Do You Really Know the Catholic Church?

Brazil has about 137 million, 73.6% of the country's population, who are Catholic. Mexico comes in second with 101 million, 90% of their population. Third, the Philippines with 75 million or 81.5% of their population.

With the highest country's population of over 300 million people, the United States comes in fourth place in this list with a total of 68 million Catholics. Italy finishes fifth with a total of 53 million Catholics which is more than 90% of their population.

The number of Catholics worldwide rose by 19 million from 2007 to 2008, according to the latest Vatican almanac. Statistics from 2009, presented in the 2010 "Annuario Pontifico," show there are now 1.166 billion baptized Catholics in the world, comprising 17.4 percent of all people.

In Catholic theology, there are three types of worship -- one of which is condemned in the Bible if offered to anyone but God:
1. Latria - This is adoration which is given to God alone. Giving this type of worship to anyone else is considered to be a mortal sin and it is idolatry as condemned in the Bible.
2. Hyperdulia - This is a special type of reverence given only to Mary the Mother of Jesus. It is not considered to be idolatory as it is not worship, merely reverence.
3. Dulia - This is the special type of reverence given only to the saints and angles. It, too, is not idolatrous as it is only a form of reverence.

Latria is a Latin term (from Greek) used in Catholic theology to mean adoration, which is the highest form of worship or reverence and is directed only to the Holy Trinity. A Catholic who may kneel in front of a statue while praying isn't worshiping the statue or even praying to it. The images of Mary and saints (whether it be in statue form or painting) serves only as a reminder of the holiness of the person depicted.

The Catholic version of the Old Testament differs from the Protestant version in that the Catholic edition contains seven more books than Protestant Bibles. These "extra" books are the reason that many people believe the Church added to the Bible, but in fact these books were considered the official canon (list of books) by all Christians until the Protestant reformation during which Martin Luther (leader of the revolution) actually removed them. Interestingly, some of these books contain affirmations of Catholic doctrines which Luther rejected.

The reason that the Catholic Church uses the Greek edition is because the apostles used it exclusively in their preaching.

The very first Christian Bible was produced by the Catholic Church, compiled by Catholic scholars of the 2nd and 3rd century and approved for general Christian use by the Catholic Councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397).

The very first printed Bible was produced under the Catholic Church by the Catholic inventor of the printing press, Johannes Gutenberg.

Roman Catholics believe that only under certain circumstances is the Pope infallible (that is, he cannot make a mistake). The Catholic Church defines three conditions under which the Pope is infallible:
I. The Pope must be making a decree on matters of faith or morals.
II. The declaration must be binding on the whole Church.
III. The Pope must be speaking with the full authority of the Papacy, and not in a personal capacity.

This means that when the Pope is speaking on matters of science, he can make errors. However, when he is teaching a matter of religion and the other two conditions above are met, Catholics consider that the decree is equal to the Word of God. It can not contradict any previous declarations and it must be believed by all Catholics. Catholics believe that if a person denies any of these solemn decrees, they are committing a mortal sin.

Actually, many great scientific advances have come about through Catholic scholarship and education. Also, unlike many of the American Protestant or evangelical religions, the Catholic Church does not reject the theory of evolution. Catholic schools all around the world (including the U.S.) teach scientific evolution as part of their science curriculum.

An example: Monsignor Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian priest, proposed the Big Bang theory. When he proposed his theory, Einstein rejected it, causing Monsignor Lemaitre to write to him: "Your math is correct, but your physics is abominable." Eventually, Einstein came to accept the theory.

Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) recently stated, "According to the widely accepted scientific account, the universe erupted 15 billion years ago in an explosion called the 'Big Bang' and has been expanding and cooling ever since. Converging evidence from many studies in the physical and biological sciences furnishes mounting support for some theory of evolution to account for the development and diversification of life on earth."

The concept of Heaven is often a very personal thing. However, the Catholic Church teaches that Heaven is considered a state, a condition of existence, rather than a particular place somewhere in the cosmos.

Pope John Paul II declared: "The 'heaven' or 'happiness' in which we will find ourselves is neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but a living, personal relationship with the Holy Trinity. It is our meeting with the Father which takes place in the risen Christ through the communion of the Holy Spirit."

The Bible uses a metaphorical image of heaven as part of the physical universe: "Metaphorically speaking, heaven is understood as the dwelling-place of God ... The depiction of heaven as the transcendent dwelling-place of the living God is joined with that of the place to which believers, through grace, can also ascend, as we see in the Old Testament accounts of Enoch and Elijah. Thus heaven becomes an image of life in God. In this sense Jesus speaks of a 'reward in heaven' and urges people to 'lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven'."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church indicates yet other images of heaven found in the Bible: "This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father's house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise: 'no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him'."

Pope Benedict XVI gave this explanation of what is meant by heaven: "We all experience that when people die they continue to exist, in a certain way, in the memory and heart of those who knew and loved them. We might say that a part of the person lives on in them but it resembles a "shadow" because this survival in the heart of their loved ones is destined to end. God, on the contrary, never passes away and we all exist by virtue of his love. We exist because he loves us, because he conceived of us and called us to life. We exist in God's thoughts and in God's love. We exist in the whole of our reality, not only in our "shadow". Our serenity, our hope and our peace are based precisely on this: in God, in his thoughts and in his love, it is not merely a "shadow" of ourselves that survives but rather we are preserved and ushered into eternity with the whole of our being in him, in his creator love. It is his Love that triumphs over death and gives us eternity and it is this love that we call 'Heaven'."

When reading over the early Christian writings, you find their doctrines and teachings are the same as the Catholic Church today. In these ancient writings, you read of priests, virgins living in community (nuns), confession, baptism of infants, reverence for the saints, and the Bishop of Rome as head of the Christian religion.

Here are some examples:

From St. Ignatius in a letter dated 110 A.D. regarding the Papacy: " ... to the church also which holds the presidency, in the location of the country of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy of blessing, worthy of praise, worthy of success, worthy of sanctification, and, because you hold the presidency in love, named after Christ and named after the Father."

From St. Justin Martyr in 148 A.D. regarding Holy Communion: "This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Savior being incarnate by God's Word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the Word of prayer which comes from Him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus."

From 248 A.D. in reference to confession of sins: "A filial method of forgiveness, albeit hard and laborious is the remission of sins through penance, when the sinner does not shrink from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from seeking medicine, after the manner of him who say, 'I said, to the Lord, I will accuse myself of my iniquity.'"

From these few quotes, it becomes clear that the practices of the modern Catholic Church are the closest to the practices of the apostles and early Christians. It should also be said that the majority of historians accept that the Catholic Church was indeed the first Christian Church and is verifiable from ancient texts.