By Bill Leonard
In an essay posted on Christianhistory.net on July 1, 2007, Scott Manetsch writes: “Before dawn on the morning of August 24, 1572, church bells tolled in the Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois quarter of Paris. Just moments earlier, soldiers under the command of [Catholic] Henri, duke of Guise, had overcome resistance and assassinated the admiral of France, Huguenot [Protestant] leader Gaspard de Coligny, in his bedroom. They threw the body from the window to the ground below, where angry crowds later mutilated it, cutting off the head and hands, and dragged it through the streets of Paris. … The killing unleashed an explosion of popular hatred against Protestants throughout the city. In the terrible days that followed, some 3,000 Huguenots were killed in Paris, and perhaps another 8,000 in other provincial cities. This season of blood — known as the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre — decisively ended Huguenot hopes to transform France into a Protestant kingdom. It remains one of the most horrifying episodes in the Reformation era.”
Pope Gregory XIII even had a medal cast, showing an “exterminating angel” striking Huguenots with a sword, inscribed with Hugonottorum strages (Hugenots slaughtered).
Some 425 years later, Pope John Paul II declared: “On the eve of Aug. 24, [1997] we cannot forget the sad massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day, an event of very obscure causes in the political and religious history of France. … Christians did things which the Gospel condemns. I am convinced that only forgiveness, offered and received, leads little by little to a fruitful dialogue, which will in turn ensure a fully Christian reconciliation. … Belonging to different religious traditions must not constitute today a source of opposition and tension.” It was an apology, of sorts.
The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (Christian-oriented brutality) and the recent Paris Massacre (Muslim-oriented brutality) suggest that religion and politics can turn violent quickly, then and now. One online source traces at least 24 Paris massacres from 1209 to 2015, with death-tolls numbering from a few lives to thousands. Massacres in Paris remain deadly and continuous; so have apologies both governmental and ecclesiastical. Across the Church’s history, what seem unbending convictions and necessary reprisals in one era demand an apology generations later. The list is long and rather discouraging.
Also in 1997, Italian bishops apologized for Catholic persecution (burnings and imprisonments) leveled at the Waldensian community, Italy’s oldest dissenting sect, a 12th-century movement founded by the proto-Protestant street preacher Peter Waldo. Church moderator Rev. Gianni Rostan thanked bishops and Pope for the apology, adding that the Catholic Church should then find ways to make “amends.”
American Christian communions have issued their share of apologies. Multiple Catholic dioceses have offered public apologies (along with billions in financial settlements) for priests’ epidemic sexual abuse. Various Protestant communions have apologized for their treatment of homosexuals, women and people of color, to name a few. For example, messengers to the 1995 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution that included these statements:
“WHEREAS, Our relationship to African-Americans has been hindered from the beginning by the role that slavery played in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention; and
“WHEREAS, Many of our Southern Baptist forbears defended the right to own slaves, and either participated in, supported, or acquiesced in the particularly inhumane nature of American slavery; and
“WHEREAS, In later years Southern Baptists failed, in many cases, to support, and in some cases opposed, legitimate initiatives to secure the civil rights of African-Americans; …”
The resolution concluded, in part:
“Be it further RESOLVED, That we lament and repudiate historic acts of evil such as slavery from which we continue to reap a bitter harvest, and we recognize that the racism which yet plagues our culture today is inextricably tied to the past;
“and … That we apologize to all African-Americans for condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systemic racism in our lifetime; and we genuinely repent of racism of which we have been guilty, whether consciously … or unconsciously …;
“and … That we ask forgiveness from our African-American brothers and sisters, acknowledging that our own healing is at stake … and … That we hereby commit ourselves to eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry.”
That profound pledge, made almost two decades ago, was a factor influencing a group of African-American students to protest at the SBC-related, student-oriented Collegiate Church Planting Collaborative gathering in Virginia in November. As Baptist News Global’s Bob Allen reported [https://baptistnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/30682-protestors-to-sbc-all-souls-matter-in-campus-ministry], the group’s dissent was offered because, “At a time when the SBC is making headlines for its declaration of reconciliation with blacks in America, the organization continues to characterize and exhibit systemic prejudice and practices that are unacceptable, inequitable and ungodly.” Protesters added that leaders of the Collegiate Collaborative “have ignored the call for meaningful dialogue regarding racial inclusion in its mission work on college campuses across America.” Dialogue is pending.
Apologies ought to cost us something — perhaps that’s why a new generation of college students is asking that schools (and churches) revisit long-chiseled tributes to some of the people whose views and actions proved repugnant. Repentance isn’t easy. Racial reconciliation requires authentic transformation. For that, no apologies.