Catholic Religion
...t the connection is to the mystical body, but at the same time, people outside the visible structures can achieve the same salvation. The Sacred Scripture, as envisioned by the Catholic Church, only comes to life when it is taught and spoken in accordance with the tradition are conducted by the pope. This is why religious confirmation, the Holy Eucharist of Holy Mass, the confession of sin, and the Last Rites of the Catholic Church at the time of death. The mission is not simply to preach the gospel to its existing members but to extend the word of God by way of introducing others to Catholicism in hopes of converting them to embrace the faith. It is that has sustained the Catholic Church for centuries, with the largest number of followers of any denomination of the Christian faith. The Catholics also believe that there are two different types of sins. The two sins are venial and mortal. The less serious sin is the venial. A venial sin is gossiping, cursing, bad temper, rudeness, and so on. A venial sin does not make us fall from the state of grace. On the other hand, mortal sins are more serious. Mortal sins have the ability of taking away the life of grace in the soul and lead us away from God. Examples of mortal sin are premarital sex, extreme anger, hate, divorce, adultery, and so on. For a sin to be mortal sin three conditions must be present, it must be a serious or grave matter, the one acting must clearly know it is a sin, and the one acting must freely choose to commit the sin. If any of these three conditions are missing the act is probably not a mortal sin (Greeley, 1990) When a person is in the state of mortal sin, they must take the mercy of Jesus in the Sacrament of Penance before receiving Holy Communion (Greeley, 1990), Today the Roman Catholic Church claims a membership of about 620 million worldwide. In the United States, there are about 50 million Roman Catholics, which is approximately one-fifth of the United States population. In Canada, the Catholics represent half the population. What disturbs other religions today is what the Catholics have added to scripture over the years, so that many Catholics can no longer see the teaching of God’s word in their faith (Carson, 1994). Once the Church made traditions equal in authority with God’s word, it had the freedom to add more and more traditions including such ideas that Mary was born without original sin, Mary lived a life of sinless, and that she was lifted into heaven that she did not die. In the eyes of Roman Catholics, Mary truly became the Mother of God, and the Mother of the Church (Carson, 1994). In Catholicism, there are three phases of the revelation of God to man from central tenets of Catholic beliefs. One phase is the natural revelation of God through reason, which means they are the interpreter of nature, and are the primordial grounds of the revelation of God. There is gratuity in the divine revelation in nature by the fact that man has reason by nature, he has the right to discover. The second phase is the supernatural revelation of God in Christ. For Catholics God is at once transcendent and immanent. His transcendence can not be affirmed independently of his immanence, and his immanence cannot be independently of his transcendence. The third phase is the revelation in the Church, which is that analogy of being. One of the most difficult areas of Catholic thought, in the theory of divine is fundamental to the historical debates over the problem of evil, predistihalism, divine knowledge, grace and free will. Catholicism is firmly committed to certain rational affirmations concerning man, his nature, origin, and destiny. Another thing that is difficult for some Catholics is to be a practicing Catholic. There are five things that must be followed to be a practicing Catholic they are you shall attend Mass on Sundays, confess your sins once a year, receive your creator in Holy Communion during Easter, observe the prescribed day of fast and abstinence, and provide material needs of the Church. Another challenge in the Catholic religion is the fact that most of the younger adults are having premarital sex, which is considered a mortal sin. Although there are many different Holidays in the Catholic religion, Easter is the most important one for them. The reason for Easter being the most important holiday is that the Resurrection of Christ is the heart and soul of the Roman Catholic religion. Easter is the day they celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. It is the day of rejoicing and celebrating. During this time, Catholics often give devotion to the divine mercy. There are many ways that we can compare and contrast the Catholic religion to the other religions in the world. I have chosen to compare the Catholic religion to the Buddha religion. The reason I have chosen to compare these two religions is that they both interested me when we were studying them in class. The Roman Catholics believe that there is only one God. God has revealed himself as three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is Creator and Lord of everything that exists. The Southern Buddhism believes in irrelevant and the Northern Buddhism believes in Buddhahood. The Roman Catholics believe that Jesus, the Christ, eternally one with God and incarnated supernaturally through the perpetual Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, the popes and church councils. The Buddha’s believe in Siddhartha Gautama, who became Buddha the Enlightened. The Roman Catholics believe that one divine person, eternal-fully human and divine. God’s love for humanity, full and final revelation of God and His Love. The Buddha’s believe a teacher who may possess Buddhahood or Enlightenment. The Roman Catholics believe Jesus was born, lived and died in a given time and place as a unique historical event. He lived a sinless life and willingly died on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. He is Lord and Savior, who will one day come again in glory and power. In the Buddha religion, they believe that Jesus was a great religious teacher whose teachings can be valuable today. The Roman Catholic accept the Bible as the inspired revelation of God. They also accept church tradi...