Catholic Church and theatre: History and Key Facts

Many bishops, priests and monks strongly condemned theatrical amusements or even declared the actors to be "instruments of Satan", "a curse to the Church", and "beguiling unstable souls". The Roman Catholic Church believed theatre to cause people to "indulge themselves in amusements which its fascinations interfere with the prosecution of the serious work of daily life". Anything pleasing or appealing to the lower nature, the "sensual appetites", were considered as temptations as dictated in the Lord's Prayer ("lead us not into temptation"), which one must avoid to lead an ideal Christian life.

According to the Church, one had to eat and drink for strength, not for gluttony and drunkenness; rest and sleep to the glory of God; and not sink into indolence and sloth or become the masters, instead of the servants, of the body. The Church considered amusements to be the most dangerous temptations and the worst impulses since otherwise, many Christians would relax their ordinary strictness "for the sake of the cause", and having once obtained a "taste of the nectar, they will continue to drink it". The Church instead encouraged Christians to strive to please their neighbours for good edification rather than pleasing oneself.

Even exclusively Catholic countries were tolerant of churchgoers going to ordinary theatrical amusements, and the Church allowed the general population to patronise the theatre. Most of those countries even allowed theatres to open on Sunday evenings, when the popular plays are put on the boards. However, during Lent, the Catholic Church would dissuade or even prohibit the people from going to the theatre, and in some countries, where the civil law was controlled by the Catholic Church, the theaters were closed during Lent.

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