Catholicism

The Merriam-Webster Catholic Dictionary defines Catholicism as ”the faith, doctrine, system and practice of the Catholic church”. The Catholic Church distinguishes itself from other Christian faiths (e.g. Protestantism) through its firm dogmas. It is supposed to have been founded by Christ himself when He made Saint Peter “the rock “ on which He built the church. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church sees himself as the successor of Saint Peter.

Dogmas and Doctrines

The most important Catholic dogmas and doctrines include:

• Belief in the Holy Trinity (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit). These are three persons in one God. This is commonly known as “the mystery of the Trinity”.

• Transubstantiation during the celebration of the mass the Eucharist is believed to change the host to the body of Christ and the communion wine into the blood of Christ.

• Immaculate conception: the belief that Mary the mother of Christ, was born without Original Sin, that Mary did not have a sinful nature, and was in fact sinless.

• Virgin birth: Mary, mother of Christ, is a virgin.

• Papal infallibility: due to the help by the Holy Spirit, the Pope cannot err when he teaches ex cathedra. Although the claim of Papal infallibility can be seen throughout the history of the Catholic Church, it has only become a dogma after the First Vatican Council in 1870.

• Purgatory: place between heaven and hell. A place of temporal punishment. At the conclusion of this punishment, the individual’s soul passes into heaven.

• Saints as important mediators between God and humans.

• Special position of priests as (human) mediators between God and humans.

• Seven Sacraments: Baptism, Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, Confession, Holy Orders, Extreme Unction.

• Indulgences, based on the medieval Catholic doctrine that sinners must not only repent of sins that they have committed, but that they must also confess these sins and pay some sort of retribution. Indulgence is a sort of retribution.

• Other features of the Catholic church include the ritualistic nature of Mass (songs, incantations, incense, holy water, church music). The church house has an altar and a tabernacle (where the monstrance with a consecrated host is kept). Catholic churches do not forgo ornamentation (as Protestant churches often do). There are statues and images of God, Jesus, Mary and the saints. Often there are also saints' relics and other magical or mysterious objects of worship.

Organisation

The Catholic Church has a strict hierarchical structure. At the pinnacle is the Pope, who is a mediator between God and man.

Cardinals are appointed by the Pope and they are directly answerable to the Vatican. Apart from electing the Pope, "most cardinals have additional duties, such as leading a diocese or archdiocese or running a department of the Roman Curia" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_(Catholicism)).

Next in the Catholic hierarchy are the archbishops and bishops as heads of an archdiocese or diocese. Then come the priests who see to the affairs of the parishes. Priests study theology, after which they take an oath of celibacy and are then ordained by a bishop.

Catholicism in England

In England the strength of the Catholic church started dwindling with Henry VIII as a result of the king's inability to convince the papal court to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Since he was desperate to marry Anne Boleyn, who, Henry hoped, would provide him with a male heir, the king dismissed Cardinal Wolsey and brought in Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell - both sympathizers with the new ideas of Martin Luther. The Reformation Parliament (1529-1531) saw a gradual shift of power from Pope to king, culminating in the Act of Supremacy (1534), which stopped all contributions and allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church. The king of England became the ”supreme head of the Church”.

Mary Tudor (“Bloody Mary”) tried to re-Catholicise England, with much bloodshed but no long-term success. The next and last overt Catholic on the throne was James II (1685-1688). English Catholics once again saw some religious freedom granted in the Declaration of Indulgence of 1687, suspending the Test Acts. Thereby Catholics were able to take part in the military and hold posts in government. Unfortunately for Catholicism in England, James’s overt and radical pro-Catholicism brought his doom and led to the so-called Glorious Revolution, which ousted James and brought in a die-hard Calvinist, William of Orange and his Protestant wife Mary. The Bill of Rights (1689) served as a final nail on the coffin of Catholicism in England. According to these laws, no Roman Catholic is allowed to become king/queen of England. This only changed in 2013 with the Succession to the Crown Act. Now persons married to a Catholic are no longer automatically excluded from the succession (section 2 of the Act).

Sources

http://wsu.edu/Reform/england.htm

Miller, John. Popery and Politics in England 1660-1688. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973.

"Succession to the Crown Act 2013." legislation.gov.uk, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/20/contents/enacted.