At the Feet of the Fathers: St Augustine—Do Not Blame the Chruch for Wicked Christians

At the Feet of the Fathers

Monday, September 18, 2023

St. Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo (November 13, 354AD – August 28, 430AD) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions. Martin Luther was a member of the Augustinian order (Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine, founded in 1244 using The Rule of St. Augustine) when he was a monk, and his theology was heavily influenced by his writings.

Do Not Blame the Church for Wicked Christians

Do not bring up against me those people who claim the name of Christian but neither know nor show any evidence of the power of their profession. Do not hunt down the numerous ignorant people who, even in the true religion, are superstitious or so given up to evil passions that they forget what they have promised to God. I know that there are many who get really drunk over the dead and who bury themselves over the buried in their funeral feasts and indulge their gluttony and drunkenness in the name of religion. I know that there are many who claim to have renounced the world and yet desire to be burdened with all the weight of worldly things and rejoice in those burdens.

My advice to you is this: that you should at least stop slandering the Catholic Church by protesting against the conduct of those whom the Church herself condemns, trying to correct them every day like wicked children. Then, if any of them are corrected through good will and by the help of God, they regain by repenting what they had lost by sin. On the other hand, those who persist in their old vices with wicked will are indeed allowed to remain in the field of the Lord and to grow along with the good seed, but the time for separating the weeds will come.

- St. Augustine, Morals of the Catholic Church, 34