholicism: An Introduction xvii J

of the Father and Son against Arius of Alexan- of Rome to settle disputes. The spiritual orienta-
dria (d. 336). (John Henry Newman was later to tions also differed. The East was deeply mystical,
note that more than half the bishops were Arian, whereas the West took a more moral and legal
while the common faithful remained orthodox.) direction. These differences, although not abso-
Theodosius I (381) issued the Nicene-Constan- lute, contributed to the eventual schism between
tinopolitan Creed and upheld the divinity of the Constantinople and Rome in 1054.
Holy Spirit. Ephesus (431) defended the title of
Mary as Theotokos, or “Begetter of God,” thereby
establishing the doctrine of the Incarnation of Papacy and Reform, Church and
God the Son in the flesh and the feast of Christ- State, East and West (600–1150)
mas. Chalcedon (451) defended the formula that
A central development in the second half of the
Christ was one person but fully human and fully
fist millennium was the increasing importance
divine in nature; the Coptic Church then split off.
of the papacy in western Christendom. Several
The councils also came to a gradual understand-
factors contributed to papal primacy. First, by the
ing of the Trinity as three persons who share
end of the fourth century Eastern Christendom
one divine substance. Ultimately, however, these
was divided ecclesiastically between the patri-
formulas could not totally explain the deepest
archies of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and
mysteries of salvation, which remained accessible Constantinople, with the last assuming second
primarily through faith. The last of the seven rank after Rome at the Council of Constantinople
councils, Nicaea II (787), defended the veneration I (381). (Still today the Ecumenical Patriarch of
of images, or icons. The councils also established Constantinople, or Istanbul, is deemed a primus
a tradition of ecclesiastical discipline that later inter pares, or “first among equals,” with his fel-
came to be codified and known as canon law. low Eastern Orthodox bishops.) The region under
By the end of this period, the shape of Catho- each of the Eastern patriarchates was smaller, and
lic tradition, in the broad sense of the term, was eventually far less populous, than the immense
clearly delineated. The key theologians who deter- territory administered by the bishop of Rome, the
mined the tradition were Sts. Athanasius, Jerome, patriarch of the entire West.
and Augustine in the West and the Cappadocian Second, during the theological struggles of
Fathers Sts. Basil, Gregory Nazianzus, and Gregory the first seven councils, Eastern bishops often
Nyssa in the East. Later medieval theology is to a appealed to the papacy as a court of last appeal.
great extent a reflection on the theological mile- Third, the successive waves of invasions by the
stones of these thinkers on creation, sin, and the Visigoth Alaric in 410 and Attila the Hun in 453
Fall, the Incarnation and redemption, the role of left a weakened civilian rule in Italy; the pope, for
Mary, the sacraments, and the life of the Trinity. good or ill, was called upon to fill the vacuum.
A difference in style between Eastern and Thus evolved the Papal States and the popes’
Western Christianity was discernible by the fourth secular role in the affairs of kingdoms and nation-
century. The East was much more prone to theo- states, which lasted until 1870.
logical disputes (Arianism, Nestorianism, etc.), All along the bishops of Rome claimed St. Peter
while the Achilles’ heel of the West was a ten- as their first bishop (despite the lack of any hard
dency to disciplinary disputes (although some of evidence), and appealed to Jesus’ statement that
them had a strong theological component as well, Peter, or Cephas, which means “rock” in Aramaic,
such as Donatism and Pelagianism). The East is the “rock upon which I will build my church”
looked to councils to work out differences; the (Matthew 16:18–19). Rome also benefited from
West, though it had plenty of local synods, looked the astute leadership of popes such as Damasus I
to the bishop who, in turn, looked to the bishop (r. 366–384) and Leo I (r. 440–461).
K xviii Encyclopedia of Catholicism

In the East a unique relation between church lishment of the feudal system, which benefited
and state developed. From the beginning of abbot and prince alike. The new state established
the Constantinian era emperors assumed quasi- cathedral schools, out of which sprang the univer-
ecclesiastical roles at ecumenical councils and sities, and spread the Roman liturgy throughout
saw themselves as legitimate heirs of the biblical the West.
King David, anointed by God the Father. This The second half of the first millennium also saw
tradition, called caesaropapism, continued into the reform of monasticism, first at Cluny and then
the early 20th century, with the Ottoman sultans at Cîteaux; the development of the theology of the
and the Russian czars (the Russian spelling of sacraments; and a flowering of both faith and rea-
caesar) fulfilling the imperial role. (Some detect son in the first moves toward a systematic theology
a reemergence of the tradition in post-Soviet by scholars such as Peter Lombard (c. 1105–c. 64)
Russia.) and Peter Abelard (1079–1142). The renaissance
In contrast, in the West a rivalry soon devel- of theology and philosophy was aided in no small
oped between emperors and bishops and between part by the Spanish convivencia, during which
emperors and popes, which enabled the church to Jewish, Muslim, and Christian cultures influenced
be more independent of civil rule. St. Ambrose of one another. The works of Aristotle found their
Milan (d. 397) excommunicated Emperors Val- way into the Western curriculum via celebrated
entinian II and Theodosius I. Soon popes began Muslim and Jewish philosophers such as Ibn Sina
stressing the primacy of the papacy over both (Avicenna), Al Farabi, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), and
East and West. St. Gregory I the Great (d. 604) Maimonides.
led a great papal reform, enhancing the prestige of
monasteries, excluding laity from Vatican offices,
standardizing the liturgy of the Mass and chant, Middle Ages (1150–1450)
promoting the veneration of saints, and challeng-
ing the use of the title “Ecumenical Patriarch” The Middle Ages may be said to begin with the
by the bishop of Constantinople. The struggle Crusades, campaigns at once pious and cruel,
between church and state came to a head in the to regain the holy sites of pilgrimage from the
showdown between Gregory VII Hildebrand and demonized “Saracens” (Muslims). On their way
the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV at Canossa to the Holy Land, Christian knights not only
in 1076 over the claims by princes that they had waged a systematic persecution of Jews in cities
a right to invest bishops and abbots under their such as Frankfurt am Main, but also succeeded in
jurisdictions. Although emperors and kings would finally alienating the Eastern Church by sacking
often invade Italy and challenge papal power, the Constantinople.
ecclesiastical extreme was reached by Innocent III In contrast, new impulses of reform were
(1198–1216), who likened himself to the greater stirring. Some of the movements were deemed
light of the Sun, destined to rule over people’s outside the pale of orthodoxy (Cathars, Beguines,
souls, while the kings, likened to the lesser light and Waldensians), and others were within. Out-
of the Moon, would rule over the body (papal bull standing among the latter were the mendicant
Sicut Universitatis Conditor, 1098). orders of Sts. Dominic and Francis at the begin-
Not all relations between emperors and the ning of the 13th century. The friars eschewed the
church were hostile. On Christmas Day, 800, Pope luxurious lifestyles of the diocesan clergy and of
Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the many monasteries, preaching the gospel of the
West. Charlemagne and his chamberlain, Alcuin, poor Christ. Their influence spread throughout
proceeded to shore up the interests of the church. Europe and even as far as China, where they went
The Carolingian Renaissance brought the estab- to preach with the word and not the sword. The
 Catholicism: An Introduction xix J

pope appointed Dominicans and Franciscans as erna, a simple, direct piety centered on humble
inquisitors to root out heresy, a tradition that devotion to Jesus. The devotion appealed to cleric
would develop into the fateful institution of the and layperson alike, but it was not strong enough
Inquisition in Spain in 1492 and in the universal to reform the church of its errant ways.
church in 1542.
The friars were central to that other medieval
current, the rise of the universities in Bologna, Reformation, Without and Within
Paris, Salamanca, Oxford, Cambridge, Cologne, (1450–1650)
Prague, and elsewhere. Theology flourished, with
philosophy as a handmaid. While Bonaventure Many see the Reformation as a movement coming
(d. 1274) stayed within the older Neoplatonic from outside Catholicism to reform the corrup-
Augustinian tradition, Thomas Aquinas and Duns tion within. Actually, the reformational impulse
Scotus charted a new course, weaving Aristotle’s had periodically arisen within Catholicism, as for
metaphysical system with the interpretation of the example in the Cluniac and mendicant reforms
Bible and the patristic tradition. The twins peaks in the early and high Middle Ages, respectively. In
of medieval philosophy remain Thomas’s unfin- the 15th century there was the unrelenting voice
ished Summa Theologiae and its literary reflection of Desiderius Erasmus (d. 1536), a follower of the
in Dante’s Comedia Divina. The realism of the high Devotio Moderna, who heaped scorn on episco-
Middle Ages, which the church endorses to this pal greed, pilgrimages, the veneration of saints
day, came under attack by the nominalist William and relics, and indulgences in his Praise of Folly
of Ockham (d. 1347). (1509). There were also reformers within the Vati-
Perhaps the crowning artistic achievement of can such as the Oratorians Reginald Pole (d. 1558)
the Middle Ages was the cathedral, which in stone and Gasparo Contarini (d. 1542). But these voices
and glass summed up Bible and legend, learning could not overcome the scandalous life of popes
and lore, piety and pilgrimage for the ordinary such as Alexander VI Borgia (d. 1503), who gained
Catholic. The cathedral was like a bejeweled New the papacy through bribery and fathered illegiti-
Jerusalem that Émile Mâle has compared to a mate children. Imitating the Medici Renaissance
“symbolic calculus” weaving together the threads princes, Julius II (d. 1513) and Leo X (d. 1521)
of sacred history and nature. undertook elaborate restorations and decorations
But big cracks began to appear in Christendom of St. Peter’s and the Vatican palaces, employing
toward the end of the Middle Ages. Pope and anti- the great artists of the day like Michelangelo and
pope played ruler against ruler. Bishops played Raphael. To pay for this they sent the likes of the
council against the warring popes. The faithful Dominican Johannes Tetzel (d. 1519) to sell indul-
were scandalized not only by schism but also by gences in the north.
lavishly living prelates, absentee priests, and hair- The question of indulgences was the trigger
splitting theological disputation. John Wycliffe that sent Martin Luther (d. 1546) to the doors of
(d. 1384) contrasted the true spiritual church Wittemburg cathedral in 1517, but the Reforma-
with the sullied material one he saw around him. tion was about much more than doctrine. It was
Jan Hus (d. 1415) introduced the Wycliffite mes- also about how the sacraments were to be admin-
sage to the Continent. The innovative impulse in istered and the authority of Scripture in the life of
Catholicism seemed to go inward in the mysticism the church. The Reformation was also about the
of Meister Eckhart (d. c. 1328) and Julian of Nor- relationship between the Holy Roman Emperor
wich (d. c. 1420), but the official church always and the other kings and princes in Christendom.
distrusted mystics. The followers of the Brethren In response, the papacy underwent a phase of
of the Common Life introduced the Devotio Mod- inaction. Luther called for a council free of Vatican
K xx Encyclopedia of Catholicism

control, and popes were reluctant to return to the and after this initial expansion important mission-
issue of who held supremacy, pope or council, that ary undertakings focused on specific populations:
dominated the 15th century ecumenical coun- Pantaenus to India (c. 190), Gregory of Ilium to
cils. Finally, the popes relented and called for the Armenia (c. 312), the Arian Ulphilas to the Goths
Council of Trent (1545–63). (c. 325), Patrick to Ireland (c. 450), Augustine
Trent was the key force, but not the only one of Canterbury to England (c. 600), the Nesto-
in the Counter-Reformation. Nearly as central rian Alopan to China (c. 635), and Boniface to
were the new or reformed religious orders, nota- Germany (c. 720). In the Middle Ages Raymond
bly the Jesuits, Theatines, and Capuchins; the Lull (d. c. 1315) tried a mission to the Muslims in
internal reform of the papacy along with a reor- North Africa, and the Franciscan John of Monte
ganization of the Vatican offices; the rise of new Corvino founded the first bishopric of Beijing
types of mysticism exemplified by Sts. Ignatius of (c. 1290).
Loyola (d. 1556) and Teresa of Ávila (d. 1582); the Nothing can match the organization, deter-
great missionary expansion to the New World and mination, and scope of the Catholic missionary
Asia; and the establishment of the Inquisition and effort following Columbus’s discovery of the
the Index of Forbidden Books. Trent determined New World in 1492 and Ferdinand Magellan’s
for the next 400 years the overall Catholic under- circumnavigation of the globe in 1519–22. The
standing of the doctrines of Scripture and tradi- Jesuit St. Francis Xavier (d. 1552) led the Jesuit
tion, original sin and justification, the sacraments mission to India and Japan, to be followed by
and the Mass, liturgy and seminary training. A Matteo Ricci (d. c. 1610) to China and many to
new style of religious architecture reflected the Mexico and South America. The Jesuit Eusebio
“baroque” spirituality of Teresa and Ignatius. Kino (d. 1711) and the Franciscans Antonio
After Trent one hard reality Catholicism had Margil (d. 1726) and Junipero Serra (d. c. 1786)
to face was that there would now be intense com- missionized Sonoran Mexico, Texas, and Califor-
petition not only from Orthodoxy to the East but nia, respectively. To this day the Philippines and
from Protestantism inside western and central Latin America are overwhelmingly Catholic by
Europe and from nonreligious forces. Galileo birth if not practice.
(d. 1642) signalled the emergence of a new kind The division of Europe between Protestant
of empirical and experimental science that was and Catholic propelled the continent into a series
a challenge to the medieval church, which had of religious wars that did not come to an end
wedded biblical interpretation to the Ptolemaic until the Peace of Augsburg (1648). Thereafter,
system. Catholics shored up their losses by con- European Roman Catholicism, while maintaining
ducting internal devotional missions within the the all-important link to Rome, started taking on
Catholic heartland, especially Italy, which they national characteristics and is best understood by
coupled with devotion to the Blessed Sacrament,
consulting the entries under France, Germany,
Mary, and the saints, accompanied by processions
Italy, Spain, and Latin America. Catholicism in
and music. The other method was intense mis-
England barely survived the rise of the Anglican
sionary work in the New World and Asia.
Church, beginning with Henry VIII (d. 1547).
Christianity had experienced two great types
of missionary expansions prior to the worldwide
expansion in the 16th century. The first period Enlightenment and After
witnessed the phenomenal growth of Christian-
ity from a small Jewish sect to a population that
(1650–1900)
numbered perhaps a third of the Roman Empire at The Catholic Counter-Reformation maintained
the time Constantine tolerated it in 313. During the church throughout the difficulties presented
 Catholicism: An Introduction xxi J

by the rise of nation states and the critique of reli- Henry Newman (d. 1890) demonstrated that
gion during the late Renaissance and throughout the historical study of doctrine was not only not
the Enlightenment. It is false to see the philo- inimical to Catholic faith but precisely the royal
sophical currents that span the time between Rene road that led him into the Catholic fold. These
Descartes (d. 1650) and Immanuel Kant (d. 1804) modernist trends were also accompanied by
as irreligious. Rather, the Enlightenment posited Catholic social action movements in most of the
the religion of reason (Deism) against the reli- countries in Europe.
gion of superstition that the philosophes believed Pope Benedict XV (d. 1922) muted the voices
Catholicism to be. of the antimodernist nay-sayers. This released
The Enlightenment was ambiguous for Cathol- new energies in the study of the fathers (and later,
icism. In the newly formed United States the mothers) of the church and in the use of phenom-
Enlightenment principle of the separation of enological and existential philosophical methods
church and state proved a boon for the growth of in the reinterpretation of the faith by members of
Catholicism. By contrast, the Enlightenment’s hos- the Nouvelle Theologie circle. Theologians like
tile side led to the suppression of Catholicism and Ives Congar, Henri Chenu, Henri de Lubac, and
the confiscation of churches and monasteries in Karl Rahner had a determining hand in Vatican
France. That hostility was inflamed by the political Council II, but during the 1930s–50s their voices
roles that the Catholic cardinals Armand Richelieu were often suppressed.
(d. 1642) and André-Hercule de Fleury (d. 1743) The role of the papacy under the rule of Ital-
had played in the French court. ian fascism and German Nazism remains ambig-
The French Revolution shaped the reaction of uous to this day. The kindest way to see it is as
the papacy to most of the currents of modernity an attempt to preserve the rights of Catholicism
well into the 20th century. Modernity meant dif- in a hostile situation, but there is no doubt that
ferent things to different people, but basically it both the Catholic and Protestant stance helped
included the embrace of Newtonian science, a toward the destruction of 6 million Jews and
historical view of doctrine and the Bible, the adop- another 6 million, including countless Catholics
tion of new sociological and philosophical meth- themselves. During and after World War II, Pius
ods, and the championing of democracy and labor XII, though liberal on issues like biblical stud-
movements. Pius IX opposed much of this agenda ies, tried to preserve the old centralized view
in his celebrated Syllabus of Errors (1864) and, of the church, but the tide in the other direc-
facing the onslaught of a democratic movement in tion was too great. John XXIII (d. 1963) called
Italy, strove to shore up papal authority with the Vatican Council II and unleashed a swell that
declaration of papal infallibility at Vatican Council brought the Catholic Church fully into the 20th
I (1870). St. Pius X continued this antimodernism century.
(and anti-Americanism) trend in his encyclical In the 1980s John Paul II (d. 2005) had a not
Pascendi Domini Gregis (1907). insignificant role in the demise of communism
But there were other currents astir. Beginning in Eastern Europe. Today his successor strives to
in the 19th century, Benedictines and others fos- work out an arrangement with the last major sur-
tered liturgical renewal, centered on the Abbey of viving communist government in China, which
Solesmnes. Leo XIII gave a cautious approval of now tolerates the Catholic Patriotic Association,
democracy and labor unions in Rerum Novarum but apart from papal control. There has been a
(1891) and of new methods in biblical studies noticeable movement away from Vatican II, begin-
in Providentissimus Dei (1893), while simulta- ning under the papacy of Paul VI (d. 1978) and
neously enshrining St. Thomas Aquinas as the continuing under his successors, John Paul II and
official theologian for the universal church. John Benedict XVI.
K xxii Encyclopedia of Catholicism

Today Catholicism is struggling between two than a billion Catholics around the world. The
views of the church, one more hierarchical in future will prove very different for Catholicism as
the traditional sense, the other more collegial as the preponderant number of Catholics has shifted
it wends its way through issues of social justice from the Northern Hemisphere to Latin America,
among the nations and personal morality, the Africa, and Asia. There can be little doubt that the
inculturation of the church in non-European resilient Roman Catholic Church will be able to
societies, the status of women, and the struggles find its way through these challenges.
over sexual morality, abortion, euthanasia, and —Frank K. Flinn
environmental degradation. Today there are more