Every Catholic diocese is divided into sub‐units called parishes, and these parishes are the heart of religious life for most Catholics. It is in the face‐to‐face context of the local parish that Catholicism becomes a living faith performed in community with everyone else who is a member of that parish. Normally there is only one church building per parish, with one or more priests assigned to each parish to care for the spiritual needs of the local Catholic population. There are currently not enough Catholic priests to staff every parish adequately. This is most notably true in Latin America where there is only one priest for every 6,500 Catholic laypeople, but the numbers in Africa are also challenging, with only one priest for every 5,000 parishioners. This shortage of priests is one of the reasons that some Catholics have suggested that the priesthood should be opened to married men and to women, but so far this suggestion has been vigorously rejected by the Catholic Church hierarchy.
Story
As explained in the last chapter, the histories of Catholicism and Orthodoxy were intertwined for many centuries, and the two only slowly became different and distinct traditions. Initially, these two mega‐traditions drifted apart due to cultural and linguistic differences, but over time their division became intense and bitter. The year 1054 is frequently cited as the date when these two traditions formally split, but it was the violence of the Fourth Crusade, when western Catholic armies attacked Constantinople in the year 1204, that solidified the divide. The following historical survey focuses only on the Catholic side of this story.
Pre‐history: beginnings to 500
The Catholic tradition claims roots back to the earliest followers of Jesus, identifying the apostle Peter, to whom Jesus gave “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16:19), as the first Pope. In actuality, the office of the papacy took centuries to develop, but bishops of Rome frequently claimed (and were acknowledged to have) special powers and privileges even during the earliest centuries of the Christian movement. Over the course of these centuries, Catholicism developed its central doctrines of the Trinity and the combined humanity and deity of Christ. This is also when the Latin‐speaking Roman Church codified its particular version of the Bible (which is slightly longer than the Protestant Bible) by accepting Jerome’s Latin translation of the Bible (known as the Vulgate) as its official biblical text.
Ancient Catholicism was closely associated with the Roman Empire, which became Christian after the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in the early 300s. The “fall of the Roman Empire” (which refers only to the “fall” of the western, Latin‐speaking half of the ancient Roman Empire) was therefore devastating. Catholic Christians wondered if God had forgotten them or was punishing them. It was Augustine, bishop of the city of Hippo in north Africa, who was most effective in helping Catholics come to grips with this disaster. He argued that life in this world would always be marked by tragedy and sin and that it was foolish to hope for any kind of earthly utopia. The fall of Rome and the writings of Augustine led the emerging Catholic tradition to embrace a more other‐worldly focus than was the case with Orthodoxy.
Early medieval period: 500 to 1000
During the years 500 to 1000, the geographic center of Catholicism moved northward from the Mediterranean Sea to western Europe. This geographic shift was the result of two developments. The first development was the so‐called “barbarian” invasion of the western Roman Empire, and the subsequent conversion of these non‐Roman people to Christianity. That process began in 496 with the conversion of King Clovis of France and was mostly complete by the year 1000, when Christianity reached Scandinavia. The second development was the rise and spread of Islam, which effectively ended the Christian domination of north Africa. As a result, Western Europe began to be considered as Catholic territory, and Catholic Christians began to view themselves as Europeans.
These five centuries were a time of considerable social disorder in Europe. As older political structures faltered and then collapsed, Catholic bishops often assumed some local governmental responsibilities, and the Pope, as the Bishop of Rome, became the only individual who had any authority over the entire region. The resulting social structure, which mixed religious and political concerns, came to be known as Christendom. Not surprisingly, European Christendom was fraught with disputes as church leaders and local governmental leaders clashed over who was ultimately in charge. The situation became even more complex in 781 with the creation of the Papal States, a separate country which included almost all central Italy and over which the Pope ruled as monarch. (Today’s Vatican City is the last remnant of this ancient Catholic nation.) The social disorders of this era had a permanent influence on Catholic theological beliefs, including a new emphasis on the sacrifice and the death of Christ. This new emphasis found visual representation in the crucifix, which became an important object of Catholic devotion during the closing years of this period (see Figure 2.5).
The high and late middle age: 1000–1500
Catholicism developed its mature form as a religious tradition during the high middle age, between the years 1000 and 1350. During this time, the Catholic Church formally approved and codified many of the doctrinal commitments that still characterize Catholicism around the world today, including the seven sacraments, belief in transubstantiation (that the bread and wine of the Eucharist become the actual body and blood of Christ), and purgatory. Additionally, celibacy was mandated for parish priests, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was formulated, the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe were built, and Christianity’s first universities were founded. This was also, however, when Catholic Christians became increasingly intolerant of people different from themselves. This intolerance led to the Crusades (military campaigns undertaken for the purpose of reclaiming the Holy Land as Catholic territory) and to widespread persecution of Jews and people declared to be heretics.
Catholic developments in the later middle age (1350–1500) were even more complex and religiously disorienting. For almost seventy years (1309–76), the papacy was relocated from Rome to the French city of Avignon, and after the popes finally returned to Rome there was an extended period (1378–1417) when two lines of opposing popes fought each other and claimed to be the true pope. During these same years (1340–1400), Europe was ravaged by the bubonic plague. Called the “Black Death,” this awful disease killed roughly a third of the European population. The impact on Catholicism was substantial. Confidence in the institutional church declined, and other ways of trying to connect with God (especially mysticism) became more popular, helping to set the stage for the Protestant Reformation of the early 1500s.
Modern Catholicism: 1500 to the present
The last five centuries have brought both tremendous growth and frequent challenges to the Catholic Church. Even before 1500, Catholic Christianity had begun to expand beyond Europe and that expansion exploded in the sixteenth century. The Catholic monarchs of Spain and Portugal led the way with their colonization of the west coast of Africa and conquest of Latin America. New missionary orders were also created, most notably the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), which introduced Catholicism to India and East Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But while Catholicism was expanding elsewhere, it was being challenged in Europe by the rise of the Protestant movement. Eventually about a third of the landmass of Western Europe and a sixth of its population would be won over by this new, alternative post‐Catholic Christian tradition.
The eighteenth century brought new challenges to Catholicism. The