Healing Church's attitude:
"Why isn't he dead? Are you talking? Who told you to do that? You don't talk. You don't think. I think, you kill. It's a simple fucking concept!"-Odin, God of War.
Thx for the ask! For reference, I start with a short summary of the Healing Church’s history.
The origin of the Healing Church can be traced back to Byrgenwerth and the Tomb of the Gods, also known as Chalice Dungeons, where Master Willem and Laurence discovered the power of the Great Ones and the Old Blood. They thought they could use this knowledge to find a way that would allow humans to evolve to a higher plane of existence. Laurence was convinced that blood was the key to achieving their goal, while Master Willem wanted to find an alternate way to connect with the Great Ones and refused to use the blood. This led to Laurence’s departure from Master Willem and the foundation of the Healing Church. Laurence was convinced that blood is beneficial and wanted to use it to cure illnesses. He founded the Cathedral of Oedon. The Formless Oedon is a Great One associated with blood (Human or no, the oozing blood is a medium of the highest grade, and the essence of the formless Great One). The Healing Church used nuns as vessels to provide good blood to citizens of Yharnam and cured their diseases. The consumption of blood outside of the Church was strictly forbidden. While the blood healed many, it came with a prize when people started to turn into beasts driven by base desires, particularly when the red moon hung low and the line between men and beasts was blurred. To prevent the scourge of beasts, the Healing Church founded the hunters. Gehrman, the First Hunter, received a workshop hidden in the Healing Church and trained future hunters. The Healing Church also experimented with different types of blood, which likely should bring them closer to their goal and cure/prevent the beastly scourge. At one point, Laurence himself succumbed to beasthood and turned into a cleric beast. Under him, the Church still had good intentions and tried to help people, even if it was somewhat of a side effect in his search for human evolution.
With Laurence gone, the Healing Church changed, and his vision became distorted. The Church split into different subgroups, but I won’t discuss them here since it’s irrelevant now. The Healing Church’s clerics continued to use blood. However, helping people has become less relevant than expanding their power, which led to the catastrophe of Old Yharnam. They likely poisoned the water supply of Old Yharnam, causing an outbreak of Ashen Blood, a contagious and deadly disease. Ashen Blood was treated with an antidote, which only brought temporary relief. Conveniently, the Healing Church provided help through blood healing. What should have been a blessing turned into a curse since Ashen Blood triggered the beastly scourge. Facing a mass transformation of Old Yharnam’s citizens catalyzed by the red moon, the Church blocked the bridge to the Cathedral Ward and Central Yharnam during a hunt. The entire district and its people were burned to prevent the Ashen Blood and the scourge from spreading further. Despite the disastrous consequences, they didn’t learn from their mistakes, and the downward spiral continued.
New types of beasts emerged, bigger and stronger ones, and hunts became regular occurrences. The Healing Church established official church hunters, many of them were clerics, under Ludwig, the Holy Blade. The black church hunters were doctors that should prevent the beastly scourge. They mercilessly disposed of victims of the scourge of beasts and even potential victims before signs of sickness became visible. This also opened ways to silence effectively those who speak against the Church. The white church hunters were superiors to black hunters. They were doctors that thought medicine was not a treatment but a method for research and that some knowledge was only obtained by exposing oneself to sickness. This mentality and the direct connection to the blood ministration may also explain why members of the Healing Church turn into much more vicious beasts.
At one point, Ludwig started to recruit ordinary people for the hunt, which further aggravated the situation. Now those who gave in to their bloodlust turned even faster into beasts. Yharnam was lost. It ended in a nightmare with most of its people, including the Healing Church members, either transformed or dead. The ritual performed by the School of Mensis that summoned the red moon, which again caused a mass transformation of the Yhanamites, sealed the deal for the city. But even before that, the situation was likely already (almost) out of control. Coffins can be seen everywhere on the streets. I think there were already so many people dying that they couldn’t keep up with the funerals, and later, with the start of the ritual, they didn’t care anymore.
When it comes to the morality and attitude of the Healing Church, it is essential to differentiate between the Church under Laurence and after Laurence. The original Church was less shady and still followed the credo: “Fear the Old Blood” instead of the later “Seek the Old Blood”. I assume only people with otherwise incurable diseases and severe cases received blood healing in the beginning. Also, the hunters were not immediately founded along with the Church, but when the first people transformed into beasts. This suggests that Laurence was initially either unaware of the side effects or overly confident regarding his approach.
Ludwig is known as the first hunter of the Church, but it was, in fact, Gehrman who came first. Ludwig was likely the first hunter officially recognized by the Healing Church. The original workshop is also hidden. Therefore, the first hunts were likely carried out in secrecy. During the early days of the Healing Church, people turning into beasts were probably only isolated cases. Taking care of the problem without attracting too much public attention should have been possible. I think we can assume that the first hunters under Gehrman were well-selected. They must have been loyal to the Church, like Clerics, or at least supported its action, which means they participated voluntarily in the hunts. This can be supported by the fact that the weapons of the first hunters weren’t as effective as the later equipment. The hunts were risky for the hunters. If they didn’t believe in what they were doing, why would they risk their lives?
You can call Laurence’s actions questionable, but overall I think that during this early stage of the Healing Church, they are still justifiable. The Healing Church brought prosperity to Yharnam and its citizens. And as long as only severely ill people received blood healing, the procedure helped more than it harmed, provided that these people didn’t hurt or kill anyone else during or after the transformation. They were doomed to an early death anyway or elongated suffering. Even if they turned into beasts and had to be killed, they still got more time to live or at least a better living quality before their demise.
So, I think the quote does not directly fit this era. While the Healing Church was the initiative power behind the hunts and likely recruited suitable hunter candidates, I think they didn’t have to enforce anything. The hunters were probably convinced that their deeds served a noble goal. Here’s an in-game quote I find more suitable for this era: “Acts of goodness are not always wise, and acts of evil are not always foolish, but regardless, we shall always strive to be good.” Logarius.
We should also consider what the hunters did or didn’t know about the origin of the beastly scourge. It was presented as a communicable disease, so maybe many of them weren’t aware of the connection to the blood.
A turning point was the foundation of the church hunters, which made the beastly scourge and the hunts public, and the catastrophe of Old Yharnam. This is just speculation, but I think both events happened in close temporal proximity. The church hunters were founded because the Church wanted more effective weapons to fight larger and stronger beasts. With more people receiving blood healing in Old Yharnam, more people turned into beasts. With more people turning into beasts, the possibility of some of them evolving into stronger beasts was higher. So, I think the church hunters were founded after the events of Old Yharnam already started, but still, a while before the situation escalated.
In my opinion, the quote fits the events of Old Yharnam well. Here the Church did not only initiate the events but also dictated how the hunters should deal with the situation. Other solutions were apparently not considered or not welcomed. In Old Yharnam, you can find the message: “The red moon hangs low, and beasts rule the streets. Are we left no other choice, than burn it all to cinders?” It seems like the hunters only reluctantly fulfilled their duties and began to question the practices of the Healing Church. Killing individual people who succumbed to the scourge of beasts is one thing, but committing genocide on an entire city district is a completely different level. These actions could not be justified anymore, but it was already too late. They can either sacrifice Old Yharnam or face a much worse situation when the now-transformed people reach Central Yharnam. At least Djura changed sides in response to the events and swore to protect the remaining beasts. (“I no longer dream, but I was once a hunter too. There’s nothing more horrific than a hunt. In case you fail to realise, the things you hunt - they’re not beasts, they’re people. One day you will see.”) Along with him, I think it was a waking call for other hunters too, especially those who weren’t clerics.
Afterward, the situation changed again. I already mentioned the church hunters, many of them were clerics. That’s convenient since their goals and morality align much better with those of the Healing Church than it would be the case for other hunters. The ultimate goal of the Healing Church is, after all, reaching the next step of human evolution and connecting with the Great Ones. Morality is subjective. What is acceptable for one person goes too far for another one. The questions here are, “Is it acceptable to sacrifice some lives for a greater good?” and “How many sacrifices are justifiable?” Healing Church members would have a different perspective on the topic than most non-Healing Church members. Another point is that the position of the church hunters offered new possibilities to pursue their own interests. The black church hunters killed people even before the first symptoms became visible. This enabled them to kill anyone for any reason. Who would check if the victim was legit sick or not? Even if the hunter in question had been convicted of being a murderer, the Church could still use the beastly scourge as an excuse for this behavior. The white church hunters weren’t any better. They were likely involved in human experiments. Again, I think the quote only fits here partially. The line between hunters and the Healing Church becomes increasingly blurred, and their interests often correlate. Plus, hunters can now profit from the hunts for personal gains or simply give in to their bloodlust. The Healing Church likely silenced those you openly turned against it, but on a larger scale, there doesn’t seem to be much resistance. It is a self-retaining system that works without much external pressure.
The last point I want to talk about is the civilian recruits. Beasts were presented to them as enemies who harm and kill (which isn't a lie, though). On the other hand, the Church provided help to Yharnam’s citizens. It healed people and now offered a way to protect friends and family directly. That is also a great way to distract from the real problem. Every civilian, who died while participating in the hunt, just increased the hatred for beasts. As long as people concentrated on beast hunts, they were too busy asking questions and connecting the dots between blood healing and the beastly scourge. At the beginning of the game, you see half-transformed people burning a crucified beast. Their hatred burned so deep that they did not even realize that they had become what they hated the most. Again, the Church didn’t have to apply any external pressure. Giving the people an enemy and fueling their hatred was enough. The addictive nature of blood must have been a big help too.
I think how well the quote fits heavily depends on the period you are referring to. But overall, I haven’t found anything about the Healing Church facing a severe backlash outside of the events of Old Yharnam. It also appears that coercion was not needed for the most part. The lack of information regarding the beastly scourge helped them. Spreading misinformation, creating an enemy, and filling up the executive ranks with their own members seemed to be enough to stay in power. Of course, everything here only applies on a larger scale. On an individual level, you will always have people who question the Church or turn against it. Some parted ways; some may have been brought back with pressure and fear.
