Criticism of the Catholic Church

Criticisms of the Catholic Church have led to breaks with other Christian groups, such as the schism with the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Protestant Reformation.

Quotes

 * Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt... I shall briefly show that (Paul's words in II Thess. 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy."
 * John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p.149.


 * We must know and be out of all doubt, that the Pope hath but a devilish Synagogue, and that all his Clergy is but filth & stench, all these varlets that have cast aside the Church of God, are but vermin. Although the Pope, who is Antichrist, be set in God’s sanctuary, (as we have seen before [2 Thes. 2.4]) yet notwithstanding, he is not worthy to be taken and accounted for a minister of the Church, nor all his mates.
 * John Calvin Sermon on 1 Timothy, ch. 3. The 22 Sermon upon the second Chapter Sermons on Timothy and Titus (16th-17th century facsimile editions), p. 265. pdf images And yet Calvin "draws a picture, not much more flattering of the state of morals to his branch of the glorious Reformation. He states that even the preachers of the new doctrines were notoriously immoral:" "But the Church has another ulcer that is more to be deplored: the fact that pastors - yes, I say the very pastors who mount the pulpit, which is the sacred judgment seat of Christ, on the condition that they surpass all others in the purity of their lives - are sometimes the most disgraceful examples of wantonness or other evils. So it turns out that their discourses possess no more truth and seriousness than if a player were acting out a tale on the stage. And, of course, such men complain that they are objects of contempt among the common people, or even that fingers are pointed at them as laughing stocks. But rather am I surprised at the patience of of the ordinary people, that women and children do not cover them with mud and filth ("luto et stercoribus")." Concerning Scandals [ De Scandalis ] (1978 - Orig. pub. 1550), John Calvin, John W. Fraser, tr., Eerdmans, ISBN 0802835112 ISBN 978-0802835116 Part II, The Second Class of Scandals: Troubles of Various Kinds, Pastors' Dissolute Lives, pp. 70-71. Older translation: A Little Booke of Iohn Caluines concernynge Offences, whereby at this daye diuers are feared, and many also quight withdrawen from the pure doctrine of the Gospell ... Translated out of Latine ... by Arthur Goldinge, pp.64f.  Also: University of Michigan  Latin: De scandalis, quibus hodie plerique absterrentur, in G. Baum, E. Cunitz, and E. Reuss (eds), Ioannis Calvini opera ..., vol. 8 = Corpus Reformatorum, vol. 36 (1870), col. 51.


 * In the jubilee millennium year of 2000 the Vatican spokesman Bishop Piero Marini said, explaining a whole sermon of apology given by His Holiness the Pope, given the number of sins we’ve committed in the course of twenty centuries, reference to them must necessarily be rather summary. Well I think Bishop Marini had that just about right, I’ll have to be summary, too. His Holiness on that occasion—it was March the 12th, 2000, if you wish to look it up—begged forgiveness for, among some other things, the crusades, the Inquisition, the persecution of the Jewish people, injustice towards women, that’s half the human race right there, and the forced conversion of indigenous peoples, especially in South America, the African slave trade, the admission that Galileo was right, and for silence during Hitler’s Final Solution or Shoah. And it doesn’t end there, there are smaller but significant—equally significant—avowals of a very bad conscience. These have included regret for the rape and torture of orphans and other children in church-run schools in almost every country on Earth, from Ireland to Australia. These are very serious matters, and they’re not to be laughed off by the references to the occasional work of Catholic charities. But I draw you attention not just to the apologies, ladies and gentlemen, but to the evasive and euphemistic form that they take.
 * Christopher Hitchens, "The Catholic church is a force for good in the world", Intelligence Squared Catholic Church Debate, (November 7th 2009).


 * The same euphemism comes, in the term some Christians allow themselves to be deceived in this way and to act against the gospel, well, anti-Semitism was preached as an official doctrine of the Church until 1964. Do you think that might have something to do with public opinion in Austria, and Bavaria, and Poland, and Lithuania? There’ll come a time, when the church will issue apologies, and explanations, and half-baked appeals for forgiveness for things it’s still doing. I think that there will be an apology for what happened in Rwanda, the most Catholic country in Africa, where priests and nuns and bishops are on trial, for inciting from their pulpits and on the Church’s radio stations and newspapers, the massacre of their brothers and sisters.
 * Christopher Hitchens, "The Catholic church is a force for good in the world", Intelligence Squared Catholic Church Debate, (November 7th 2009).