The Key Teachings From The Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic church was very important during the Middle Ages. It served many purposes and thrived during this time. The church ended up creating a whole system of paid indulgences. (Source D) Pope Urban II, was the head of the Catholic church from 1088-99.

Catholicism: A Very Short Introduction written by Gerald O’Collins is a short read that gives an insight to the Catholic church without getting confusing to the reader. It touches on the basics of Catholicism such as the history, practices, and core beliefs. Through each chapter Gerald O’Collins a research professor in the field of Theology at St. Mary’s University College and Twickenham, as well as formally Dean in Gregorian University for the faculty of Theology, shares his knowledge on the Catholic religion one question at a time.

Machiavelli’s thoughts on government, and his ideals are very well known through the Prince. Machiavelli’s political thoughts are substantial in the fact that it involves a transformation of the concept of citizenship in relation to liberty and republican government. By comparing principles of the humanist approach to governing in the Prince to divine authority and catholic dogma, clearly a distinction can be made.

Christianity is a religion that provides adherents with the ability to fulfill their relationship with God every day. However not all Christians exercise this covenantal relationship the same way or act out the principal beliefs to the same extent. Different denominations represent their beliefs - the foundations for their lived expression - in different manners. Some of the Christian principal beliefs include, Revelation, Salvation, the Trinity, and the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. It is through environmental ethics and ethical teachings, and the practice of baptism that adherents are able to connect to their one God and attain a healthy relationship with God to a certain extent.

The principles of Catholic Social Teaching have been used as a guide to making responses to social problems ever since the principles were developed in 1891. The following three principles are the most relevant to the refugee crisis.

“Catholic social teaching believes that human beings, created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27), have by their very existence an inherent value, worth, and distinction”.

In my youth, I never enjoyed going to church. I found it to be a tedious waste of time, so in an attempt to get out of it, I said I didn’t believe in it and claimed to be an atheist. My parents, of course, either didn’t believe me or simply didn’t care and continued to force me to attend mass every Sunday. In a last ditch effort to procure one extra hour of fun a week, I decided to do a little research into why Catholicism was “wrong” so I would sound more believable and my parents would take my claim seriously. In my innocent quest for ways to disprove an entire religion, I found a lot of lies, a lot of opinion, and absolutely no definitive answers. At first I was completely befuddled by the swamp of lengthy bible passages that could be interpreted

Life is a precious gift that anyone should appreciate. The irony of life is that a person never knows when it is his/her last day. Solomon

The way of life can be broken down into nine principles govern by the Catholic Social Thought (CST), covering all five aspects of humanity. The aspects include; social, spiritual, personal, economic and political, all five create a holistic approach to optimize a sense of humanity for self and the community. The nine principles of CST are as follows:

God equips us with Spiritual gifts, a heart, abilities, personality and experiences to help others. “Each one should use whatever gift he’s received to serve others.” 1 Peter 4:10

Despite the fact, that one could argue that the Catholic Church has become more progressive overtime. Pre-1960s, the church thought very linearly; you are with us, supporting the divine law or against us, refusing it. However, times have changed and the Church see that things are not so black and white; there is a grey area. However, even though that may be true, the Catholic Church has always, and will always proclaim that are the superior. In all aspects of life, people want to be a part of the best things—this especially applies to religion. With this in mind, if one carefully examines some of the papal doctrines ranging from 1880-1995, they will find a trend. In each of these, encyclicals, during that one hundred plus time period, the Catholic Church

Representing the Jewish Faith in today’s society, it was fascinating to read in particular about the differences between two forms of Christianity. I used to think that Christianity was one religion, but it is fascinating to find out that it takes many forms and has many different belief systems, just like Judaism. While I do not necessarily “agree” or “conform” to either of the faiths, I feel that the if I am purely choosing a faith based on our previous learning, I would take the choice of favoring the Catholic Church’s belief system. The Catholic Church and Lutheranism proclaimed completely different views on the Pope’s power and authority, how Christians should view and concede to God’s treasures and the consequences of sins, and how individuals should practice the religion as a whole. While there are a number of vast differences between these two entities, a few in particular intrigued me, and led me to believe the Catholic Church is more realistic based on what we’ve learned so far in the course.

The Nicene Creed is a creed that is most widely used by the Catholic Church it is a creed that expresses the beliefs of the Catholic church’s profession of their faith. (What We Believe, 2017) I believe that this is the creed that Bono would use since he is of the Catholic Faith. The Apostle Creed is a creed that is mostly used by Christians the creed was never written by apostles it is the oldest creed for the Christian Church. The word catholic in the creed is not referencing the Catholic church it is referring to a universal church. (Associaltion, 2004)

There are going to be times in our lives when we disagree with what someone says or another person’s opinions on a particular matter. It’s unlikely that we will agree and be content with everything that happens in our lives as we do not live in a utopian world. It is also inevitable at one time or another that we will disagree with what the Church is teaching us especially when it comes to moral issues such as divorce, birth control, and abortion. This is called non-reception. When non-reception ensues in the Church, the teaching in question is ineffectively expressed or judged to be unbelievable by a large population of good, faithful Catholics (Kennedy).

The world has more than one billion Catholics and with the ever growing population, it will only get larger in number. To be a Catholic means to have complete faith in God and his divine grace. Having God's divine grace means to obey it and keep it holy as it was created by God and given to his people. The religion itself is based on this and the people take it very seriously. Catholics believe that all people are of good nature but when one commits a sin it not only hurts that one person but the people and the Church.