40 Facts About Catholicism

21-25 Catholicism Facts

21. There is a Catholic Saint of Beer. Saint Arnold of Soissons saved the lives of many by urging them to drink beer rather than water that was spreading the plague. Boiling during the brewing process killed the pathogens. – Source

22. The “Devil’s advocate” was an official position in the Catholic Church who argued against the canonization of a saint. – Source

23. The Catholic Church has an official position on Jesus’ blood type. It’s AB. – Source

24. The phrase “kill them all, let God sort them out” comes from a Crusader in 1209 who wiped out a town of Cathar ‘heretics’. He couldn’t tell them apart from Catholics, so killed them all. – Source

25. 30 of the first 31 Popes of the Catholic Church were murdered. – Source

26-30 Catholicism Facts

26. A Catholic bishop named Robert Grosseteste described the birth of the Universe in an explosion and the crystallization of matter to form stars and planets in a set of nested spheres around Earth in 1225 AD – 4 centuries before Newton proposed gravity and 7 centuries before the Big Bang theory. – Source

27. Some Catholics urged Pope Clement VII to ban coffee, calling it “devil’s beverage”. After tasting the beverage, the Pope is said to have remarked that the drink was “so delicious that it would be a sin to let only misbelievers drink it”. – Source

28. If a Catholic man needs a semen sample to diagnose infertility, he’s supposed to do so by recovering it from a non-lubricated, perforated condom after normal intercourse. – Source

29. Due to its aquatic habitat and behavior, the Catholic Church officially categorized the Beaver as a type of fish, making it acceptable to eat on Good Friday and throughout Lent. This ruling was later extended to the Capybara and muskrat as well. – Source

30. All Germans who are officially registered as Catholics, Protestants or Jews pay a religious tax of 8-9% on their annual income tax bill. – Source

31-35 Catholicism Facts

31. The Catholic Church is the largest (non-governmental) provider of healthcare in the world. – Source

32. The Catholic Church didn’t pardon Galileo until 1992 when Pope John Paul II admitted Galileo was right, 349 years after the condemnation. – Source

33. The upside-down cross, sometimes associated with Satanism, is actually the symbol of St. Peter and his successors, the Catholic Popes. – Source

34. In 1492, the Catholic monarchs of Spain issued a decree banning all Jews from Spain. Sultan Bayezid (a Muslim) then sent the Ottoman navy to Spain to rescue the Jews from the Spanish persecution. – Source

35. Beginning in the 1940s through the 1960s, the Quebec government collaborated with the Catholic Church to falsely certify 20,000 “orphaned” children as mentally ill and confine them to psychiatric institutions. The orphans were then subjected to medical experimentation and sexual abuse. – Source

36-40 Catholicism Facts

36. The Catholic Church who formerly denied Heliocentrism, today has its own observatory located just outside Rome. The observatory is fully supported by the Holy See and its staff double as research scientists and Jesuit brothers. – Source

37. There are currently at least 6 “Antipopes,” each claiming to be the true leader of the Catholic Church. – Source

38. The 19th century Catholic Church declared “Americanism” a heresy, which included the beliefs in separation of church and state, secularism, etc. This played into American fears at the time that Catholics were too loyal to the Pope and were thus undemocratic, illiberal, and un-assimilatable. – Source

39. Far from holding back science, “The Roman Catholic Church gave more financial aid and support to the study of astronomy for over six centuries, from the recovery of ancient learning during the late Middle Ages into the Enlightenment, than any other, and, probably, all other, institutions.” – Source

40. Until 1966 the Catholic Church had a list of forbidden books which aimed to protect the faith of followers by preventing the reading of “immoral” books of authors such as Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Immanuel Kant, Descartes, Galilei and Pascal. Darwin’s works were never included in the list. – Source