catholicism

What: What is Catholicism? It is a mixture of many intellectual and political themes over the last 1700 or 2000 years, depending on how you count it. The 2 major ingredients are a Roman governing structure and a Jewish moral sensibility. In practice it ends up being like Italian Salad dressing, that is 2 incompatible phases, oil and water. The 2 major elements are Roman authoritarianism and Jewish asceticism. Think about it; Catholicism is rich, Roman and very authority driven. It is Italianized Christianity. At its heart it's an Italian institution that's conjoined with the teachings an ascetic Jew who ran around in the desert with very little to his name. Did Jesus live in a Baroque palace? How can these 2 traditions coexist in the same institution?

Writer: LucretiaGermanica

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Date: Jun 28 2010 2:40 AM

What: "Yet in our faith's history, and still practiced in some churches today is a tradition that is uniquely and exclusively ours. No other denomination can lay claim to Gregorian chant and high mass. Catholicism is like a well that has a depth that reaches all the way to Jesus's founding of the Christian faith. High mass is an outward sign of that connection."

Writer: A Customer

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Date: Aug 20 2011 10:02 AM

What: " I never realized how freaky the Catholic Church is. So much pageantry. They actually use smoke and mirrors in their ceremony. How's that for a metaphor for that religion? I always thought christianity was strictly against luxury? Catholicism is like the Prada of religions. so much gold."

Writer: babyhitler

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Date: Aug 20 2011 10:07 AM

What: "Remember I told you that Catholicism is like the moral compass, anchor, well being Irish American is... it gives me a historical frame of reference."

Writer: Sergeant Edward Burn

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Date: Aug 20 2011 10:15 AM

What: "In my humorous opinion, Catholicism is like alcoholism - once you're an alcoholic, the best you can be after that is a recovering alcoholic."

Writer: rjspindle

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Where: Reference Link Has Evaporated

Date: Aug 20 2011 10:20 AM

What: "The pope is just a man, like another preacher or rabbi or religious teacher, no more special than any other. Catholicism is like a cult. Go back to the simplicity of early Christianity."

Writer: killerwhale

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Date: Aug 20 2011 10:22 AM

What: "The steel grip of Catholicism is like a zip file in their brains. Turn the icon in your computer sideways, put it on top of your head, that's what it feels like to be on anti-deperessants when you really don't need them, and it's much the same as the grip the Church has on people who think the best way to protest against child sex abuse in the church is to stop donating to the church."

Writer: Kay Ebeling

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Date: Aug 20 2011 10:25 AM

What: "What is the Catholic Church like? It's like coming across a pool of cold water on a hot day. The water is so cold that trying to tip-toe your way in just won't work. Some decide to cool their feet by wading in the shallow end. Catholicism is like doing a cannonball in the middle of the pool from a running start and finding her to satisfy you from head to toe."

Writer: Tim A. Troutman

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Date: Aug 20 2011 10:27 AM

What: "Catholicism is like a bottomless well - the more you discover, the more there is left to discover. Or it's like a diamond mine - the more you take out, the more there is for future discovery. You can't possibly exhaust the Source."

Writer: Laura Lowder

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Date: Aug 20 2011 10:39 AM

What: "Uh. As my recovering Catholic friend put it, "Catholicism is like herpes: it's the gift that keeps on giving and stays with you forever."

Writer: Telsa Grills

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Date: Aug 20 2011 10:49 AM

What: "From my viewpoint as a former Roman Catholic, Catholicism is like eating at a smorgasbord. Like choosing what food you want to eat, Catholics choose what they want to believe. For example, you have pro-life Catholics and pro-abortion Catholics. Various popes have spoken on this matter but the rank and file Catholics as well as many Catholic teachers have chosen to follow their own counsel. This thread is about why a person would leave the Roman Catholic Church. The lack of consistency of teaching is one reason I left. The unsupported additions to the faith are another."

Writer: Faith.Man

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Date: Aug 20 2011 10:52 AM

What: "If Catholicism predisposes the faithful to obedience, it certainly does not prepare them for inequality; but the contrary may be said of Protestantism, which generally tends to make men independent more than to render them equal. Catholicism is like an absolute monarchy; if the sovereign be removed, all the other classes of society are more equal than in republics."

Writer: Alexis de Tocquevill

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Date: Aug 20 2011 10:57 AM

What: "There are important differences, but there is also something that's the same. Catholicism is like a rare steak, is almost raw in some parts and almost well done in others. A Catholic may be almost Orthodox (certainly a Catholic is not discouraged from trying to be almost Orthodox), and there are a lot of Catholics who believe that Vatican II says that the Reformers were right about everything (or something pretty close to that)."

Writer: Christos Jonathan Se

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Date: Aug 20 2011 11:07 AM

What: " Why are these liberal Catholics so anxious to display their liberalism and so careful to hide their Catholicism? Why, because Catholicism is like the uniform of a soldier. A uniform stands for something. It stands for a cause to which he who ears the uniform has pledged himself. By wearing the uniform, the soldier publicly declares that he has dedicated himself to the cause of his country, and that he is ready to fight, to suffer and to die for it. Even so does the ordinary Catholic who practices his religion."

Writer: Not Stated

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Date: Aug 20 2011 11:10 AM

What: "In one sense, they could still understand what had happened to me as long as I remained a Catholic. I had just become more zealous. Some Catholics are like that: they become more Mary-centred; others become more social justice-centred. I just happened to be Jesus-centred. They say Catholicism is like the Hinduism of the western world: it can absorb lots of things. It is only when you decide that you can't be a part of it that the trouble starts."

Writer: Ray Galea

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Date: Aug 20 2011 11:20 AM

What: Once she surprised devotees by saying: "Catholicism is like a bowl of spaghetti - full of different strands. It is only if you eat them altogether that it will do you any good."

Writer: CRISTINA ODONE

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Date: Aug 20 2011 11:23 AM

What: "I have always found that Catholicism is like a large, loving family. The individual members may loudly disagree with some interpreta­tions but they are one family and in the end, love being with each other. Catholicis­m is a large tent. That's why I love it. There is a wonderful book by Kerry Kennedy called 'Being Catholic Now'. It is made up of small essays by very different people....­all Catholic or raised Catholic."

Writer: Roses

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Date: Aug 20 2011 11:26 AM

What: "My opinion to the current role of Christianity is joyful! Christianity is strong yet diverse! Catholicism is like solid rock and refuses to be pushed around. Filled with dogma and access, it swings bats with the big boys in the international world. Its education is superb and always on demand. Charismatic Christianity is more flexible and lay back. They take streets and try deeply to spread the good news. Greek Orthodoxy has held onto tradition and can give one an early Christian experience."

Writer: loveitself

LCC: BX

Where: Reference Link Has Evaporated

Date: Aug 20 2011 11:32 AM

What: "Catholicism is like a rose. Bright and gaudy on the surface but underneath, it's full of pricks." So are women for that matter. But women should be described as "prickly" and not pricks, for obvious reasons.

Writer: Woody B

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Date: Aug 20 2011 11:38 AM

What: "From a Catholic in the American South, where the dominant traditions are life-loving Anglican cavalier vs dour Presbyterian (and variants) frontiersman, a warm welcome. A Virginia lady from the former tradition converted to Catholicism and told her family (cf your own analogy): "Catholicism is like being Christian in Technicolor." Amen."

Writer: Americanus

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Where: Reference Link Has Evaporated

Date: Aug 20 2011 11:56 AM

What: One of the best takes on the contemporary Catholic Church. See the link for Andrew's monologue about Catholicism. He compares the Church as something beautiful covered with dirt, referring to the rigid Orthodoxies of the priest hierarchy. The idea need a little work, but is worth expanding upon.

Writer: Andrew Sullivan

LCC: BX

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Date: Dec 20 2011 9:13 PM

What: What more needs to be said? If you look at this institution, which is before anything else, an Italian form of christianity, it has a longevity that is rare for such things. My feeling is that there is a deeper driving force for this institution. It's a Mediterranean cult religion that will never let go of the power it once had. And if the prayers of the ruling clique come true, they may return to their glory days. But, in the end, the driving force is a mediterranean sense of the feminine that is unique and distinct from other places.

Writer: LucretiaMia

LCC: BX

Where: Reference Link Has Evaporated

Date: May 13 2012 1:10 PM

What: "Today's Catholicism is like a good meal being served on a dirty plate. Your institutional church has been hijacked and you as a group have the ability to take it back and restore its wholeness and respect in the eyes of the world."

Writer: John Shuster

LCC: BX

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Date: Aug 19 2011 11:19 AM

What: "One reason I cannot stand the conservative Catholic Internet, for example, is because of their worship of the Pope and bishops. As a Latin male, I cannot help but think that such sycophancy is a bit effeminate: "ellos quieren que yo sea el monaguillo del cura" (they want me to be that stupid priest's altar boy). (I don't mean this at all in any homophobic sense.) While I do go to Mass every Sunday and sometimes am edyfied by it, another part of me is spiritually sitting in the town plaza smoking a cigarette, telling dirty jokes to my buddies while I wait for my wife to get out of Mass. You know, how Catholicism is like in Mexico for my compadres."

Writer: ARTURO VASQUEZ

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Where: Reference Link Has Evaporated

Date: Aug 20 2011 11:48 AM