The Reformation made this connection between the Gospel and the experiential world of ordinary people. Again we find Luther moving this into the forefront of the Reformation struggle. Is there anything that the Lord wants to say to us through those people of long ago as we face their task in todays age?. The Reformers were saying, No, go back to Scripture, read it for yourself and ask, Where did these ideas come from? Those Protestants who went on to repudiate orthodox Trinitarianism as part of their Reformation claimed to be carrying out, more consistently than Luther or Calvin or the Anabaptists had done, the full implications of the rejection of Roman Catholicism, which they all had in common. In their treatise of 1513 urging Pope Leo X de' Medici (r. 1513-21) to support clerical reform, the Camaldolese Reforms Before the Council of Trent. Religious reformers would critique the church's grand power, laying the foundation for the Protestant Reformation. Here is one of the first areas I want to look at. On the other hand, his testimony breaks new ground by openly confronting the culture of secrecy embedded in the traditions of church administration. The Spaniard Antonio Gavin fled to England around 1713 and went on to publish an incendiary account of confession in The Master Key of Popery. The Protestant Reformation began in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517 . We can reach into the past and discover things that we need to hear today. The movement is also known as the Counter Reformation, but many historians prefer not to use this term because it suggests that changes within the church were simply a reaction to Protestantism. Read more on Christianity fromOrigins:The Changing Face of Global Christianity;Protestant Preaching after the Age of Graham;Baptized in the Jordan;Martin Luther and the Reformation; andthe Catholic Church and Copernicus, Listen toHistory Talk:The People's Pope and the Changing Face of Catholicism; Secrecy and Celibacy: The Catholic Church and Sexual Abuse. Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, a 16th-century Dutch scholar and theologian. Back in the year 1510 in northern Italy there was a group of Italian noblemen, probably about twenty of them. In the United States, the first reports appeared in the mid-1980s. Symons admitted abuse and also the abuse of 4 other boys. Not because of any problems with the Gospel, but the inadequacy of the clergy made it difficult for the people to understand what the Gospel was saying. During the Age of Reformation people were greatly against the abuses that existed in the Roman Catholic Church. We can see this beginning to change in a number of ways as the Reformation begins to dawn. via email at asc-accessibility@osu.edu. One of the great themes of the Reformation is that you can go to Scripture directly, read it, and be nourished by the word of God. Vigan does not hesitate to speak ofomerta code of silence surrounding criminal activityand remind his readers of the terms origin in mafia culture. But you are talking about something that happened in sixteenth-century Europe. The Reformers are saying this: There is no point in going forward, forward, forward. They were there to open the Word of God for their people, to help their people to discover what they had already discovered. What Is the Most Widely Practiced Religion in the World. They span the late 16thto the late 18thor early 19thcenturies, when the major Inquisition offices were closed. The point Im trying to make is that this is a big question. Some Church critics point to an ossified church structure and antiquated norms of sex and gender, including clerical celibacy and a male priesthood. The most traumatic era in the entire history of Roman Catholicism, some have argued, was the period from the middle of the 14th century to the middle of the 16th. This reflects the fact that the social status of clergy wasnt really very high. For the Reformers, Word and sacrament are not enemies but the best of friends. Here is something we need to rediscover. Church parishes were among the most significant structures for arranging peoples social interactions. Despite, or because of, the rampant abuses of the hierarchy, there were efforts to reform the church. A 1683 Francisco Rizi painting of anAuto de Fein Plaza Mayor, Madrid in 1680. An August 2018 grand jury report on clerical sex abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses gave a detailed, often graphic account of decades of criminal offenses against minors by Catholic priests. 2019 Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective Again, taking a real excitement in what God had done for them through the cross of Jesus Christ. An 1854 depiction of a woman confessing to a priest. Luther refused to recant his beliefs. A rebirth of Christian understanding and of Christian knowledge. Stories of predatory priests have emerged around the world. A native of Rockville Centre, N.Y., where he served as . The framing of the problem in terms of sin and redemption is evident in Pope John Paul IIs earliest responses to the American child abuse scandal that erupted in 2002. Let me explain what this was and why it caused such a row. At the first level it meant being able to give a good account of what the Christian faith is. Sometimes they appealed to their honor to get the confessor to back down; at other times, they reduced the frequency of their confessions. But by appreciating for ourselves all that the Gospel means, we can also be more effective evangelists as well. Throughout the Catholic Church, East as well as West, a priest may not marry. I think thats a very important insight. Some church leaders were found to have engaged in such acts themselves. As part of a financial settlement,TheWashington Posthas reported, he was ordered to only give spiritual direction of women in the traditional confessionalmeaning separated physically from them. It was an old solution to an old problem. They were often the target of abuse-of ridicule-because they knew so little. Rediscovery of the Gospel led to the correction of the weaknesses Ive been talking about. All of these tragedies are tinged with a sense of dj vu. IV, chapter 6. A new generation arose, who by reading the New Testament at first hand began to discover for themselves that here was something exciting, something life changing, which was like new wine, which just couldnt be contained in the old wine skins of the church of the late Middle Ages. The Council of Trent is believed to be the apex of the Counter-Reformation's influence on church music in the 16th century. One thing you will notice is that these problems seem to be emerging again. Another approach to contain the sexual crisis was legal. Again people began to think, Here we are being exploited. Here the verdict is complex. The Reformation was a culmination of events and circumstances, both here and abroad, which led to a seismic shift in the . He continued to attack the Church by translating the Bible into English . For more than two decades, the Catholic Church has been reeling from sexual abuse scandals. The Reformation offers us a case study on how to do that. There were many, and there are many more I could mention. The Factors that Sparked The Protestant Reformation. It was also about our rediscovery of the Gospel. A depiction of the Sacrament of Penance from around 1800. The author says that "spiritual abuse can take place in the context . You and I can rediscover that as well. The Catholic Reformation. Confessors who fell victim to the most pernicious traps of the devil were transformed from heavenly doctor[s] into infernal sorcerer[s].. He is Risen! Adelina Sarrin Mora,Sexualidad y confesin: la solicitacin ante el Tribunal del Santo Oficio (siglos XVI-XIX)(Madrid, 1994). Occasionally, commentators have referred to an insular institutional culture going back to the 19thcenturythe time when Pope Pius IX repositioned the Church against modernity in the aftermath of the liberal revolutions of 1848 in Europe. Despite, or because of, the rampant abuses of the hierarchy, there were efforts to reform the church. The challenge of the Protestant Reformation became also an occasion for a resurgent Roman Catholicism to clarify and to reaffirm Roman Catholic principles; that endeavour had, in one sense, never been absent from the life and teaching of the church, but it was undertaken now with new force. The power of the keysthe power to absolve from sininvested confessors with tremendous religious and judicial authority. Christianity was defined in terms of what you did. What resources do we have? You and I can rediscover that Gospel today. The idea was not far-fetched. The need to take stock, the need to say, Does God want us to move in a different direction? We are to look back at our Christian history, back at Scripture, and ask, Where does God want us to go on from here? Luther and Calvin said that the best way of rediscovering why we are here is to go back to the New Testament, read it, and become excited at what we find in its pages. What proportion of sexual offenses by the clergy led to denunciations? Resigned 6/98 when accused of molesting a boy who reported the abuse to a church official. However, the council's pronouncements on music were not the first attempt at reform. The spectre of many national churches supplanting a unitary Catholic church became a grim reality during the age of the Reformation. Here, too, secrecy was generally the norm. We can, however, discuss the Churchs response to the early-modern abuse crisis in more general terms that remain relevant today. Proceedings of the Second Vatican Council in 1963. But unless you have fully appreciated that you are a sinner, then the sweet news of forgiveness is not really going to meet you in all its force. Vigan retorted with further testimony.. Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has been making headlines for years. Have you corrupted your eyes, ears, smell, or touch in lascivious ways? I have tried to make the point that one of the things the Reformation did was to bring home to believers the importance of knowing what they believed. The group split into two parts. "Systemic abuse can be found in the literary and historical records going back to the very beginnings of the Catholic Church, and outrage at corruption in the church is part of what led to the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Education was also important subjectively. The institution of the Catholic Church finds itself in a period of extraordinary crisis. To this day, the Roman Catholic Church condemns some of the promises Tetzel made (mostly . By looking at the way God restored, renewed and reformed his church back then, we can gain some ideas about what he might want to do to his church here, today, in this place. View Reformation.docx from HIST 12 at North Allegheny Shs. One of the great themes of the doctrine of justification is this: It answers the question, What must I do to be saved? That is a real question for a lot of people. How often, for instance, did convicted priests return to pastoral care? This was compounded, of course, by the offending priests power to absolve his victim of any qualms she (or he) might have about the situation. One of the things the Reformation tried to do was to restore the integrity and the public image of the church. As many of you know, one of the key ideas underlying this is the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, the idea that every Christian believer can act as a priest. Contact us toll-free at: (800) 890-7556. After the Reformation there were still 5,000 people there, but there were only six or seven clergy whose task was primarily teaching. And when I was little, they often took me with them to church, and I remember the impression the services made on me. They werent stupid. A) the power of the Catholic Church should be unquestioned B) religious officials needed to follow strict rules of behavior C) music, art, literature, and grammar should be available to all D) trade and wealth needed to be the goal of all levels of society A) his contributions to the Protestant Reformation. More strikingly, the sense of rupture leaps off the pages of a notorious open letter of August 22, 2018 by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan, a former apostolic nuncio (ambassador) to the United States. In order to increase revenue, the Church began the practice of selling indulgences. We have little reliable information about the incidence of sexual abuse that arose during confessions, but such cases were certainly not uncommon. Luther was outraged and felt there was a real need to rediscover the idea of forgiveness, justification by faith-that you could die knowing that your sins really had been forgiven. You must never think of the Reformation solely as a negative thing, as a response to weaknesses. Absenteeism- Many senior churchmen did not live in their parishor diocese. Now people were being told, Give money and sin will be forgiven. Very often this played on the love of people for their dead relatives. Grave scandal is caused, John Paul noted in 2002, with the result that a dark shadow of suspicion is cast over all the other fine priests., Recently, confronted with a new investigation by the Attorney General of Illinois, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield sought to justify this attitude, but also acknowledged its harmful consequences: A virtuous intent to protect the faithful from scandal unfortunately prevented the transparency and awareness that has helped us confront this problem more directly over the past fifteen years.. All materials are posted on the site strictly for informational and educational purposes! Pope Paul IV, Bishop of Rome from 1555 to 1559 (right). Then you go away from that Bible study or discussion group feeling a lot better, because something you didnt understand is now sorted out. The Reformation brought home the importance of Christian education. One of the great ideas of the Reformation is to unpack the enormous riches of Scripture and to savor them as we realize just how much it means. The Investiture Controversy: Gregory VII to Calixtus II, The papacy at its height: the 12th and 13th centuries, From the late Middle Ages to the Reformation, Late medieval reform: the Great Schism and conciliarism, Roman Catholicism on the eve of the Reformation, Expressions of spirituality and folk piety, Roman Catholicism and Renaissance humanism, Roman Catholicism and the emergence of national consciousness, The age of Reformation and Counter-Reformation, Roman Catholicism and the Protestant Reformation, Religious life in the 17th and 18th centuries, The New World: Spanish and Portuguese empires, Spanish and French missions in North America, Roman Catholicism in the United States and Canada, Ancient and medieval views of papal authority, Early-modern and modern views of papal authority, Historical conceptions of the relationship of the papacy to the world, The Roman Curia and the College of Cardinals. The people that were responsible were Martin Luther, John Calvin and King Henry VIII. To be sure, the church fathers expressed concern about priests who dared tempt the chastity of women even during confession. But the subject required a cautious approach, in order not to reveal our shame. A draft proposal from the Councilthough never approvedrequired that all confessions of women take place in open, visible places. How did St. Francis Xavier shape Catholicism? But the Reformers felt that the only way a church could be reformed or renewed was by asking, What does God want the church to do in the first place? Cruz, Ilocos Sur: 30 April 2023, Sunday | 6:00 pm --- Fourth Sunday of Easter Copyright 2023 Modern Reformation. The laity were simply despised. While some dismissed the accusations and suspicions as gossip and slander, even they acknowledged the resulting damage to the image of the Church. There is a need for us to think through what we can do about those problems. Specific penalties could also include removal from the office of confessor, exile, monastic confinement, and very exceptionally, being turned over to civil authorities. An 1891 political cartoon of a Roman Catholic priest yelling at a woman, "Erin," representing Ireland. But nevertheless, that is a real part of the Christian faith. Experience of God is of enormous importance. In the late Middle Ages, Christianity tended to become very formal, very external, very outward. It helps to stop and look back, and ask, Why are we here? So there was financial corruption that made many people wonder if the church and their pastors really could be trusted. When Paul wrote that "the love of money is the root of all evil" ( 1 Timothy 6:10 ), he was making a profound observation that was as valid in his time as in ours. Under the Spanish Inquisition, trial proceedings were confidential, but convicted heretics were publicly named and shamed in a ceremony calledAuto de Fe. Consulted on the issue, the Jesuit superiors and Pedro Guerrero, archbishop of Granada, decided that another confessor could report the case on the womans behalf. But deeper down was something much more worrisome: that all the clergy needed to do was tend to the pastoral needs of their flock and not worry about anything else. But nonetheless insisting that this has had a big subjective impact on peoples lives. But such abuse - violent rape, coercive coverups, victim shaming - is not new. In the Middle Ages the idea developed that although God does indeed forgive sinners, its appropriate to try to express your gratitude for forgiveness in various ways. The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform movement that swept through Europe in the 1500s. Protestant Preaching after the Age of Graham, The People's Pope and the Changing Face of Catholicism, Secrecy and Celibacy: The Catholic Church and Sexual Abuse, Migration and Mobility: Yesterday and Today, Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future, The Past and Future of the Global War on Drugs (Prologued, Season 2, Finale), Copernicus, Galileo, and the Catholic Church. In part, the reason was technological. They had a real sense that they were being exploited by those who were meant to be their pastors, their shepherds, their leaders. Many of you know about the indulgence controversy that was of great importance to Luthers Reformation at Wittenberg. The Church responded by labeling Luther a heretic, forbidding the reading or publication of his 95 Theses, and threatening Luther with excommunication. If word got out through the grapevine, a priest could gain the reputation of a predator and be avoided. The late Middle Ages saw the clergy really living in a different world from ordinary lay Christians. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Johann Tetzel, a German monk, was particularly adept at raising funds in this manner. The late medieval mass was a dragons tail, not because it was liturgically unsound but because the medieval definition of the mass as a sacrifice offered by the church to God jeopardized the uniqueness of the unrepeatable sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. Im sure many of you have been to a Bible study or discussion group. The most notable reformers were the Christian humanists, including Erasmus and Thomas More, who advocated an evangelical piety and rejected many of the medieval superstitions that had crept into church teaching. Each side, both Catholics and Protestants, were often absolutely certain that they were in the right and that the other side was doing the devil's work. It is an important question. The late Middle Ages saw the church going through a period of real doctrinal confusion. In a general sense, the Inquisition process was penitential in nature. Trusting in the word of God that makes those promises, and realizing that they are addressed to us, who joyfully accept what God wants us to have. You can see this working at two different levels. They didn't know scriptureand could not preachwell at all. Youve been thinking about this, and somebody says something that really helps you. The clergy had certain privileges. The attack centers on the transgressions of Cardinal McCarrick, questions a church organization that did not prevent his ascent to its highest ranks, and culminates in an unprecedented call on Pope Francis to step down. Here is something that makes the Gospel relevant to the world of ordinary people. So underlying everything Im going to be saying tonight is this sense of excitement and rediscovery of the Gospel. One group felt that the only way of being sure they were going to be saved was to go to the nearest monastery and spend the rest of their lives there. I think the same thing is beginning to happen today. There was no real sense of mission or evangelism. Asking, Where did this come from? This was the time when Protestantism, through its definitive break with Roman Catholicism, arose to take its place on the Christian map. It has a converting power based on the strength of its ideas. I think this is a great theme for us, because you and I are seeking to rediscover the Word and will of God for his people. The dangers of exposure frequently led them to conceal their experiences even from their family. They were also to use a concise, technical vocabulary to discuss sexual matters. He argues that the way the Church has responded to these outrages has its roots 500 years ago when the Catholic Church faced its first major crisis of sexual abuse. Addressing the Catholic priesthood, he referred to the sins of some of our brothers who have betrayed the grace of Ordination in succumbing even to the most grievous forms of themysterium iniquitatis[the mystery of evil] at work in the world.. It is a question that needs to be answered. In the Eastern Catholic Churches, a married priest is one who married before being ordained. We dont have full answers to such questions. The others felt that some how you had to be able to live your life as a Christian in the world and be sure that your sins had been forgiven. It was also the period during which the Roman Catholic Church, as an entity distinct from other branches of Christendom, even of Western Christendom, came into being. An 1838 painting by Giuseppe Molteni of a woman kneeling at a confessional (right). The Reformation restored the vital elements of teaching and evangelism to the ministers of the church. Its responses then may still be helpful for understanding the crisis of today. My parents are Catholic believers. The Vatican (part of the Catholic Church), Sexual scandal. Pope Francis ordered McCarrick to observe a life of prayer and penance in seclusion before accepting his resignation in July 2018. Thus secrecy was considered vital when clerical misconduct might stain the reputation of the Churcha deep concern amidst the fierce religious battles of the post-Reformation era. That brings me to the next point. And in his treatise The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, issued in 1520, Luther denounced the entire system of medieval Christendom as an unwarranted human invention foisted on the church. By enjoining on bishops an obligation to reside in their respective sees, the church effectively abolished plurality of bishoprics. What are some problems with the Catholic Church? Namely, the depth and the attractiveness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Church leaders lived lavishly and broke their vows; 3. Without a real experience of God we are simply talking about an external formal shell, with no real fire for life. It is happening to us for all kinds of reasons. John Calvins Institutes are an excellent example of this kind of work. According to Catholic teaching, an indulgence is the remission of all or part of the temporal punishment due to sins which have already been forgiven, and can be applied either to the person. Established in 1999, Catholic Truth is a lay-led apostolate, launched for the purpose of alerting Catholics to the deepening crisis in the Church, primarily as it affects Scotland. The result is that the church of the period really lacked any sense of certainty about what they believed and why they believed it. They met regularly to pray and to talk. Humans have a natural acquisitive . It may have reduced the prevalence of abuse, but it has not stemmed the tide of accusations. The popes words also evinced a clerical mistrust of the world, further expressed in the ancient concern about scandal that runs through his and other church officials statements. Luther insisted throughout his life, however, that the primary object of his critique was not the life but the doctrine of the churchnot the corruption of the ecclesiastical structure but the distortion of the gospel. A federal judge overseeing the New Orleans Roman Catholic bankruptcy recused himself in a late-night reversal that came a week after an AP report showed he made donations to the archdiocese and . Let me tell you a story to bring out the importance of this point. Very often in the late medieval church there was a huge gap between the ordinary Christian and Scripture. Whatever the merits of these arguments, an examination of a more distant past may provide another, under-appreciated perspective on the phenomenon we are witnessing now and offer clues to its tenacity. The book documents cases of churches and other organizations said to be spiritually abusive and the effects these groups have had on their members. Christian believers were very often dependent on their priest for an understanding of Scripture. So we can see this rediscovery of the relevance of the Gospel and move away from mere outward observance, to a discovery of what the Gospel can mean to our inward lives. This reflects the fact that the social status of clergy wasn't really very high. In 1517, a German priest and former monk named Martin Luther published a series of criticisms of the Catholic Church. It changes a bit through the doctrine of justification by faith, which basically is inviting its heroes to discover the wonderful truth that you can experience the touch of Gods forgiving grace, even though we are sinners-an enormously important insight. Priests found guilty were typically condemned to moral censure, a life of prayer and penance, psychological treatment, or reassignment rather than criminal prosecution. Others denounce the subversion of the clergy by an assumed gay subculture or, more broadly, changing sexual mores since the 1960s. Did intercourse involve the wrong vessel? What were two major abuses of the Catholic Church? Not every Christian believer could read. The Palace of the Holy Office where the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is housed in Vatican City. How did the Catholic Church react to Luthers criticism? That each and every believer has the right and the responsibility to ask, Where do these ideas that we hear from our pulpits come from? Yet todays crisis of the Catholic Church, which commentators have called the gravest since the Reformation, may have its most significant precedent precisely in that era. Many of the other Protestant Reformers were considerably less conservative in their doctrinal stance, distancing themselves from Luthers position no less than from the Roman Catholic one. The Reformation is about that process of rediscovering, and bringing to life. According to one contemporary theologian, scandal redoubled a sin by making it public, thus exposing others to its powers of contamination. Have you engaged in an unnatural act? You would attend church. Woody Allen once said, History repeats itself. But also, the Reformation is one of those great moments in history when a church paused and asked itself this question: What are we here for? Therefore God and his Providence provides the church to interpret Scripture to the people. So we see in the late Middle Ages a church whose clergy really have ceased to have any teaching function at all. Luther believed that salvation could be achieved through faith alone. For a woman to denounce the offending priest carried serious risks for her honor and even her life. In Renaissance cities and towns confession was among the few accepted occasions for respectable women to meet unsupervised with men outside their families, whether their parish priests or the vast army of monks (Franciscans, Augustinians, Dominicans, and others) who served as preachers and confessors. Many saw little choice but to indulge such advances, at least for some time, or even to establish long-term relations. The answer they gave is that the church is the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In 2005, C. John McCloskey, a prominent member of the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei, was found responsible for sexual misconduct against women who confessed with him. This was the world of simony the buying and selling of church offices that faced the Catholic church on the eve of the Reformation. Although condemned for heresy, Girolamo Savonarola represented the ascetic reformist piety that existed in the late 15th century. They were at a different level. Stephen Haliczer,Sexuality in the Confessional: A Sacrament Profaned(New York, 1996). And giving answers, answers that you and I need to know about, because they still make sense today. Its an important issue for us. Accompanying these sociopolitical forces in the crisis of late medieval Roman Catholicism were spiritual and theological factors that also helped to bring about the Protestant Reformation. One of the things you see developing is a real cynicism on the part of ordinary Christians about the church and the clergy. Graffiti in Lisbon, Portugal of a priest chasing two children, from 2011. What emerges from these records is certainly the kind of unequal power relationships that define modern instances of sexual harassment. This placed women subjected to unwanted attentions in an agonizing situation. When I started to investigate the Catholic Church and its teachings seriously, one of the first things I learned was that those teachings make much more sense when Catholics explain them than when Protestants do.
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