Demonic gargoyles on Catholic Churches.....
(these photos are from Notre-Dame de Paris).
Some extremist Pentecostal websites said: “Catholics are to blame for the flames at Notre-Dame. The building has a lot of demons on it. Catholics invited this upon themselves. “🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
In the past, when I was much more reactionary, I might have misinterpreted the intentions of those who have criticized the presence of gargoyles (demonic sculptures) on Catholic Church buildings. But on a 2nd thought, I think the sentiments of those who are uncomfortable with those structures are LEGITIMATE this.one.time. I don’t think they stem from anti-catholic prejudice that is so prevalent in Protestant circles..... unfortunately.
So perhaps, I should say a thing or two about them. I’ve outlined four points.... strangely the last two are the most important. That has always been my style. I save the best for the last. The first two explains why Catholics allow paintings, images and sculptures in the first place.
BEFORE THAT, A PREFACE:
In my logic and philosophy class, back in undergrad.... I picked up something from my lecturer that changed my life FOREVER. He said: “when you want to criticize a people. Study them with a clean slate. Place yourself in their shoes. You don’t necessarily need to agree with them on the long run, but you’d see things in their perspective. In a way, this even helps you in countering their arguments at the very root.”
With this in mind, I plead that those of you whose anti-Catholicism erupts like a volcano, at the mere mention of the word: CATHOLIC, should keep calm and hear me out. You don’t necessarily need to agree with me, but at least you’d understand the reason why demonic sculptures are on some ancient Catholic Churches.
THE REASON FOR DEMONIC SCULPTURES ON SOME CATHOLIC CHURCHES.
1. First and foremost, the Roman Catholic, orthodox, traditional-Lutheran and traditional-Anglican understanding of “images, sculptures and paintings” is very different from those of most Protestants.
For Catholics, when God forbade the making of images, he wasn’t saying you can’t have images. He was saying you can’t deify (godize) images or worship them. A few chapters after God forbade the making of images, he instructed the Israelites on the specifications of how the temple of Jerusalem should be built. What do we find there: images, sculptures and unknown creatures. The most significant is the sculpture of the two cherubims above the Ark of the covenant on either side.
GOD CANNOT CONTRADICT HIMSELF.
If he forbad images, in their totality, why would he instruct that above the ‘holy of Holies’ (as the ark is called), should be the sculpture of two Cherubims. And remember, it was typical for the Priests to lay flat before it. In fact, non, but the tribe of Levi could even touch it. On one occasion, during the transportation of the ark, it almost fell from the hands of the Priests. Two lay men decided to save the ark from falling and the Bible records that the lord struck them dead, IMMEDIATELY.
This shows that the ark with the cherubims was very important, I could even say ‘sacred.’
Was it not the same God that instructed Moses to mould the snake and place it on a standard? And through it, transmitted his healing power on the Jews in the wilderness that looked onto it.
We can immediately see, that the biblical prohibition on statues are not absolute. What the Bible forbids is that “you shall not have any other god besides me.” Don’t deify images, sculptures and statues. Technically, if we are to apply the obscure logic used against Catholics, then the Bible might also forbid us having regular family pictures in our homes; It will be a sin for a grieving mother to kiss the picture of her deceased son; Rochas Okorocha might be on a first class flight to hell for his multiple sculptures in Owerri. (Don’t tell him I wrote this 🏃 ).
I know to Protestant sensibilities, the idea of Catholics bowing to images of saints, is a form of worship. But that’s not really true. I know we have some Catholics who are excessive about the outward practice of their faith, but we must look at official church documents and teachings. The Catholic is not like some churches, where you do what you like. The Catholic Church has canons, ecumenical councils, synods and official papal documents. If you do as you please, well you’re living contrary to the catholic faith. FULL STOP!
Anglicanism itself allows that joke. It calls it “comprehensiveness and diversity.” (This wasn’t intended to be a critique of Anglicans. I am only quoting the official church documents on diversity of theological expression as composed by Anglicans themselves in the Lambert Conference). CATHOLICISM calls that heresy.
More-also, If bowing to anyone but God is an act of worship, then we are in for a serious problem. Yoruba people will be going to hell for prostrating before their elders; the English and royalists around the world will also go to hell for ‘curtsying’ to royals. Lawyers also bow to judges. The lists go on. So we should be careful what we wish for.
So images are not forbidden by God but worshipping them is. Bowing to anything or anyone but God does not necessarily mean it constitutes an act of worship.
2. Secondly, it’s painful when modern lawyers are ignorant of history and the evolution of civil law.
Most of us don’t know that civil law in anglophone and francophone jurisdictions- in the past- were influenced by Roman law. It explains why ‘Latin’ was the official language of the educated in ancient Europe.
Law as obtained in common law jurisdictions (England, Nigeria, Scotland, some parts of Canada, Australia, Ghana, America etc), have their roots in ancient religions, particularly of Ancient Rome.
It is a principle of Roman law that ‘an act’ (actus reus) is not sufficient to establish guilt. The ‘mental element’ (mens rea) is important for someone to be guilty.
The same is obtainable in moral questions. So the fact that a catholic stands before a statue may constitute the ‘act’, we must consider the ‘mental’ element. Is that person intending to worship that statue as a god?
If you want my sincere opinion, NO CATHOLIC INTENDS TO DEIFY STATUES. I know some have extreme ways of expressing their catholic faith, but I have been a catholic all my life and trust me when I say: I HAVE NEVER EVER CONSIDERED A STATUE OR MARY AS MY gOD. I BELIEVE IN THE TRUDINE GOD like most Christians and nothing more.
In fact, two years into his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVIII excommunicated a group of nuns in Latin America. They claimed Mary was equal to the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. After asking them to recant their heretical position, they refused. THE POPE EXCOMMUNICATED THEM. And to date, they’ve not been accepted back to the Catholic Church. But anti-catholic Protestant theologians will never ever report this sort of news, because it doesn’t fuel/feed their anti-Catholicism.
3. The cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was built in the 12-13th century.
In those centuries and the centuries preceding them, most of Europe’s population was illiterate. So the church devised a means of teaching the illiterate population: it used pictures and sculptures. ART SPEAKS TO EVERYONE, even to illiterates.
So it became very usual for ancient Catholic Churches to be filled with paintings, images and sculptures. The church uses them for teaching, expression of theological questions. Modern Protestants do the same. They act movies and cartoons of Jesus. Those are also images. Let’s not forget.
It is an extreme reading of the prohibition of images, sculptures and statues that has led Muslims to attack anyone who attempts to represent Allah or Mohammed in movies and cartoons. Christian biblical fundamentalists want to take us down the same cursed path.
4. About the presence gargoyles on church buildings ....... they are used as a depiction of the ugliness of sin, evil and Satan.
Strictly speaking, gargoyles weren’t even intended to depict demons. They were intended to depict how sin disfigures God’s creation.
The idea that they are demonic figures is funny. Non of us have seen demons, so where did we get the idea that gargoyles look like demos when non of us knows what a demon looks like???
(All through this post I purposely referred to them as ‘demons’ because that is the popular opinion held......... I decided to flow with the ignorant.).
The ancients used them to show what evil does to the soul. That is why they are so ugly. Furthermore, to make that point they place the sculptures of gargoyles in obscure and disadvantaged positions, when compared to the apostles and the saints.
Notre Dame cathedral had the statues of the apostles elevated above the entire church on the spire. But the gargoyles beneath them. Also a copper rooster 🐓 is placed atop the spire. In catholic iconography/ artistry roosters 🐔 represent “announcing the gospel,” just as roosters do in real life every morning-announcing a new day.
That was a way of teaching the population that a life in Christ is an elevated way of living, while a life in the devil makes the soul ugly and unpresentable and is beneath those of the children of God.
Most importantly, they are placed outside the church. That was made intentionally. It was a way the artisans thought people that ‘outside the church/fold of Christ, all you have is darkness and Satan.
I am going through the pain of writing this long post so that Catholics can be understood from where we stand. We are not stupid to put images of Satan on our buildings without a reason. We hate him just as much as you do..... CUT US SOME SLACK.
We have reasons. They may not satisfy you but they satisfy us. And it is offensive to think that my faith must make sense to you. No! I am under no obligation to see things the way you do.
Protestants must stop this sheer nonsense of ‘arrogance of knowledge.” A subtle claim of possessing an accuracy of answers to all christological and Christian doctrinal Questions. Like they have a MONOPOLY over Christ. A hideous lie that makes no sense.
Keep your anti-catholic rhetoric to yourself.
~ Patrick Alexander Briggs
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1 comments:
Nice piece