Catholicism is Pro-persecution
The most common form of religious persecution is people being punished for
forming a new religion. A religion that opposes forced conversion may still
persecute anybody who tries to contradict it and win followers from it.
Catholicism persecutes new religions by using social pressure to stop new
religions appearing. It likes to condition people so that even if they hate
every word that comes from the mouth of the Church, they will still go to the
Church for weddings and funerals and baptisms and put down "Roman Catholic" on
the census form.
Social pressure keeps religion and religious people from being as bad as they
could be or as bad as they want to be.
CHURCH SPEAKS
The Christian Church in its Catholic and Protestant forms
has ensured that in wartime, if you are an atheist, your conscientious objection
does not matter and you will be conscripted. This poisonous and murderous decree
is replicated in most countries of a Christian background. In the United States,
the following definition of conscientious objection applied: "A firm, fixed, and
sincere objection to participation in war in any form or the bearing of arms, by
reason of religious training and/or belief." It is up up to the state to decide
if a person is really sincere in their faith. And how do you prove a person
really is firmly anti-war unless they have got chance after chance to fight but
refused? So it is biased in favour of religious doctrine in that way. And there
is no concern if your objection is ethical and not religious. It discriminates
even against religious people if they do not base their objection on religious
grounds but on ethical or humanitarian ones. The implication of the definition
is that unless you go to Church regularly your objection to war means nothing
and you must be compelled to fight. In fact ethical objections to fighting
should be what matter in a secular state not religious ones. And it would mean
that anybody could form a religion of one or two people to get out of fighting
for a worthy cause.
St Augustine argued that killing heretics is not
persecution but is punishment for they are guilty of a spiritual crime, heresy,
that is worse than say violent crime or murder. The Church reasons that
deliberately propagating error naturally leads to violence and trouble for it
allows corruption and fear to arise. So if the heretic is non-violent he is
still to blame for making violence and even murder possible. It seems then that
any intolerant sect that uses Augustine's logic should not be accused of
persecution. If Catholicism condemns persecution then let us not be reassured
that it will never attack us. It might. The persecutor who does not see that he
is persecuting and who sees himself as a punisher will be harder to correct than
the one who does.
The theologian of the Catholic Church, St Thomas Aquinas
argued that unbelief and sin keep you out of heaven and salvation and harm your
soul. Thus unbelievers, he told us, need to be locked up and controlled in case
they draw others away from God and keep them away. “They should be compelled by
the faithful, if it be possible to do so, so that they do not hinder the faith
by their blasphemies, or by their evil persuasions, or even by their open
persecutions.”
Islam today is the religion most associated with the
religious habit of forcing others to follow its rules and beliefs. In the past
its intolerance was eclipsed by the machinations of the Roman Catholic Church
which used fear and persecution to get converts and keep them. The Bible
contains incitements from God towards violence and hatred and bloodthirstiness
that surpass anything Islam has ever been accused of.
Christ, supposing he existed, believed he should walk
into his crucifixion because of his faith that God wanted him to die.
The Catholic Church still claims to be infallible even
though many of the times it used this infallibility in the past at councils of
the Church were to encourage war against “heretics” and persecute them.
The Church always ordered Catholics what to believe and
then at the end of each declaration of a belief it said, “Whosever denies this
let him be anathema”. The apostle Paul used this formula in Galatians. It means
not just accursed but to be extremely accursed. We see what the Church is really
like. It pretends to oppose sins not sinners. It pretends to hate sin not
sinners. But then why doesn’t it say, “Whatever shall contradict this belief,
let it be anathema”? It puts the Anathema on the person.
The Catholic Church cannot condemn religious terrorism. Nobody can take its condemnations of religious violence and hatred seriously and maybe it doesn’t want us to. The Church today condemns totalitarian regimes. But no matter how secular such regimes are, the fact is that they are claiming to be somehow infallible. They are religious regimes because you need to claim supernatural help if you wish to make an infallible authority of your regime.
Religion by encouraging the idea of infallibility has to
take responsibility for making people want to feel that such regimes are
infallible.
Let the Roman Catholic Church speak:
Those who, simulating a kind of religiosity, condemn
—1. the sacrament of the Lord's body and blood,
—2. the baptism of children,
—3. the priesthood and other ecclesiastical orders, and
—4. legitimate marriages,
we expel from the church of God and condemn as heretics, and prescribe that they
be constrained by the secular powers. We also bind up their defenders in the
fetter of the same condemnation. Canon 23, SECOND LATERAN COUNCIL (1139)
We excommunicate and anathematize every heresy raising
itself up against this holy, orthodox and catholic faith which we have expounded
above. We condemn all heretics, whatever names they may go under. They have
different faces indeed but their tails are tied together inasmuch as they are
alike in their pride. Let those condemned be handed over to the secular
authorities present, or to their bailiffs, for due punishment. Clerics are first
to be degraded from their orders. The goods of the condemned are to be
confiscated, if they are lay persons, and if clerics they are to be applied to
the churches from which they received their stipends. Those who are only found
suspect of heresy are to be struck with the sword of anathema, unless they prove
their innocence by an appropriate purgation, having regard to the reasons for
suspicion and the character of the person. Let such persons be avoided by all
until they have made adequate satisfaction. If they persist in the
excommunication for a year, they are to be condemned as heretics. Let secular
authorities, whatever offices they may be discharging, be advised and urged and
if necessary be compelled by ecclesiastical censure, if they wish to be reputed
and held to be faithful, to take publicly an oath for the defence of the faith
to the effect that they will seek, in so far as they can, to expel from the
lands subject to their jurisdiction all heretics designated by the church in
good faith. Thus whenever anyone is promoted to spiritual or temporal authority,
he shall be obliged to confirm this article with an oath. If however a temporal
lord, required and instructed by the church, neglects to cleanse his territory
of this heretical filth, he shall be bound with the bond of excommunication by
the metropolitan and other bishops of the province. If he refuses to give
satisfaction within a year, this shall be reported to the supreme pontiff so
that he may then declare his vassals absolved from their fealty to him and make
the land available for occupation by Catholics so that these may, after they
have expelled the heretics, possess it unopposed and preserve it in the purity
of the faith — saving the right of the suzerain provided that he makes no
difficulty in the matter and puts no impediment in the way. The same law is to
be observed no less as regards those who do not have a suzerain.
Catholics who take the cross and gird themselves up for
the expulsion of heretics shall enjoy the same indulgence, and be strengthened
by the same holy privilege, as is granted to those who go to the aid of the holy
Land. Moreover, we determine to subject to excommunication believers who
receive, defend or support heretics. We strictly ordain that if any such person,
after he has been designated as excommunicated, refuses to render satisfaction
within a year, then by the law itself he shall be branded as infamous and not be
admitted to public offices or councils or to elect others to the same or to give
testimony. He shall be intestable, that is he shall not have the freedom to make
a will nor shall succeed to an inheritance. Moreover nobody shall be compelled
to answer to him on any business whatever, but he may be compelled to answer to
them. If he is a judge sentences pronounced by him shall have no force and cases
may not be brought before him; if an advocate, he may not be allowed to defend
anyone; if a notary, documents drawn up by him shall be worthless and condemned
along with their condemned author; and in similar matters we order the same to
be observed. If however he is a cleric, let him be deposed from every office and
benefice, so that the greater the fault the greater be the punishment. If any
refuse to avoid such persons after they have been pointed out by the church, let
them be punished with the sentence of excommunication until they make suitable
satisfaction. Clerics should not, of course, give the sacraments of the church
to such pestilent people nor give them a Christian burial nor accept alms or
offerings from them; if they do, let them be deprived of their office and not
restored to it without a special indult of the apostolic see. Similarly with
regulars, let them be punished with losing their privileges in the diocese in
which they presume to commit such excesses.
There are some who holding to the form of religion but denying its power (as the Apostle says) , claim for themselves the authority to preach, whereas the same Apostle says, How shall they preach unless they are sent? Let therefore all those who have been forbidden or not sent to preach, and yet dare publicly or privately to usurp the office of preaching without having received the authority of the apostolic see or the catholic bishop of the place", be bound with the bond of excommunication and, unless they repent very quickly, be punished by another suitable penalty. We add further that each archbishop or bishop, either in person or through his archdeacon or through suitable honest persons, should visit twice or at least once in the year any parish of his in which heretics are said to live. There he should compel three or more men of good repute, or even if it seems expedient the whole neighbourhood, to swear that if anyone knows of heretics there or of any persons who hold secret conventicles or who differ in their life and habits from the normal way of living of the faithful, then he will take care to point them out to the bishop. The bishop himself should summon the accused to his presence, and they should be punished canonically if they are unable to clear themselves of the charge or if after compurgation they relapse into their former errors of faith. If however any of them with damnable obstinacy refuse to honour an oath and so will not take it, let them by this very fact be regarded as heretics. We therefore will and command and, in virtue of obedience, strictly command that bishops see carefully to the effective execution of these things throughout their dioceses, if they wish to avoid canonical penalties. If any bishop is negligent or remiss in cleansing his diocese of the ferment of heresy, then when this shows itself by unmistakeable signs he shall be deposed from his office as bishop and there shall be put in his place a suitable person who both wishes and is able to overthrow the evil of heresy. CANON 3, FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL (1215).
