Roman Catholicism

Roman Catholicism traces its history all the back to the Apostle Peter, over two thousand years ago. The apostle, Peter, also known as Simon, organized and presided over the Church (Pilz 2001). According to the Scriptures, Matthew 16:13-19 Christ said to Peter: And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church." In 313 A.D. the Roman Empire legally recognized the Catholic religion, and in 380 A.D. it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. During the following 1,000 years, Catholics were the only people recognized as Christians. Any Christianity other than the Catholic Church was a heresy, not a denomination (ReligionFacts 2006).

In 1054 A.D., a formal split occurred between the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox (Fairchild 2006). The Catholic Church in the East, centered in Constantinople, and the Catholic Church in Rome argued over differences of language and theology. They eventually became locked in a power struggle. Rome's way of handling the problem was to excommunicate the Patriarch of Constantinople. In turn, they excommunicated Rome, thereby breaking off from the Roman rule. The rest of the Eastern churches followed suit and as a group, they became known as the Orthodox Church in Russia, Greece, the Ukraine, Romania, Turkey, and other parts of Eastern Europe (O'Gorman & Faulkner 308).

The next major division occurred in the 16th Century with the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation began when Martin Luther nailed the "95 Theses" to the door of the cathedral door in Wittenberg, Germany. The "95 Theses" was the 95 complaints against the Church. The differences at first were all political rather than religious. However, this quarrel went on to result in a permanent schism. The Protestant Reformation caused much of Germany and England to leave the Catholic Church. The result was that the Catholic Church lost its position as the primary religion, but also forced the Church to reform (O'Gorman & Faulkner 316.)

The pope called the Council of Trent in 1545 to 1563, bishops of the Church met to clarify doctrines and to pass reforms that would redirect the course of the Catholic Church for the next 400 years (O'Gorman & Faulkner 316.) The Council of Trent began the Counter-Reformation and differentiated between the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church from those of the Reformers. At the Council of Trent, they articulated Catholic doctrine on nature and grace, defined the seven sacraments, created the Index of Forbidden Books, prohibited the sale of indulgences, cracked down on simony, reformed the liturgy, and established seminaries for the education and formation of future priests (ReligiousMovements 2001).

The nineteenth century, the intense time of Catholic immigration, was a difficult time for the Church in Europe. The monarchies began to fall as governments changed into modern nations. The Church had to deal with how they were going to exist in the age of democracy and nation-states. Since the Council of Trent, the Church had lost more of its influences over the world of politics. The world had begun to look to science rather than religion for truth. The Church was protesting against what they called modernism (O'Gorman & Falkner 342). Modernism is a term defined in The Complete Idiots Guide to Catholicism as a term used to describe the fact that people had turned to the world rather than religion to solve their problems; they became self-sufficient.

In 1870, the next council meet, Vatican I, asserted the infallibility and primacy of the pope, declaring that the "infallible teachings of the people are irreformable, that is, not subject to consent of any higher ecclesiastical body or authority." (Pilz 2001). This further alienated the Church from a secular world that generally found such a position untenable.

Although Catholicism prospered, it remained separate from the mainstream. The Catholic Church built a parallel world in America. During the 1950s, a Catholic building boom exploded across America. In 1960, the Vatican II was called to take a serious look at the definition of the Church. The Vatican II brought drastic changes, such as; changes in liturgical language (from Latin to the vernacular) and reformulation of sacramental rituals; a new ecumenical openness toward other Christian churches; increased stress on the collective responsibility of bishops in the church's mission (collegiality); more acute concern for political and social issues, especially where moral questions are involved; attempts to adapt the Gospel to diverse cultural traditions; reform of priestly education; and partial acceptance of diversity in theology and local practices (Fahey). The Second Vatican Council retrieved an old biblical image, Church as "The People of God," a much more inclusive image - it speaks to community, and says we're all in the thing together (O'Gorman & Falkner 356).

Today, Roman Catholics make up the largest branch of Christianity. There are over one billion followers of Roman Catholicism worldwide. A large number of these followers live in Central and Southern