Historical Perspectives - Roman Catholicism

As she attempts to interpret and implement the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church is reexamining her relationship with the world, other faiths, and fellow Christians.

In January 1959, Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) stunned the Church and the world when he called for an ecumenical council, ultimately called Vatican II and meeting 1962-1965. His goal was to see if the Church could update herself (using the Italian wordaggiornamento), engage fellow Christians, and work toward repairing other difficult relationships, such as the one the Church had with Judaism. He lived only to see the

Who Are The Founders of Roman Catholicism

Jesus' first apostles handed authority down in an apostolic succession that developed into a system of bishops, but the specific jurisdiction of Rome's bishop was initially unclear.

Jesus, of course, is the founder of Christianity, but he was not in the business of organizing an administrative bureaucracy. Christians date the birth of the Church to Pentecost, the feast celebrated ten days after Jesus' ascension into heaven, fifty days after the resurrection. Since the first Christians believed Jesus' second coming would occur any day, creating a structure was unnecessary. As time passed and the first apostles were dying before Jesus' return, they had to hand authority down to successors (apostolic succession) by praying and imposing hands over a person that the apostle and/or community recognized as a natural leader, who was

The Influences of Roman Catholic

Early Christianity drew on a variety of sources - Jewish ideas, Greek philosophy, Greek and Latin vocabulary - in an attempt to explain complex theological formulations.

The first task any new group needs to accomplish is to establish its identity, especially its self-identity; to do so, early Christians drew on an important Jewish notion of themselves as the people of God. The word laos first designated the new people of God in the line of Abraham, a nation, or Israel, all of which denote monotheists standing apart from the

The Beginning of Roman Catholic

What came to be called Roman Catholicism was born as the new Christian faith grounded in the teachings and passion of Jesus Christ, who lived in 1st-century Palestine under Roman occupation.

Christianity developed within what historians call a Jewish matrix: the context of Judaism in Palestine, a Roman province, in the 1st century C.E. Indeed, at first Christianity was so closely tied with Judaism that it is best to speak of a Jesus community comprised of Jews and Gentiles for several decades. Some scholars prefer to

Overview of Catholicism

Roman Catholicism is a worldwide religious tradition of some 1.1 billion members. It traces its history to Jesus of Nazareth, an itinerant preacher in the area around Jerusalem during the period of Roman occupation, in the late 20's of the common era. Its members congregate in a communion of churches headed by bishops, whose role originated with the disciples of Jesus. Over a period of some decades after Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, the bishops spread out across the world to form a "universal" (Greek "katholikos") church, with the bishop of Rome (originally Peter) holding primacy. The pope is the inheritor of Peter's role; today Vatican City--and specifically, Saint Peter's Basilica--stands over the grave of the disciple. Catholic Christianity began as a persecuted religious community, illegal in the Roman Empire in its earliest days, but within some three hundred years and with the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, it became a

Roman Catholicism Suffering and the Problem of Evil

Humans suffer as a result of sin and as a call to turn to God. Evil is the absence of good rather than having existence in itself.

Suffering and evil are distinct and yet interrelated concepts in Catholic thinking. Ultimately, the fall of humanity is the cause of all suffering. Humans were created to exist in harmony with God, but instead they chose the path of disobedience, which brought suffering and death into the world. Catholics believe that while humans have the free choice to disobey, they can never find true joy and peace except in harmony with and obedience to God. As St. Augustine says so eloquently in his Confessions, "Our hearts find no rest until they rest in You."

In the Catholic view, human action is not the only cause of suffering: while God as the source of all goodness can never act in a manner that is evil, God may send suffering to open the hearts of those who have refused to hear God's call. In their pride and

God Is Always Taking Care Of Us

Since I was young, I can feel that God has been really helping us and guiding us in every move we make. There were times when we feel down and nothing to ask for help here on earth but I strongly believe that God is ready to make instruments to accommodate our needs. Allow me to tell all of my sweet and challenging experiences in my life with the guidance and a strange and unexplainable  phenomenon ever happened to me since I know God.

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Good Book:

Honoring God with My Life