Catholicism and Comparison of Beliefs
The Catholic Church is the world’s largest single religious body, and comprises 23 "particular churches," or Rites, all of which acknowledge a primacy of jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome and are in full communion with the Holy See and each other. As the oldest continuously operating organization, the Catholic Church has a distinguished history. The Church has also been involved in many of the historical events and movements of the past 2,000 years. The number of Catholics in the world is around 1.1 billion and continues to increase, particularly in Africa and Asia. Brazil is the country with the largest number of Catholics. The increase between 1978 and 2000 was 288 million.
The pope is the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He and the magisterium (the teaching authority of the Church) clarify doctrine. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is highly revered, though not worshipped. Saints are asked to intercede on behalf of sinners. Social justice teachings urge Catholics to show a special preference for those who are poor and weak.
Furthermore, the renewal and rejuvenation of the Catholic Church makes Pope John a major reformer of the 20th century and a significantly large influencer during his time. He made universal and worldwide impacts to religious adherents by reforming and revitalizing the Christian traditions through achieving ressourcement, aggiornamento. In addition, his passion for unity amongst Christian faiths and interfaith dialogue, world peace and economic justice also furthered his impact not only within the Catholic Church but also in other Christian denominations. Moreover, in the short time of Pope John’s authority and power within the Catholic Church, the contributions and achievements he made had a substantially large impact to the Christian traditions as he brought the Catholic Church into the modern era,
The first is that of the priest, who delivers the messages of Jesus during Mass. The priest becomes a symbol for the Catholics because otherworldly spirits are able to pass through and are amid the living for a short period of time. Furthermore, the pope of Rome is similar to the priest in that he becomes the embodiment of God. Though they are similar in this way, the pope of Rome is the head of the church and his words are equivalent to the words of the Bible. This representation provided an additional belief to the Catholics, both being in scripture and in church. In addition, the church became a symbol of belief, “Indeed, Catholic tradition put spirit and matter together by understanding the church as the Mystical Body of Christ” (pg. 66). With all these together, there is a functioning society within
powerful institution. The way in which the society functioned, all revolved around the church. Rome no longer had an emperor but in the hearts of the individuals Jesus Christ was the new emperor. The Spanish Inquisition was used by the Catholic Church ...
During my catholic youth group, one of my friends told me he was disappointment to all Roman Catholics because he says that we are just worshipping to the Saints. He seemed that he is under the influence of thinking too deeply into our religion, even though he is catholic too. I tried to explain him that we, Roman Catholics, do not worship to anyone but God but my words weren’t enough to make him understand more about the Saints. Someone gave a book to my aunt and I asked her if I could borrow the book. The book is called Saints from Our Times by Ann Ball. While skimming the book, I have found great explanations for people to have the genuine knowledge about the teachings and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church.
It is the concept of a single entity within the Church ruling with absolute power. This entity is not limited to a signal priest or religious figure it may also be a group and thus create an oligarchical structure. This is important because religion can often mobilize people, although when the church become authoritarian and totalitarian is can be dangerous.
Through the years from the medieval ages up until now, the Roman Catholic Church has always had a major influential presence in all walks of life for European people, whether it was for taxation, the establishing of laws, the rise and fall of monarchs, and even daily social life. Furthermore, the Catholic Church held such power that they could even appoint and dispose of great kings with just the writing of the pen. However, their power started to wane once human curiosity overcome ignorance and blind obedience. For example, the Enlightenment Age brought a series of shocking blows to the Church’s power such as disproving the Church’s theory of geocentricism and presented an age of questioning and secularism. In essence, by looking at the Church’s
Roles of the Catholic Church in Western civilization has been scrambled with the times past and development of Western society. Regardless of the fact that the West is no longer entirely Catholic, the Catholic tradition is still strong in Western countries. The church has been a very important foundation of public facilities like schooling, Western art, culture and philosophy; and influential player in religion. In many ways it has wanted to have an impact on Western approaches to pros and cons in numerous areas. It has over many periods of time, spread the teachings of Jesus within the Western World and remains a foundation of continuousness connecting recent Western culture to old Western culture.-
In conclusion, the Roman Catholic Church was a major influence on the people of Europe and changed the people lives in many ways.
Catholics and Protestants share a fair amount of fundamental ideas and concepts from the Christian faith, but there are critical differences which continue to make prominent and contrasting differences between their beliefs and practices. Those differences are just as important in defining the religions today as they were during the Protestant Reformation. In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformation began and religious leaders such Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and others that protested against some of the practices and abuses of the Catholic Church. The protest is actually what spawned the name of Protestantism; the root of the word is Protestantism is “protest.” The main purpose for the protests was to reform the church from within; they saw a need for reformation to eliminate the blatant corruption and the abusive practices, such as “indulgences.” But as the years passed by, it became abundantly clear that their movement was unable to coexist with the Rome Catholic ideology, so those with Protestant beliefs/views broke away and organized their own church hierarchy and structures, this purge from Catholicism and new
Jesus Christ’s life and mission, which is now present worldwide, is the origin of the Roman Catholicism. Catholics believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who became man, died and rose from the dead to redeem humanity from sin (Catholic Truth Society, 3). He passed his mission of salvation to the Catholic Church through his apostles and then their successors (Catholic Truth Society, 4).
The medieval Roman Catholic church was extremely powerful and influential through their taxes and ability to control peoples beliefs and religious ideas. The Church acted as a sort of over-lord to the monarchs of the European Christendom, encouraging and in some cases forcing rulers to act by their will and influencing the citizens of the country. The Pope gave himself the power to bestow the power of Holy Roman Emperor, a position which gave the emperor power over a large area of Europe. This ability gave the Pope power over the emperor therefore making the Pope ultimate leader of the continent. Because of all the Popes abilities, the Church became an extremely significant institute and force in the middle ages. Although the church is not nearly as powerful as it was, the remnants of its most powerful times can still be found today.
The Church was organised into a hierarchical system that sustained the Church’s stability and control over the people and lower clergy, by organising them into different groups. First there were the ordinary believers, the citizens of the kingdom who followed the Christian faith. Then there was the clergy, the members who devoted their lives to the church. Each group of the clergy was assigned specific functions by the clergy nobles to help run the Church competently. Amongst all the clergy associates, the Pope was at the top, he had the equivalent if not more power than the ruling monarch and was in charge of all political affairs and administered the clergy. He was able to dictate political laws and even comment on the Monarch’s decisions. Under the Pope, there were the bishops. The bishops directed church courts and managed cases correlated to the public such as marriage, wills and other public predicaments. Priests held religious services that consisted of sacraments, baptisms and the usual Sabbath services. The monks and nuns received manual labour that required helping clean the monasteries and assist the needy. Educated monks copied manuscripts of medieval and ancient knowledge in the Scriptorium. Finally...
Women in the Catholic Church take on many roles, from parishioner to laywoman to nuns. Women parishioners help prepare for the mass. They can be lectors, choir members, CCD instructors, etc. Laywomen “…are the Catholic women traditionally permitted certain ministerial responsibilities (Wessinger, 244).” They work in churches, schools, prisons, etc. Nuns dedicate their lives to religious devotion. They take three vows; poverty, chasity, and obedience. They are to live simple lifestyles. They live their lives teaching others and helping others.
The Magisterium. The Catholic faith tells one that if one follows the Church’s teachings on moral issues, one will become a more loving and Christ- like person. A Catholic has a responsibility to pay attention to what the church teaches and take into consideration how this will affect our relationships with God. When one solves a problem through magisterium, one must solve this problem with humility. This means that one can admit that they need help, and turn to the Catechism of the Catholic Church to help solve the problem. When one does this, it is difficult to admit to God and the Church that one needs help.
Bishops are at the top of the hierarchy and join in the full priesthood of God. They have the power to ordain deacons, priests, and other bishops. They are members of a college of bishops, with the Bishop of Rome at its head. The normal role of a bishop is to head a diocese.