The reading over these past few weeks covered a pretty expansive timeline. Starting in 1534 with the founding of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, on to The Council of Trent in 1545, and through the issuance of both The Doctrine of Papal Infallibility, 1870, and The Doctrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,1950, our readings covered a span of more than four hundred years of Church history. During this era, of which we now identify as the period of Counter-Reform of the Catholic Church, one character stood out for me quite brilliantly, Pope Paul III. Pope Paul III, in the midst of an era of rebuking authority, growing nationalism, and tremendous divide within the Christian Church, managed to redirect a tidal wave of dissent.
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Another profound example of his strength and courage, it must be noted that the issuance of the Bull Sublimis Deus 1537, translated The Sublime God, was done at the same time he was calling for an ecumenical council to reform the Church. This Bull was a clear condemnation of what called, the enslavement of the “Indians of the West and South, and other people of whom We have recent knowledge.” (III) Paul III stated that this practice of “enslaving an entire ethnic group of people for no morally justifiable reason was indeed different from anything previously encountered,” (III) and clearly demanded “correction of the injustice.” …show more content…
He spoke up against the enslavement of human beings based on race and the very nature in which they were being treated, refusing the ignore the very serious moral dilemma that the Church felt necessary to continuously address. I must give pause and state exactly what Pope Paul III offers to us, “The enemy of the human race, who opposes all good deeds in order to bring men to destruction, beholding and envying this, invented a means never before heard of, by which he might hinder the preaching of God’s word of Salvation to the people." (III) For mean these words speak directly to the man of Pope Paul
Another profound example of his strength and courage, it must be noted that the issuance of the Bull Sublimis Deus 1537, translated The Sublime God, was done at the same time he was calling for an ecumenical council to reform the Church. This Bull was a clear condemnation of what called, the enslavement of the “Indians of the West and South, and other people of whom We have recent knowledge.” (III) Paul III stated that this practice of “enslaving an entire ethnic group of people for no morally justifiable reason was indeed different from anything previously encountered,” (III) and clearly demanded “correction of the injustice.” …show more content…
He spoke up against the enslavement of human beings based on race and the very nature in which they were being treated, refusing the ignore the very serious moral dilemma that the Church felt necessary to continuously address. I must give pause and state exactly what Pope Paul III offers to us, “The enemy of the human race, who opposes all good deeds in order to bring men to destruction, beholding and envying this, invented a means never before heard of, by which he might hinder the preaching of God’s word of Salvation to the people." (III) For mean these words speak directly to the man of Pope Paul