The Young Pope: Belardo's Blasphemy

In the past 65 years, many of the priests of the Catholic Church have been accused of being involved in a sex scandal. These scandals have greatly affected many things within the Church. The numerous accounts of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have had a negative impact, not only on the Catholic Church, but on religion in general. This crisis has caused many believers to leave the Church, Catholic Churches everywhere have had to pay billions of dollars, and Church attendance has gone down in numerous churches.

A typical athlete story can now be known as a riches to rags story. Though there are positive and there are also negatives effects to this. Star athletes make so much money that it makes people sick, meanwhile it is also sickening our athletes mentally. The professional sporting world is now turning into a money-hungry occupation. Along with this hunger for cash comes a solid incentive for productivity.

The rise of papacy in the Western Catholic Church is debatably the most corrupt and darkest time in Christianity. The collapse of the greatest and longest running empire in human history created an immense void in society which the church attempted to fill. The bishops of the roman churches who had previously been politicians were now in a position to usurp even more power. The power of the pope continued to rise even to the point of deposing and appointing the kings of Europe. The ramifications of the papacy on history are many.

The Pope called

In his essay, “The Pope Has Put Undue Political Spin on a Spiritual Message,” Michael Dougherty discussed how Pope Francis has crossed a line from spirituality to politics which violates the entire idea of the separation of religion and church. He began his essay discussing prior popes and their say on the topic of how the economy relates to the well being of the people. He discusses the "spiritual message" that being that, "there are no indisputable truths to guide our lives, and hence human freedom is limitless." Dougherty uses these example from credible sources in order to build an almost spiritual and positive tone; it causes the reader to agree on the subject. But, the next three paragraphs consist of a more negative and objective tone

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.

Excerpt D was taken from Chapter 5,the chapter about obedience, of the Rule. The Rule was written by Saint Benedict of Nursia for monks who were living in a communal setting underneath an abbot figure, a father head, of a monastery. The excerpt talks about general rules of obedience for the monks and Christians to follow to understand how they should spend most of their days in worship, work and study. From Saint Benedict’s book, Rule, revels how religion played an important part in early-medieval Europe.

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).

Present day with President Trump, Catholics again are ready to step in if President Trump does something similar as President Obama had done during his years in office. In actuality the Catholic Church isn’t stepping in to help the GOP from crumbling, they are aware of the

Clergy sexual abuse cases received significant media and public attention across the world, especially in the United States and Ireland. In 2004, the John Jay report stated a total of 4,392 priests and deacons against whom allegations of sexual abuse had been made. In response to the attention, members of the Church's hierarchy have contended that media coverage was excessive, disproportionate and unnecessary that such abuse takes place in other religions and institutions and not just the Roman Catholic Church (Butt, 2009).

The scene I found most significant in the Pope John Paul II movie was when Karol, aka Pope John Paul II’s name before he became a Pope, decided to become a priest. The reason being is because it was actually a huge change in his life. Deciding to become a priest affected many people in different ways, but specifically himself is what I’m talking here. There was so many things going on his life/ he had so much potential for many other things. But he ultimately chose to be a priest.

Originally, the Catholic Church had seen itself as an fortress against the modern world, with many Popes refusing to leave Vatican city. They believed that religious liberty as a human right and considered the modern world a horrible place to live. Pope John XXIII had realised that the world had changed too much in the past century, and the Church would need to change with it. He had wanted to change the Churches image to something that would understand and accept others.

The new heresies during the Renaissance involved criticism of the Catholic Church. John Wycliff attacked many Christian beliefs and practices. He maintained that the popes should give up their power and that only the Bible should be a Christian’s authority. John Hus criticised the clergy’s corruption and worldliness and called for reforms within the Catholic Church. Old heresies had to do with not following Christian doctrine, while the new heresies involve attacking the Church’s power. They were both punished harshly by the Church. The Church used the Inquisition to stamp out both types of heresies, but it had attempted to reform in response to the new heresies.

It is adjusting many of its ideas as civilization develops and removing many ideals that caused pain to many through history. Even though the Pope has no political power on each country, he has a big influence on what happens on the world. For example, recently, Saint Peter's Square welcomed people to be part of the Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home event where images were displayed warning against Climate Change to create consciousness of the endangered fauna and flora.

Nelson, Jeffrey A. (2009). "Sex Abuse in the American Catholic Church and the Attempt at Redemption". Communication & Theater Association of Minnesota. Summer: 37–51. "From a review of the New York Times, January 9 through April 18, 2002."