Ex-Roman Catholic:
The "True Catholic Church"
[This organization has its own Pope and this web site states its purpose is to expose the Pope in Rome and his organization to be bogus. Motto, "The Catholic Church Never Changes". Apparently for those who think the post-Vatican II Council Church is too liberal and too soft. It is unclear what "Never Changes" implies in the the context of the Inquisition, the Dark Ages, a "flat earth", and an "earth-centered galaxy".
http://www.truecatholic.org/
"The True Pope'", "His Holiness Pope Pius XIII"
http://www.truecatholic.org/pope/
The "Old Catholic Church"
[This organization is for those who feel that the Church in Rome is too strict as, "we are
independent of papal jurisdiction" and follow tradition "without excessive institutionalism".
The church's "authority" is "instructive" and "guiding but not directive."
http://www.oldcatholic.com/index.html
"The Other Catholic Churches"
"Catholic splinter groups: Liberal and conservative organizations claiming to be the
one true church."
http://www.beliefnet.com/index/index_10023.html
"Roman Catholic Faith Examined"
http://www.bible.ca/catholic.htm
"Catholicism's SHOCKING attitude toward the Bible!"
Catholic statements that the Bible was:
1.Not intended to be written.
2.Not intended to be circulated.
3.Not intended to be gathered into one volume.
4.Not accessible to all.
5.Does not contain all truth.
6.Not understandable.
7.Not a safe method.
8.Is a dead letter.
9.Does more harm than good.
http://www.bible.ca/cath-bible-attitude-towards.htm#neverintend
Fox's Book of Martyrs
Chapters 4-21 detail the torture and murders committed by authority of the Catholic Church
Chapters 18-19 include persecutions committed by the Church of England
Chapter 5 deals with the Inquisition
http://www.ccel.org/f/foxe_j/martyrs/fox101.htm
http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/martyrs/
The Crusades: 605 years of "holy" wars including politics, treachery, murder and other "war crimes" in the name of God.
Medieval Sourcebook:
Annales Herbipolenses, s.a. 1147:
A Hostile View of the Crusade
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1147critic.html
"War Crimes" and animal worship committed "on the way to" the Crusades:
August. C. Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants, (Princeton: 1921), 53-56
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1096jews.html
The Invention of the Doctrine of "Holy War"
"After the Roman government became officially Christian, however, Christian officials needed guidelines for the use of violence. In response to this need the doctrine of Just War was evolved. It assumed that violence was evil, but acknowledged that passivity in the face of others' violence might be a greater evil. Consequently three main conditions were laid down; if these conditions were meet,Christian people could engage in warfare without fear of damnation. The war must have a Just Cause, it must be waged under Due Authority, and the Christian combatants must have Right Intentions.
The theological structure of Just War is complicated, but in brief, it meant that the war must be waged either to avoid a likely injury or to rectify a past injury; it must be waged under the direction and at the call of a supreme governmental authority; and that the violence employed might not be excessive (i.e., only that degree of violence which was absolutely necessary might be imposed).
In the tenth and eleventh centuries, a number of churchmen (primarily monks) became concerned about the moral and organizational state of the Church. They formed a movement, sometimes known as the Cluniac Reform movement, which eventually took control of the papacy and brought sweeping change to Western Christianity.
One of these changes involved an adjustment to the Just War doctrine. Church and state were closely intertwined in this period, and some thinkers concluded that this meant that Christ's Will for mankind, embodied in the Church, could also be advanced by the political structures of Christian peoples. They also theorized that violence might not simply be the lesser of two evils (as the doctrine of Just War stipulated); violence, they said, was morally neutral, and those who used violence to advance Christ's kingdom might be doing positive good. The doctrine is known as Holy War."
ORB Online Encyclopedia
Crusades, Additional Background, Copyright (C) 1997, Paul Crawford.
http://orb.rhodes.edu/encyclop/religion/crusades/Add_Back.html
A Brief Account of the Crusades
(A scholarly Islamic view.)
"They began and ended in confusion, and many people died in the process."
"Inevitably the Church was forced to reduce its ambitious activities, and to direct its attention towards its enemies who were nearest Rome."
http://cyberistan.org/islamic/crusades1.htm
Christian apology for the Crusades:
The Reconciliation Walk
"The first and second wave of Crusaders murdered, raped and plundered their way up the Rhine and down the Danube as they headed for Jerusalem." 1
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_cru1.htm
http://www.reconciliationwalk.org/crusades.htm
The Catholic version: (No Apologies)
"The idea of the crusade corresponds to a political conception which was realized in Christendom only from the eleventh to the fifteenth century; this supposes a union of all peoples and sovereigns under the direction of the popes."
"In reality the Crusades continued until the end of the seventeenth century . . . " [i.e. 1095-1699].
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04543c.htm
Pope John Paul's non-specific "apology" for "past and present sins"
"One of the characteristic elements of the Great Jubilee is what I described as the "purification of memory" (Bull Incarnationis mysterium, n. 11). As the Successor of Peter, I asked that "in this year of mercy the Church, strong in the holiness which she receives from her Lord, should kneel before God and implore forgiveness for the past and present sins of her sons and daughters"
"The recognition of past wrongs serves to reawaken our consciences to the compromises of the present, opening the way to conversion for everyone."
"While we praise God who, in his merciful love, has produced in the Church a wonderful harvest of holiness, missionary zeal, total dedication to Christ and neighbour, we cannot fail to recognize the infidelities to the Gospel committed by some of our brethren, especially during the second millennium. Let us ask pardon for the divisions which have occurred among Christians, for the violence some have used in the service of the truth and for the distrustful and hostile attitudes sometimes taken towards the followers of other religions."
"Today, the First Sunday of Lent, seemed to me the right occasion for the Church, gathered spiritually round the Successor of Peter, to implore divine forgiveness for the sins of all believers.""Let us confess, even more, our responsibilities as Christians for the evils of today. We must ask ourselves what our responsibilities are regarding atheism, religious indifference, secularism, ethical relativism, the violations of the right to life, disregard for the poor in many countries."
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER, "DAY OF PARDON", Sunday, 12 March 2000
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/homilies/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20000312_pardon_en.html
Notes:
1. There is no mention of the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, the persecution of Jews, the forced conversion of non-believers, or the sexual abuse of children and others by priests (which, it is now known, was still being covered up by everyone from the bishops all the way to Rome).
2. For a religion that is so complex and so highly detailed in the specifics of every aspect of "church law", rituals, ceremonies, vestments, protocols, traditions, confessions, and hierarchal organization, it seems incongruent that mass murders, genocide, political intrigues, rapes, and every imaginable torture are generalized, if not trivialized, merely as "past and present sins", as "wrongs", as "infidelities to the Gospel committed by some", and as "distrustful and hostile attitudes".As with all church organizations, there appears to be a double standard. One for members who offend the church or its leaders and another standard for the church as a corporation and for its leaders.
"The right to excommunicate is an immediate and necessary consequence of the fact that the Church is a society. Every society has the right to exclude and deprive of their rights and social advantages its unworthy or grievously culpable members, either temporarily or permanently. This right is necessary to every society in order that it may be well administered and survive. The fundamental proof, therefore, of the Church's right to excommunicate is based on her status as a spiritual society, whose members, governed by legitimate authority, seek one and the same end through suitable means. Members who, by their obstinate disobedience, reject the means of attaining this common end deserve to be removed from such a society."
"Public excommunication, on the other hand, is removed only by a public absolution;. . . "
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05678a.htm
3. The reference to "violence some have used in the service of the truth" seems to be less of a condemnation and more of a reference to the belief that the end justifies the means.
4. The term "evils" is not used for the acts of the Catholic church, but it is used for " . . . atheism, religious indifference, secularism, ethical relativism, the violations of the right to life, disregard for the poor in many countries.", which is emphasized here above the mass murders, rapes, creative tortures and sexual abuse committed, tolerated or even encouraged by the Catholic church.
5. The statement refers to a previous document regarding "purifying memory" which apparently suggests "lets forget the bad stuff". This is also implied in the term "past wrongs".
The statement emphasizes that the "Church, [is] strong in the holiness", that "God who . . . has produced in the Church a wonderful harvest of holiness", and a "total dedication to Christ and neighbour". (The current and long-secret sexual abuse scandal had not yet been made public.)
6. He recommends a request for forgiveness by "God", not from any one or any group (see Mat. 5:23-24).
The request is for some vague, non-specific "sins".
7. There is no apology here. There is only a political statement designed to give the impression of an apology.
8. The Catholics and their leaders who committed the atrocities of the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, the persecution of Jews, and the forced conversion of non-believers are all dead now. No one who is living today has any responsibility for sins committed before they were even born.
However, the organization that sponsored these atrocities still exists. This organization has not renounced the doctrine of "holy war". The present leadership has made a vague "political statement" which is apparently supposed to amount to an apology to someone for something, but it is not clear what.
This same organization under this present leadership, while publishing this "political statement", was still actively covering up the sex abuse scandal by priests, a scandal which would still be unknown if it had not been exposed by its victims.
The names have changed but the "works" have not.
"But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becomes saints;
For this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
Be not you therefore partakers with them." (Eph. 5:3,5-7).
The Catholic Church in World War II
An evaluation of the "Apology" by the Pope.
"Apologies are on behalf of some unidentified "sons and daughters" of the church, but not on behalf of the church itself."
http://www.religioustolerance.org/pope_apo.htm
The Catholic Church and Sexual Abuse by Priests
"scandal in January 02 leads to dismissal of 300 priests"
"5,000 incidents in 20 countries, reported by the media"
"cases going back to the 1940's"
"Catholics Urge U.N. to Push Vatican on Sex Scandal"
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=564&ncid=564&e=17&u=/nm/20021008/ts_nm/religion_italy_pedophilia_dc_1
Haute Priest Couture: Dressed to Kill!
Or, All dressed up with nothing to kill?An explanation of priestly garments and a (satirical) proposed change.
Anti-Catholic Articles
Articles that contradict Catholic doctrines or relate uncomplimentary historical accounts of the church and its leadership seem to fall into two broad categories. The first type of article includes allegations without documentation, conspiracy theories and inflammatory rhetoric which may or may not have any basis in fact. The other type of articles seems to include valid research and logical discussion of facts, however they may not always quote more than one source or offer any verifiable documentation. A problem arises when both types of articles are found on a single web site. The one loses credibility by being associated with the other.
The following sites and articles appear to fall into the credible category.
Catholic Concerns
By: Mary Ann Collins (A Former Catholic Nun)
Concerns About Issues Relating to Catholicism
http://www.maryworship.com/
European Institute of Protestant Studies
Numerous articles on Catholicism, its history and Catholic involvement with World War II atrocities.
http://www.ianpaisley.org/main.asp
"The Vatican Billions"
"Two thousand years of wealth accumulation from Caesar to the Space Age"
by Avro Manhattan
"The Two Babylons" by Alexander Hislop
A detailed comparison of the Catholic Church and the "Babylonian Mystery Religion" in scripture.
http://philologos.org/__eb-ttb/default.htm
The Vatican's Holocaust
The historical Catholic involvement with the Serbian and Croatian conflict.
http://www.reformation.org/holocaus.html
The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican
The Croatian Massacre of the Serbs during World War II
Vladimir Dedijer translated by Harvey L. Kendall
http://www.hutch.demon.co.uk/prom/yugoausch.htm
Vietnam, Why Did We Go?
"The Religious Beginnings of an Unholy War"
"The Shocking Story of the Catholic "Church's" Role in Starting the Vietnam War"
http://www.reformation.org/vietnam.html
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