I found this article posted on Facebook a couple of months ago and I don't believe that I blogged about it on here. It was about the Catholic Church and should they basically say that they screwed up when they destroyed the ancient religion of their ancestors in exchange for Christianity. Greek Recon Mommy talked about this and I will tell you that I agree with everything that she said.
One of the things that we all have to consider is how many people in the world think that the destruction of another group's cultural identity was good and noble to do. We see how the world gets upset when IS destroys old temples, but how many of those people would say that if there was a group of people out there that wanted to use those temples; then they should be allowed to use them. I'm going to say that there really wouldn't be a ton of support, as far as actually using them and bringing the energy back.
Because, deep down, no matter if you are still a Christian or a 'suppose' Atheist, you still have this deep belief that the people that worshiped the old gods were evil, deceived, and worshiping demons. Sometimes that dislike, among Atheists, turn into 'well your religion is the same as Christianity, as your group worships a man in the sky'. Anyway, the point that I'm trying to make is that this question is very complicated and the answer is even more complicated.
The belief that the Roman Empire did good by replacing the evil of Polytheism with the goodness of Christianity goes deep into the mind of almost everyone. Most can't get away from the deep belief that Polytheists were evil and that anyone that is trying to demand that the church tell everyone that they were wrong in what they did must be delusional. When this article first came out there were some that clearly stated that the church did nothing wrong in what they did.
They ignore the fact that the Roman empire was blood thirsty in their desire to destroy their past and to distance themselves from their 'Pagan' ancestors and in the process committed some of the most detestable acts that a human being can do to another human being known as genocide. Both cultural and religious! The destruction of our ancestors religion couldn't of gotten done if Constantine hadn't supposedly converted to Christianity.
Another point that Greek Recon Mommy pointed out was that there would have to be some Acknowledgment from both the Greek and Italian government. They would have to admit that their ancestors butchered, plundered, ransacked, burned, tortured, raped, crucified, and lied so that the church could gain power and have no competition. Another point that was made was the gods have been marginalized and turned into 'stories' and that human beings can't fathom why anyone would want to worship more than one god.
Even among those that practice Wicca this period of time isn't covered in any books that I've read. It's as though they ignore the fact that this happened, which is sad. However ignoring it is nothing to censuring it, as was the case with what happened in Greece with the educational video that had one scene where Greek monks are destroying the artwork on the Parthenon. And, yes, I do believe that both the Greek and Italian government will continue to deny that it happened, just to make them feel better about themselves.
So the question is very complicated and the answer is even more so. Even if they gave the Polytheists all the money in the world, they would still continue to deny Polytheists the right to worship inside the temples. They would continue to deny them freedom of religion. So, yes, I do believe the Catholic Church should acknowledge what they did to the pagan religion. After all, they were the ones that begun the practice of genocide, a legacy that we are cursed with today.
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