The Changes Brought On The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is the oldest major religion in the Western world. Littered with peace, love, and humility, along with violence, turmoil, and controversy this institution has seen, heard, led, and had influence over the majority of everything and everybody that there was in the last two millennia. This has included ordinary people, Kings, Queens, Generals, Nobleman, Royalty, and everything in between, and has endured since the beginning of the modern era, Anno Domini. They great spiritual and monetary machine created a powerful reign over the entire world’s Catholics, and remains so to this day. For the purpose of background for my visit to a Catholic Church, being Presbyterian, I did historical research before I visited. I

Despite the age of these systems, the Catholic Church continues to operate close to them, similar to when they were adopted. The misunderstanding and prejudice towards these systems cause many people to adopt anti-Catholic beliefs for contemporary issues in America. The democratic political system in America clashes with the hierarchical lineage that the Catholic Church possesses. The problem arises when anti-Catholics claim that Catholics are un-American because they follow a hierarchy, rather than the “American” system of democracy. The democratic system allows the people to vote for their leader to govern them, however, the Catholic leader, the Pope, is not chosen by the people of the Catholic Church. Un-American criticism continues with the debates and movements on Sexism and Feminism. As women’s roles are changed, the Catholic Church is keeping true to its origins by keeping the governing body, the priesthood, bishops, Cardinals, and the Pope, a completely male role. The Church is criticized by many as being sexist and by that, un-American, for not allowing ordination for women. “Many Americans / view the church’s ban on women’s ordination largely in terms of democratic principles, or ‘rights’ and representation’” (Martin). Anti-Catholics throw up these accusations of sexism without contemplating the true role of women in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis said in an interview “’Look, in the Church women are more important than men, because the church is a woman / The Church is the bride of Jesus Christ. And the Madonna is more important that popes and bishops and priests’” (Ruiz). This governing structure, as well as other beliefs of the Catholic Church, seem confusing or silly to post-enlightenment ideas. As human philosophy has developed after the Enlightenment, the Church has kept the doctrine the same. This has not caused the anti-Catholic community to criticize

The protestant Reformation was the breakdown of authority and power of the catholic church. This happened because the people started to realize that some of the stuff the church was doing was not good.Martin Luther was one of the leaders in the reformation.Before that he was a monk and a priest.

The church has changed significantly across the years. Different pope’s and era’s of the church and its history show how far it has advanced since its beginnings. These changes has helped it become more open to all kinds of people and cultures. I believe this gives hope to the catholic church’s faithful as the history of the pope’s and the church show that it’s willing to be more open to the people that follow the religion that goes with it.

A 54-year-old Catholic woman stated in an interview conducted on the topic of the modernization of the church insightfully noted that Vatican II allowed for “practical changes,” like “ music and singing, and women allowed into upfront roles as readers, lectors, and Eucharistic ministers, as well as altar servers in some places.” Vatican II “aimed to produce a different experience of the mass,” but also set out to reposition the church in a relative relationship with the modern world (Mathis).

In an age filled with war and political instability, the Roman Catholic Church served as a way to unify members of Europe during the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages was a time of low literacy rates. The Roman Catholic Church allowed members of medieval society (both literate and illiterate) an understanding of how the world worked. Although political leaders had only great local power, the Church was recognized as the most powerful institution, as its power covered all of Europe. The Roman Catholic Church was able to touch everyone’s life, no matter their class or ranking. In a time of darkness and suffering, The Church gave everyone a sense of belonging and place in the world. During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church stood as the central

Marco Polo was born in 1254 Venice, Italy to a merchant family(Biography.com). His childhood was mostly spent parentless because his father was away trading. His father had been to Asia before, but Europe still wanted a faster trade route. His first journey was nearly 4 years long, and he met the emperor of China After this Marco took over the family business.

There are many different denominations of Christianity in the world today including the Anglican Church, Orthodox Church, Catholicism, and Episcopal for example. Nonetheless, in the early 1500s, Catholicism was the predominant denomination. An argument that often comes up against the validity of Christianity is the actions of the Catholic church in the era prior to the Protestant Reformation. To quote Jesus Christ, “…build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18). Many will interpret this as a broken promise when you consider Catholicism the church, which easily fell into serious error. However, even prior to the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic church was not the only church. The Catholic

The Catholic Church was weakening, and facing criticism because some people felt that the clergy and the pope had become too political. The way the church was raised money was selling indulgences. Indulgences were taxes for the sin that you have done. Christians thought this idea was dumb and got really angry. Some people were fed up with this and became to get angry at the church. This was called the reform.

dom of Savoy. Francis was in a high-born family. Francis wanted to perform for God, even at a young age. His family wanted him to become involved in the government. He attended the University of Paris in 1580. He acquired his doctorate in law,

Before the church deliberates missiology we need to go back to the creation of all things because the glory of God is evident there. We must immediately fall back on the Holy Scriptures because they witness to God’s covenant and promises to humanity. It is a covenant that ranges from the formation of a people, Israel, temporary through the New Testament, with the coming of Jesus, to one day the complete manifestation of God’s Holy Spirit reaching to all nations and cultures. Thus we will go back in history reviewing the Medieval Church’s mission in contrast with the Anabaptist and its missiology.

The Catholic Church lost most of its power. After Martin Luther wrote his 95 thesis, the church started to unravel. Protestantism was gaining power and followers because it was more accepting and it incorporated humanism. New forms of Protestantism were created as well, like Calvinism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism. The Church needed to reform, but since the officials wanted money, they didn’t because they wanted the money from the selling of Indulgences. Eventually, the Council of Trent was formed, and after 18 years they finally came to a decision on how to reform. They decided to ban the selling of Indulgences and they took away perks for the officials. The church hoped that this would bring back their followers, but people were happy with

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on December 17, 1936 to an Italian immigrant who worked on the railroads and his wife, also of Italian descent. Jorge Mario Bergoglio had a master's degree in chemistry and philosophy and doctorate in theology. After training in a Jesuit seminary, Bergoglio became an ordained Catholic priest in 1969. In 1998, Bergoglio was named Archbishop of Buenos Aires and became well-known for traveling to city slums to work firsthand with the poor. On March 13, 2013 at the age of 76 Bergoglio was named the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church becoming the first non-European and the first Jesuit Priest to be named Pope. He chose Francis as his papal name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.

If I had the chance to meet with Pope Francis I would discuss with him the three things that I would change to make the church a better place. My first topic of change would be to allow women to be priests. I believe that if a woman is just as dedicated to God as a man is then she should be able to be a priest. I’ve never understood why only men can be priests. Yes, we call God ‘the father’ but we are unsure of his gender and yes, Jesus was a man but what does that have to do with anything. Just because Jesus was a man that doesn't mean that women should be excluded from priesthood. The church seems to be very focused on gender and what men and women can and cannot do, which raises another thing that could change in the church. Gay Marriage.

Pope Francis’ ongoing journey as the head of the Roman Catholic Church has been unforeseen. In this time of significant change in social standards, the Catholic Church has also progressed forward as seen by the decision in electing its most recent head, Pope Francis. Pope Francis’ unique background, approach, and positions on issues has renewed the standards and redundancies of his title and thus distinguishes him from past popes.