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 The Churchby Sebastian R. FamaThere are those who contend that the Church is not a visible institution but merely the body of believers. However, Jesus compares His Church only to visible things, such as a flock, a body, a house, a city set on a hill, and a kingdom. 1 Timothy 3:15 tells us that the Church is "the pillar and foundation of truth." The words pillar and foundation indicate assurance and stability, not division and confusion, as one finds among the thousands of denominations that have sprung up since the Reformation. It is important to note that it is...

Lists Every Catholic Should be Familiar With Jump to: The 7 Sacraments (The Holy Mysteries)The 7 Corporal Works of MercyThe 7 Spiritual Works of MercyThe 3 Eminent Good WorksThe 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost (& the Charismata)The 12 Fruits of the Holy GhostThe 3 Theological VirtuesThe 4 Cardinal VirtuesThe 7 Capital Sins & Their Contrary VirtuesThe 6 Sins Against the Holy GhostThe 4 Sins That Cry Out to HeavenThe 3 Conditions of Mortal SinThe 9 Ways We Participate in Others' SinsThe 10 CommandmentsThe 2 Greatest CommandmentsThe 3 Evangelical CounselsThe 6 Precepts of the ChurchThe Holy Days of Obligation (English)The...

Lists Every Catholic Should be Familiar With Jump to: The 7 Sacraments (The Holy Mysteries)The 7 Corporal Works of MercyThe 7 Spiritual Works of MercyThe 3 Eminent Good WorksThe 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost (& the Charismata)The 12 Fruits of the Holy GhostThe 3 Theological VirtuesThe 4 Cardinal VirtuesThe 7 Capital Sins & Their Contrary VirtuesThe 6 Sins Against the Holy GhostThe 4 Sins That Cry Out to HeavenThe 3 Conditions of Mortal SinThe 9 Ways We Participate in Others' SinsThe 10 CommandmentsThe 2 Greatest CommandmentsThe 3 Evangelical CounselsThe 6 Precepts of the ChurchThe Holy Days of Obligation (English)The...

We have a free-for-all fight post that started out over the naming of a caucus. I feel that unless we debate this between Catholics and Orthodox, we're liable to "interruptions" (bad and good) from other groups. Please can we use THIS thread to debate this coolly, calmly and more level-headedly?

 AND IN JESUS CHRIST,HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (St. John 3, 16). "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Gen. 3, 15). These words constitute what is known as the Protoevangelium, the first Gospel, or promise of a Redeemer to come. This promise formed the essential heart and hope of the religion of the Jews of the Old...

10 October 2007, 12:39 Russian clerics leave meeting on Orthodox-Catholic dialogue over rifts Moscow, October 10, Interfax - A delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate on Tuesday left a meeting of the Mixed Commission for Orthodox-Catholic Theologian Dialogue, which opened in Ravenna, Italy. "Following their arrival in Ravenna the Orthodox delegation learned that representatives of the so-called Estonian Apostolic Church, formed in 1996 by the Constantinople Patriarchate on the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate, had been entered on the list of delegates," bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, the Russian Church's envoy in Europe and a member of the Mixed...

Will the Pope's Pronouncement Set Ecumenism Back a Hundred Years? Wednesday, 11 July 2007 Yesterday's Reuters headline: "The Vatican on Tuesday said Christian denominations outside the Roman Catholic Church were not full churches of Jesus Christ." The actual proclamation, posted on the official Vatican Web site, says that Protestant Churches are really "ecclesial communities" rather than Churches, because they lack apostolic succession, and therefore they "have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery." Furthermore, not even the Eastern Orthodox Churches are real Churches, even though they were explicitly referred to as such in the Vatican document...

  by Thomas J. Nash Other Articles by Thomas J. Nash Worthy Is the Lamb? 08/16/05 Even among animals, a lamb is not a likely “leading man” for a Hollywood action-adventure. Mighty Mouse or Underdog could save the day, but not a lamb; lambs are known for needing help in times of trouble. Recall the wandering lamb that had to be rescued (Mt 18:12-13), or other lambs that needed protection from a menacing wolf (Jn 10:11-12). In This Article...An Untimely and Humiliating DeathFollow the LeaderThe Lambs Win in the End An Untimely and Humiliating Death What was God thinking when He...

"The Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici gregis, promulgated by John Paul II on February 22, 1996 have been activated." Read the entire directive... JOHN PAUL II SUPREME PONTIFF APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONUNIVERSI DOMINICI GREGIS ON THE VACANCY OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE AND THE ELECTION OF THE ROMAN PONTIFF

Historical research has spurred the discovery of many documents that are related to Christianity. Several writings of this kind have given precious insights into the epochs before and after the founding of the Catholic Church. One particular writing, part of the Patristic corpus (i.e. writings of the Church Fathers), has shed valuable light on Catholicism: "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," better known as The Didache. A Greek copy of The Didache was first discovered in 1873; a text that was part of an 11th century manuscript entitled Codex Hierosolymitanus (circa 1056). The ecclesiastic of Nicomedia, a gentleman named Bryennios,...