I am just getting ready to start my Anima game, and I am realizing that the church seems to be full of contradiction (in a good way)

The Church bans all use of the supernatural. But for the most part the players all access the supernatural. The fact that much of what they do is invisible protects them a little bit. I also get the impression that the Church actually makes use of the supernatural in the inquisition and its other purposes.

I have decided that in my game the churches ban is far from universally enforced. I actually created an organization called the University that is sort of like an Empire wide Wizards Guild. They teach people to use their gift and have the blatant political agenda of legalizing the use of Magic. Obviously the Church vs the University relationship is very complicated and the University is not acknowledged in many provinces.

I was wondering how the rest of you handled the church and its ban on supernatural forces.

I'd have to look again, but I believe in the Gaia book there is an organization trying to make magic legal and those weilding it in charge once they can over turn the church

I'd expect the church to have the most power in The Sacred Holy Empire of Abel

Abel,llmora,Helenia,Dalaborn,Alberia,Galgados,Arlan,Kanon

I'd run them as a loose group though, with specific people following their own agendas. Rather than have your PC's face the Archbishop a Bishop is fine. Enemies don't have to be powerful at fighting. Just smart, secretive, and resourceful.

I think that your assumption that the Church's ban on magic not being enforced is correct, atleast not formally or forcefully. It would be more accurate to say that they act on a moral basis, by influencing public opinion against the supernatural, remembering that there would be a natural bias against magic to begin with (superstition...). The actual armed threat against magic and the supernatural is the Inquisition, which to me seems to be a seperate organisation which acts independently from, but answers to, the Church. But this organisation acts generally in secrecy.

I thought the Inquisition was a branch of the church. I like the idea of making the church's ban on the supernatural not fully enforced, but I don't think that is the way the world is actually written.

The Church is terribly powerful, and I get the idea that the modern idea of secularism (seperation of church and state) is completely absent in Gaia.

That's a pretty good way to put it. You might want to refer to the way the real Catholic Church went about society in medieval times, since the Church in Anima is clearly based on that.

At the very least, the Church has a lot of influence on governments through its influence as a moral guide on the people and leaders. It would be overstepping its role to have actual formal powers in government, but then again, that might make for interesting backdrops in certain places for roleplay.

I believe there are two specific orders dedicated to the preservation and teaching of magic and the supernatural. One is the Order of Yehudah, which seeks to establish an empire where mages rule supreme, and those without The Gift are little better than second-class citizens. The other (can't recall the name offhand), is run by a former member of the Order of Yehudah, and he seeks to find and instruct willing Gifted, while simultaneously teaching them of the inherent dangers of such power. The latter is also not directly opposed to the Church, although it must remain secretive because of the anti-supernatural sentiments. I believe most of the information about these two groups is in the Gaia: Beyond the Dreams supplement. There's also a few organizations in the core book, but I don't think they're quite what you're trying to accomplish.