For my field trip I decided to visit the Roman Catholic Church in Bronx. I chose this church because of the much controversy surrounding it. The largest of the Christian churches which entails the Roman Catholic church, although present in all parts of the world, is identified as Roman because of its historical roots in Rome and because of the importance it attaches to the worldwide ministry of the bishop of Rome, the pope.
My aim was to observe the behavior of the congregation and the content of worship. I questioned some of the faithful in the congregation and they told me that the sermon was so interesting since people liked to hear the church’s voice speaking with no unsure reverberation. The numerous Biblical texts and illustrations went instantly to their hearts, and, best of all, they remembered these simple sermons better than they did the oratory of famous pulpit orators.
The priest touched on matters related with the present day. On this Sunday he talked about contraception and abortion. He seemed angry by the fact that many of the faithful were practicing abortion and using contraceptives instead of abstaining. He looked agitated as he narrated a story about his nephew who was marrying a bisexual Buddhist and the lady was already pregnant. He went to the extent of asking God not to bless them with any kids.
Throughout the mass I made my observations about their traditions and I learnt about others through the faithful. The Catholics believed that God entered the humanity through the embodiment of his Son, Jesus Christ.
The beginning of the church is traced to the life and teachings of Jesus, whose death is followed by renaissance from the dead after which he sends the Holy Spirit to help believers. This undertaking contained by the Godhead is described doctrinally as the heavenly Trinity, God one in nature but consisting in three heavenly persons.
I also noted that the Roman Catholics attach particular inference to the rites of Baptism and Holy Communion. The sacrament is celebrated every day in the Roman Catholic Church. Catholics also look upon Sacraments as the clemency of sins in reunion with the anointing which is also called confirmation. Catholic moral doctrines are also based finally on the New Testament teachings and on the conclusions reached by the church, in particular by the popes and other teachers.
The Roman Catholic community devotion is its liturgy. This is their major way of worship. It’s the Eucharist and it can also be referred to as the Mass. After the presentation of prayers and interpretation from the Holy Bible, the presiding priest invites the faithful to receive the Holy Communion. At the Sunday liturgy the celebrant preaches a homily, applying the day’s biblical texts to the present lives of believers. The Roman Catholic lectionary is used for mass. The Roman Catholic Church also in their way of devotion fostered devotional practices.
These involved both public and private, including Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the Rosary, novenas which involved nine days of prayer for some particular purpose. The devotional importance attached to the Saints distinguishes Roman Catholicism and Eastern accepted belief from the churches of the restoration.
The characteristic of Roman Catholicism has always been its divinity of the church also called its ecclesiology. The church is monarchical as well as hierarchical because Christ conferred the dominance on Peter, whose successors are the popes. Pre – Vatican II religious studies taught that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church of Christ. To them all other churches are sham churches as they require one of the four properties possessed by the Roman Catholic Church: unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity.
The most significant article of Vatican II, the unbending establishment on the Church, changed rather than revolutionized the church’s ecclesiology. The customary importance on the church as way of deliverance was supplanted by a perceptive of the church as an obscurity or sacrament, “a authenticity imbued with the concealed existence of God” (Paul VI). The formation of the church as a hierarchical organization was replaced by an outlook of the church as the entire people of God.
To the customary accepting of the church’s assignment as connecting the declaration of the gospel and the festivity of the sacraments, the assembly added witnessing to the gospel and service to all in need. The Tridentate stress on the church widespread was supplemented by a perceptive of the comprehensiveness of the church in every local flock.
The sacramental standard is another trait ideology of Roman Catholicism. Current Catholic sacramental religion emphasizes their significance as symbols of faith. Sacraments are alleged to cause grace. Conventional Catholicism linked sacramental religion to Christology, stressing Christ’s body of the sacraments and the authority of the sacraments to instill the grace of Christ, earned on Calvary, to the receiver. The newer stress connects the sacraments to ecclesiology. We do not bump into Christ straightforwardly, but in the church, which is his body. Characteristically Catholic doctrines on the Eucharist comprise of the sacrificial character of the Mass and transubstantiation.
The unbloody yield of the Mass is recognized with the bloody surrender of the cross, in that both are presented for the sins of the living and the dead. For this reason, Christ is the same casualty and cleric in the Eucharist as he was on the cross. Transubstantiation, the faith that the essence of bread and wine is changed into the body and blood of Christ, was primarily spoken of at the Fourth Lateran Council. The Eucharist is also known as Holy Communion.
The congregation’s content of worship also involved the Apostles’ Creed, the sacraments, the Decalogue, and the Lord’s Prayer. Their readings are also divided into portions modified to the Gospel of the day. I interacted with some of the faithful and wanted to know the role that art and architecture played in their lives. Most told me that they are not practicing Catholics anymore but they observe the catholic teachings. As Christianity in American is portrayed, at least on its public face, trending toward Evangelical beliefs that seemed to him so far away from these tenets, he claimed that Catholicism remained to him a vital reminder of those simple principles.
Someone else told me that she believed in some of the teachings and that she chose the teachings to follow and those not to follow. She said, “I believe in birth control and divorce. I could never vote for abortion- it is simply evil to me. I don’t know legally how laws against abortion can be enforced, however. I leave those arguments for other people. If abortion laws must be in place, I pray no one ever has to use them I simply wish, as Catholics, we would focus less on “sexual sins” and try to live as better people. The Church should do what it can to challenge the government to help the poor and downtrodden, and worry less about bedroom activities.” I therefore during this field trip realized that most of the catholic faithful in the congregation were not practicing Catholics anymore.