When we think of the word “church” were usually thinking of the Roman Catholic Church because that is the most common and well known religion worldwide. However such a well-established religion must have someone who’s in control, that’s where our pope steps in and executes the role. The title of pope comes from the Greek word “papas”, which means father. That’s what our pope is and with this title comes one of the biggest responsibilities of them all, keeping the church stable and non-corrupt.
Throughout all of papal history we have had many popes comes into power, but one who made a significant impact upon the world, both religiously and non-religiously, was Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Benedict, born as Joseph Ratzinger, was born on April 16, 1927 in Marktl am inn, Germany. Benedict served as pope from the day of his inauguration
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on April 24 2005 until his resignation in 2013, for a total of eight years. During that papacy Pope Benedict was responsible for writing three Encyclicals; Deus Caritas Est (On Christian Love) on December 25, 2005, Spe Salvi (Saved by Hope) November 30, 2007, and Lastly Caritas in Veritate (God is Love) on June 29 2009. Deus Caritas Est, expresses the heart and value of the Christian faith. This Encyclical is made up of two parts. The 1st part shows us the theological and philosophical meaning of “love” and then explains how God's love for humankind is the same as the love which humans have or should have for each other. The 2nd part however deals with how to express the commandment of love ones neighbor as you would love yourself. Spe Salvi, this letter shows how we can grow and be educated in hope through prayer, action and sometimes even suffering. Benedict very descriptively explains what this idea of hope truly is and what it is truly not. Deus Caritas Est, expresses two key points. 1st one, is the unity of love in creation and in salvation history and the 2nd one is the practice of love by the church as what we call “a community of love”. Pope Benedict’s legacy isn’t just about how much humility or tenderness there was to such a man but perhaps that he was considered such a transitional pope. The reason for this was that he cleared our minds and showed us that even through hardships the only future ahead of us is that of God’s and the following in his footsteps. The work that he had done proved just how pivotal it was towards the future of the Church. His Encyclical letters didn’t just help Christians understand what certain virtues and beliefs meant but he helped us understand the why of the virtues or beliefs which common Christians knew about hope, charity, and love. Benedict was also well known for his resignation since he was the first ever pope to resign since the middle ages. His resignation showed us that he knew when it was time for him to step down as leader not only because of his own personal reasons but because he knew it would be best for the church itself. Not many people in modern times have influenced the Catholic Church as deeply or as long as Pope Benedict XVI has.
Benedict was a theologian at the Second Vatican Council in 1962-65, he served as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 to 2005, he was recognized as an exceptional spiritual leader during his papacy, and had a key role in determining how the Church would view itself and interact with society. Benedict wrote hundreds of titles, including books, articles and essays. Pope Benedict writes from the heart, from a deep and meaningful relationship with all three Persons of the Holy Trinity. His prose is clear, concise and easy to understand. Catholics who desire to deepen their faith can choose from a vast variety of topics covered in depth by the Holy Father. As Benedict XVI, he brought this experience into the papacy, steadfastly holding to and teaching the truths of the Catholic faith. He sees Christ as the source of revelation in the Church, and the Church as the Body of Christ. Through his on writing benedict was able to even clear up what all three persons were and how they all came to as
one. Pope Benedict XVI was truly an aspiring and life changing pope during his reign. Regardless of his condition and reason for his resignation he was able to unify the church, alter it for it to be in a better state and also continue to lead its followers towards the right path. Benedict XVI has been one of the world’s biggest religious leaders and made sure to leave his mark on the church as pope. Through his efforts and views on social aspects as well as through his theological beliefs and practices he made the religious world see hope, charity, love and many other beliefs in a completely different way more fitted for those who didn’t truly understand Gods message. Pope Benedict XVI’s impact on the world still carries on today.
He started off as Joseph Ratzinger, a kid from Germany who unwillingly served in the Nazi army and ended as Pope Emeritus Benedict, one of the most beloved Popes of all time. His life was a roller coaster, however it has now calmed down. He continues to spend his final days in the Vatican monastery where he continues to pray and follow in the footsteps of Christ while he waits for inevitable the time when he will join Jesus Christ in heaven.
In conclusion, the church is appointed and maintained divinely body of regenerated believers who sustain the true doctrine of God, humanity, Scripture, Jesus Christ, and salvation which are absolutely non-negotiable.
In the eyes of the people the church is one place you are spared from judgment and critique. It is the one place you should feel safe, to express your thoughts and opinions, pray to the higher power in which you believe and your faith resides and be free of society qualms, demands, and realism. In a part
Before he was Pope Francis, he was just another normal person. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on December 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His parents are Mario Jose Bergoglio and Regina Maria Sivori, and he is the eldest of five. His childhood was not a privileged one financially, but instead it was spiritually secure. When he was older, he had a job in a chemistry lab where his boss, taught
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.
This topic is very important to the type of place we live in now. I chose this topic to see how and why these popes have changed the church to fit the modern society. Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II had different impacts on the church today. Pope John XXIII impacted the church in modern society after he died with the assembly of Vatican II. Pope John Paul II went out into the world to change and embrace it. He had a direct impact on the world by going out into the world. Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII were both very good at what they did and both had different ways of doing it. Both were great leaders and had to follow Lowney’s Four Pillars of Leadership in order to become as good of a leader as they were. The Four Pillars are: Understanding one’s strengths, weaknesses, values and world view, Confidently innovating and adapting to embrace a changing world, Engaging others in a positive, loving attitude, and Energizing oneself and others with heroic ambition. It is these Pillars that separate a good leader from a great one. In the essay I will cover their back round,
There are many things Saint Benedict says that I do not agree with. He uses unauthorized violence, contradicts himself and the Bible, and gives the abbot too much power. Although he means well, you cannot place your own desires and wants above God’s. God is the one with the final say, even if we do not agree with him. God knows what is best, and if Saint Benedict understood this, he would
The church because of its governmental power was able to do many more things in the Middle Ages than are currently possible, today the churches in the United States are not able to control any part of our government as stated by the constitution as a separation of church and state. The Catholic C...
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.-
“We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.” Said by St. Pope John Paul II during one of his World Youth Day homilies this quote perfectly represents the man that St. Pope John Paul II was: a bold, forgiving, selfless, and loving man. Born on May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland; John Paul II suffered a number of tragedies in the early years of his life. By the age of the twenty he lost all of his immediate family, and he credits the death of his father as the point in his life when he heard the call to live a life of religious vocation. In 1939, about one year after John Paul enrolled in The Krawkow Jaggelonian University, the Nazi closed the school and to avoid deportation to Germany all able men had to work. From 1940 to 1941 his holiness did various jobs, but it was during this time period that he was seriously contemplating priesthood. In 1942 John Paul II started studying at the underground seminary run by the Archbishop of Krakow, and during this time he was hit by a truck and recovered in matter of two weeks. To him this was a confirmation of his vocation. Once the war was finished the future pope was ordained priest and was then sent to Rome for further studies. After a two year time period in Rome, His Holy Father received his doctorate in theology and returned to Poland. After serving in several parishes and becoming a well-known religious face in Poland, St. John Paul II became the bishop of Ombi. During the six year time period that his holiness was the Bishop of Ombi, he achieved one of his life’s major accomplishments: he became one of the leading thinkers on the Vatican II council. While he was one the Vatican II co...
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...
The doctrine of the church is ecclesiology, which comes from the greek word church - human beings who are like Christ. This doctrine is a doctrine for the universal church. We sometimes enter a singular way of talking about our culture when the bible speaks in plurality. Ecclesiology gives us the basis of our belief and marks of the church which gives us clarity of what it means to be “one holy catholic and apostolic.” The church bears four marks: Unity, Holiness, Catholicity, and Apostolicity. These four marks are the truth about the church. We must act in Unity because the church is one, 1 Corinthians 12:12 say “Just as the body is one and as many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” The Holiness is a inheritance given to us by Christ. However we can not achieve that alone. As we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, He actualizes that for us. Catholicity is the universality and wholeness the church, making room for people to enter the body of Christ. Lastly is apostolicity which is about the authority and truth, and the authority of the apostles is in their eyewitness testimony of Jesus (2 Peter 1:16). The church teaches about the apostles truth that is true to the gospel of Jesus
The Beginnings of the Church Saint Benedict Of Nursia Italian saint and theologian. Introduction: Saint Benedict (c. 480 - died c. 547) was a founder of Christian monastic communities, considered the father of Western Monarchism, and a ruler for monks living in that community. He was considered very kind and had a passion for worshiping God.
One of the most popular poets during the Enlightenment period was Alexander Pope. He wrote many of his poems based on satires and themes of philosophy that explored the purpose for reason. Alexander Pope was born on May 21, 1688, to Alexander and Edith Pope in London, England. His father was a wealthy linen merchant that was Catholic, this caused problems as soon as Pope was born because a Protestant was throned, making it illegal for people of the Catholic religion to hold office, practice their religion, or attend public schools (Poetry Foundation). This would cause problems for Pope’s publicity in his future career as a poet. Because of the discernment of his religion, Pope grew up in Windsor Forest, mostly self-taught, but also taught by private tutors and priests already writing poetry in his teenage years. His life was not only looked down upon because of his self-taught education and his unfavorable religion, but also
What is the church? This can be a very deep question, or a rather simple one depending on one’s context, theology, and general understanding of Scripture and faith. From my personal experience, most members of the congregations I grew up in if asked this question would point to the church building or sanctuary. This is not that surprising in my opinion when we consider the gorgeous monuments we have built as houses for God. As a child, I would have answered the exact same way as most people in a congregation, and it was not until later in my adulthood that I came to understand “the church” not as a physical building, but as much more. A very common response to this question has been that the church is “the people of God” or even “God’s chosen people.” I, however, prefer the definition of the church as “the community of Christian faith,” a much more inclusive definition than the previous mentioned definitions.