Joshua Bennett
Catholics have been persecuted throughout history, from the ancient Romans to modern times. During the period of Roman domination in Spain (422-29), the Catholic Church suffered persecution, with bishops exiled and clergy stripped of their possessions. In the Middle Ages and the Reformation, Catholics were persecuted by other Christians through the Inquisition and religious wars. In England, Catholics faced penal laws, and Catholic worship was illegal until 1791. Irish Catholics were persecuted for centuries, and even in Northern Ireland, Catholics did not have equal civil rights until 1998. During World War II, the Nazis persecuted Catholic clergy, and in Yugoslavia, the Chetniks killed an estimated 18,000-32,000 Roman Catholics. Today, Catholics still face persecution in various parts of the world, such as in the Middle East and some parts of Nigeria.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Period | Middle Ages, Reformation, 1600s, 1660s and 1670s, 1930s, World War II, post-restoration |
| Location | Spain, Italy, France, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales, Russia, Yugoslavia, United States, Nigeria, Northern Ireland |
| Persecutors | Romans, Protestants, Puritans, Congregationalists, Tsarist authorities, Nazis, Chetniks, Goths, Arian Clergy, Parliaments |
| Victims | Catholics, Catholic Clergy, Catholic Bishops, Catholic Court Officials, Catholic Worshippers, Irish Catholics, Poles, Lithuanians, Croats |
| Actions | Killing, Destruction of Churches, Exile, Imprisonment, Torture, Confiscation of Property, Forced Conversion, Banning Worship, Loss of Civil Rights, Infiltration, Interference, Labelling, Marginalization, Exclusion, Re-education |
| Reasons | Religion, Ethnic-National Background, Opposition to the Church, Anti-Catholicism, Defense of Existing Power Structures, Correction of Perceived Errors, Promotion of Official Faith |
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What You'll Learn
Catholics were persecuted in ancient Rome
The persecution of Christians in ancient Rome is well-documented. While it is difficult to ascertain whether these Christians were Catholics, it is reasonable to assume that some were, given the subsequent history of the Catholic Church.
The Roman Empire's persecution of Christians occurred sporadically and in localized areas. The first organized persecution of Christians took place under Emperor Nero in AD 64, after the Great Fire of Rome. Nero blamed Christians for the fire, and they were punished for treason, various rumoured crimes, and illegal assembly. The Romans viewed Christianity as a problematic and seditious cult that broke with ancestral traditions, worshipped a condemned criminal, rejected civic rituals, and held unauthorized private meetings. Christians were also seen as subversive because they refused to worship Roman gods and goddesses, which was considered a big deal in the early centuries of the first millennium as religion and politics were closely intertwined.
Romans believed that the correct worship of their gods ensured prosperity and protection for Rome, and failure to do so would result in misfortune and defeat. The refusal of Christians to participate in imperial cults and offer sacrifices to the Roman deities was thus considered a threat to the stability and security of the empire. Additionally, the rapid spread of Christianity across Roman territories put it at odds with the established Roman imperial cult, and Christians were vocal in their condemnation of Roman pagan practices, further contributing to tensions.
Popular suspicion and mutual suspicion between Christians and pagans played a significant role in the persecutions, which were often initiated by local officials who deemed the new religion a threat. The usual penalty for adhering to Christianity was death, but other punishments included fines, whipping, exile, and enslavement. These persecutions continued under various emperors, including Domitian in the first century, Septimius Severus, Decius, and Valerian in the third century, and most severely under Diocletian in the early fourth century.
It is important to note that the Roman persecutions did not succeed in eliminating Christianity. Eventually, the empire became Christian, and the persecutions ceased.
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Catholic worship was illegal in England for 232 years
Catholics have a long history of persecution, with some of the earliest instances of persecution occurring in ancient Rome. In more recent times, Catholics have faced persecution in various countries, including England, where Catholic worship was illegal for 232 years.
From the 1660s to the 1670s, a series of penal laws were enacted in England that persecuted both Catholics and members of nonconformist groups. These laws required holders of public office, including peers, MPs, schoolmasters, clergy, and students of Oxford and Cambridge, to swear an oath recognising the King as the head of the Church of England. Those who refused risked losing their civil rights. Attending Catholic worship or nonconformist religious meetings was illegal and punishable by fines or imprisonment. This period of persecution lasted for 232 years, ending only in 1791.
The persecution of Catholics in England during this time was driven by the belief that Catholics posed a threat to the state and social order. The English and Scottish identities were largely defined by their opposition to Catholicism. Robert Curran writes, "to be English was to be anti-Catholic." English colonists in New England, predominantly Puritans, brought with them strong anti-Catholic sentiments, opposing not only the Catholic Church but also the Church of England, which retained some Catholic practices and doctrines.
Catholics have also faced persecution in other parts of the world. During World War II, the Chetniks killed an estimated 18,000–32,000 Croats, who were mostly Roman Catholic. In Russia, Catholics, particularly Poles and Lithuanians, suffered persecution due to their ethnic-national background and religious beliefs. The Swiss Constitution of 1848 banned the Jesuits and all monasteries and convents from Switzerland, reflecting anti-Catholic sentiments in the country.
Today, while government-imposed persecution of Catholics has largely ceased in many parts of the world, Catholics continue to face verbal criticism and marginalisation in some societies.
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Irish Catholics were persecuted for centuries
Irish Catholics have indeed suffered persecution over the centuries. The introduction of Christianity to Ireland dates to sometime before the 5th century. By the 16th century, Catholic churches were being ransacked and seized. During the Reformation, Henry VIII was declared head of the Church in Ireland, and the Church of Ireland was reformed. Henry plundered Catholic monasteries and churches, as he had done in England.
In the 17th century, there were attempts to eradicate the clergy. Irish Catholics were severely persecuted under Oliver Cromwell, and the Penal Laws further restricted the practice of Catholicism, forcing priests and bishops into hiding or exile. The Penal Laws also severely reduced the land owned by Catholics, from 59% in 1641 to 5% by the late 1700s, when the laws were relaxed. During this period, only the Anglican Church was permitted to perform rites of passage such as baptism, marriage, and death.
In the educational field, Catholics resisted attempts to prevent them from educating their children outside of state control. They established extensive school systems, independent of the state. During the 17th century, there were also serious differences between Old English Catholics and Gaelic Irish Catholics.
By the end of the 17th century, all Catholics were banned from the Irish parliament, despite representing around 85% of the population. It was not until 1793 that Irish Catholics were enfranchised, but they were still barred from entering parliament or becoming government officials.
Irish Catholics have not been the only Catholic group to suffer persecution. Catholics have been persecuted by other Christians, and by pagans and heathens. During the East-West Schism of 1054, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church broke apart. During World War II, the Chetniks killed an estimated 18,000–32,000 mostly Roman Catholic Croats in Yugoslavia. Catholics, primarily Poles and Lithuanians, also suffered persecution under Russian rule.
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Catholics were persecuted in Nazi Germany
The Roman Catholic Church suffered persecution under Nazi Germany. The Nazis claimed jurisdiction over all collective and social activities, and based on this claim, they infiltrated and interfered with Catholic institutions, including welfare institutions, schools, the press, trade unions, political parties, and youth leagues. Catholic monasteries and convents were also targeted for expropriation.
The Nazis' long-term plan was to de-Christianize Germany after their final victory in the war. Their ideology could not accept an autonomous establishment whose legitimacy did not spring from the government, and they desired the subordination of the church to the state. Catholics were suspected of insufficient patriotism, disloyalty to the Fatherland, and serving the interests of "sinister alien forces". Hitler and several key Nazis, including Joseph Goebbels, the Minister for Propaganda, and Martin Bormann, Hitler's chosen deputy, were raised as Catholics but became hostile to the Church in their adulthood. Anti-clericalism was strong among grassroots party activists. Hitler retained some regard for the church's organisational power but was contemptuous of its central teachings. He believed that science would destroy the last vestiges of superstition and that Nazism and religion could not coexist in the long run.
Hitler moved quickly to eliminate Political Catholicism, which was among the targets of his 1934 Long Knives purge. Those executed included the head of Catholic Action, Erich Klausener, and the national director of the Catholic Youth Sports Association, Adalbert Probst. Catholic leaders were initially more suspicious of National Socialism than their Protestant counterparts, and anti-Nazi sentiment grew in Catholic circles as the Nazi government increased its repressive measures. In 1937, Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge, accusing the government of hostility to the church. In response to a protest statement read from the pulpits of Confessing churches in March 1935, Nazi authorities reacted forcefully by arresting over 700 pastors.
In total, an estimated one-third of German priests faced some form of reprisal in Nazi Germany, and 400 German priests were sent to the dedicated Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp. Catholic lay leaders were among those murdered during the Night of the Long Knives.
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Catholics were persecuted in Russia
Russia has a long history of persecuting religious groups, including Catholics. While the country has a small Catholic population, estimated at 0.2% to 0.5% of the total population, Catholics in Russia have faced various forms of discrimination and repression over the years.
Historically, the Russian Orthodox Church has resisted engagement with the Catholic Church. For example, in 2002, Russian authorities denied visas to five foreign Catholic priests and blocked the construction of a new cathedral in Pskov. There have also been instances of violence, such as a shooting at a Catholic church in southern Russia in 2002.
During the Soviet era, the struggle against organized religion was particularly harsh towards Roman Catholicism because of its ties beyond the Soviet sphere. The Soviet authorities arrested and tried numerous Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Mindszenty in Hungary and Archbishop Beran in Czechoslovakia. The Soviets also infiltrated and attempted to control the Catholic Church, seeking to eliminate its subordination to the Vatican and create "national" churches with clergy obedient to the state. They spread anti-Catholic propaganda and promoted atheism, even infiltrating and manipulating Catholic media to spread their message.
In the early 20th century, Tsarist Russia banned or restricted all forms of Christianity except Russian Orthodoxy, the privileged state church. Eastern-Rite Catholicism was suppressed, and its adherents were subjected to heavy-handed state policies of Russification. Latin-Rite Roman Catholics, mainly Poles, Belorussians, and Lithuanians in Russia's western borderlands, faced similar repression.
More recently, Russia has been accused of persecuting Christian churches in occupied Ukraine during the 2014 invasion of Ukraine and the 2022 full-scale invasion. Russian authorities have banned Greek Catholic churches and aid organizations in Zaporizhzhia, closed Catholic churches to worshippers in Donetsk, and destroyed Catholic prayer buildings. Russian forces have also abducted and tortured Ukrainian priests who refused to affiliate with the Moscow Patriarchate.
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Frequently asked questions
Catholics, or Christians, were persecuted by the Romans. The usual penalty for adhering to Christianity was death, but other punishments included fines, whipping, exile, and enslavement.
Catholics in England were subjected to penal laws and persecuted. Catholic worship was illegal until 1791 and their civil rights were not restored until 1829.
During the Spanish Civil War, anti-clericalism resulted in the killing of thousands of clergy, the destruction of churches, and the persecution of laypeople.
