What Catholics gave the modern world, we now take for granted

By Dr Okoth Josue

The Catholic Church is the largest charitable institution in the world for over 2000 years and one with an authentic voluntary dimension. They are men and women who give up their entire lives to educate, nurse, help and pray for people all over the world. The Catholic Church affirms that God radiates his eternal life to us through its works and therefore it makes a life-giving contribution to the world at large.

Practically in every sphere of life, the Catholic Church has founded, invented and established an ethical system. An atheist, Robert Wilson in 2007 gave $22.5 million to Catholic education in New York, arguing that, "without the Roman Catholic Church, there would be no Western civilization". I would like to share with you some of these contributions of the Church, we take for granted.

The ancient Roman pagans were surprised to see how the Christian community would give to the poor, tend to prisoners, and take care of orphans and widows. This Church initiative on social welfare began in the 4th century.

Perhaps the greatest single contribution to education to emerge from the Catholic civilization was the development of the university system. In the Middle Ages, the Church played an exclusive role in the establishment of the university. Development of university at the height of Catholic Europe was a new phenomenon in European history.

According to historian Lowrie Daly, "Catholic Church was the only institution in Europe that showed consistent interest in the preservation and cultivation of knowledge". Universities at Paris and Bologna started as Cathedral schools and Oxford and Cambridge universities as an informal gathering of masters and students.

They gradually evolved and reached university status: Bologna (1088) Paris (1150) Oxford (1167) and Cambridge (1209). Some of these universities like Oxford university still show signs of Catholic foundation with gothic architecture. The papacy played an exclusive role in the establishment of the universities, including the granting of a Charter.

Historians record that by the time of Reformation in the 16th century, there were 81 universities. Of these 33 possessed a Papal Charter, 15 a royal or imperial Charter, 20 had both papal and royal Charters and 13 had none. These universities could not award degrees without the approbation of the Pope, king or emperor.

For instance, Pope Innocent 1V officially granted this privilege to Oxford University in 1254. The Pope had authority over all the Christendom, the reason to issue Charters.

The degrees approved by the Pope would be valid in all the Christendom whereas those approved by monarchs were considered valid only in the kingdom in which they were issued.

Any administrative problems at the universities, the Pope would issue bulls to solve the problem. A Papal bull is like a decree or a Charter which had its beginning around the 6th century.

Christianity is essentially an ethical religion. The Church was allowed to exercise a wide influence on civil law by the fact that her Ministers, mainly the Bishops and Abbots had a large share in framing the leges barbarorum (barbarian law) in the 5th Century. Pagan Europe was ruled by the laws that did not respect human dignity and it was one of the reasons the Church was persecuted.

In Christian Europe, practically all laws were written under Christian influence. In the Middle Ages, the Bishops acted as judges, both in civil and in criminal matters. Pope Gregory V11 (1085) gave impetus to forming the laws of the Church and of States of Europe.

The subsequent application of philosophy to law together with great works of monks produced the first complete, systematic bodies of law. This revolution led to the founding of law school in Bologna (1088) from which the legal profession as we know it today emerged.

In the area of language, the centrality of Greek and Latin to Catholicism has facilitated popular literacy, since the alphabets are far easier to learn than the symbols of logographic language like that of the Chinese. Spread by the Catholic Missions, the Latin alphabet is now the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world; leave alone the development of the Armenian, Georgian and Cyrillic alphabets.

On health, the Catholic Church is the largest non-governmental health provider in the world. The Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health workers stated in 2010 that the Church manages 26% of the world's health care facilities. Jesus Christ instructed his followers to heal the sick. The Church, therefore, developed systematic nursing and hospitals.

In the Middle Ages, Monasteries and Convents were the key medical centres of Europe. Many Catholic scientists made important discoveries in modern science and medicine. As the Catholic Church became global, the Catholic Orders, the Religious and lay people established health care centres around the world. For instance, women religious institutes such as Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Mercy and Sisters of St. Francis opened and operated general hospitals.

They created a big mark in the profession and up to today nurses in health units developed the title of ‘sisters' with dress code similar to nuns, an imitated dress code of Mary Mother of Jesus.

Christian belief today is still centred around the Catholic Church and still has world influence. Vatican City is a recognized independent State, commonly referred to as the Holy See with Ambassadors accredited to it. The Holy See is a Permanent Observer to the United Nations and tirelessly toils to find political solutions to conflicts and violence in the world. In the UN, it is concerned about human sufferings, affecting millions of innocent children and other civilians who are deprived of essential goods and services and to the protection of religious minorities in conflicts. Through its charitable agencies, the Church responses to a humanitarian crisis. In so doing the Church makes no distinction regarding the religious or ethnic identity of those requiring assistance. It gives priority to the most vulnerable and in most need.

Jesus Christ said, "You will know them by their fruit…" (Mt 7:15-20)

The writer is a concerned Christian