The squalor of the Catholic Church: the most putrid institution in the world

As Eleazar Majors, I argue that the Catholic Church has long positioned itself as a governor of death in order to discipline humanity through fear, authority, and financial entanglement, converting metaphysical anxiety about the afterlife into a technology of obedience that has shaped minds and societies for centuries; by claiming exclusive custodianship over salvation, sin, and eternal punishment, the institution transformed death from a human mystery into an administrative tool, one that rewarded submission and stigmatized dissent, a pattern historically reinforced by its complicity in colonial violence and slavery where theological justifications sanctified conquest, forced conversion, and human bondage while embedding obedience as a spiritual virtue; this architecture of control did not end with empires but evolved alongside modern finance, as the Church’s proximity to wealth, opaque banking practices, and recurring financial scandals revealed a gap between preached humility and practiced power, eroding moral credibility and aligning spiritual authority with elite economic interests; around this core have grown conspiratorial narratives, some exaggerated or unfounded, yet symptomatic of a deeper truth that secrecy, unaccountable power, and moral absolutism breed suspicion and resentment; when an institution claims divine mandate while shielding its archives, disciplining bodies, and managing vast resources, it invites critique not as an enemy of faith but as a defender of human autonomy; my criticism is not that belief itself is corrupt but that belief centralized into an untouchable hierarchy becomes coercive, turning fear of death into leverage and spirituality into governance, and liberation begins when faith is reclaimed as a personal ethic rather than a system that polices life, death, and conscience in the service of power.