Criticism of the Catholic Church

Criticism of the Catholic Church includes the observations made about the current or historical Catholic Church, in its actions, teachings, omissions, structure, or nature. The logical disagreements are covered on a denominational basis. Criticisms may regard the concepts of papal primacy and supremacy, or aspects of church structure, governance, and particular practices. Since the Catholic Church is the largest Christian church representing over half of all Christians and one sixth of the world's population, these criticisms may not necessarily represent the majority view of all Christians and non-Christians.

Criticism of the Catholic Church in previous centuries was more closely related to theological and ecclesiological disputes. The Protestant Reformation (16th-century Europe) came about due to abuses of church practices by corrupt clergy in addition to these same theological disputes. Political disputes compounded the theological grievances between Protestants and Catholics and to this day the debate begun at the Reformation has been reflected in the diversity of Christian denominations. Some contemporary criticisms of the Catholic Church relate to philosophy and culture e.g., Christianity vs. humanism.

Some dissenters believe that the early Church, especially in Rome, was influenced by pagan rituals and beliefs from the Roman imperial cult, Hellenistic philosophy, including Neoplatonism, and Gnosticism.

As one example, some Protestants criticize the Catholic Church because they believe that the latter allowed the Roman traditions back into the church. They have stated that to conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, the Catholic Church took measures to combine the Christian and Pagan festivals so pagans would join the church; for example, Easter (a celebration of the Germanic goddess Ēostre) as a 'substitute' for Passover, though no record of Christian celebrations have necessarily yet been found that indicate that the celebration of Easter was observed as importantly before the second century.

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