History of the Catholic Church: A 2,000-Year Journey

Course Description
 As an institution established by Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church has a divine origin. But as an institution led by
and populated with human beings, it is also subject to the faults of humans.
 During the long history of the Catholic Church, many of its members and some of those who led it have certainly
erred, making poor decisions that resulted in sin and suffering.
 But many more of its members and leaders were also saints, men and women who lived and died for Jesus Christ
and His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
 And during that same long history, the Church has not only preserved intact the deposit of faith but has also
brought about the development and preservation of much of civilization as we know it.

Vatican II: Sacrosanctum Concilium

“It is of the essence of the Church to be both human and Divine, visible and yet endowed with invisible resources, eager
to act and yet devoted to contemplation, present in this world and yet not at home in it. The Church is all these things in
such a way that in it the human is directed and subordinated to the Divine, the visible likewise to the invisible, action to
contemplation, and the present world to that city yet to come which we seek.”
– Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy 2

Understanding the Past

“…it is impossible to understand the past unless we understand the things for which the men of the past cared most.”
- Christopher Dawson (Catholic Historian)

Part 1 The Early Church (30 – 330 AD)

From a historical perspective, we realize that the Church is…

 Based on the life and teachings of an historical person, Jesus of Nazareth
 Shaped by how Christians have lived out the Gospel message over the centuries in the world
 The story of the relationship of Jesus and the believers who have followed him over the centuries
 Filled with God’s presence throughout history

The Early Church – Overview

 The early Church was obliged to live in a pagan and alien world
 In addition to its main task of conversion and evangelization, it focused on protecting its members from pagan
errors and vices
 For two centuries the Church was largely defensive toward the world, standing firm in the face of fierce opposition
and persecution
 Once Christianity became the religion of Rome (319 A.D.) it assimilated the Empire’s culture in all its diverse forms
 Although the Church adapted itself to the culture, it never relinquished any of its essential teachings
 It still faced and endured theological disputes and barbarian invasions
 It overcame heresy through the teachings of the Church Fathers, and blunted the fury of invaders by having its
missionaries convert them
Estimates of the early Church’s growth:
 500,000 members by end of 1st Century
 2 million members by end of 2nd Century
 5 million members by end of 3rd Century
 10 million members by the first half of the 4th Century (350 A.D.)
Christendom became an integral and accepted part of the world, contributing to the religious and secular lives of the
people.
 The Church’s incredible spread during its first three centuries is one of the proofs of its Divine origin
 This religion was preached by Jesus Christ, a carpenter, in tiny Palestine in a remote corner of the Empire

The Beginnings: Jewish Sources

 Judaism, a historical religion – God intervened in history and personally directed the life of the Israelites
  Covenant & Patriarchs: Abraham (c. 1850 BC), Isaac, Jacob
 Freedom & Law: Moses (c. 1300-1200 BC), Passover, Exodus
 Promised Land to Kingdom to Exile: Joshua to David to Ezekiel
 God is personal and transcendent, unlike the pagan gods
 Jews: independent, insistence on history, monotheism, adaptability
Influence: Jewish Sources
 Early Church thoroughly Jewish: Jesus, Apostles, first followers were all Jewish
 NT writers (Luke possible exception) were all Jews
 Church is considered the New Israel
 Christ called: the New Law; the New Adam; the New Moses; the Son of David
 OT prophecies central to NT: Matthew cites OT 41 times – “it might be fulfilled.”
 Jesus takes Emmaus disciples through Scripture – Moses and all the Prophets
 Jesus Christ would make no sense without the OT roots
 Early Church taught the entire OT prefigured the NT (e.g., Adam makes the coming of Christ necessary: “O
Happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer.”)
 Church inherited many Jewish qualities and spirituality (e.g., Pius XI: “Spiritually, we are all Semites.”)
 Millions of Jews lived outside Israel and provided a ready audience for early Christian preachers – synagogues
were shelters and starting points

The Beginnings: Roman Sources

 Roman Empire at its material peak when Jesus is born (Pax Romana) from Spain to Persia, from Egypt to
Scotland
 Effectiveness of communication and transportation not exceeded until the invention of the telegraph & railroad
 Culture, architecture, arts, language – homegrown & borrowed from others (Greeks)
 Safe sea lanes in the Mediterranean
Augustus Initiates Pax Romana
“With vows and prayers your country calls for you…for with you here the ox plods the fields in safety, Ceres and
bounteous happiness enrich our farms; our sailors sail waters unvexed by pirates; public honor stands inviolate; chaste
homes are stained by no adulteries, and punishment follows swift on crime…Who fears Parthian, Scythian, German or
Spaniard if Augustus be safe? Each man sees day close in peace on his native hills.”
– Horace, Odes, IV, 5

Influence: Roman Sources

 Rome created an atmosphere in which missionary activity flourished
 Romans tolerant of established religions; considered early Christian activity Jewish
 Systematic, widespread persecution came late – gave Christianity time to expand
 Roman hunger for spiritual revival; its borrowed religion did not satisfy and its gods became mere ornaments
 Spiritual vacuum throughout the Empire filled by Christianity

The Beginnings: Christian Sources

 Christianity brought unique and revolutionary elements – primary elements on which both other sources
depend
 “He is risen!”- central message of Christianity – this is the message that electrified the world
 The miracle of the Resurrection and its theology came first
 The Resurrection and its consequences were the “Good News” – the written gospels, narratives of Jesus’ life,
teachings, and death, were composed later to benefit those who had already accepted the Gospel
 The Gospel was preached long before it was written down by the four evangelists
 Read the sermons of Peter and Paul in Acts and note the similarities
 The Good News as preached followed a pattern:
 Fulfillment – Messianic Age
 Life, ministry, death & resurrection of Jesus
 He is risen! And heads the New Israel, the Church
 Holy Spirit a sign of Christ’s active presence in the Church
 Christ will come again
  Call to repentance and action
 Written gospels satisfied desire to know who Jesus is
 Accounts likely written for specific audiences
 Matthew for the Jews
 Mark for the Roman Christians
 Luke for Greeks or Gentiles
 John for established Christian communities at the end of the 1st Century
 Christianity is historical from the very beginning… (e.g., Luke 2:1-2 & John 18:12-13 – historical details that can
be verified
 Jesus born (6 BC – 1 AD); died (30-33 AD)
 Other early Church Fathers stressed the maintenance of the Apostolic Tradition, specifically regarding Jesus as
described in the Gospels
 Wrote and preached that the faithful should not listen to those who deny the historical Jesus or the reality of
His humanity and divinity
 Among many others, Ignatius of Antioch & Polycarp of Smyrna both plead against the false doctrines being
spread about Jesus and the Church

The Beginnings: Gospel of Luke

 Much of what we know and understand about the early church comes from Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the
Apostles
 These two books form a continuous story depicting Christ’s life through the crisis of the Crucifixion, to the
Resurrection, and into Acts where we see the apostles, empowered by the Spirit, going about the business of
spreading the Gospel
The Words of Christ
 Tend to take three forms:
 Pronouncement stories (e.g., Mk 12:13-17)
 Proverbs (e.g., Mt 5:3-11)
 Parables (e.g., Lk 10:29-36)
 Pronouncements don’t rely on context; have a religious concern; elicit a response
 Proverbs – Jesus brings to this usually secular wisdom a religious dimension, or expands traditional religious
ideas
 Parables – startle people into thinking about the Kingdom – understanding is a product of one’s faith
The Deeds of Christ (largely miracles)
 Jesus often reticent about performing and publicizing miracles; often refuses to work them and castigates those
who seek them
 Jesus uses miracles not so much to prove his Divinity, but for purposes directly related to his ministry; for
example…
 Jn 9:35-41 – Curing the blind man symbolic of spiritual sight which comes from faith
 Luke 5:1-11 – The large catch of fish symbolic of how Christ will “catch” people
 John 11 – Raising the dead Lazarus prefigures Christ's own Resurrection
Response to miracles
 Some (rationalists, secular humanists) reject them out of hand:
 “The great objection to miracles is that they do not occur.” – Matthew Arnold
 Modern apologists (Lewis, Chesterton…) show unreasonableness of blanket denials
 Chesterton: Christians are the ones who look at all the evidence and accept it; those who reject miracles
do so a priori based on their biases and doctrines against them
 Many modern Christians argue against miracles, accepting the big ones (the Incarnation) while illogically
denying the little ones

Who do you say that I am…

Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.“ Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you,
Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you
are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will
give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.“ – Mt 16:16-19

Petrine Primacy – Scripture

In addition to Mt 16:
 Jesus selects Simon first (Mt 4:18; Mk 1:16; Lk 5:1-11)
 Peter given primacy throughout Gospels (Mt 10:2)
 Jesus accustomed the jealous apostles to Peter's singular position among them
 Sequence of three closest to Jesus: Peter, James, John
 Peter regularly given special instructions and admonitions;
 Peter trained above the others in humility, patience and trust in God
 Peter’s faith declared essential, to strengthen the others
 Recognized as apostolic spokesman, only because the Lord had chosen him for leadership from the moment he
was called to the apostolate

The Rock: Biblical Foundation

 The image of the Rock, long used in both Biblical and extra-Biblical sources, implies permanence
 Qumran earlier hymn: “And I rejoiced in your truth, my God, for you lay a foundation upon a rock…to build a
strong wall that will not be shaken and all who enter shall not falter.”
 Parables (Mt 7; Lk 6): building a house on rock foundation to withstand every storm
 Jesus’ final promise: “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20)
 The Church will continue to exist until the end of time: “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1 Cor 11:26)
 The Church will abide in the Truth:
 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of
truth…” (Jn 14:16-17)
 “The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and remind
you of all that I told you.” (Jn 14:26)
 “…the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.” (1 Tim 3:15)

The Prophecy Fulfilled

 By saying, “My Church,” Jesus speaks of the society of people who join together in His Name and serve God as
He commanded
 Peter, the rock, would die, but Christ’s Church would last “until the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20)
 Jesus, of course, is the irreplaceable foundation of His Church (1 Cor 3:11)
 Jesus foresaw the need to join a visible “rock” to Himself, so that to belong to the Church of Peter is to belong
to Christ Himself.
 The Church’s history reflects the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy that, upon the foundation of Peter, He would
build a new Israel, the Church
 Jesus’ teaching reveals that God the Father introduces His Kingdom into history and, through His power, brings
it to fruition among us; He will perfect it in His own good time
 The “gates of the netherworld” is the force of evil responsible for both physical and spiritual death
 God’s people can overcome both forms of death to achieve entrance into the glory of God’s final Kingdom
 Jesus promised that death, which overcomes all else, would be powerless against the Church He founded – as
its Founder He made it immortal
 The gift of immortality implies the gift of indefectibility, which implies infallibility – to err while claiming to
teach in the Name of God is to be conquered by error

The First Pentecost

 The Church began around AD 30, in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (the traditional Jewish feast of Pentecost
to give thanks for the harvests)
 Peter stepped forward from among the Apostles and announced the Good News that Jesus, who had been sent
by God and crucified, was alive, for God had raised Him up. He was the Savior, the Messiah, for whom their
people had awaited for generations. (Acts 2-4)
 Peter told those who asked that they had to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of
sins; then they would receive the Holy Spirit
 Three thousand were baptized and the Church was born

God’s Planned Surprise

 God chose the feast of Pentecost to manifest His Spirit, a day when Jews from all over the Empire would be in
Jerusalem
 These were not Palestinian Jews, but “Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and
Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as
travelers from Rome…”
 It was these to whom Peter preached
 It was these who were baptized
 As so the Church is Catholic (universal) from the very start
 “…at the moment of her birth, the Church was already catholic, already a world Church. Luke thus rules out a
conception in which a local Church first arose in Jerusalem and then became the base for the gradual
establishment of other local Churches that eventually grew into a federation. Luke tells us that the reverse is
true: what first exists is the one Church, the Church that speaks in all tongues – the ecclesia universalis; she then
generates Church in the most diverse locales, which nonetheless are all always embodiments of the one and
only Church.” – Pope Benedict XVI, Called to Communion, 1991

Pentecost: the Beginning

 Peter is reported to have converted 5,000 in Jerusalem by himself
 Most were Jewish pilgrims from elsewhere in the Empire; they return to their various Jewish communities and
begin to form Christian cells
 It is these small communities that Paul worked so feverishly to keep together and in union with the universal
Church
 It is for these reasons the Church rightly considers that first Pentecost its foundation day

The Early Church

 The early (Jewish) Christians went on living as pious Jews: they prayed in the temple, observed dietary laws, and
practiced circumcision.
 Their distinguishing features were their baptism in Jesus’ name, their diligent regard for the apostles’ teaching,
their breaking of the bread., and their policy of having all things in common [Acts 2:31-37; 4:32-35].
 Their zeal made then willing to go to prison and die for their faith

Jewish Authorities troubled by

“The Way” because…
 Peter and the other followers insisted Jesus was alive, that they had seen Him, talked with Him, eaten with Him,
even when all knew he had been crucified and died
 They claimed Jesus was the Messiah sent by God to free the Chosen People, something that could cause the
Jews problems with the Roman authorities
 They claimed He was the Son of God, a blasphemy to the Jews
 Like Jesus, they also cured people
 Some Apostles were jailed but escaped and continued preaching in the temple
The Word Spreads
 Carried by the Jews of the Diaspora and the early missionaries, the Gospel message soon spread far beyond
Jerusalem and throughout the Jewish communities in the Roman Empire
 Those spreading the word preached first in local synagogues because the Jews understood the messianic
prophecies and could more readily accept Jesus as the fulfillment of their religious hopes
 They soon discovered that the message of the Resurrection struck a universal chord in the Empire