Inquisition(s) and Persecutions

The Crusades

Slavery

Galileo

Pope Pius XII and the Nazi Holocaust / Anti-Semitism

Priestly Sex and Molestation Scandal

Miscellaneous

The Inquisition: Its Purpose and Rationale Within the Mediæval Worldview 30K

Dialogue: Reflections on the Crusades, the Inquisition, and Slavery 26K

Catholic Encyclopedia: INQUISITION
The Inquisition and the Church (Joseph Jenkins)
Inquisition Requires Calm, Objective Analysis (Pope John Paul II)
A New Look at the Spanish Inquisition (Edward O'Brien)
The Spanish Inquisition: Fact vs. Fiction (Marvin R. O'Connell)
The Spanish Inquisition: Fact Versus Fiction  (Marvin R. O'Connell)
REMOTE MOTES AND PRESENT BEAMS (The Inquisition)  (Ralph McInerny)
A New Industry: The Inquisition  (Brian Van Hove)
The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition  (Ellen Rice)
INQUISITION ON THE WEB  (David Burr)
INQUISITION  (James Hitchcock)
One Cheer for Inquisitions (Gerard Bradley)
Beyond the Myth of the Inquisition: Ours is the Golden Age (Brian Van Hove)
Dave Hunt and the Spanish Inquisition (Phil Porvaznik)
Status: Inquisition in the Catholic Church (Benjamin D. Wicker)
The Spanish Inquisition (Anne W. Carroll)
The Inquisition (William G. Most)
Aquinas and the Heretics (Michael Novak)
Who Burned the Witches? (Sandra Miesel)

Dialogue: Reflections on the Crusades, the Inquisition, and Slavery 26K

The Crusades and World War II: An Instructive Ethical Analogy (Mark Shea) 33K

Crusade Myths  (Thomas F. Madden)
The Crusades 0101 (James Akin)
The Jews and the Crusaders: Medieval Shoah? (Vince Ryan)
The Crusades and Their Critics  (James Hitchcock)
Rethinking the Crusades (Jonathan Riley-Smith)
The Real History of the Crusades (Thomas F. Madden)
Catholic Encyclopedia: CRUSADES
The Battle Over the Crusades (Robert P. Lockwood)
Crusades: Truth and the Black Legend (Vittorio Messori)
The Crusades (Anne W. Carroll)
The Meaning of the Crusade (G.K. Chesterton)
The Crusades: A Defensive Gesture
Crusades and Counter-Crusades (Paul Crawford)
Crusades: Additional Background  (Paul Crawford)
Crusades: Legacy  (Paul Crawford)
Crusades: Political and Military Background  (Paul Crawford)
Crusading Vows and Privileges  (Paul Crawford)
The First Crusade (Paul Crawford)
The Later Crusades (Paul Crawford)

Dialogue: Reflections on the Crusades, the Inquisition, and Slavery 26K

The Catholic Church and Slavery (Lane Core, Jr.) 2K

Let My People Go: The Catholic Church and Slavery (Mark Brumley)
The Popes and Slavery - Book Review (Leonard A. Kennedy)
A Response to John Noonan, Jr. Concerning the Development of Catholic Moral Doctrine (Usury, Marriage, Slavery, Religious freedom) (Patrick M. O'Neil)
Catholic Encyclopedia: SLAVERY AND CHRISTIANITY
Catholic Encyclopedia: ETHICAL ASPECT OF SLAVERY
On Slavery in the Old Testament (Luke Wadel)

The Galileo Incident: Does it Prove that the Catholic Church is Not Infallible, or that it is Intrinsically Hostile to Science? (Steven L. Kellmeyer, Alexander R. Pruss, Michael W. Martin, and Brad Kaiser) 17K

Catholic Encyclopedia: GALILEO GALILEI
Galileo and the Magisterium: A Second Look (Jeffrey Mirus)
The Galileo Legend  (Thomas Lessl)
Galileo (Anne W. Carroll)
The Galileo Affair (George Sim Johnston)
Galileo Galilei (Bertrand Conway)

My statement: I would remind Catholics (and non-Catholic Christian allies) who are despairing over this dreadful scandal to recall that all great reform movements in the Catholic Church followed times of great immorality within its ranks (we Catholics being sinners and in constant need of God's grace, mercy, and help, along with everyone else). The terrible revelations now being exposed can potentially be a huge wake-up call to reform seminaries, Catholic educational institutions, and the priesthood from the inroads of theological modernism, false psychological thinking, "political correctness," heterodox, compromised teaching on sexuality, and relativist, non-traditional ethics and morality in general. Those scourges are the ultimate and long-term cause of these tragic events, and no informed Catholic that I know has ever denied that the Church (i.e., with regard to the beliefs and behavior of many of its members, not in its teachings) is suffering from a modernist crisis (see my web page, Theological Liberalism and Modernism).  I would note in passing that the fashionable, wrongheaded, agenda-driven calls for a married or female clergy have little to do with the current problem, and cannot resolve it, since upwards of 90% of the sexually-abused were teenage males. The problem obviously is something other than celibacy itself, or Clintonian urges towards heterosexual promiscuity. Having believed for a long time (based on historical hindsight) that spiritual and ecclesiological revival is coming in the 21st century, I think this unutterably tragic scandal can and will -- by God's grace and mass repentance -- eventually be instrumental in leading to a great movement for reform, orthodoxy, and revival (Romans 8:28). The laity will likely play a large part in the coming revival, as they often have in the past. For a single informative, insightful article on this subject (and/or a good place to start learning about it), I highly recommend Dark Hour, by my friend and fellow Catholic apologist and author, Mark Shea.

Has the Clergy Sexual Scandal in the US Caused a Huge Drop or "Crisis" in Vocations?

Scandalous Sexual Misconduct Committed by Protestant Clergy

Review of the Book Pedophiles and Priests (Lane Core Jr.) 22K

                     Sexual abuse by Catholic priests? Cover-ups by bishops? How could
                     this happen? What can we do about it?

                     Catholics and non-Catholics alike have been scandalized in recent days
                     by widespread reports of priests’ sexual crimes and bishops’ attempts to
                     hide the misconduct. This "complex and difficult situation," as Pope John
                     Paul II has called it, calls for a complex and thoughtful response.
                     In Shaken by Scandals, fourteen Catholic leaders offer a variety of
                     hard-hitting analyses, each focusing on a different aspect of the crisis.

                     The first section, "Understanding the Problem," wrestles with these
                     questions:

                     -How widespread are these problems?
                     -Is our sex-saturated culture to blame?
                     -Have critics of traditional Catholic morality contributed to this moral
                     chaos?
                     -Do the roots of the crisis lie in the seminaries?
                     -Is priestly celibacy the problem?
                     -Are homosexual priests the problem?

                     The second section, "Responding to the Crisis," tackles these issues:

                     -How can we help the victims?
                     -How can we support faithful priests through this trial?
                     -What action should we expect from our bishops?
                     -How can everyday Catholics help purify the Church?
                     -What do we tell our children about what’s going on?
                     -What do we say to scandalized non-Catholics?
                     -Can lessons from history offer hope for the future?

                     On all these topics and more, Catholics who deeply love the Church
                     speak out in Shaken by Scandals to clarify the issues and point the way
                     out of this alarming predicament.

                     From the Publisher:

                     In recent weeks the sex abuse scandals have riveted the attention of
                     the nation and provoked a sharp response, not only from American
                     Catholics as a whole, but from countless non-Catholics as well. This
                     book is for all those, both Catholics and non-Catholics, who have been
                     grieved, angered, and confused by the scandals and are asking, "How
                     did this terrible situation come about, and how should we respond to it?"

Dark Hour (Mark Shea)
Goodbye! Good Men (book by Michael S. Rose about homosexuality in Catholic seminaries)
Random Thoughts on Boston, Palm Beach and Related Matters (Fr. Jay Scott Newman)
The Gay Question  (Rod Dreher)
Entangled on the Web (James Hitchcock)
The Pope's First Statement (Peggy Noonan)
Should Gay Priests Adopt? (Ann Coulter)
Clergy Sexual Abuse Scandal More About Homosexuality Than Pedophilia (Traditional Catholic Reflections)
Pedophilia and Kulturkampf: The Consequence of Just Saying Yes to the Culture of Appetite (E. Michael Jones)
Violating a sacred trust  (Michael Kelly)
Breaking Faith: Protestant Clergy Sex Scandals (Lynn Vincent)
Crisis in the Catholic Church (Cal Thomas)
The Return of Martin Luther? (Linda Chavez)
Catholic Church's Scandals go from bad to worse (Maggie Gallagher)
The Church Must Come to Terms (John Leo)
Battle over abusive priests results in revolution? (John Leo)
Can the Church Survive? (William F. Buckley, Jr.)
Lawlessness in Boston (William F. Buckley, Jr.)
Catholics and Scandals (William F. Buckley, Jr.)
The Role of Gays, Celibacy and the Media in the Church Sex Abuse Scandal (Catholic League)
What You Say Reveals How You Think (David C. Stolinsky)
Quo Vadis, Ecclesia Romana?  (Phil Brennan)
An American Catholic at Easter  (Diane Alden)
Bishop [Wuerl] sings praises of battered priesthood (Ann Rodgers-Melnick)
Catholic Scandals: A Crisis for Celibacy? (Leon J. Podles)
Emitte Lucem (Phil Brennan)
Catholic bashing and pedophile priests (Michael Medved)
How should the Church respond?  (Alan Keyes)
Sins of the Fathers (Rod Dreher)
Unholy Mess (Rod Dreher)
Andrew Sullivan's Gay Problem and the "Lavender Mafia" (Rod Dreher)
Boston Travesty (Rod Dreher)
The Price of Priestly Pederasty (Dan Michalski)
Public Lynching of the Priesthood  (Deal Hudson)
Wages of Relativism: On Pedophile Priests (Benedict J. Groeschel)
The Myth of the Pedophile Priest (Philip Jenkins)
What our response should be to terrible scandals in the Church (Roger J. Landry)
Nietzsche and the Church Scandals (Fred Martinez)
Conservative Bishops, Liberal Results (James Hitchcock)

Sinful Church Leaders 5K

Sins and Sinners in the Catholic Church 53K

Was the Catholic Church an Avowed Enemy of Scripture in the Middle Ages (or at any other time)? 41K

"Why Don't Catholics Read Their Bibles?" 36K

Is Catholicism Half-Pagan? 12K

"Why Doesn't Pope John Paul II DO Something About the Modernist Dissenters in the Catholic Church?" 39K

Dialogue on Catholics' Supposed Simplemindedness, Arrogance, and "Triumphalism"

EXTERNAL LINKS

Dialogue: How Can Catholicism Be True When Catholics Are So Dead? (Gary Hoge)
Church Asks Pardon for Her Members' Sins (Pope John Paul II)
Should the Church Repent? (Avery Cardinal Dulles)
Anti-Popes (Warren H. Carroll)
Halloween: Its Origins and Celebration
What About Halloween? (Bob & Gretchen Passantino)
Nailing Christ to the Cross (article on Halloween by Steve Kellmeyer)
Did the Catholic Church Forbid Bible Reading? (Joseph Jenkins)
The False Decretals (Steven O'Reilly)
A Response to William Webster Concerning the False Decretals and Donation of Constantine Accusation  (Scott Windsor)
The Crimes of Christopher Columbus (Dinesh D'Souza)
The Consequences of  Columbus (Robert Royal)
Honoring Christopher Columbus (Warren Carroll)
Bad News on Priests and AIDS (David Murray & S. Robert Lichter)
AIDS and the News Media (Abp. Charles Chaput)
Priests More Likelty to Have AIDS? (Zenit News Agency)
How Could a God of Love Order the Massacre of the Canaanites?
Shouldn't the Butchering of the Amalekite Children be Considered War Crimes?