Catholic Church: Corruption In Her Hierarchy

The church is both human and divine for this reason, the early church also had its own share of corruption and scandals. Before the very eyes of Jesus the messiah, Judas the apostle (one of the twelve called by no other than the messiah himself) used to steal from the churches purse (Jn.12:6). What would surprise critics is that Jesus knew all that Judas was doing but did nothing. What was to remain forever the biggest of all the scandals in the christian religion was the betrayal of Jesus by the same disciple, to be killed for a mere thirty pieces of silver.
          Anyone who thinks that the early church was a church of angels and for that reason did not have problems will need to read St Paul's First letter to the Corinthians. Do not imagine that this letter was written to pagans. No! it was written to a christian community. Notice the issues addressed? dissensions among the faithful(Icor.5:10-13) ; sexual immorality(I cor. 5:1-13 and 6:12-20);law suits among believers in Gentiles courts (I Cor. 6:1-11); eating food sacrificed  to idols (I Cor.10:14 -33); drunkenness (I Cor.11-21). See also  fraud (Act 5:1-11); ethnicity (Act 6: 1) etc.
          As early as 530 AD, ecclesiastical offices had become profitable and greedy men sought them with all their might. simony began to play a big role in attaining these high ecclesiastical offices. The moral corruption in the church started with the collapse of the Roman government. As a result of the barbarian invasions of Italy, bishops and other religious authorities found themselves performing civil and political functions when government officials failed. The fusion of religious and political functions in the hands of the high clergy led to  serious problems in the church as many of them became attracted to  material things.
      By 846 AD, Moslem raiders from Arabia and Palestine chased the pope out of Rome, and in that general state of confusion, the powerful Roman family of Theophylectus practically took control of the papacy. This family sized the opportunity to put on the papal throne, all kinds of men from their family line. While every man put as pope by the family was unworthy, the reigns of popes like John XII(955-963 A),and Benedict IX (who resigned from 1032-1044, 1045, and 1047) were indeed a scandal to the church.
         As the feudal system developed in the 10th and 11th centuries AD, the emperor and the feudal lords preferred to hand over their property to bishops rather than to ordinary people. Bishops who were involved with the management of revenue accruing from these properties gradually lost their taste for the religious life
This life-style continued until the reign of pope Gregory VII(1073-1085) when serious reforms in the church started. It cannot be doubted that the the corruption in the church was on the moral side.There was no corruption in terms of the doctrines of the church, because the doctrines came from the apostles themselves. Doctrines such as those on purgatory, the immaculate conception, the intercession of the saints, the mass as a new covenant sacrifice, the trinity, indulgence and many others, which the protestants reformers accuse the church of inventing did not start in that morally corrupt age of the church. These doctrines are found preserved in the writings of bishops who led the church many centuries before the church fell into that unfortunate era of moral corruption.
        This is why the church continues to remind her priests of the need to shun unnecessary materialism and flamboyant live styles  in this age as a way of avoiding the unfortunate situation of the past. However it must be noted, that the sanctity of the holy Roman church is completely independent of the holiness of her priests, bishops and popes.The holiness of the church flows rather from the sanctity of Christ to himself, "as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkles or any other blemish, but holy and blameless"(EPH. 5:27). for as the sins of the apostles Judas as a person, so does the bad actions of priests affect but themselves. Thus, the catholic church is not Holy because her priests,bishops or her popes are holy, but she is holy because the Lord Jesus Christ her founder is holy.  (Written by Effiong Clement)