Church History Quotes
For the majority of the time of Christian History, it has been Catholic Christian History. Protestantism did not begin until the 16th Century.
He had been born and brought up as a Roman Catholic but converted to Islam. The Catholic Church was for much of European History, the Government or a co-equal of Government in terms of power. As such it primary not only represented the power structure was the power structure and tended to always support the status quo. In America, the Catholic Church was also in a complicated situation. There was extensive anti-Catholic bigotry and sentiment in early America some of which still exists. The South with its poorer level of education and its protestant fundamentalist bent was the source of a disproportionate level of anti Catholicism. The Catholic hierarchy chose not to make a moral issue out of slavery and stayed away from abolitionist coalitions in order to curry favor and have Catholics seen in a favorable light by slave owning southerners who were the power elite. Like the Pope choosing not to combat Hitler given all the German Catholics, the Church generally supported slavery.
Though Leo XIII was very much opposed to slavery, his claim that the Catholic Church “from the beginning” sought to end slavery overlooks the inconsistent reality of several of his predecessors’ teachings. For an example of this inconsistency one may find a relevant example as late as the 19th century, see the teachings of Gregory XVI {611428}, Pius IX {612304}, and Leo XIII {611844}
