Roman Catholic Churchhds4less.Com Essay, Research Paper

The Roman Catholic Church is the single largest Christian body. Catholics are Christians who follow the pope in Rome in matters of faith. Jesus’ Church is called catholic because it is his gift to all people. The word catholic means “universal” and has been used to identify the church since its early period when it was the only Christian church. The Roman Catholic church is the

only Christian church that the descendants were appointed by Jesus

Christ on to the 12 apostles. The church was a good influence on the development of European culture and on the introduction of European values into other civilizations. At the head of the Roman Catholic church is the pope.

He has the final say in all matters. The bishop is the chief of the form

of worship.

Among all the Christian churches, only the Catholic Church has existed

since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from the unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were

established during the Reformation, which began in 1517. Most of to days Protestant churches are actually offshoots of the original Protestant offshoots. It is hard to separate the history of the Roman Catholic church from the history of Christianity.

The church Jesus established was known by its most common name The

Catholic Church, at least as early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that name to describe the one church Jesus founded. The name apparently was old in Ignatius’s time, which means it may go back to the time of the apostles. The church Jesus founded is apostolic because he appointed the

apostles to be the first leaders of the church, and their successors

were to be its future leaders. The apostles were the first bishops, since the first century, there has been an unbroken line of Catholic bishops faithfully handing on what the apostles taught the first Christians in Scripture and

oral Tradition.

The Catholic church has never changed the doctrines. Over the

centuries, as doctrines are examined more fully, the church comes to understand them more, but it never understands them to mean the opposite of what they once meant.

The first big change in Christian history was its spread of Palestine to the rest of the Mediterranean. In the first few decades of Jesus death in a short time Christianity had adopted the language and philosophical vocabulary of the Greco-Roman world to express its message, and it also adopted some of the practices of the Roman Empire. By the middle of the 2nd century the Christian bishop was clearly brought out. By the time of the 5th century pope Leo I, the bishop of Rome was claming and to some extent was demanding first rank of leadership over other churches.

Like other Christian churches, the Roman Catholic church accepts the

Bible as the basis of it’s teachings. The Eucharist is one of the seven sacraments , which are the most important symbolic rites by which the church nourishes its members. Catholics believe in the real present of

Christ in the Eucharist through the change of bread and wine into His

body and blood and to receive the Eucharist at every Mass in which they go to. The other sacraments are baptism, confirmation, penance, holy orders, matrimony, and the anointing of the sick. Sacred Tradition and the Bible are not different or competing revelations. They are two ways the Church hands on

the gospel. The church is the custodian of the Bible and must faithfully

and accurately proclaim its message, a task which God has empowered it to do. The church came before

the New Testament. Divinely inspired members of the church wrote the books the New Testament.

The early members of the church followed verbal tradition for almost 60

years before any of the New Testament was even written. The first members were convinced that Jesus was returning to them in there lifetime. They sold everything that they owned and lived almost a commune way of life.

Only the Catholic Church has existed in the tenth century, the fifth

century, and the first century. The line of popes can be traced back , in unbroken succession, to Peter himself ( one of the twelve apostles appointed by Jesus). The Catholic Church has existed for nearly 2,000 years, despite constant opposition from the world. The Catholic Church is today the most vigorous church in the world. For all those years the Catholic Church has

carried out this mission, preaching the good news that Christ died for all men and that he wants all of us to be members of his universal family. Today the Catholic Church is found in every country of the world.