Quote:
Originally Posted by UGAalum94
"Some conjecture" may be the understatement of a lifetime.
The parishioners are only tied to its actions if the parishioners are aware or should be aware of the abuse taking place or have some power or means to stop it. I'm not sure either the Mormons of today or the Catholics of history would meet that standard.
Are you aware that sometimes the things in books aren't real? Just asking.
ETA: I'm, of course, not saying that the Catholic Church historically wasn't corrupt. I just think you have to acknowledge that any entity as powerful as it was would face exaggeration of its faults.
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This is not a matter of "sometimes the things in books aren't real". This is a matter of two ENTIRE eras of literature being heavily dominated by a specific theme.
I don't want to brag, but I have read almost every major Spanish work of Literature covering 3 centuries- and a good bit of the most highly regarded work of the last 200 years. We are talking over 100 novels and many times more that number of poems, short stories and partially surviving excerpts of books that were banned and destroyed by the Inquisition. I know that may not translate into a "fact sheet" by modern standards- but it is all we have, and I have done the work and rendered informed judgements.
As for your final comment- that is entirely the point I was making. The Catholic Church was, for a long time, THE most powerful entity in Europe at a time when Europe was the center of the human world.
It is inevitable that an entity which had enormous wealth and the power endowed by religious belief would be so potent that its leaders would be ripe for unchecked corruption. It is all the more so because Europe at that time was totally class-driven. The priesthood was the ONLY possible way for people born into the lower and middle classes to attain the same degree of power and security as the nobility. So to become a priest was many people's ONLY choice for wealth and prestige. That is precisely the kind of environment that breeds corruption and the "blue wall" mentality.
But if you want facts, I can give you facts. There is a wide body of documented evidence of the Inquisitions torture techniques, what triggered their interest in people and the trail of blood they left behind.
And in 1492, when Columbus was "discovering" America- Spain expelled the Sephardic Jews from their country. Maybe that was not quite as bad as what the Nazi's did since the Spaniards did not kill their Jews- but they rounded them up and threw them out for no other reason than they were Jews and Ferdinand & Isabella had been convinced that religious purity (Catholic purity) was the key to Spain's continued endurance as a great nation. It is the same kind of racist attitude that drove the Nazi's, the KKK and other luminous organizations whose legacy is pretty clear.
There is plenty of factual evidence out there to suggest what a horror the Catholic Church inflicted on the world during that time. I don't know what more to say than that. It is a major factor in how the world is today.
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