Kulturkampf and Catholicism versus modernization

The role of religion and religious institutions is a source of great controversy in modern society. Personally I am highly sceptical when a government tries to interfere with the practice of a particular religion or when a particular religous group tries to tell the state how to operate. This is the general attitude we have had in America at least in terms of Constitutional theory. Personally my initial reaction when discussing Kulturkamf was that it was troubling that a Protestant majority with great political clout was openly taking on the Catholic Church using the government. However when preparing for a class dealing with a much older period in European history I was reminded of the role the Catholic Church had traditionally played in Europe.

For over a millenium the monarchs of Europe had been closely tied to the Catholic Church. Many of the early Holy Roman Emperors had been crowned by the Pope. Monarchies claimed their power came from god and when they acted against the wishes of Rome it was a source of great friction. In reality politics in old Europe and the Roman Catholic Church were inseperably tied in most cases.

When you look at this you can understand why the liberals were so threatened by the Catholics especially when you consider the Montanist position the Catholics had taken in recent years. It is only natural that the Protestant government would feel threatened by a group of people whose leader wasn't even German and who had been tied to an older way of doing things. If one was in favor of modernization it is quite understandable how this much older institution could be threatening.

It is also interesting to look at the role the Church played when evaluating the perceived threat. The Church to a large degree controlled schools. The clergy had a great deal of influence on children during their formative years and it is understandable that the government wanted to play a role in determining who the priests were. It is also understandable that the government wanted to sever the Church from their legal influence. The Church having influence over law due to holdovers from an older era would be an obvious concern for the state.

The Catholics had a history of being a political institution. The friction was only natural. The Protestant Church as it existed at that time was more consistent with a modern vision of Germany, and it did not give influence to leaders who did not even reside inside the Reich. I think that it is important to remember that any religious institution who has a history of being a source of political power is eventually going to be a source of politial controversy. Autonomy is only going to exist if the religious institutions stay out of government whether it is the Catholics or any other institution.

Addition

I can't add comments to my own blog so wanted to make it clear that I'm adding this later. This was not based on Wednesday's reading and discussion and I wanted to make that clear. After that I really have looked at some of the internal issues including economic and societal issues that interacted with Catholic influence particularly in local areas.

I will say though that I do stand by the fact that the Catholic Church really did make an easy target for these types of criticism. Historically when Rome had the power to meddle they did, and I do remember reading comments that the Pope lamented the defeat of the French and was not exactly sympathetic to Protestant Prussia. I have become convinced though after this week that Rome probably did not have the influence to interfere and that much of the Catholic opposition was local not international.