Posted on 06/15/2015 2:33:34 PM PDT by NYer
“Is it Growing or is it Shrinking , make up your mind”
Our mind is made up: overall - in the world - the Church continues to grow. In the West, depending upon the nation, it is slowly growing, stagnant or declining.
Excuse me, but the eastern churches did not come “after” the western or Roman Catholic Church, and there were unorganized Christians from the beginning (akin to the underground Catholic Church upon the establishment of various Protestant Churches).
sure they did, and no, there weren't a lot of disorganized anything....there was the Catholic church which became known as Roman Catholic....the Eastern schism took place in the 11th century.....they're still Catholics of course, and will one day return to the fold.
Redmen4ever,
I’m not sure why you addressed that to me...
Best
The Catholic Church as a temporal organization was established by an emperor of Rome. Before the establishment of the Catholic Church, there were several communities of Christians, each of which claimed apostolic origin. The Armenian Church claims to have been founded by the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus. And, to claim that all Christians, many in underground churches, were made into Catholics by the decision of an emperor of Rome is completely preposterous.
Perhaps I should have linked to a post prior to yours.
“Another finding of the report is that Catholics are participating less in the Church as they grow older, as seen in sacramental participation rates.”
This seems a bit strange and counterintuitive. I wonder why it is.
There is a correlation between a rich society (U.S. As compared to the third world) and religion. Christian religion has been leaving Europe and is leaving much of North America, especially the left coast and the North East and to a lesser extent the coastal southeast.
Nature abhors a vacuum....and the Islamics are picking up converts.
We are in a world of trouble
>>>Nature abhors a vacuum....and the Islamics are picking up converts.
Per a stat I read somewhere, don’t 75% of the converts leave islam after 2 years?
Nope, with Peter, Linus Anacletus, Clemens, Everistus, Alexander I, Sistux I, Telesphorous as the first 8 Popes, the Catholic church was well on it's way and continues, unbroken, to this day...amazing, isn't it????
laziness and lack of Catholic education....PATHETIC
Not if they like their heads, they don't!!!
>Nope, with Peter, Linus Anacletus, Clemens, Everistus, Alexander I, Sistux I, Telesphorous as the first 8 Popes, the Catholic church was well on it’s way and continues, unbroken, to this day...amazing, isn’t it????
The longevity of the Catholic Church is indeed amazing. With regard to the Popes you named, none of them proclaimed themselves to be infallible. The Doctrine of Papal Infallibility was only formalized in the 19th Century, although there were precedents. By the middle ages, a Pope decreed:
“the Roman church has never erred; nor will it err to all eternity, the Scripture bearing witness”
Notice that even in this statement, it is not asserted that the Pope is infallible. Only that the Roman church is. We have witnessed that Pope John Paul II apologized for the sins of the members of the church, including past Popes. This is a dance on a pinhead. The Pope is infallible in matters of faith and morals it is said, but he doesn’t know where his infallibility ends and where science, politics, business, etc., begins.
In the early church, there were church councils or gatherings of the bishops and other representatives of the several churches, to address matters of controversy. The first one of these, the Council of Jerusalem, is discussed in Acts. Then, in 325 AD, Emperor Constantine called a church council to decree that the bishop of Rome would be the head of Christianity.
This was followed immediately by the separation of the Roman Catholic church from what are called the eastern churches, such as the Armenian church. The assertion of infallibility was a big part of the Protestant Revolt. The formalization of Papal infallibility lead to a less well publicized departure of what are called Old Catholics.
The current Pope, being infallible, dispensed with the need for miracles for naming saints. You may be aware of the multiple miracles attributed to Pope John Paul II, including during his lifetime. But, John Paul II was not a progressive socialist. So, what did the current Pope do? He recognized both John Paul II and John XXIII as saints. How many miracles did John XXIII have? Zero. According to prior doctrine, the miracles are to signify that God approves of the recognition of a person as a saint. But, who needs miracles when you have an infallible Pope?
The continued existence of the Roman Catholic Church, but from its establishment in 325 AD until relatively recently in Catholic Europe, it was an established church, supported by the coercive powers of the state. But, how impressive is it that Islam exists for almost as long a period of time as an established church? Perhaps it is more impressive that the eastern churches, such as the Armenian church, that like the Roman Catholic church trace their lineage to the apostles, have now persisted through centuries of persecution at the hands of the Muslims.
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