Sign of contradiction: Encyclopedia II - Sign of contradiction - The Church and Christians as signs of contradiction

Sign of contradiction - The Church and Christians as signs of contradiction

The second biblical phrase is from Acts 28:22

This phrase is a quotation of a Jew in Rome with whom Paul was talking:

According to Catholic theologians and ecclesiologists like Charles Journet and Kenneth D. Whitehead in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: The Early Church was the Catholic Church, [3] the sect being referred to here by the Jews is the early church of Christians.

The Church and the early Christians, according to these Catholic theologians, are one with Jesus Christ. As an example, they say that when Paul was persecuting the early Church, Jesus Christ appeared to him and said: Why do you persecute me?

The passage from the Acts of the Apostles is related to John 15:

"I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples." (italics added)

This passage shows the double-movement depending on the two possible attitudes towards Christ: whoever is united to Christ in holiness will rise and bear fruit, while those who are disunited to Christ will fall down and wither.

Sign of contradiction - The early Church and the Roman Empire

The early Christians, regarded as forming a pernicious sect by several authorities of the Roman Empire, are also seen as a sign of contradiction. Early Christians were called cannibals (for reputedly eating the "body of Christ"), they were called atheists (for not following the established Roman religion), they were also accused of burning Rome during the time of the Emperor Nero, and thus were tortured and burned as torches. Emperors after Nero also saw them as a threat to the unity of the Empire.

Tertuallian, an early Christian apologist, said that the persecution of the first Christians helped in propagating Christianity: "The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians." According to Catholic historians like Philip Hughes and Warren Carrol, when the Empire fell in 476 A.D., Christianity continued to prosper and to spread throughout Europe and beyond. These historians say that it was the Christian monks who eventually tried to keep intact the ancient culture in their monasteries.

Sign of contradiction - Early Church Fathers

Many Catholic Church Fathers were also signs of contradiction. A specific example is St. Athanasius or Athanasius of Alexandria, who defended the divinity of Christ, the basic reason behind the Christian religion, according to Patrologist Johannes Quasten.

Image:StAthanasius4.jpgJ. Quasten says that Athanasius was the deacon and secretary to bishop Alexander of Alexandria. As such he attended the Council of Nicea in 325 where he fought for the defeat of Arianism and acceptance of the divinity of Jesus. Against Arius who said that Jesus Christ was not eternal and not God but a mere creature, Athanasius formulated the doctrine that Jesus Christ is "consubstantial" with the Father, a doctrine now known as "homoousios."

Athanasius later became the Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt in 328. When the Arians gained political power, Athanasius was exiled five to seven times, but was restored to authority each time. This gave rise to the expression "Athanasius contra mundum" or "Athanasius against the world."

While Arius, his opponent, died in 336, Athanasius died in 373 surrounded by the affection of his flock, and from then on revered as a great saint in Christendom. (J. Quasten, Patrology) Athanasius has been recognized by the Catholic Church as a Church Father, a leading testimony of Sacred Tradition. He has also been declared a Confessor of the faith and Doctor of the Church. Athanasius is also the first person to identify the same 27 books of the New Testament that are in use today.

Sign of contradiction - Black legends and the Church's contributions to civilization

According to Thomas Woods, author of the New York Times bestseller The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, who also wrote How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, the Church, attacked as the enemy of progress, freedom, human rights, science, is at the origin of these phenomena.

In an interview granted to Zenit, Woods says it is much easier to propagate historical myth than most people realize. For example, the idea that in the Middle Ages everyone thought the world was flat. This, as Jeffrey Burton Russell has shown, is a 19th-century myth that was deliberately concocted to cast the Church in a bad light. Woods states that modern scholarship over the past 50 to 100 years or so has gone a long way toward refuting these myths and setting the record straight.

The Church, he says, has been attacked as an organization which is against science. However, Woods states that the first person to measure the rate of acceleration of a freely falling body was Father Giambattista Riccioli. Father Nicholas Steno is considered the father of geology. The father of Egyptology was Father Athanasius Kircher, and the man often cited as the father of atomic theory was Father Roger Boscovich. The Society of Jesus brought Western science all over the world. In the 20th century they so dominated the study of earthquakes that seismology became known as "the Jesuit science."

Some Catholic cathedrals were built to function as the world's most precise solar observatories, and the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna was used to verify Johannes Kepler's theory of elliptical planetary orbits. The Catholic Church's contributions to astronomy exceed that of any other institution from the recovery of ancient learning during the late Middle Ages into the Enlightenment. In general, he states that Catholic teaching -- including the idea of God as orderly and even mathematical, thus making possible the idea of autonomous natural laws -- lent themselves to the development of modern science.

During the "Dark Age" of Europe, the university system was developed by the Catholic Church under the patronage of the papacy. The early universities' commitment to rigorous and rational debate provided the framework for the Scientific Revolution, which was unique to Western civilization.

The other black legends he discusses are the opposition of the Church to the free-market economy and to the development of a modern legal system. He says that the contrary is true: it is the Church which helped develop these. Spanish theologians like Francisco de Vittoria, based on Thomist theology and philosophy argued for the inherent rights of South American natives against the abuses of some Spanish colonial thrusts. This has been acknowledged by the United Nations as a major basis for international law, setting up a statue of Vittoria in the UN headquarters. Modern economists like Schumpeter acknowledge the big contribution of Medieval scholars in bringing about the free-market economy. [4]

The then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger also said that the Catholic religion is the religion of the Logos, the Word, meaning and reason.

Sign of contradiction - Pius VII and Napoleon Bonaparte

Another example of a sign of contradiction is the life of Pius VII. His was a difficult pontificate filled with moral and physical problems inflicted by Napoleon I whom the pope himself, consecrated Emperor of France in Notre Dame in Paris. Later Napoleon took him prisoner and sent him to Fontainebleau.

The Columbia University Encyclopedia states: "In 1814, after Napoleon's downfall, Pius returned to Rome in triumph. One of his first acts was to restore the Society of Jesus. The Papal States were restored at the Congress of Vienna, and a series of concordats were signed with European powers. At the same time Pius VII's stolidity in the face of humiliation began a revival of personal popularity for the pope that has since characterized Catholicism."

Pius VII later offered asylum to Napoleon's elderly mother and gave both moral and material assistance to his family. Napoleon died in exile 1821 at the age of 52; Pope Pius VII died in 1823 in Rome at the age of 81.

Sign of contradiction - The Society of Jesus and the Suppression

After Ignatius' death and through the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the Jesuits became widely known as the schoolmasters of Europe, in part for their reputation as scholars and their demonstrated intellectual excellence as shown through the thousands of textbooks they authored. They were also known for their unity with Pope. They have a fourth vow: obedience to the Pope.

Their status in Europe greatly changed in 1773 when Pope Clement XIV gave into pressure from groups across the continent. Pope Clement feared that many would follow the example of Henry VIII who abandoned the Catholic Church. On the heels of the pope's suppression of the Society of Jesus, many of the Jesuit's educational institutions fell under state government control, and much of the Jesuit's books and teaching materials were subsequently destroyed. Over 200 members of the order fled to Russia while over 20,000 others scattered throughout the world. Pope Pius VII lifted this suspension in 1814 and the Jesuits re-emerged as they were asked by many governments to return to the colleges they once gave up. The absolutist monarchs who had demanded the suppression had fallen by then, swept by the forces unleashed by the French Revolution of 1789.

The period following the Restoration of the Jesuits in 1814 was marked by tremendous growth, as evidenced by the large number of Jesuit colleges and universities established in the 19th century. In the United States, 22 of the Society's 28 universities were founded or taken over by the Jesuits during this time. Some claim that the experience of suppression served to heighten orthodoxy among the Jesuits upon restoration.

Sign of contradiction - John Paul II

A contemporary example of a sign of contradiction is John Paul II. [6] While Pope, he was often criticized, stridently at times, by the media, non-Catholic and Catholics alike. He was criticized for his views on sex, homosexuality, Buddhism. He was criticized for his canonizations, including the canonization of Opus Dei's founder, St. Josemaria Escriva. He was called a reactionary, an ultraconservative. Traditionalists criticized him for being too open to other religions. According to George Weigel, in Witness to Hope, many Catholic theologians, especially those who had relativist and secularist tendencies, rebelled against his teaching magisterium, criticizing his views about morality, ecumenism, the sacraments, ordination of women. Weigel also says that there were many attempts to assassinate him. He mentions some historians and investigators who made very plausible connections with communist leaders who feared his influence in Eastern Europe.

When he died, the communist governments in the Eastern Europe had fallen.

On the other hand, on his death, he was highly praised by many Catholics. All around the world, very many wanted him to be called John Paul the Great. Even the secular press devoted unusually long air-time to report on his life and pontificate.

According to Catholic theologian and historian George Weigel and other Catholic commentators like John Allen, John Paul II has been praised and will be much remembered for the following things: (1) his revolutionary theology of the body which gives profound insights on human sexuality, his clear moral teachings in Veritatis Splendor, (2) his fight for human rights and dignity which led to the fall of dictatorships and of communism, (3) his defense of life and the human embryo through unprecedented "infallible" teachings on abortion, euthanasia, and murder as grave sins in the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, [7] (4) his push for the universal call to holiness through his many canonizations and his "program for all times," At the Beginning of the New Millennium (Novo Millennio Ineunte) which place sanctity as the number one priority of all pastoral activities in the Catholic Church, (5) his teaching on reason as being congruent with the Catholic faith (Fides et Ratio), (6) the strides in the work of ecumenism and (7) the work on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which, for Weigel and some historians of theology, has cleared much of the doctrinal confusion which disturbed the Church and society in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Sign of contradiction - Prelature of Opus Dei and the Holy Cross

Opus Dei, described as one of the most controversial forces in the Roman Catholic Church, is another contemporary sign of contradiction according to some Catholic theologians.

Opus Dei was denounced as a heresy by churchmen in the 1940s but is now considered one of the contributors to a central doctrine of the Second Vatican Council, the universal call to holiness and is supported by Catholic leaders world-wide. Catholic historians say that it was attacked as pro-Franco (because of 8 members who were among the 116 ministers of the dictator) but some of its members driven into exile by Franco's political arm later became the Senate President of the new democracy. It has been criticized as a cult for various reasons. However, the John Paul II said that its teachings on the radical demands of sanctity belongs to all Christians. John Cardinal Heenan, Archbishop of Westminster, commented in 1975: "One of the proofs of God's favour is to be a sign of contradiction. Almost all founders of societies in the Church have suffered. Monsignor Escriva de Balaguer is no exception. Opus Dei has been attacked and its motives misunderstood. In this country and elsewhere an inquiry has always vindicated Opus Dei." John Paul II, in his decree on Escrivá's heroic virtues, stated: "God allowed him to suffer public attacks. He responded invariably with pardon, to the point of considering his detractors as benefactors. But this Cross was such a source of blessings from heaven that the Servant of God's apostolate spread with astonishing speed."

Escriva said that Opus Dei in order to be effective has to live like Jesus Christ and that "its greatest glory is to live without human glory."

Sign of contradiction - Catholic Martyrs of the 20th Century

Writing for Catholic Herald, Robert Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute, Washington, D.C. reported about the results of his research which appeared in his book The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive Global History. [8] Royal states that in some countries, such as Spain, the Church has documented almost 8,000 people killed for the Catholic faith during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Royal says, from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, where communism collapsed in 1989, to Africa, Asia, and Latin America, thousands of Catholics have disappeared into Gulags, been gunned down by dictators, had their heads cut off by anti-Catholic fanatics, and, in some cases, been crucified.

In Sudan, which Royal says is engaged in the most insidious anti-Catholic campaign in the world, there have been reports not only of martyrdoms and crucifixions, but Christians in the Nuba mountains in southern Sudan are being sold into slavery. It is estimated that over 1.5 million Christians have been killed by the Sudanese army, the Janjaweed, and even suspected Islamists in northern Sudan since 1984. Royal states that China, for example, has produced large numbers of martyrs. In the 1900 Boxer Rebellion alone, 30,000 Catholics died, including several dozen bishops, priests, and religious. Since the Communist takeover in the late 1940s, thousands more have died in brainwashing camps and under laojiao, virtual slave labor.

In India, Catholic churches are regularly burned by Hindu Fundamentalists, and both Hindus and local animist groups have harassed and killed Catholic converts. In Pakistan, which disagrees with India about everything else, an Islamic Fundamentalist government does the same. Even great charity is no protection. Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity have been threatened in India and three of them were murdered in Yemen in the 1990s. Mother Teresa has been beatified recently.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Church and Christians as signs of contradiction", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki