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Christine
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Posted: Dec 17 2012 at 9:03pm | IP Logged Quote Christine
Is the Carcassonne board game anti-Catholic?

I purchased Carcassonne Big Box 3 as a gift for Christmas and was surprised to read the following on the back of the box. "A symbol for the fight of the people against the medieval church politics".

Skimming online instructions, I saw mention of Pope Innocent III. This means that the game is dealing with the time period of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Dominic de Guzman, and the Albigensian heresy (a little information about Pope Innocent III and the heresy can be found here).

I think that I might need to return the game to Amazon.

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Posted: Dec 18 2012 at 6:46am | IP Logged Quote jawgee
I've never heard of it, but from what you type....

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juliana147
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Posted: Dec 18 2012 at 7:21am | IP Logged Quote juliana147
Christine, ours was just delivered yesterday, and I wondered the same thing.

I couldn't find anything upsetting in descriptions of the game online, so I was surprised to see that on the back of the box.

I hate to open it up to check for myself... if there is going to be a problem, I'd like to know before Christmas!

I wonder if this is a newly printed box, and maybe it has a different spin from the original. We got the Big Box 3, too.




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mamaslearning
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Posted: Dec 18 2012 at 7:40am | IP Logged Quote mamaslearning
In looking at the history, it appears that the battle at Carcassonne was between Catholics and Protestants, so if it's based on that, then I guess it depends on which side developed the game. article

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Posted: Dec 18 2012 at 7:52am | IP Logged Quote mamaslearning
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juliana147
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Posted: Dec 18 2012 at 8:14am | IP Logged Quote juliana147
I found a website where you can download the game rules, and there is nothing offensive that I could see. It's a tile game, and you are building cities and deploying people to different places in the city, like a farm, or a cloister, to earn points.

Maybe I'm missing something important, but I cannot understand why that statement is on the back of the box.



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Posted: Dec 18 2012 at 5:18pm | IP Logged Quote knowloveserve
I have the original Carcassonne and one of the expansions; my whole family loves it. There is nothing anti-Catholic at all in my experience so I am surprised to see that description...

I can't speak for the Big Box, but I think those are just more expansions...

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Christine
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Posted: Dec 19 2012 at 3:29pm | IP Logged Quote Christine
Thank you for the responses. Rereading the back of the box, Rio Grande Games is trying to explain the historical significance of Carcassonne, not the game.

I feel that Rio Grande Games missed the boat. St. Dominic preached against the Albigensian heresy. The Albigensians (also called Cathars) were a non-Christian group that held Manichean beliefs. One Manichean belief that they adhered to was that "Jesus had not actually been present on earth in the flesh". More information can be found here. According to the life of St. Dominic, the Albigensians used force and murder to keep people in their sect.

Like Juliana said, as far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be anything offensive about Carcassonne, the game. My husband and I still haven't decided whether or not to keep it. The reviews of the game itself are very good and I am pretty sure that several people in my family would enjoy playing it, including me.

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juliana147
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Posted: Dec 19 2012 at 4:12pm | IP Logged Quote juliana147
Christine, I'm thinking of emailing Rio Grande, and letting them know that their wording could be better...

Probably wouldn't make a bit of difference, but you never know!

Now that someone has chimed in and verified that the game itself is ok, I think there might be a loose Sharpie in our house before Christmas.      I am going to use this as an opportunity to talk to the kids about St. Dominic, though. He is one of my favorite saints.

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Christine
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Posted: Dec 19 2012 at 5:37pm | IP Logged Quote Christine
juliana147 wrote:
Christine, I'm thinking of emailing Rio Grande, and letting them know that their wording could be better...

Probably wouldn't make a bit of difference, but you never know!


Since one of the expansion packs (not included in the Big Box) for the game is called "Cathars", it probably won't make a difference. However, maybe it will lead someone from the company to read something about that time in history that wasn't written by revisionist historians.

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