Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Role of The Church in Civilization
Role of The Church in Civilization
and finally a trial by the Tribunal of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, Galileo was
found "suspect of heresy" - not heresy, as is frequently misreported. Although the church
includes all his books on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, and Galileo was forced to
recant his heliocentrism and spent the last years of his life under house arrest on orders of
the Inquisition,[115] Pope John Paul II, on 31 October 1992, publicly expressed regret for
the actions of those Catholics who badly treated Galileo in that trial.[116] An abstract of the
acts of the process against Galileo is available at the Vatican Secret Archives, which
reproduces part of it on its website. Cardinal John Henry Newman, in the nineteenth
century, stated that those who attack the Church can only point to the Galileo case, which
to many historians does not prove the Church's opposition to science since many of the
churchmen at that time were encouraged by the Church to continue their research.[117]
[verification needed]
Recently, the Church has been both criticized and applauded for its teaching that
embryonic stem cell research is a form of experimentation on human beings, and results
in the killing of a human person. Criticism has been on the grounds that this doctrine
hinders scientific research. The Church argues that advances in medicine can come
without the destruction of humans (in an embryonic state of life); for example, in the use
of adult or umbilical stem cells in place of embryonic stem cells.
profoundly tied to the emergence and development of the European tradition of classical
music, and indeed, all music that has been influenced by it.
Historian of hospitals, Guenter Risse, says that the Church spearheaded the development
of a hospital system geared towards the marginalized.
The Catholic Church has contributed to society through its social doctrine which has
guided leaders to promote social justice and by setting up the hospital system in Medieval
Europe, a system which was different from the merely reciprocal hospitality of the
Greeks and family-based obligations of the Romans. These hospitals were established to
cater to "particular social groups marginalized by poverty, sickness, and age," according
to historian of hospitals, Guenter Risse.[123]
James Joseph Walsh wrote the following about the Catholic Church's contribution to the
hospital system:
During the thirteenth century an immense number of [these] hospitals were built. The Italian
cities were the leaders of the movement. Milan had no fewer than a dozen hospitals and Florence
before the end of the Fourteenth century had some thirty hospitals. Some of these were very
beautiful buildings. At Milan a portion of the general hospital was designed by Bramante and
another part of it by Michelangelo. The Hospital of the innocents in Florence for foundlings was
an architectural gem. The Hospital of Sienna, built in honor of St. Catherine, has been famous
ever since. Everywhere throughout Europe this hospital movement spread. Virchow, the great
German pathologist, in an article on hospitals, showed that every city of Germany of five
thousand inhabitants had its hospital. He traced all of this hospital movement to Pope Innocent
III, and though he was least papistically inclined, Virchow did not hesitate to give extremely high
praise to this pontiff for all that he had accomplished for the benefit of children and suffering
mankind.[124]
In spite of the lingering problems of the Dark Ages, hospitals began to appear in great
numbers in France and England. Following the French Norman invasion into England,
the explosion of French ideals led most Medieval monasteries to develop a hospitium or
hospice for pilgrims. This hospitium eventually developed into what we now understand
as a hospital, with various monks and lay helpers providing the medical care for sick
pilgrims and victims of the numerous plagues and chronic diseases that afflicted
Medieval Western Europe. Benjamin Gordon supports the theory that the hospital as we
know it - is a French invention, but that it was originally developed for isolating lepers
and plague victims, and only later undergoing modification to serve the pilgrim.[125]
Owing to a well-preserved 12th century account of the monk Eadmer of the Canterbury
cathedral, there is an excellent account of Bishop Lanfrancs aim to establish and
maintain examples of these early hospitals:
But I must not conclude my work by omitting what he did for the poor outside the walls of the
city Canterbury. In brief, he constructed a decent and ample house of stonefor different needs
and conveniences. He divided the main building into two, appointing one part for men oppressed
by various kinds of infirmities and the other for women in a bad state of health. He also made
arrangements for their clothing and daily food, appointing ministers and guardians to take all
measures so that nothing should be lacking for them. [126]
The beauty and efficiency of the Italian hospitals inspired even some who were otherwise
critical of the Church. The German historian Ludwig von Pastor recounts the words of
Martin Luther who, while journeying to Rome in the winter of 15101511, had occasion
to visit some of these hospitals:
In Italy, he remarks, the hospitals are handsomely built, and admirably provided with excellent
food and drink, careful attendants and learned physicians. The beds and bedding are clean, and
the walls are covered with paintings. When a patient is brought in, his clothes are removed in the
presence of a notary who makes a faithful inventory of them, and they are kept safely. A white
smock is put on him and he is laid on a comfortable bed, with clean linen. Presently two doctors
come to him, and the servants bring him food and drink in clean glasses, showing him all possible
attention.[127]
The Catholic Church as opus proprium, says Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est, has
conducted throughout the centuries from its very beginning and continues to conduct
many charitable services hospitals, schools, poverty alleviation programs, among
others.