if Jesus chose Peter to build his church and Peter was the first Pope ain't all non Catholics heretics?
818070
sure sounds like you really understand "Harmony".\n\n\nPS     "Peter" means rock. Petroleum means found under the rock. That's right; we find oil, most of the time from under a rock.\n\nYou know where that is, your question indicates you just crawled out from under one.
366939
A Christian is one who believes in Jesus as God and accepts Jesus as his/her personal saviour. As such, Catholics ARE Christians. The Roman Catholic church is said to have started with Peter, to whom Jesus said,\n\nMatthew 16:18-19\nAnd I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.\n\nRoman Catholics say they have a direct line of Popes starting from Peter, to the Pope of today.\n\nThen along came King Henry VIII, who liked to chop and change, as it were. He took issue with the Christian doctrine of not being allowed to divorce and remarry, so started his own church: the Church of England - the first form of Protestantism. "Protestant" comes from "protest" as they were protesting against the rules of the existing Church. According to my year eight history teacher (oh so long ago!) any Christian denomination that isn't Roman Catholic, *is* Protestant by definition due to the origins of the term "Protestant." And on the story goes, with different sects popping up along the way.\n\nCatholicism does tend to be a bit more "flowery" and ornate than other denominations of Christianity. I grew up in the Roman Catholic church and changed to Pentecostal fundamentalism later on. I did the rounds and tried nearly every denomination out there to see what felt right for me. My experience has been that while basically the same overall, the Catholic church tends to be far more formal where other churches are a little more laid back. Catholics have a set hierarchy, where many modern Christian denominations have lay people participating at higher levels than in the past, and women being more involved in church leadership. I'm not saying this is either good or bad; this is just an observation. Other than that, there aren't many differences in core beliefs. \n\nSome people do argue that Roman Catholics "aren't really Christians" because of different rituals and practices, such as confession and penance. However, it's not about receiving forgiveness from a Priest instead of God. It's about confessing your sins as the bible instructs Christians to do - it's about the act of confession and the Priest affirming forgiveness from God. Some people find this helpful; others don't. Certainly, praying specific prayers as a form of atonement may seem strange - but think for just a minute: who are the prayers really for? God can't benefit from anything we do. The prayers are for the benefit of the person who is praying, and no one else. There are reasons behind things that people who have never been Catholic won't understand. It may seem strange - but *anything* that isn't understood seems strange, whether that be religious ritual or otherwise. Scripture to support this is:\n\nJames 5:16\nConfess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.\n\n1 John 1:9\nIf we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\n\nAnother thing that can be seen as strange by non-Catholics is the fact that priests and nuns don't marry. The explanation for that is quite simple: they used to. Way back when, when priests had families and they died, they left everything to their families. Unfortunately, the Church at the time didn't like this. Priests usually lived on the church property, causing a problem for the Church. It was a question of financial gain, rather than anything religious, and so the church banned priests from marrying. This way, even if they had a child, it would be out of wedlock - making the child illegitimate (by their standards) and consequently the chil
441518
Many of the Saints in the Orthodox Church had children they were not forbidden to have children.  I know that some popes had children so some saints probably did too.
308220
Ok I have been reading these catholic questions for the past few days. Funny ppl who are not catholic seem to know everything on the faith. I am a catholic , no I don't know everything about my faith. Think about it . It's over 2000 yrs old. To answer your question. Yes we are CHRISTAINS. We belive GOD comes first before anyone else. We DO NOT worship mary or the saints. We DO Not pray to statues.We DO NOT worship the POPE either. He is the churchs leader. You know how others faiths have rev,minsters etc.  \n\n  Yes we have had some bad popes, priest etc. But if you research it theres other faiths out there that have had some rather questionable leaders. \n\n  Also I have never heard any priest, decon in the catholic church say that ppl from other faiths are going to hell. My own personal opionon is this, you must belive in Jesus Christ that he is our savior and died on the cross. Do your best during your life time to be a good person and follow the 10 commandments. ( if you break them then ask for forgivness ) and do good works charitys, helping those who have less then you and so on. \n\n  I'm not saying the Catholic church is perfect. But really think about it what faith is? We are all human beings. We are NOT perfect. \n\n  So before anyone feels the need to pass judgement on the catholic church . Remember we are not here to judge one another thats GODS job. Before anyone pass's judgement on the catholic faith. Take a good look in the mirror and ask yourself  am i perfect? , is my church perfect? Do sin against God ? \n\n Sorry not trying to come off nasty or mean. Just makes me ill when i see so many pass judgememt on something the really have no clue about. \n\n  God Bless ......
676144
Catholics are christians.
551494
Is the Pope Catholic?
383497
Yes, and the popes nationality should have reflected the majority of parishoners this time around, or where catholicism is really growing...that was a dissapointment...\n\nI grew up catholic...agnostic now...
288462
Of course he is.\n\nJesus said His Church would be “the light of the world.” He then noted that “a city set on a hill cannot be hid” (Mt 5:14). This means his Church is a visible organization. It must have characteristics that clearly identify it and that distinguish it from other churches. Jesus promised, “I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18). This means that His Church will never be destroyed and will never fall away from Him. His Church will survive until His return.\n \nAmong the Christian churches, only the Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were established during the Reformation, which began in 1517. (Most of todays Protestant churches are actually offshoots of the original Protestant offshoots.) \n\nOnly the Catholic Church existed in the 10th century, in the 5th century, and in the 1st century, faithfully teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the apostles, omitting nothing. The line of popes can be traced back, in unbroken succession, to St. Peter himself. This is unequaled by any institution in history. \n\nEven the oldest government is new compared to the papacy, and the churches that send out door-to-door missionaries are young compared to the Catholic Church. Many of these churches began as recently as the 19th or 20th centuries; some even began during your own lifetime. None of them can claim to be the Church Jesus established. \n\nThe Catholic Church has existed for nearly 2000 years, despite constant opposition from the world. This is testimony to the Churchs divine origin. It must be more than a merely human organization, especially considering that its human members - even some of its leaders - have been unwise, corrupt, or prone to heresy. \n\nAny merely human organization with such members would have collapsed early on. The Catholic Church is today the most vigorous church in the world (and the largest, with over a billion members - one sixth of the human race), and that is testimony not to the cleverness of the Church’s leaders, but to the protection of the Holy Spirit.
1076662
No. \n\nDogma is the original deposit of faith which Jesus (God) gave to the Church which He founded 2,000 years ago with the office of the Vicar of Christ (Peter was the first to have this office). \n\nJesus never said that His Church would not have sinners, only that the gates of Hell would never prevail against His Church. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to ensure that the office of His Vicar would be guarded from ever teaching heresy (contradicting that deposit of faith which was given first by oral tradition, then by the bible which was born from that sacred tradition).\n\nThe Catholic Church is also the great interpreter of sacred scripture since no scripture should be left up to personal interpretation.
929009
It sounds like your head is in the right place, but your heart is not.  Despite the uneducated repetition of some anti-catholics on this forum, the Catholic Church was the church founded by Jesus Christ.  As much as they try to point out the sins of churchmen or misinterpret scriptures to their own destruction, the facts - as you stated - still remain.  The true church CANNOT apposticise - Jesus promised that it wouldn't.  And the sins of some clergy doesn't make doctrine untrue.\n\nAll this being said, you can't come at people with attacks.  It turns them away so that they will never listen to your arguement.  If you charitably answer their objections, maybe they will see the truth.\n\nFor those of you who think that the Catholic Church is not the original church - please visit my website.\n\nhttp://www.geocities.com/orthodox_doctrine/
580625
Well, that would make him more human than divine (or, at least, in some people's minds, detract from his divinity).  For pretty much the same reason, the Catholic Church upholds the idea that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a perpetual virgin.  (They state that she and Joseph never consummated their marriage.  To have had siblings would have made Jesus too human.  People would have pointed to the mortality of the siblings as arguement that Jesus was merely a human philosopher.)\nAlso, a belief system that would have allowed for such an idea as the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene would have set up a complicated sytem of privilege.  Claimants of descent from Jesus would have caused huge political consequences, if such claims didn't otherwise doom the religion early on.\nIn short, such a belief would have complicated the religion.
391330
All the apostles were Jewish too – are you suggesting that in order to be a priest that a person must also be Jewish?\n\nWhat about middle eastern – all the Apostles were middle Eastern.\n\nFrom non-broken homes...\n\nHow much further should I go?\n\nHow many rules do you want to impose?  How about you live by Gospel instead of law?
887650
Catholicism is most definitely NOT Christianity. If you people knew both of the religions, you would be able to make the distinctions between the two. Christianity may have derived from Catholicism, but they are not the same things.\n\nJust thought I'd clear that up...
13888
the first Pope was St. Peter (he was named by the own Jesus)(32-67)
979544
There are some different answers to this question.  The Greek word for rock in that sentence as I recall is petra.  Some people believe Jesus was using rock to refer to the faith he was speaking about previously and others think that he was talking about Peter as the rock with a play on words.  Some Roman Catholics believe that this passage justifies the argument that Peter was the first Pope.  Some Evangelical Christians believe that this passage justifies the idea that the faith should be the heart of the church.  Of course some good people on both sides take the other positions.\n\nIn the context of the rest of the passage, Jesus seemed to be telling his disciples that he was going to die to sacrifice himself for mankind's sins, and then impulsive Peter jumps in and sort of spoils the moment by refuting Jesus' explaination of his coming sacrifice.  So Jesus rebukes Peter for sort of negating and not recognizing the significance of what Jesus is about to do.
862169
Yes I do. The majority of these people do not understand the office of the Pope and I sadly think they do not want to understand. They think nothing about God appointing Moses and Joshua and so on down the line but anything Catholic they automatically reject to their peril.
373608
Well, that depends on who you ask and what qualifies as "start." :)\n\nJesus told Peter he was to be "the rock" on which he (Jesus) would build his church. Catholics take that to refer to Peter as the head of the church - then they see Peter as the Bishop of the Church in Rome, which would make him the first Pope. They see each successive Bishop of Rome as being Pope, as well, in a line of succession from Peter. \n\nSo, you could point to Pentecost (when the Holy Spirit comes down on the Apostles in Acts), as the start of the church itself. Or, you could see it, in a way, as being when Jesus named Peter.\n\nAs to the history, we know Bishops of Rome were pretty powerful at least as early as the 2nd century, but we really don't have evidence of them being considered the universal head of the church (ie-the Pope) until the 3rd or 4th century.