Key Teachings and Concepts in Catholicism

Five Precepts

Attend mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, receive eucharist at least once a year, go to confession at least once a year, fasting/abstaining, tithing/charity (use time, talent, treasure for good)

Holy days of obligation

Christmas: December 25, Assumption of Mary: August 15, New Years: January 1, Immaculate Conception: December 8, All Saints day: November 1, Ascension Thursday, 40 days after Easter

Ten Commandments

No other Gods (no craven images) | Yes to putting God first, No disrespecting God | Yes to reverence for God/sacred, No missing mass | Yes to worship for God, No disrespecting parents | Yes to respecting authority (responsibility & obedience), No killing | Yes to sanctity of life, No adultery (outside of marriage) | Yes to God's plan for love and marriage, No stealing | Yes to private property, No lying | Yes to truth, No lust | Yes to human dignity, No envy | Yes to humility

Ecumenical Council

Vatican II: Context: the world is becoming less Catholic, and is weakened from the World Wars. The Laity is alienated from sacraments, especially Mass, and does not know faith. The Church is in a defensive and insular position, lost much of its political power. Decisions: Pope John XXIII thought the Church was losing its war with Modernism, and should change tactics. The goals of the second council was to know, live, and love the faith. Impacts: Led to significant changes in liturgical practices, relationships between clergy and laity, and the Church's relationship with other religions and the modern world.

Monasticism

Importance to Christianity involves a life dedicated to prayer, work, and community. Example: St. Benedict, who established the Rule of St. Benedict, guiding monastic life.

Edict of Milan

A declaration that granted religious tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire, significantly affecting the Church-State relationship.

Sacrament

A sacred rite recognized as of particular importance and significance in Christianity.

Trinity

A mystery that explains the nature of God as three persons in one essence.

Prayer

The most important part of prayer is actually praying.

Participation in Sacraments

When we participate in the sacraments, we receive grace and strengthen our relationship with God.

Categories for Sacraments

Militant, suffering, triumphant.

Final Judgement

At the Final Judgement, our physical bodies will be resurrected and judged.

Purgatory

The purpose of Purgatory is to purify souls before they enter heaven.

Choice of Hell

Hell is a choice because God gave us free will, allowing us the option of rejecting Him.

Mary and the Holy Spirit

Mary's relationship with the Holy Spirit is one of cooperation and divine grace.

Mature Catholic

A mature Catholic takes responsibility to know the faith.

Assimilation of the Church

The Church adapts to the environment, taking in what is good and keeping out what is bad.

Pope as Umpire

A Pope relates to an umpire in a baseball game by keeping the flow of the game going, being a living voice of authority, and making calls on controversial topics.

Transformation of Faith

Faith begins to transform us when it is genuine and deeply rooted.

God as Potter

God shapes us how a potter works on clay.

Respecting Authority

Respecting authority involves responsibility and obedience.

Sanctity of Life

Sanctity of life emphasizes the value and dignity of human life.

God's Plan for Love and Marriage

God's plan for love and marriage is reflected in the commitment and fidelity of marriage.

Council of Jerusalem

Gentiles did not need to follow Jewish Law

Gnostics

Belief that the physical world was inferior to the spiritual world

Christian philosophers

Wanted to show to pagan philosophers that Christianity was reasonable, credible, and respectable

Criteria for accepting books into the canon of the New Testament

Standards used to determine which books were included in the New Testament

Appeal of Christianity to pagan intellectuals

Spiritual values to replace the cruelty in entertainment and worship of corrupt emperors

Ecumenical councils

Clarify and affirm Church teachings

Rome's contribution to Christianity

Provided infrastructure that made the spread of the Christian message easier

Christians and cannibalism

Christians were thought to be practitioners of cannibalism because they partook in the Eucharist

Martyrs

Their courage and conviction won the hearts of non-Christians and led to their conversions to Christianity

Christians' lives to Romans

Their love for one another and their care for those living on the margins stood out

Age of the Fathers

Period referred to because intelligent men of holiness contributed to the shaping and direction of the Church

Fourth century

Brought a wave of heresies

Followers of the Way

What Christians were called before being called 'Christians' in Antioch

Bishops' obligations

Teach the faith, celebrate divine worship, guide their respective diocese

Church's role after Rome's collapse

Filled the leadership void and became a provider for the needs of the poor, did charities, and established schools for clergy

Common rule for monks

Prayer, celibacy, poverty, obedience to a superior

Irish monks

Helped to preserve Western Civilization by hand copying and illustrating manuscripts

First major Christian cities to fall to Islamic influence

Damascus and Antioch in Syria, then Jerusalem and Alexandria

Pope crowning the emperor

Symbolized the relationship between the papacy and the secular authority

Great Schism causes

Various theological and political disagreements between the Eastern and Western churches

Charlemagne

Known as the 'Protector of the Papacy'

Feudal period

Commonplace for secular control of Church offices

Pope Clement's move

Moved the papacy to Avignon

Catherine of Siena

Saint who pleaded for the Pope to return to Rome

Lofty grandeur of Cathedrals

Expression of praise to God

Caliph's actions in Jerusalem

Ordered the demolition of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and pillaged countless churches

Spanish Inquisition

Initiated and administered by Ferdinand and Isabella

Renaissance master artists

Celebrated the beauty of God's creation, especially visible in humanity

Looking to Jesus

Catholics look to Jesus for a vision of authentic humanity because the Eternal Son of God fully assumed human nature

Being made in the image of God

Means we have intellect and free will as we seek to love all people, including our enemies, and to care responsibly for all creation

Jesus' call to us

Calls us to use our God-given gifts of intellect and free will as we seek to love all people, including our enemies, and to care responsibly for all creation

Intellect and free will

God-given gifts used to love all people, including enemies, and to care for creation.

Council of Trent

The Church Council which responded to Protestantism.

Reasons for expeditions to the new world

Scientific discoveries, monarch sponsorship for riches and colonies, and evangelizing natives.

Saint Francis Xavier

The saint who was the driving force for the spread of the Gospel in the Far East.

Priesthood

A life of sacrifice and service.

God in the age of reason (17th and 18th centuries)

Marginalized and rendered non-existent.

Notre Dame Cathedral after the French Revolution

Enthroned a stage dancer as the goddess of reason.

Pope Pius VI's condemnation of the French Revolution

Condemned for promoting individual freedoms at the expense of God's moral law.

French Revolution's impact according to Pope Saint John Paul II

Paved the way for Human Rights.

Humanity's unique intellect capacities

Think and reason logically, foresee consequences, learn about the world.

Pursuit of science

Demonstrates the wonderful order and beauty of God's creative work.

Love as a gift

Must be given and accepted willingly; cannot be forced.

Galileo's troubles

Proclaimed heliocentricism, entered theology, mocked the pope.

Church's non-endorsement of Galileo

His ideas were not entirely correct.

Welcomed at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes

The sick and dying.

Location's power to cure

Believed to cure both body and soul.

Requirements for a miraculous case by the Church

Immediate and permanent.

Constitutions of Dei Filius

Affirmed validity of revelation and relationship between faith and reason.

Constitution of Pastor Aeternus

Affirmation of papal primacy and infallibility.

Papal infallibility limitations

Does not apply to private opinions or specific ministry; does not mean the Pope is without mistakes.

Bill of Rights' help to Catholics

Called for separation of Church and state, freedom of worship.

Immigration waves (1830-1920)

Most immigrants came from Ireland, Germany, Italy, and Eastern Europe.

Know Nothings' discrimination actions

Circulated rumors, incited riots, fixed elections, harassed convents.

John F. Kennedy's patriotism

Had to defend his patriotism against discrimination.

Circulated rumors

Rumors that the Vatican and Catholic immigrants were conspiring to take over the USA, inciting riots in cities like NYC and Louisville, fixed elections in Baltimore and other places, and harassed convents in places like Boston and Providence.

John F. Kennedy's patriotism defense

He had to defend his patriotism against those who thought he may be subject to the undue influence of the Pope.

Old order of European rule perception

Groups associated with the old order of European rule were seen as a danger to progress and prosperity.

Jesuits hated by Enlightenment philosophers

The two things about the Jesuits that the philosophers of the Enlightenment hated most were their intellect and loyalty to the Pope.

Church's first encyclical

Rerum novarum, which addressed social problems and injustices wrought by industrialization and capitalism.

Survival of the fittest in social Darwinism

The concept applies as the superior rise to the top and grow wealthy while the less capable can never attain more than the wages those at the top pay them.

Higher authority limitations

Higher authority cannot interfere in Family Life.

Communism collapse reason according to John Paul II

Communism collapsed because it treated people as objects, not spiritual beings.

Capitalism according to John Paul II

Capitalism is efficient, but it is flawed when it is not oriented toward the common good.

Our Lady's encouragement to children

She encouraged the children to pray and do penance.

Devotion established at Fatima

Devotion to Mary's immaculate heart.

Problems with modernist thought

Problems arose when aspects of the Revelation were tested against modern advances, assuming that only that which can be verified by science and historical method is true.

Modernism's view on religion and church doctrine

Modernism states that religion is a psychological experience unrelated to truth and is always subject to change.

Fr. John Courtney Murray's influence

He influenced church teaching of Religious liberty on the grounds that individuals, in their dignity, should be free to make a decision of conscience, even in error.

Clergy and religious after Second Vatican Council

Many clergy and religious asked to be dispensed from their commitments.

Ecclesiology

The study of the Church in regards to identity and function

Canonized

To be publicly proclaimed a saint by the church

Ex cathedra

the pope speaking in his official role as authoritative teacher

Magisterium

living teaching office made up of pope and bishops

Doctrine

an official authoritative teaching of the church based on the revelation of God

Vocation

A call from God related to a person's mission in life

Martyrdom

Giving witness to the faith by sacrificing your life for it