Controversies in Church History

In the early twentieth century, a group of Catholic scholars tried to  argue that the Catholic Church needed to adapt fundamental doctrines of  its faith to match with the findings of modern historical and biblical  scholarship. In doing so, they challenged both some of the most  fundamental doctrines of the Catholic faith, as well as the authority of  its hierarchy. In this lecture, we give a broad overview of the causes  that led these scholars to deny traditional Church teaching, and why  Pope Pius X condemned their beliefs as "the synthesis of all heresies."  More  than a century later, it is still a lightning rod for criticism of the  Catholic Church and its relationship to the modern world. In this episode of Controversies in Church History, we will explore what  modernism was and who subscribed to it, as well as examine its legacy  for the Church today. Please subscribe to our podcast on Anchor and check out Controversies in Church History on our other platforms: LINKS: YouTube Website SOCIAL: Facebook Twitter

In this episode, we take a look at the history of how the Catholic Church has navigated the issues surrounding the scientific theory of evolution, what its teaching is regarding evolution, and how it came to that position.  From the initial reception of Darwin's ideas, Catholics have debated the implications of his idea for the Catholic faith, and over time it has come to be accepted by most Catholics, if only in modified form. How and why that has happened, and what the relationship of evolutionary theory is to Catholic theology today, are also touched upon.  Please subscribe to our podcast on Anchor and check out Controversies in Church History on our other platforms: LINKS: YouTube Website SOCIAL: Facebook Twitter

The episode of Controversies in Church History examines the theory of doctrinal development in the history of the  Catholic Church in the 19th and 20th centuries. Associated with St. John Henry Newman, we will discuss how this idea became has become central to debates on controversial issues in the life of the Church today. LINKS: YouTube  Website SOCIAL: Facebook Twitter

This episode of Catholic Lives focuses on the extraordinary Esther Wheelwright (1696-1780).  Born in a Puritan family in colonial Massachusetts, she was abducted from her family  at age seven by a Native American tribe, eventually converted to Catholicism and became mother superior in a convent of colonial Canada.  Please subscribe to our podcast on Anchor and check out Controversies in Church History on our other platforms: LINKS: YouTube Website SOCIAL: Facebook Twitter

Our eighth installment of Catholic Lives is a two for one deal! We look at the lives of two men loyal to the Confederacy during the American Civil War, one of whom entered the Catholic Church after the war was over. Father Abram Ryan (1838-1886) was a priest and poet, know both for his poetry eulogizing the fallen South but also for his great preaching and love for the Catholic faith.  James Longstreet (1821-1904) was the second in command to Robert E. Lee during the war, and afterwards became a pariah in the South for criticizing Lee's decision making at Gettysburg.  Please subscribe to our podcast on Anchor and check out Controversies in Church History on our other platforms: LINKS: YouTube Website SOCIAL: Facebook Twitter

*Recorded on May 27, 2020* In 1968, Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical on the regulation of birth,  which reaffirmed Catholic teaching on the nature of human sexuality. The  ensuing controversy led to open defiance of the encyclical by both  clergy and laity alike, and so great was the outcry against it that Paul  VI never issued another encyclical during his reign as pope. This episode discusses the origins of the encyclical as well as the widespread conflict that followed its promulgation, and grapples with enduring impact of that conflict. Please subscribe to our podcast on Anchor and check out Controversies in Church History on our other platforms: LINKS: YouTube Website SOCIAL: Facebook Twitter

In 1858, a scandal rocked Europe. The Vatican removed an eight year old  Jewish boy from his family and pope Pius IX raised him as a Catholic. The boy's name was Edgaro Mortara, and he would eventually become a  Catholic priest. The Vatican based its decision on the claims that the  boy's nurse had baptized him during a serious illness when he was one  year old, and that therefore he had a right to a Christian upbringing.  In an era of revolutionary change throughout Europe and the world,  non-Catholics were incensed, Jewish organizations mounted a campaign in  the press to have the boy returned to his family, and even Catholic  governments in France, Italy and Austria issued protests for Pius IX to  relent, but he refused. In this episode, we delve into why Pius IX  refused to return the child Edgaro Mortara to his parents, and its  lasting impact on the Church today.   Please subscribe to our podcast on Anchor and check out Controversies in Church History on our other platforms: LINKS: YouTube Website SOCIAL: Facebook Twitter

In recent years, the existence of a "pontiff emeritus" has caused some confusion for faithful Catholics, with two living popes at the same time. But imagine if there were THREE living popes, none of them "retired," all with their own rival supporters among the cardinals of the Church--what would this be like? How would we know whom to follow as Catholics? In  this episode, Controversies in Church History details the Great Western  Schism (1378-1417), when just such a scenario took place in the Church,  and examines how the Church became divided between rival popes, how  this was resolved, how people at the time experienced it, and what we  can learn from this messy episode in the Church's long history. Please subscribe to our podcast on Anchor and check out Controversies in Church History on our other platforms: LINKS: YouTube  Website SOCIAL: Facebook Twitter

He has been called "The Morning Star of the Reformation" by Protestants,  and is sometimes regarded as the last great scholastic theologian of the Middle Ages. He denied the doctrine of transubstantiation, translated  parts of the bible from Latin to English, and sent lay preachers out  into the English countryside to teach poor people.  His followers were  condemned by the Church and persecuted by English authorities, but a scattered few remained in existence at the time of the Reformation in  England. In this episode, Controversies in Church History retails the exploits of the medieval theologian John Wyclif, why the Church condemned his teachings, and what we can learn from his challenge to the Church's faith. Please subscribe to our podcast on Anchor and check out Controversies in Church History on our other platforms. LINKS: YouTube Website SOCIAL: Facebook Twitter

In the year 1054 AD, representatives of Pope Leo IX and the patriarch of  Constantinople, pronounced a mutual excommunication upon each other. This event usually is remembered as the beginning of the schism that has  lasted since then between the Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox. But  how did this excommunication come about?  And was this event really the  beginning of the division between two rival versions of apostolic Christianity? Can this division be healed? "1054 and All That: the Latin-Byzantine Schism" grapples with these questions and more. Please subscribe to our podcast on Anchor and check out Controversies in Church History on our other platforms: LINKS: YouTube Website SOCIAL: Facebook Twitter