chess online
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 Pope Steps DownNext is Peter the Roman . . . ostensibly the LAST pope . . . interesting times to be alive |
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Watch what will happen with this next pope: they will expand their theology off of this planet, officially. Embrace the space brothers. And a new gospel. The godless will find themselves quite chagrined when the aliens show up to save us from ourselves, preaching a New Age message, ostensibly from "god", and then what? |
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If you think I'm mistaken about the "space brothers" . . . watch. Lol. It's a spiritual battle my friend, and the forces of good and evil don't really care about your unbelief. It's irrelevant to them. |
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Catholics believe that they are the original Christian institution (bc we are.....heh...jk....but seriously.....not really......maybe.. ), along with Eastern Orthodox christians, depending on who you ask.....and all of the denominations that followed Catholocism are christians gone astray. Whereas these other denominations see things differently, of course. And naturally Catholics will never say that other denominations are lost christians but this is basically how it's viewed by the church, in my opinion. I do believe that the Roman Catholic Church is still the largest branch of Christianity, though I could be wrong about that........ |
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T RCC is the largest branch of Christianity for sure - no doubt about that. |
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chaz |
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chaz For the same reason that Jews are not Christians. |
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chaz And Tat's further point is also very good. |
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What are you asking? Or are you making statements? I can't tell. Have you been to the Vatican? |
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tat ... |
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Drawing parallels between the Papacy and the Queen of England, who is also the head of the protestant church of England, is an inflammatory thing to say to the majority of Catholics. |
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tat ... |
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There have been quite considerable moves by both the Vatican and the Church of England in recent times to minimize the differences, perhaps leading to a 'reformation' of the two at some point in the future. Personally I doubt it will happen, at least until such time as both Churches feel overwhelmingly threatened by another religion. Islam as the fastest growing religion the planet could actually force a coming together on a worldwide scale (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant). I wonder how the evangelical movements in the US would respond? |
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Changeling |
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tat I probably know as much (if not more) on that particular subject than you do! "... The Church of England was founded on an argument over marriage..." Perhaps you didn't understand this bit? itchy you are correct! |
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Changeling Also your suggestion or prediction that there would be any kind of "reformation" of the Catholic Church is really out in left field. |
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tat "...The Church of England was founded on an argument over marriage (sound familiar) among other things..." The argument was between Henry VIII and Clement VII because of Charles V of Spain (Catherine's nephew) who had invaded Italy and had Clement held prisoner. There was also a new alliance between England and France that Charles was against. I believe Catherine was 'too old' to bear the king a 'son' and he needed heirs to continue his line. "...There have been quite considerable moves by both the Vatican and the Church of England in recent times to minimize the differences, perhaps leading to a 'reformation' of the two at some point in the future. Personally I doubt it will happen, at least until such time as both Churches feel overwhelmingly threatened by another religion..." Notice I do not say the Catholic Church will be reformed, but perhaps 'both' Churches and that would take an enormous shift in Europe (which is beginning to happen with the migration of Islam). But read again "...Personally I doubt it will happen..." The differences between the Catholic Church and the Church of England (or Anglican if one prefers) is not so great as some might think. It doesn't take a giant leap of faith to wonder what will happen if/when England becomes a republic by disposing of the monarchy (Head of the Church of England). The 'religious' bodies within the two churches may well be more inclined to re-combine. Far fetched? Out of left field? Perhaps. |
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No offense to anyone but.. |
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Changeling Lets also not forget about Nazi Germany and Martin Luther, and Protestantism in general in Nazi Germany. Or the fact that Catholics were trucked off to the concentration camps like Jews while Protestants wore swastikas. The Catholic Church took offical positions on Nazi Germany, came out and publicly said what was wrong with the Nazis, and tried a variety of different tactics to slow, stop or control Hitler that involved diplomacy and paying off the Nazi's while smuggling jews, disabled people, catholics and other people targeted by the Nazi's out of Germany. While the Protestants were diplomatic with the Nazi's because they were legitimately nazi's. Let me make this very clear for you: Protestants rejected Catholicism. They rejected everything that is sacred and important to Catholics. Keep in mind that at the time, the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church were the very definition of Chrisitianity. That's what Chrisitianity was. But the Protestants changed everything while continuing to call themselves Christian and labeling their totally new, laissez-faire religion Christianity. They made changes equivalent to the differences between Catholics and Jews. This is NOT an argument or discussion about right or wrong beliefs. I want to be clear about that. This is a discussion about the differences between Catholics and Protestants. Of which there are many. But here are some of the primaries: 1. Protestants only recognize the Bible as sacred. Whereas Catholics have many sacred texts, including Eastern Orthodox text written in Greek. This is a big deal because much of Catholicism is based on text that Protestants rejected, and, Protestants totally reject any text written in Greek. Which means they completely alienated the Eastern Orthodox church. The Catholic church has quite a bit of sacred text because tradition, stories, a collective *experience* is all part of being Catholic. We do not have a narrow fundamentalist definition of what is sacred scripture because Catholicism is in no way narrow/simple or "fundamentalist". 2. Immaculate Conception is not explicitly discussed in the Bible. Therefore, everything that Catholics hold sacred about Mary, along with The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, is not found in Protestant beliefs. Martin Luther had a major identity crisis about this, because he couldn't handle the fact that he was degrading Mary's grace by altering his religion so much. Eventually the Catholic church, just a few years ago, agreed to some convaluted way to retain some kind of quasi-immaculate conception beliefs in Protestantism. What is notable about that is the fact that Protestants continue to seek approval from the Vatican for all kinds of things. 3. The entire foundation of the Protestant Reformation rested on Papacy rebellion. Whereas the entire foundation of Roman Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodox churches, rests on papal authority and that entire hierarchy and structure. 4. Confession is a central component of Roman Catholicism that is rejected it its entirety by Protestants. This is because confession is based on the authority extended to Catholic priests by the papacy, giving priests the power to remit sin. 5. Catholics have 7 sacraments that are very important. Whereas Protestants are all over the map and are totally inconsistent about sacraments. Which is another night and day difference between Catholics and Protestants because...... 6. Baptism, confirmation and the eucharist (holy communion) are necessary for christian initiation (in the roman catholic and easter orthodox churches). Baptism is the first sacrament of christian initiation, confirmation is the second and the eucharist (holy communion) is the third. Confirmation and the eucharist are similar to bar or bat mitzvah in Judaism in terms of age and what the milestone *means* in terms of that person's new role. 7. Holy communion in the Catholic church is ingesting the body and blood of christ in the form of wine and bread. This is extremely important to Catholics. A person must have already received the first and second christian sacraments in order to receive the eucharist (holy communion) for the first time. I stress, it is a BIG deal in the Catholic church. In protestant churches, "communion" is something called the Lords supper (from what I understand) and does not in any way have the same body and blood meaning. Also, I'm pretty sure that anyone can receive communion in a Protestant church. 8. Catholics believe that when people die their souls go into Purgatory, and then to heaven or hell. Protestants do not believe in Purgatory. 9. Saints are worshipped and sacred in the Roman Catholic Church, I really can't stress enough how important Saints are to Catholics. This is not the case in Protestant churches. Faith and spirituality is a collective community experience for Catholics. There are many requirements in the Catholic church, along with quite a few expectations. Catholics do not have the individual relationship with God that Protestant beliefs emphasize. It's not like Catholics do not pray, or do not have an "individual" connection with God, but it's different. The ultimate irony about Catholicism is that it's not strict at all. It actually IS strict, but the entire point of Catholicism is the expectation that people sin. The structure of the church is great because it fosters an environment where people are open an honest about what they feel guilty about, or how they have "sinned". Catholics have a "we're all in this together" attitude. The dynamic between the authoritarian hierarchy of the church and individual Catholics is sort of comparable to a child-parent relationship. The church is ALWAYS there for you, and will ALWAYS forgive you and remit your sins, despite having extremely high expecations and making you feel guilty about not meeting them. Nuns are good at laying on the guilt. Their mere presence makes anyone feel like a worthless loser. But this is the entire point. Authority, standards, expectations, tradition, expectations that one share information- no matter how bad it is......it's like the church knows everything wrong with humanity and is designed to help people cope with life. Protestants and Catholics believe that Jesus was the son of God and that he was crucified on a cross. They both believe the Bible is sacred. Beyond that......the similarities end. |
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"...This is NOT an argument or discussion about right or wrong beliefs. I want to be clear about that. This is a discussion about the differences between Catholics and Protestants. Of which there are many. But here are some of the primaries:..." No it isn't! |
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