The Growth of the Roman Catholic Church

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Introduction
Jesus Christ, the first celebrity, born to a virgin, performed miracles and rose from the dead. The great healer and savior and son of God. With an approximately 1.7 billion people worldwide, Christianity is arguably the largest religion in the world today.
According to Christian teachings God made the heavens and the Earth in 6 days and rested on the seventh day, or the Sabbath. Then God made the first humans, Adam and Eve. God flooded the Earth out of dissatisfaction with the human race, except for Noah and his family. Noah was instructed to build an ark with 2 of every animal for reproductive purposes. God presented Moses with the 10 Commandments on Mt. Sinai
Introduction to Catholicism
The sacred text of the christian church, both Catholic and Protestant is the Holy Bible. The Bible is made up of 2 parts; the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is a collection of religious writings by ancient Israelites. The Catholic Old Testament is made up of 46 books including Genesis, Isaiah, Jobs, Proverbs and Psalms. The New Testament is a compilation of Christian literature. The life of Jesus is the main part of the New Testament. There are 27 books in the New Testament, including the 4 Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,Acts, Peter and, Revelation.
In the Catholic church priests serve as a direct link between God and the people. He is responsible for sacred rituals, such as performing masses, offering the Eucharist (symbolic body and blood of Jesus Christ), hearing confessions, and counselling. All priest are men because Jesus’ apostles were all men and it is considered traditions. The lack of female priest has raised concerns in the past but as of now there is no change in sight. In the Unit...

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...marry and have children.
The 152 and 157 Bishops of Rome, Pope Leo IX and Pope Gregory VII tried to fix the abuses of the church discussed previously. They called several meetings trying to bring order to the church. They took power away from the Emperor and other government officials and put it in the hands of the Pope and cardinals. In 1057 Pope Gregory VII published the Dictates, which gave the Pope reigning authority over the entire church.
Towards the end of the 11th century in 1071 Jerusalem was conquered by the Turks. The Eastern Emperor reached out to the 172th Bishop of Rome, Pope Urban II, for help. Urban reached out to the “knights of Christendom” to save the city. Jerusalem is considered a holy city in all three Abrahamic religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In 1095 the Turks were defeated and Jerusalem was reconquered by the Christian knights.

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