What the Catholic Church did for England

Before the Middle ages much of England was swamp and forest but with the coming of the Benedictine Order these were cleared and turned into arable land where crops were gorwn and animals husbanded to feed the people. The landscape of many parts of England was transformed by their activities and people laboured in the fiels with them for a share in the food that was produced. Thus the great monasteries of England were built which also gave help to the poor and needy, and the vagrants who wandered throughout the contryside. They were also the stopping places for pilgrims on their way to the many Marian shrines of England. In Eeucation the Catholic Church started the great universities of Oxford and Cambridge and indeed many of he Universities throughout Europe. She was far from being an enemy of science and those who claim she was rely on one case, the case of Galileo, yet Galileo failed to prove the world moved round the sun relying on evidence like the movment of tides etc, which were unconvincing. It is interestng that the Church adopted the method used by Thomas Aquinas. You had to show what you intended to prove, you had to then give your thesis in proof, and you then had to meet every objection to your thesis before your point was proved. How much more tolerant the world would be if scholars had to examine all the objections to their ideas today. There would not be such a lack of lateral thinking and bias among the `educated`. Long vefore Florence Nightingale there were relgious orders dealing with sickness and disease and conforting the dying. So there we have it. Agriculture, education, care of the individual, not only in England but all over Europe. It is true to say that modern Europe was shaped by the Catholic Church. All that is good in her came from that Church. As Catholics in England we have much to be proud of and we should not fear any criticism.