Archive for March, 2010
With all of the drama in the Irish catholic priests and bishops, it leads me to wonder how the catholic(for lack of better words) "rank structure" works. Priests, Bishops, Cardinals… I don’t really understand how it all works and I am very curious. Anyways, thanks alot!
Pretty well.
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church looks like this.
1. God
2. The Church, the People of God love and serve the Lord
3. Deacons serve God and the People of God
4. Priests serve God, the People of God, and the deacons
5. Bishops serve God, the local Church (the diocese, the People of God, the deacons, and the priests)
6. The Pope serves God and the entire Church (the People of God, the deacons, the priests, and the bishops). This is why the Pope is called the servant of the servants of God.
Men who become Pope serve in lower and lower roles until they are the servants of everyone.
The hierarchy of ordained ministers in the Catholic Church mirrors how Jesus and the Apostles set up the original Christian Church. There are three levels of Holy Orders, Deacon, Priest, and Bishop.
Deacons serve the Church by assisting the bishop and priests in the celebration of the Eucharist, in the distribution of Holy Communion, in assisting at and blessing marriages, in the proclamation of the Gospel and preaching, in presiding over funerals, and in dedicating themselves to the various ministries of charity.
Priests serve the Church as co-workers of the bishops and can lead a parish. A special title for a priest is monsignor. Priests are called presbyters in the Bible.
Bishops are the Apostles of today. Each bishop serves the Church by leading a diocese which a group of parishes centered around a large city. Special types of bishop are archbishop, cardinal, and pope (who leads the whole Church).
For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt2sect2chpt3.shtml#iii
With love in Christ.
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March 30 2010 | Catholic | 10 Comments »
I know that Catholic is a branch in Christianity but there has to be a reason why they are separated?
What is that difference?
The 1st C Christian church was Catholic as noted by Ignatius of Antioch, 1st c. A.D:
"Where the Bishop is, there let the multitude be; even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church” (Greek: Katholicos Ekklesia).
Some people who want to deny the history of Christianity will say that the Catholic Church did not exist until the 4th C with Constantine. This is an error. It is true that Constantine’s Edict of Rome that allowed religious freedom that stopped the killings and persecution. By then the Catholic (Christian) church had grown very large.
There were four popes in the 1st C alone: Peter, Linus (mentioned in the Bible), Anacletus and Clement. The first 22 popes were martyred. By the time of Constantine, there had been 30 popes.
Constantine himself was baptized Arian, not Christian, but he allowed religious freedom. He died in 337 AD. About 380, Emperor Theodosius I named Christianity (the Catholic Church) the religion of the land.
The Catholic Church has remained in a continuous line for 2000 years since the time of Christ. There are no denominations, just one unified church under the pope. The Orthodox left the church in 1054 AD over an argument with the pope, but because they took the original bible, priesthood and sacraments with them, they have remained very similar to their Catholic mother church.
During the Protestant Reformation, they rejected the priesthood, sacraments and doctrine of 1600 years of Christianity and invented new doctrine that never existed before. They now number 20-30,000 different denominations. Their beliefs follow doctrine of men, not the bible. The Catholic Church kept to the biblical teachings. For example, the Reformation stated that you are saved by "faith alone." The Bible says, "you are not saved by faith alone." The Reformation stated "once-saved-always-saved" yet the Bible does not say this — in many verses it says that a believer can lose their faith.
Protestants like to refer to themselves as Christian, yet they are actually in rebellion against Christianity by the name "protestant." (See OT Numbers 16 for what happened to other children of God who rebelled against God’s teachings.)
I just answered another question on Catholic basics, if you are interested in more information:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Algxxk70pmvakBoy3JNlYWfsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20100314231606AAC6u33&show=7#profile-info-b2Ckfmvuaa
If you would like to learn about the early Catholic Church, read "the Early Church Fathers" (available at Amazon) which are the writings of the 1st & 2nd C disciplines. You will begin to see that they are describing what the Catholic Church is today.
God bless…
<)))><
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March 22 2010 | Catholic | 17 Comments »
Who is the believer?
How might these Christian teachings influence the actions of a believer?
zebronke: HAHA. crusades? witch burnings? lulz.
Wake up.
To answer your question. They won’t. Zebronke just proved it. Most christians know nothing about their own religion. They are just in it because someone told them to be.
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March 22 2010 | Christian | 4 Comments »
Media player is installed in my computer but I have no icon for it. Can anyone tell me just how to make an icon for it. Thank; you.
Find the program in the start menu. Look under all programs if it is not there when you first open the start menu. Right click on it and put the cursor on sent to. Left click create desktop shortcut. Hope this helps. Good Luck.
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March 22 2010 | Icon | 1 Comment »
Does this mean you took the time to investigate other religions, bibles, theories, science, history and then made an informed decision, you looked at everything in depth and then decided your bible is the one?
The absolute authority outside the many things that Jesus taught and did that were not written down are no longer available to us. We do not have the manuscripts written down by the writers. We have copies of copies of copies from the days before photo machines. A few Aramaic, probably the language written in. A lot of Greek, many of which are translations from other languages. I even heard that there are some in Armenian.
As with deciding about global warming, I read the popular literature, I mistrust the newspapers, and I read some formal presentations by scientists to Congress. I do not read original science published in journals because that doesn’t help me. I compare the scientific politics of global warming to plate tectonics. I rely on my judgment honed by an undergraduate education with alot of physics and chemistry and a great high school biology class.
So, I have parallel bibles. I have read the translation philosophies. I have read book reviews by knowledgeable people. I know what liberal protestants recommend. I know what is used in seminaries and colleges. I know of the fondness people have for the KJV. I have studied the history of Catholic Bibles in English.
Completely examined? no. Thoughtfully informed?I think I am.
Once you are past the Christianity of a child, in order to have an adult faith, or to make an informed rejection of Christianity, a sound knowledge of the Bible is required. There is alot of material out there, but with a good guide you won’t read so many duplicate articles and can stick to the well thought out ones and skip the dross.
Oh, one other safeguard, I don’t pick one. Three that are similar. NRSV, NAB, New Jerusalem Bible. I also have the Gospels and Psalms translated to a gender neutral English. And I have the Five Books of Moses translated by Robert Alter.
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March 18 2010 | Bible | 10 Comments »
I’m in Australia & would love to have a garden wedding, but would also like a GOP to perform the ceremony, due to my religion. Has anyone else that’s Greek Orthodox been married out of the church with an Orthodox priest?
Generally no. You’ll have to ask your priest.
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March 18 2010 | Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
I am catholic and my fiance is methodist. We are getting married in a non catholic church. And I didnt know if I could get it witnessed under the Catholic church.
He can witness it as a friend, but not as an official of the Church.
As a Catholic you should be married in a Catholic Church. The local bishop can permit a wedding in another church, or in another suitable place, for a sufficient reason. You need to talk to a priest to find out if you meet the criteria for the "sufficient reason."
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March 18 2010 | Catholic | 6 Comments »
What contribtutions did the Protestant and Catholic missionaries make to the Pacific Northwest? Which methods of missionary work were similar and which were different between Protestant and Catholic missionaries?
try to research about it at wikipedia encyclopedia.
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March 16 2010 | Protestant | 3 Comments »
My boyfriend is Russian Orthodox, and I am Catholic. We want to get married in the Catholic Church. What do we have to do for that to happen?
Relations between Russian Orthodox and other Catholics is just fine, and y’all are on the right track it seems to me, just by asking the question that you have. The Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch and ministers are in constant contact. So focus on the catholicness, and don’t get carried away with the areas of dogma that are slightly different. The Patriarch respects The Pope, The Pope respects the Patriarch. All will work out if you adopt the right attitude. Togetherness. Catholicness. Unity. That’s how you approach your question. And both expressions focus on unity even though they took separate paths 1,000 years ago; it isn’t like the 500-year-old divide between Protestants and Catholics, which is marked in the US by a certain grain of anti-Christlike competitiveness. With the right attitude, y’all are going to be just fine.
Some links below show the relationship between The Vatican and Russian Orthodox. Recall that some of the great visions of the Blessed Virgin are directly connected to the Russian peoples. Fatima for example, where God sent Our Lady to warn the world of the impending peril of Communism as it was being politically manipulated in Russia and China. Or more specifically, to the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan, a sacred image that inspires untold numbers of Russian Orthodox to pray to God and Jesus. Pope John Paul II compares the icon to the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico or Our Lady of Czestochowa in Poland. Once again, Christ has sent the Woman to bring us all together through faith and obedience to God the Father. Just as he inspired the writers of The Bible, another thing you two share. This is always the purpose of Mary or The Bible in Catholic faith or any other part of the Catholic vine, which Russian Orthodox is. Unlike so many nonbelievers, Russian Orthodox recognize the continued divine intervention the Kingdom of Heaven provides as part of The Way to bring us all to unity in Christ in preparation for His return. That is the purpose of Chistianity.
So with this knowledge revealed to you, and the seed of this "unity" attitude in your hearts, you need to ignore anyone who suggests that you ignore your respective churches, that it’s all up to you and you alone. That’s the path toward separation from others. Be wary of people who take that hedonistic path. It’s never about the individual. That’s a New Age corruption that’s prospering exceeding in Protestant divisions and so-called Evangalistics who now reject any label that conjoins them with any group of people. Instead, take your "unity" attitude to your respective churches/priests, and declare your intention to get married. Matrimony is an ancient sacrament of both of your expressions of Christianity, rooted of course in the Judaism. Respect one another’s traditions, focus on the similarities. And involve yourself in the community of the faithful. Never hide your faith under a bushel. You two are going to be a great inspiration to others — especially your children, if and when you have children.
Do you realize that y’all are LIVING the Word of God by seeking to reflect on the divisions between the two faith expressions and seeking to overcome them? That is exactly what the Patriarch and the Vatican would suggest you do. Y’all are exactly in step with Christ on that, so feel really good about that.
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March 14 2010 | Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
I have Windows 7 as an operating system. About a week ago the icon went away, and its really annoying to have to go through the start menu to change it. Any help?
Right-click on the taskbar and then go to Properties. Click on the Taskbar tab and then where it says, "Notification area," click on the "Customize" button. In the window that pops up, under the list of icons and their behaviors, click on where it says, "Turn system icons on or off." You can then turn the volume icon on.
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March 14 2010 | Icon | 1 Comment »
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