understanding catholic christianity

can someone tell me what activity 6 on pg 70 is? I forgot my book at school and need to know what activity to do!!!

6
Recall a time when you felt "lost in the desert," wandering around not knowing what to do about some problem, making mistakes and going through hardships. Write a one-page reflection on what you leaned from the experience.

2009-10-14 17:56:32 by Varg Vikernes

www.catholictelevision.org An excerpt from the Catholic television program #39;The One True Faith#39;. Watch more on http An oft-asked question ...

It seems many Christians when writing about Christianity, and just in the general mindset leave out the fact that the Roman Catholic Church was practically the only Christianity there was for over 1500 years or so at least the dominant form throughout practically the world. Protestant Christianity is a relatively recent invention in the scope of World History (400 years or so). The Roman Catholic Church is still the largest Christian denomination representing almost half of all the world's Christians, and largest religious body in the world.

Perhaps since I am from the US this is mainly a mistake by Protestant Christians in the US?


I am a spiritual person, do not belong to any specific denomination or like organized religion but attend various services at times.
Just saying it seems they look at it like Protestant Christianity has somehow been around since the time of Christ.

You need to study your history books again.

You are repeating the Roman Catholic view of history which says they were the only church. That is false.

There were five equal Bishops or Patriarchs of the church in the 9th Century:

The Patriarch of Rome
The Patriarch of Constantinople
The Patriarch of Alexandria
The Patriarch of Antioch
The Patriarch of Jerusalem

The dude in Rome started excommunicating the others and they turned around and excommunicated him. This was the start of the split between what is now known as the Orthodox Churches.

When I was in high school and I took "Early World History", we learned about the Western Catholic Church and the Eastern Catholic Church.

Roman Catholics today want to pretend none of that exists anymore and it was only Rome.

And there have always been other groups of Christians not connected with any of the above five in places like the Far East and Africa.

Its prideful and boastful arrogance to say the Roman Catholic Church was the only church for 1,000 years.

Its not true. It was not true then. Its not true now.

The Roman Church became the most corrupt which is why reformers started coming along hundreds of years before Martin Luther.

We don't know much about many of them because they were all murdered by the church of Rome. Martin Luther's teaching spread like they did for two main reasons:

1. The printing press had been invented in German in 1440.

2. Martin Luther was from German, so when he began writing, German printers started printing and cirulating his teachings and most of those who were educated enough to read knew he was right and the Pope was wrong.

We have to remember that Pope Leo X was horribly corrupt.

How old was Leo when he became Pope?

How old was Leo when he became Cardinal?

How old was Leo when he died and why did he die?

So let's remember that in the year 800 AD, the dude in rome controlled about one fifth of the "organizaed church".

There were lots of churches in Africa which were not connected to any of the five patriarchates listed above.

There were also churches in the far East, including India and China.

Most of what we call the bad teachings from the church of rome had their start AFTER these 5 patriarchates started to excommunicate each other.

So the mistake isn't made by the non roman churches, its a deliberate attempt by Rome to re-write history to make their own organization seem the most prominant.

Pastor Art

2007-08-17 07:24:06 by advait0

Price: $12.99

Why are soooo many people posting questions asking for the differences between Catholicism and Christianity or why do catholics call themselves christian?

Is there some massive lack of understanding in America?
CJ, what do you mean 'they teach two different things'? I am talking about Christianity as a whole. This is my whole point!
CJ, I am talking about Christianity the religion, Catholicism being just a denomination of that.

Protestantism, Jehovahs Witness, Mormon, Quaker, all are just denominations of Christianity. Okay?

Folks, let us stay calm.
Adam C is right, there appears to be a lot of confusion around, but the matter is simple. There are many subgroups of Christians, because they progressively separated themselves from the single original Christian Church.

STAGE ONE:
After Jesus died, the Apostles formed one single Christian Church, which also called itself Catholic Church (which simply means "Universal Church"). And for 1000 years there was ONLY that Christian church. If you were Christian you were automatically Catholic. There was no Christian who was not also Catholic (except for some short-lived heresies). The two words were synonyms.

STAGE TWO:
In 1054, the Christians of the Byzanthine Empire separated themselves from the other Christians forming a second Christian Church. They claimed the Pope of Rome had betrayed the original Gospel, and they called themselves the Orthodoxs ("those who follow the straight/true law"). It became known as the Orthodox Schism ("the separation of the Orthodoxs").
So, from 1054 on, if you were Christian you could other be a Roman Catholic Christian or an Orthodox Christian. Only two types of Christians.

STAGE THREE
These two churches, result of the splitting of the former single original Christian=Catholic Church, were the only Christian churches up to the Protestant Reformation in the XVI century. From the XVI century on, many people have been separating themselves from the Catholic Church, and they say they are STILL Christians, but they do not recognize the authority of the Pope (plus many, many other serious doctrinal disagreements). And they called themselves Luterans, Calvinists, Zwinglians, Anglicans (in the XVI century), Baptists, Episcopalians, Evangelists, Mormons (later on) and many others.
The Catholics collectively labelled these other Christians as "Protestants": those who protested, those who rebelled the Pope, those who separated from us.
So, from the XVI century on, things are even more complicated: if you are Christian, you have to specify if you are Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or a follower of one of the countless Protestant Churches who were born after the XVI century.
Still, they all are Christians.

TODAY:
This is why today Christians are divided into many subgroups: Catholic are those Christians who never abandoned the original Church established by the Apostles, Orthodoxs are thoes who left Rome in 1054, Baptists/Luterans/Episcopalians and so on are those Christians who left the Roman Catholic church after 1500 because they thought it had betrayed the original teachings of Jesus.

I do not take sides. Everyone is free to choose their own religion. Catholics may be right in saying they never strayed from the first message of Jesus, Orthodoxs may be right in saying they are the closest to the original Christian religion, Protestants may be right in saying that the Roman Popes were the first to betray the true Gospel.

What I want to make clear here is just history, not religious ideas ;)
Contact me if you are interested in discussing history.

2009-02-01 09:26:45 by Adam C

Price: $13.00

I've seem so many YQ&A's that say that "the Catholic church invented christianity" or things to that extent. But christians were around before the Catholic church was founded.

Wouldn't it be fair to rephrase questions and answers to specify which christianity they're talking about? Especially if the answer or questions has to do with specific beliefs...

A Protestant Christian.
The biggest difference I'd say is that Protestants hold the Bible as the highest and final authority from God. Catholics have the pope as their final authority...they even say that the Pope is "God on earth". This IS a huge difference, for those who thing the two faiths are "similar".
Here's where I got my assumption that the Pope has ultimate authority:

882 The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, "is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful."402 "For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered."403 (from the Catholic Catequism)

I'm not wanting to attack the Catholic church as some suggested. I'm merely drawing a line of difference.

Yes, all Christians because we follow Christ.

a lot of people don't know that there is a difference between Protestants and Catholic churches (and there are difference between those churches as well)

and you are right about the fact that Christianity was around long before the Catholic Church.

I'm not sure why people think the catholic church started Christianity, maybe it's because Martin Luther's protestant movement start out with people breaking away from the Catholic Church.

Or maybe because before the Catholic church Christianity was still pretty small and it was the fact that Christianity was adopted by the Roman empire as it's official religion and spread it across Europe (and later the world) as catholicism.

2008-08-12 10:05:11 by Hello There

Serious comments only please. No cut and pastes: use your own brief words. YouTube links welcomed.

I have had trouble finding an answer through my usual means. My understanding is that we reject the idea the Angry Judging God (Father) was going to condemn the world to hell unless His Son took all the punishment/wrath so that we do not have to pick up the bill we couldn't pay: so now God can be happy with us.

This subject is a bit out of my area but here is a good discussion on the subject: http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.ph p?t=297310

With love in Christ.

2009-01-17 22:09:50 by Guido