I am not a catholic. Never have been.

The church has always helped the poor and the ailing, this is not a recent development. This is simply a part of their tradition, their doctrine. It was happening when 99.9 per cent of christian europe was christian, and for centuries(thousands of years by now).

Also, while the church was often conservative, it would not be accurate to say it has stalled science to a significant degree, as there were only a few issues it took a hard stance on with regards to science.

We inherited the concept of the “dark ages” from the biased culture of the rennaisance(towards the classical roman culture and against the medieval), but modern historians are revising this issue, and I would say that it was not as bad as it is painted in pop culture, and towards the end of the era civilisation was very developed, and even if it was, christianity was not responsible for it, since it is doubtful the empire would have remained if it stayed pagan, plus the east did not experience this decline despite being christian.