Were Jewish Ghettos in the 1800s morally wrong?
My friend and I were having an argument about the morality behind the Albigensian Crusade. It then evolved into a discussion about how the ends don't justify the means, and he argued that while the Albigensian Crusade resulted in bad actions, it was not morally reprehensible. We're both Catholic, and he frequents this sub but I won't mention his username unless he wants to comment. This debate then evolved into a discussion about the Catholic Church's sanctioned Jewish ghettos in the 1800s, I tried to argue that sectioning off people into ghettos is morally reprehensible, but he insists that since the Magisterium of the Church is the sole source of morality, that it can't possibly be immoral. This whole argument has essentially been about the belief that the Church cannot do any wrong as a body of people (policy), while we both agree that the Church itself is infallible, I do believe that the Church composed of many people can make mistakes and did so with events like the Albigensian Crusade, Jewish Ghettos, etc.
My ultimate question is following his logic, he would argue that since the Church created Jewish Ghettos, there is nothing about the Ghettos that are morally wrong, therefore, we could implement the same ghettos today. He argued the only reason that the ghettos would be wrong isn't because of the immorality of the situation, but because of its impracticality. I said that was absurd, he argued the same about the Albigensian Crusade, when a Council declared that the heretics should be confiscated of all land and imprisoned; I thought that if that happened today to say, Protestants, that would be morally reprehensible, he disagreed.
Our argument won't end until I get definitive proof that the above is correct, those actions were morally bad, and that the Church does not sanction Crusades or Ghettos. I'd like some information on this, sorry if my phrasing came off as poor, I was writing this rather quickly.
TL;DR - Got into an argument with a friend, Jewish Ghettos were enforced as policy by the Church, are they morally wrong, can they be done today without it being a moral issue?
Posted Feb 17, 2017, 2:56 AM UTC