Archive for the 'Catholic' Category
This is my opinion, and I am a practicing Catholic who is beginning to feel some rage against the hierarchy in the Vatican. Their handling of this scandal has been unbelievably arrogant and self destructive. If they would just admit wrongdoing and move forth with the healing process, things would get better. Membership will fall enormously if they continue to be so self righteous.
Because they ARE out of touch. They are hoping to ride above the brouhaha on a cloud of sanctity and shocked unawareness, letting underlings take the brunt of the blows. They are afraid that by admitting their mistakes they will lose power and prestige. They hope that by bluffing their way through the scandal, they can hold onto the majority of Catholics while the scandals fade into history. The only way to change that is to keep the pressure on and not forget. They’re human. They will change if they see they have no other viable option. But it’s still a long way from "princes of the Church" to "serving the least".
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April 09 2010 | Catholic | 22 Comments »
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 »
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 »
Well, I’m not catholic, but there’s a college where I really want to attend.
I’ve already applied the application form last November, but the thing is that today I discovered that
catholic students have more chances of getting a place than non catholic.
The college is called Loreto which is in Manchester.
Anyone can help?
Thank you for your support?
well. it depends on how strict the college is…im an indian hindu and i go to an originally christian school in London. however it is multi ethnic, as there are staff and students from hundreds upon hundreds of different types of countries and areas. For example, there are people from uganda, kenya, australia, bulgaria, ireland and so on – however it isnt an international school.
i dont quite know about manchester, but in london, most schools are multi ethnic. casual racism occurs, but its all funny and in good order….most of the time ^^
also, it depends how good of a student you are – if you are as good as a catholic geeza, then he might go through – however if your better behaved and hard working, then you have a good chance of getting through – so dont worry mate, keep your hopes up n i hope you get in 
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February 26 2010 | Catholic | 1 Comment »
Hi… My mother in law to be wants us to go through with a catholic church wedding since she is catholic. I am not catholic but I am considering her options. What are my options in counseling and how long do they all last? I live in the state of Missouri and would like to know. Thank you.
First of all you need to be baptized, second you need to be confirmed, the Pre Cana classes in my state are one day for 8 hours and are mandatory for wanted to be married in the Catholic church, and they must be done at least 6 months before the wedding. Good luck!
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February 18 2010 | Catholic | 2 Comments »
And if this is the case, are Catholic Christians concerned about this change?
Were they ever not?
The public in general has become more individualistic, which drifts them further apart vis-a-vis Catholic Church politics.
It’s just a question of perception: The current pope already had a conservative reputation as "John Paul’s Rottweiler" before he became pope; Benedict also spoke out against secularism, the growth of Islam in Europe, is seeking to reinstate an ultraconservative (and Holocaust denying) bishop, as well as put "Hitler’s Pope" on the path to sainthood.
Now, JP 2 probably was just as conservative theologically and politically as Benedict, but he wasn’t as controversial at doing so.
The Church’s politics used to be about firm anticommunism, which wasn’t so controversial because Americans feared Left Communism too.
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February 16 2010 | Catholic | 13 Comments »
Africa has been the biggest area of new recruits to the catholic church, around 50% have aids which could be prevented using condoms yet the pope will still not allow it. Why would god allow this or want this?
Because they think that there’s a magical being living in the sky who might want to give people a baby, whether or not they’re starving or have AIDS, and they think that we shouldn’t interfere with that magical being’s decision to give a person a baby. (Even if that baby is going to die of starvation or AIDS in six months.)
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February 14 2010 | Catholic | 23 Comments »
I am currently in RCIA classes and they gave me a Catholic bible recently which has the Apocrypha. I have heard that it is a contradicting set of books. What is the Catholic Defense for it? Since I can’t seem to wait long until next Sunday.
First of all you need to understand that the books called apocrypha by Protestants are not really apocrypha . That is a pejorative term given to the books by the Protestants. the true Apocrypha books were never a part of the Bible and were banned by Pope St. Gelasius in the fifth century. The correct name are the Deuterocanonical books. Here is the correct history of the Scriptures:
In first century Jerusalem there were at least four OT Canons in use by different Jewish Groups. There was the Canon of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Ethiopian Jews and the Diaspora/Essene Jews. Jesus and the disciples used the Septuagint which was the Canon of the Diaspora/Essenes. We know this because it is quoted in the New Testament. This Canon continued to be the Canon of Christians until after the Reformation and, in fact until about 200 years ago when the Protestants adopted a condensed version of the Canon eliminating the Deuterocanonicals from their Bibles. Even the AKJ originally contained the complete Christian Canon. It has been said by critics of Christ’s Church that the Deuterocanonicals were never believed to be inspired and just the opposite is true. The decision by Christians as to which books are inspired and useful for teaching was decided at the African Synods in the late fourth and early fifth century. There was never a question about their inspiration.
The OT Canon chosen by the Protestants is actually a Jewish Canon not chosen by the Jews until after the establishment of Christianity as a result of the spread of Christianity to slow the growth of the new group in Jerusalem after the fall of the Temple in 70AD. Until then as I said previously there were many Canons in use. The adoption of the Canon missing the Deuterocanonicals united the Jews against the Christians was decided in the Jewish Council of Jamnia because the Deuterocanonicals referred too strongly to the Messiah fulfilled in Christ.
Some Protestants will claim that only the Jews have the authority to choose Canon but the Church deferred that decision to Christ and the disciples and it is clear through biblical research, that the Septuagint is the Bible used by the first century Church and quoted in the NT Scriptures. The fact that Protestants choose to adopt the Canon that was approved by the same Jews that accused our Lord that resulted in His crucifixion suggests the source of this confusion as from the father of lies who led the Pharisees to accuse Christ and petition for His punishment. It is another way that Satan divides the body of Christ and separates the faithful denying Christ’s prayer that we all be one in Christ through His Church. The Christian Church has always used the Septuagint as Canon and never the truncated version of modernist Protestants.
Some Protestants erroneously believe that Catholics added to the Bible with the Deuterocanonicals but this shows an ignorance of their own history and the history of Christianity as witnessed by Christ’s Church. The facts are that the Protestants removed the Deuterocanonicals and even considered strongly to remove some of the NT books currently in use by Protestants and Catholics. Fr. Martin Luther was in favor of removing the book of James because it conflicted with His heretical man made doctrines of the “Solas”, Sola Scriptura and Sola Fide. The heretic Ulrich Zwingli wanted to remove the Gospel of John because of its teaching of the commandment to Eat Christ’s Body and drink His Blood which contradicted his view of a real absence of Christ instead of a real presence in the Eucharist. Even Fr. Martin Luther could not endorse such a departure from Scriptures and deny that Christ is truly and really present in the Eucharist in Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
In Christ
Fr. Joseph
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February 07 2010 | Catholic | 11 Comments »
The Bible states that little baby Jesus died on the cross for our sins. However, it also says that this evil act was committed by the Romans, who owned Bethlehem and the surrounding area at that time.
So why, when the Romans were finally defeated, did the Catholic Church decide to move and base itself in Rome?
Is this the ultimate demonstration of Christian forgiveness or did they just make a mistake?
Also, does anyone know when the Catholics actually left Bethlehem and move to Rome?
Jesus was 33 years of age when He was sacrificed on the cross to attone for the sins of humanity.
St. Peter was appointed by Jesus to be the leader of the disciples and shortly after the Church was formed in 33 AD he moved his bishopric to Rome after establishing the Church of Antioch. This was long before the fall of Rome by many centuries. Most Romans were eventually converted to Catholic Christianity. God bless!
In Christ
Fr. Joseph
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February 03 2010 | Catholic | 18 Comments »
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