..Roman Catholic
The roman catholic church is also known ”Catholic church ”is one of the worlds largest churches. It has members all over the world. The roman catholic were amongst the first to come to Nigeria and other African countries along side the colonial masters. The roman catholic church as an estimated 1.27 billion member’s world wide. The Roman catholic has a hand in western civilization. According to the catholic tradition, Jesus Christ is the founder of the Roman Catholic Church.
The roman catholic church; over a thousand million followers worldwide, the largest such institution of its kind and arguably the most powerful religion in ideological and systematic reach. The catholic church as it is now known, a state of its own with a military force and geographical boundaries, once was a world power on par with the greatest civilizations including Rome and the Ottoman empire. From the Lateran seat in Rome, the papal Curia’s power reached the far ends of the British Isles all the way across to the eastern borders of the Persian empire at the time of its prime, circa the 14th century (mid-Renaissance). This empire of thought and ideology, the mental framework and structure of the organization is one now imbued in the ideology of authority and nation-states; the federal as well as parliamentarian systems of government mirror the policies of the catholic court of power under the Holy Father. Rome’s popes excommunicated and crowned the leaders of the known world at the time (Europe, North-Africa and Asia-Minor) and they signed and proclaimed decrees that affected millions of lives across their vast domains. At the height of its power, the papal Curia divided the world between the naval powers of the time, Spain and Portugal, who were discovering more and more of the globe at a rapid pace. A cloak of varying colors, including the crimson of blood, drapes over the Roman Catholic Institution- a stint the ‘church’ continues to distance itself from, with varying success till current days. In this paper I intend to discuss briefly, the strengths and weaknesses, the origins and intentions (consistent policies) of their institutions and the relevant conglomerates attached; I will touch on their symbolic relevance globally and the image of the catholic church developed and defined by over two millennia of investment in the cultures and traditions of all that have been touched by the Roman Catholic church. (Matthew 2009) (Church)
Based on the life and acts of Jesus Christ of Nazareth as well as those of his twelve disciples by relation to the prophet famously reputed and believed by billions to be the ‘Son of God Almighty’; the Roman Catholic Church is the most dominant and powerful sect of the religion of ‘Christianity’. So called because of the prophet’s title of ‘Christ’, meaning savior, liberator or the more popular Hebrew version ‘Messiah’, Christians worldwide express their belief in the religious dogmas and guidelines of the religion in several varying ways in relation to location and cultural influences but all sects agree on fundamental elements of the religion which they profess as truths- the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, his subsequent Resurrection and Ascension to Heaven, the facts of his role as firstborn of all creatures as well as his membership in the Holy Trinity (the pinnacle of Divinity for those of the Christian faith) of the God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost (a physical manifestation of the will and mind of the Almighty God, so powerful as to be separated into three individuals all with equivalent power and dominion over all creatures and created). To the Christians, Jesus in not just the son of God, as the Christian faith recognizes all individuals to be children of the Most High (a Divine title of the absolute divinity shared by the Hebrew and Islamic faiths respectively) but he is one of three manifestations of the Almighty God. Christianity is special also because, unlike many institutions of the kind, it professes monotheism as opposed to polytheism, which was the dominant factor of religious institutions for several thousand years before the advent of special and unique teachers like the Buddha (prince Siddhartha), Moses, leader of the landless Israelite host circa 6000 B.C, Jesus Christ and Muhammad of Medina/Mecca. The oldest and also one of the largest religions and faith-base, Hinduism, which easily dates back to 12-10,000 B.C houses and reverences a host of divinities, in some sects of bewildering proliferation, and maintains that faith and diffusion to present day. The names of the teachers mentioned above outline the originators and propellants of the worlds few monotheistic religions- Buddhism (semi-), Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The roman catholic church, formerly known as the Lateran church, is the Latin church headquartered in Rome, the first and ancient capital of the Roman Empire. Hence the name Lateran, denoting the Latin origins and constitution of the church- the word ‘church’ itself is a unique name used only by the Christian organization in reference to their gatherings and institutional structures and systems. As such there were once several churches, of varying sects based in capitals and important cities around the great civilizations in Asia minor and Europe as well as the northern shores of Africa. Barring the church in Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople, the 2nd and greater capital of the later Roman Empire, lost to the Muslim Ottoman Empire over a series of Christo-Islamic wars fought in the dark and middle ages circa 800- 1200 A.D) which remained autonomous and independent from the growing reaches of the Lateran Church in Rome at its prime, and the Church of the same sect as the Constantinopolitan Orthodox church in Ethiopia, all other sects and churches came to be dominated and succumbed to the dogmas and theological perspectives of the Lateran Church which grew so vast and powerful through the symbolical power of faith and the depths of human devotion, to name itself the Holy Roman Catholic church in tandem with its destiny being intertwined with the city of its patronage, its home, Rome. Attendant with the symbolic meaning and perspectives of/on the Holy Roman Catholic church is the roman history and legacy of conquest and assimilation, of all world cultures and traditions. The Holy Roman Catholic church is as much an amalgamation of all the many nations that profess its superiority of theological thought as it is incorporated into the governments and governing of many nations across the face of the earth. Throughout history religions have been closely intertwined and integrated into the running of society and maintenance of civility between individuals in the community. The Roman Catholic Church was more so infused into the laws and guidelines involved in governing and governance than previous polytheistic religions which held sway and dominance over the Roman Empire and all its collated constituent states and realms (a claim that can be used against many of the monotheistic faiths, a characteristic perhaps, of monotheism).
The Roman Catholic church, through scriptural evidence and analysis explain many of their prejudices and dogmatic teachings as the will and intentions of the Almighty Divinity- the Hebrews believed (and continue to do so) themselves to be the ‘chosen’ race and thus by way of their religion were extremely xenophobic and ethnocentric in their relations with other races and peoples; Islamic extremists justify opposition to all non-Islamic humanity based on their Qur’anic scriptural analyses of the lesser Jihad promoted among Muslims. Their universal symbol is that of the crucifix, a cross of two stakes, one superimposed over the other, representing their belief in the death, by crucifixion as well as the subsequent resurrection of the Messiah Jesus Christ. The other specifically catholic symbols, isolated to the Catholic church itself, include the image of the crucified Christ (a Caucasian male, with brown hair and cleaved beard, with Aryan-like blue eyes, though historically Jesus was from modern day Palestine and of Semitic descent) and the Virgin Mary, Mother of God ( Jesus the ‘Son of God’) in prayerful, meditative or devotional pose. Like other monotheistic faiths, there is a dogma of ‘life after death’ with two destinations representing the eternal abodes, respectively, of the Divine forces of good and evil, which these monotheistic faiths, impose that are active and effective in the natural world and are continuously vying for the human soul. (Church 2009)
In the choice of writing on the Holy Roman Catholic Church, one may consider the choice a shortcut, an easy route to circumventing the required objectives of this exercise. But religious organizations are still institutions worthy of inspection and analysis. The vast amount of controversial and counter argumentation in the religious histories of the relevant faiths is so deeply confusing and jumbled as well as of very high sensitivities and tensions that run worldwide in the discussions and analyses of these questions of faith. The question behind the loyalties and the maintenance of it may not be properly and sufficiently answered within the required limits prescribed for this paper. Hence I conclude with this short description of the intellectual and theoretical foundations of one such organization, hoping that I adequately meet some of the necessary requirements.