Roman Catholicism is often considered one of the most complex religions around the world. With an approximate number of 1.2 billion roman Catholics around the world, according to BBC’s website, this religion is definitely one of the biggest and most widely spread religions as of today. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, it has its own city-state: The Vatican. In this essay, we will talk about the global locations of this religion, the origins and history, even if much contested, the main tenets and beliefs, the deity of this religion, and finally the future of this religion. In this first part, we are going to be talking about the number of adherents around the world and how these numbers are allocated in different regions of the world.
With
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This religion was therefore universal and wanted to differentiate themselves from sects, which were accused by Catholics to have “pernicious doctrines" In this part, we will have a close look at the tenets and beliefs of Roman Catholicism.
First of all, it is important to acknowledge the basics of this religion: Roman Catholics believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, and refer to the Bible. Roman Catholics have a chief: The Pope. In 2016, the Pope is Pope Francis: leader of the worldwide Catholic Church, he is also the bishop of Rome.
The main tenets of Roman Catholicism come from the New Testament: and say that God entered the world through incarnation of his son, Christ, or Jesus of Nazareth. Roman Catholics also attach a high importance to baptism, Eucharistic traditions, marriage, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, to not cite all of them.
Through their lives, roman Catholics live with the strong belief that “we were all created through God’s image”: which means that we were all created for a reason, and differently for a reason as well.
The main belief revolves around the idea that we may all different but we are all equal in front of God’s eyes. Tolerance and love are two other main elements of
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A catholic is indeed supposed to grow with his religion, and catechism is supposed to guide and help a catholic through these important stages of life. This important element of Catholicism is considered, alongside universal prayers, the basis for main tenets and beliefs that this group of Catholics may have.
Next, we are going to talk about Roman Catholics’ deity.
Roman Catholics believe in one and only God, which of course holds a very important place in the religion. God and Mary, Jesus Christ’s mother, also known as the “immaculate conception”, are prayed for by Roman Catholics and looked upon. A few things of what they have done have become a part of our popular culture, such as celebrating Easter and Christmas. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, and Easter celebrates his resurrection. According to the Huffington Post, the Roman Catholic church is facing an ongoing challenge to keep their religion popular, notably as scandals keep emerging from the ground, putting at risk the Church’s credibility and
It is clearly evident that the five principal beliefs in Christianity, the divinity and humanity of Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus, the nature of God and the trinity, the revelation and salvation all deeply impact on and influence the lives of its adherents.
Here we must make an aside in regard to the U.S. Catholic culture in America is practically non-existent, except in attenuated form among such peoples as the Hispanos and Indians of Northern New Mexico, the Cajuns and Creoles of Louisiana and the other Gulf States, and the old English Catholic settlements of Maryland and Kentucky. Elsewhere the Faith was brought by immigrants, and its attendant culture has, like all imported ones in the States, veered between preservation and assimilation. This was exacerbated by the fact that Catholic leadership in the United States was early committed to a programme of cultural melding. In addition, this leadership was primarily Irish, a nationality which had been deprived of much of its native culture by centuries of Protestant Ascendancy. Hence it has been extremely difficult for Americans, even American Catholics, to understand or appreciate the Catholic thing (as Chesterton described it) in a cultural context. I am reminded of the astonishment of a classmateof mine (from a typical American Catholic High School) at seeing an anthology of Catholic poetry. This situation has been greatly accentuated in the past twenty years by the changes occurring after Vatican II.
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
Through the close study of two of the aspects shown in the diagram, their contributions allow Christianity to be considered a living religious tradition. The significant contributions of Pope John XXIII, during both his papal and Pre-papal life have had everlasting effects on not only Catholicism, but Christianity as a whole and lead to the sense of Christianity being a living religious tradition. His works include two Papal encyclicals, Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris, along with his work being Apostolic Delegate of Greece and Turkey. Moreover, The significant practice of Baptism has further contributed to Christian being considered a living religious tradition as it accounts for the premise of most Christian beliefs to be initiated, especially in terms of salvation and affirming the beliefs in the trinity and following the teachings of Jesus Christ.
US Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Complete Edition ed. N.p.: US. Catholic Church, n.d. Print.
Of course, as a Catholic, I am not opposed to the Church’s traditions, nor do I see them as inadequate. Since the Church is a human institution meant to represent the divine and is not divine itself, however, I feel that there must be room for improvement. For example, I recently became curious as to why women were still not allowed to become priests, so I decided to find out. I questioned two priests, my religion teacher, and numerous other practicing Catholics, and the best answer anyone could give me was, “That’s just the way we’ve always done it.” While traditions provide stability and unity within a group of people, to be unquestionably planted in tradition can restrict growth. How often do traditions that once held deep meaning fade to become mundane tasks too difficult to let go? Too often, I see the congregation of a church monotonously reciting the Lord’s prayer, a prayer which Catholics believe was spoken directly from the mouth of God, with little regard for its meaning, or singing a joyful song such as the “Alleluia” with a positively depressing expression. No fault lies within these traditions themselves, but only in the way we view them. The Church must remind its members of the purpose of every prayer, every symbol, and every law so that Catholics do not lose the meaning of their religion.
"Religions of the World: Numbers of Adherents; Growth Rates." ReligiousTolerance.org by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Web. 27 July 2010. .
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