Didn the Catholic Church become pagan after Constantine became emperor?
“Constantine’s Christian mother, St. Helena, raised him with Christian beliefs (although he delayed baptism until his deathbed). He defeated the pagan general Maxentius under the standard of the Christian cross in AD 312. The next year Constantine signed the Edict of Milan which officially ended the Roman persecution of the Church. It is absurd to think he attempted to paganize the Church. In AD 361, the emperor Julian the Apostate launched a persecution of the Church in an attempt to bring back paganism. This would not have been necessary if the Church had become pagan at the time of Constantine (AD 312-337). A careful study of the first 300 years of Christianity reveals that the Catholic doctrines such as the Eucharist, Apostolic authority, and the Pope as the successor of St. Peter, were believed by Christians from the very beginning. They certainly did not arise after Constantine.
