Five Historical Myths About the Catholic Church that People Continue to Believe

Despite all evidence to the contrary

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There are any number of myths about the Catholic Church, some doctrinal and some historical. The doctrinal myths are far more numerous, some because of simple misunderstanding and some as the result of intentional, malicious misrepresentation. I won’t be getting into the doctrinal myths in this article, but rather the historical ones.

These myths are something I grew up with, starting at a very young age. My grandfather was a Baptist from Arkansas, while my grandmother was an Italian Catholic from Boston (I, by the grace of God, was born Texan). Granddad told me that when he was a little boy, their preacher told everyone that Catholics ate their young. I’m not kidding. It was a wild legend he didn’t fully overcome until he met my grandma and she set him straight.

Several of these myths were started by the Protestant Reformers in the 16th century, because propaganda isn’t something invented in the past ten years. Others are far older, while one is much more modern. Let’s look at just five of them today.

1. The Medieval Church kept the Bible from the people. This myth was a favorite of Martin Luther from the early days of the Reformation, and it is a massive distortion of the…