The steady decline of the Roman Catholic church continues its steady pace as more and more Catholics become increasingly disillusioned by its teachings and practices.

Over 1,800 US parishes have closed since 1990
July 19, 2011
The number of Catholic parishes in the [...]]]> Jeremiah 51:8 Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.

The steady decline of the Roman Catholic church continues its steady pace as more and more Catholics become increasingly disillusioned by its teachings and practices.

Over 1,800 US parishes have closed since 1990
July 19, 2011
The number of Catholic parishes in the United States fell from 19,620 in 1990 to 17,784 in 2010–a drop of about 10%–according to a study conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

Over the same time span, the US Catholic population grew by nearly 50%, from 46 million to over 69 million.

The overall number of parishes in the US is now only slightly higher than the number in 1965 (17,637).

The average number of Sunday Masses at the typical US parish, according to the study, rose from 3.5 to 3.8 between 2000 and 2010, and average weekend Mass attendance rose from 966 to 1,110.

29% of parishes now have a regularly-scheduled Mass in a language other than English–up from 21% in 2000

Source: catholicculture.org

One of the reasons that made even “Catholic to the bone” Catholics leave the church is the recent revelations about rampant child abuse AND the concealment of the abuse from public view and scrutiny, and protection of the perpetrators.

The Cardinal was a young priest in 1975 when he took part in concealing the crimes of Rev. Brendan Smyth who has since admitted to molesting and raping over 100 children in Ireland and the US. That’s a lot of betrayed innocent victims.

To explain his actions, the Cardinal said: “We had no guidance. We were in uncharted territory, and now we have higher standards, thankfully.” Rape and molestation were no less a crime then than they are now and yet the Cardinal is so removed from the conscience of the society he is a part of that he only acknowledges the church hierarchy as his moral compass. Obviously, the young priest didn’t lack loyalty and was rewarded for it. He makes a devastating case without a clue that’s what he’s admitting.

http://open.salon.com/blog/ben_sen/2010/03/19/why_i_am_no_longer_a_roman_catholic

It won’t be long now when we will personally witness this mighty giant Roman Catholic church completely fades away.

And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

There once was a nation run by prostitutes!

The so-called “Rule of the Harlots” was a period that took place during the first half of the tenth century. It [...]]]> [ad#inline-ad-in-article]

And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

There once was a nation run by prostitutes!

The so-called “Rule of the Harlots” was a period that took place during the first half of the tenth century. It began with the installation of Pope Sergius III in A.D. 904. This strange period in the history of the Papacy lasted for sixty years, ending only with the death of Pope John XII in 964.

“The Rule of the Harlots”, sometimes called a pornocracy, was a nation of prostitutes and a government dominated by them. It all revolved around a Roman woman called Marozia or Mariuccia, who was given the title of senatrix and patricia of Rome by Pope John X. Up until that point, there were no women in the Roman senate. Marozia was teh daughter of the Roman consul Theophylact, Count of Tusculum and of Theodora, a real mover and shaker in Rome, a woman charecterized later by historians as a “shameless whore”. By many lights, it was Theodora herself who really controlled both the city of Rome and the Papacy.

Throughout the “rule of the Harlots”, Pope John Xii(955-963), who was a grandson of Marozia, was guilty of every lewd crime. He violated widows and virgins, took up with his father’s mistress, and turned the Papal Palace into a brothel. Pope John XII met his end when he was killed while caught in the act of adultery by the woman’s enraged husband.

source: 101 things you didn’t know about sex
Eve Marx
Adams Media, 2009
[ad#Google Adsense - 250x250 box]

[ad#Google Adsense article footer 468x60]

REUTERS – Germany’s Catholic bishops confirmed on Tuesday they had sent a damning confidential report on the disgraced retired Bishop Walter Mixa, to Pope Benedict to persuade him that the man had to be removed from his [...]]]> [ad#inline-ad-in-article]
FACTBOX – Sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church
Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:59pm IST

REUTERS – Germany’s Catholic bishops confirmed on Tuesday they had sent a damning confidential report on the disgraced retired Bishop Walter Mixa, to Pope Benedict to persuade him that the man had to be removed from his post.

World

Mixa resigned as bishop of the Bavarian city of Augsburg in April after being accused of slapping schoolboys decades ago and misusing diocesan funds.

Here are some details of major scandals in the Roman Catholic church:

* GERMANY

– Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, Germany’s top Catholic bishop, apologised in March for mistakes he made in failing to report to authorities one case of suspected abuse by a priest in the Freiburg diocese nearly 20 years ago.

– Prosecutors in Freiburg said on June 2 charges of aiding and abetting sexual abuse had been filed against Zollitsch.

– A Jesuit investigation, commissioned in January, last month cited 205 allegations of sexual abuse against priests at Jesuit schools in Germany, revealing decades of systematic abuse and attempts at a cover-up by the Roman Catholic order.

– Since January, media reports have documented more than 250 cases of abuse in Catholic schools, prompting the government to set up a round table to address abuse in Germany.

– Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of Mixa of Augsburg in Bavaria on May 8. Mixa became the first bishop to quit in the pope’s native Germany over church scandals.

* IRELAND

– May 2009 – The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse issued a five-volume report saying that priests abused children for decades in Catholic-run institutions.

– Nov 2009 – The government-commissioned Murphy report into abuse in Dublin from 1975 to 2004 said Church authorities covered up cases of child sexual abuse until the mid-1990s.

– Feb 2010 – Benedict held crisis talks with 24 Irish bishops at the Vatican. The bishops promised him they were committed to cooperating with authorities.

– March 2010 – Benedict apologised to victims of child sex abuse by Irish clergy, saying he felt “shame and remorse”. He also announced a formal Vatican investigation of Irish dioceses, seminaries and religious orders. Irish victims accused the pope of evading the question of Vatican responsibility.

– The pope accepted the resignation of Bishop John Magee of Cloyne, accused of mishandling reports of sexual abuse in his diocese on March 24. He later accepted the resignation of two other Irish bishops.

– The Vatican on May 31 named two cardinals and three archbishops from England, the U.S. and Canada to lead its inquiry into sexual abuse by clergy in Ireland that is to begin in the autumn.

* UNITED STATES:

– June 2002 – The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops agreed to bar paedophile priests from ever again acting as clerics, but not necessarily to expel them from the priesthood.

– Feb 2004 – Independent researchers said 10,667 people accused U.S. priests of child sex abuse from 1950 to 2002. More than 17 percent of accusers had siblings who were also abused.

– July 2007 – The Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $660 million to 500 victims of sexual abuse dating as far back as the 1940s, the largest compensation deal of its kind.

– March 2010 – The Vatican criticised The New York Times for its coverage of the scandals. The Vatican denied any cover-up in the abuse of 200 deaf boys by Reverend Lawrence Murphy from the 1950s to 1960s after the newspaper reported he was not defrocked despite warnings sent to the Vatican and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then the church’s top doctrinal official, now Pope Benedict.

* SWITZERLAND:

– The Swiss bishops’ conference said on June 2 that between January and May 2010 it had received reports of 72 perpetrators abusing 104 victims, up from 14 perpetrators and 15 victims in 2009.

* AUSTRIA:

- A rash of reports of child sexual abuse in Austrian Catholic institutions was triggered by the resignation of the arch-abbot of Salzburg’s St Peter’s monastery in March after admitting to sexually abusing a boy 40 years ago.

* AUSTRALIA:

- July 2008 – On a visit to Australia, Pope Benedict apologised for sex abuse by clergy. At that time there had been 107 convictions for abuse in the Australian Catholic church.

* BRITAIN:

- July 2000 – London Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor acknowledged making a mistake in a previous post in the 1980s by allowing a paedophile priest to continue working. The priest was jailed in 1997 for abusing nine boys.

* BELGIUM:

- Roger Vangheluwe, the bishop of Bruges, resigned on April 23 after admitting he had sexually abused a boy more than 20 years ago when in charge of the Bruges diocese.

* MEXICO:

- In March 2009 Pope Benedict ordered an inquiry into the Legionaries of Christ priestly order, whose founder was discovered to be a sexual molester. In 2006, the pope told the founder, Father Marcial Maciel, to retire to a life of “prayer and penitence”. Maciel died in 2008.

– His order acknowledged in 2009 that he had fathered at least one child with a mistress, and it formally apologised to his victims in March 2010.
[ad#Google Adsense - 250x250 box]

[ad#Google Adsense article footer 468x60]

What is generally accepted and agreed upon by all Christian professing religions of today is that the Lord Jesus Christ established a church in the first century when He was still here on earth. This church was founded and headed by the Lord Jesus Christ and of course would be [...]]]> [ad#inline-ad-in-article]

Ignatius of Antioch

The simple answer: NO

What is generally accepted and agreed upon by all Christian professing religions of today is that the Lord Jesus Christ established a church in the first century when He was still here on earth. This church was founded and headed by the Lord Jesus Christ and of course would be called after Him, the church of Christ. He had a few helpers primary of whom are the Apostles.

Most Catholics believe that their church, the Roman Catholic church is the church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ. They use all sorts of so-called “sources” and even claim history attest to the validity of their claim. They claim that since the Roman Catholic church is 2000 years old, they can only be the only church which had a direct connection with the church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ.

My own little research did not yield a single document that would help proves this claim to be correct. What I am comfortable in accepting based on what I’ve learned from my church, the Iglesia ni Cristo, is that the Apostles foretold of a turning back of the church built by the Lord Jesus Christ. So, even if the Catholic church may turn out to have a direct connection with the church built by the Lord Jesus Christ, it bears no resemblance to the original church preached by the Lord Jesus and His Apostles.

What is a “church”

I am not a minister and this article is not meant to indoctrinate the reader of the teachings of my church. All this is is a “common sense” take on the question:  Is the Roman Catholic church the church built by the Lord Jesus Christ? With that said the following definitions gives us a clearer idea as to what the word mean.

The first paragraph of Colossians 1:18 clearly defined the meaning of “church”.

He is also head of the body, the church;

Webster.com defines the word church this way:

3 often capitalized : a body or organization of religious believers:

Clearly then, the church is the “body” or society whose head is the Lord Jesus Christ. And because the church is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is rightly called after Him, the body of Christ or the Church of Christ.

So, the church build by Christ, headed by Christ cannot be called by any other name. For by doing so one would be disregarding the importance of the name and would lose that connection to Christ.

Who first used the name “catholic”

What about the Catholic church? When it first come into being? The Catholic church came into being when a group of me collectively called “church fathers” of a began calling themselves catholic.

The first one to use the word was Ignatius of Antioch in 110 AD. By this date, all of the Apostles were already dead and the writing of scriptures had ended. The writings of Ignatius can then be safely and rightfully called “unbiblical”. The first known usage of the name “Catholic Church” was first attributed to Policarp in 155 AD. The list goes on.

Suffice it to say, the Catholic church is not the church mentioned in the bible.
[ad#inline-ad-in-article]