When people want an easy way to make the Catholic Church look bad with an historical argument, all they have to do is invoke one of three easy words -- Crusades, Inquisition, or Galileo.  Just the mention of any of these subjects conjures up an image of an oppressive, violent, and narrow-minded Catholicism.  But should it?  Most of the time those who bring these things up are looking for a cheap shot.  They don't need to know a lot about them to know that the Catholic Church was wrong.  You'd be surprised how often I hear, "The Catholic Church can't be the Church of Christ because of the Inquisition."

    "Really?" I respond.  "What can you tell me about the Inquisition?  Why do you think that?"
    "I don't know, they killed all those innocent people . . ."
    Or, "The Church can't be infallible because they were wrong about Galileo."
    "Really?  What do you know about Galileo and his conflict with the Church?"  Usually, not much.

 The reason they can get away with this is because most Catholics don't know much about these topics, either.  It's hard to refute the argument that "The Catholic Church is wrong because of the Inquisition" when you don't really know what the Inquisition was (or more specifically, what the Inquisitions were).  These are complicated issues, and not something that one can expect the average Catholic or non-Catholic to have common knowledge of.  But because they are frequently used as tools by the anti-Catholic propagandist, I have taken the liberty of collecting, from various sound Catholic and Apologetical web sites, information about each of them to have ready and at-hand if needed.

• The Crusades
• from Crisis Magazine -- the Real History of the Crusades
• from Crisis Magazine e-letter -- Crusades part 2
• from Catholic Educator's Resource Center (11 articles listed as of 11/10/02)
• from the Catholic Encyclopedia
• from the EWTN document library -- Crusades: Truth and Black Legend
• Crusader Motivation -- in their own words (added 10/21/04)
• The Inquisition
• from Catholic Answers
• from Catholic Educator's Resource Center (11 articles listed as of 11/10/02)
• from Crisis Magazine -- Who Burned the Witches? (the Inquisition was not really about witchcraft, but many think it was, and this article helps explain the reality behind the hype)
• from the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Galileo
  • from Catholic Answers
  • from Catholic Educator's Resource Center (6 articles listed as of 11/10/02)
  • from the Catholic Encyclopedia

Update, October 2004.

Ok, it seems like it is time to add a "fourth" pillar to my list of anti-Catholic history favorites.  People just can't seem to stop talking about The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown.  Though a fictional novel, the author makes the claim that much of his plot is based on historical evidence -- evidence that supposedly "proves" that Jesus was not God, but a mere man.  That He was married to Mary Magdalen, and had a daughter.  That Jesus founded the Church on Mary Magdalen, and not on Peter.  That Mary Magdalen should be revered as the "sacred feminine."  And that the "Holy Grail" is the bloodline of Jesus Christ that lives on in His mortal descendants today.  Oh, and by the way the Catholic Church has been involved in a 2000 year old male chauvinistic, murderous conspiracy to keep all this hidden. 

 

Most surprising of all is the ease with which many people -- Catholics included -- are swallowing this fabricated nonsense as actual history.  To help combat this virus with actual facts, here are some links to some good resources.

• Cracking the DaVinci Code:  A special report from Catholic Answers

• Dismantling the DaVinci Code: an article by historian Sandra Miesel from the September 2003 Crisis Magazine.

• The DaVinci Code, the Facts Behind the Fiction: an article by Amy Welborn, first published as a pamphlet in Our Sunday Visitor

• The DaVinci Code FAQ: Or, Will the Real Priory of Sion Please Stand Up?, by Massimo Introvigne