As a Catholic, I am offended by the continual portrayal of the Middle Ages as an era replete with witchcraft and magic. Go to a renaissance fair and you would be hard pressed to see a portrayal of Catholicism as anything but gluttonous and corrupt.
Leaf through a catalog of renaissance inspired wares, and you will see all types of pentagrams, fairies and witches' bibles. Can we not acknowledge that the Catholic Church had something positive to do with the Middle Ages, or that it even existed!?
I am also tired of hearing the Church dismissed using the phrase, "Oh, that was done/invented during the Middle Ages." People delight in making fun of the faith by a distortion of history.
Another related example of dismissing the Church's role in history involves Civil War reenactment. There are many dedicated and talented people who do historical reenactment. We see all types of Civil War Era people portrayed--soldiers, both enlisted and officers, wives, girlfriends and even prostitutes. We see tents with Christian ministers being portrayed. That's wonderful. But where are the Daughters of Charity who nursed the sick during the Civil War?
It seems to me as though admitting that Catholicism played *any* part in history is not PC. We are overlooking a major influence in the development of Western Civilization. How sad.
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