Disagreement with His Grace: To defend the Catholic Church, one must start with numerous apologies.
Referencing Jubilee Millennium Year 2000: Vatican spokesman Bishop Piero Marini acknowledged numerous sins over 20 centuries in an apologetic sermon by the Pope.
Key Points of Apology
Pope's Apologies (March 12, 2000): Covering events such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, persecution of Jews, injustice towards women, forced conversion of indigenous peoples.
Late Pope John Paul II: Made 94 public recognitions of crimes/errors, including:
African slave trade (apologized in 1995).
Admission that Galileo was right (1992).
Legalized torture during The Counter-Reformation (1995).
Silence during Hitler’s final solution or Shoah (1999).
Burning of Czech Protestant Jan Huss (entered by 2000).
Sack of Constantinople (1204), with relevant apology and lifting of anathema on Eastern Orthodox Christians (1964).
Subsequent Apologies
Murder and Forced Conversion of Serbian Orthodox Christians in WWII.
Abuses in Church-Run Schools: Rape and torture of orphans and children worldwide.
Doctrine of Limbo: Current reconsideration of the doctrine for unbaptized children.
Calls for Further Apologies
Concordat with Hitler: The church's 1933 agreement, which dissolved the Catholic Center Party.
Latteran Pact with Mussolini: Early support for the Fascist government.
Connections to Fascist Regimes:
Father Tiso in Slovakia
Croatian Ustase state
Regimes of Franco and Salazar
Intolerance and Abuse
Cardinal Bernard Law: Former Archbishop of Boston, protected abusers, relocated to Rome, appointed by the Pope, voted in conclave 2005.
Apologies for Child Abuse: Suggests inadequacy in addressing institutional child abuse.
Evasive Apologies
Joseph Ratzinger’s Statements: Refers to past massacres claiming natives awaited church doctrines.
Institutional Abuse: Often minimized and generalized.