Biggest strength of the Catholic Church

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To me, the biggest strengths of the Catholic Church are its consistency, unity, leadership structure, and its ties to the early Church.

*Consistency *-- It doesn’t change its long-held beliefs or bow to political correctness or latch on to every popular fad that exists out there like some other Christian traditions do.

*Unity *-- Catholics seem to stay united and try to work out their differences instead of just leaving and forming another Christian denomination.

*Leadership Structure *-- Easy to understand and logical leadership structure similar to the military, in my opinion.

*Ties to Earliest Christians *-- The Catholic Church can trace its origins back to the beginning of Christianity. Very few other Christian faith traditions can.
 
I am taking a course on the foundation of Petrine authority at our regional seminary.

It takes time to really study our faith history as it entails all of human life in determining what happened in the earliest times of the Church.

I will add here that one consistent stand in the Church is that Peter and Paul came to Rome for the Church, nothing for imperialism. There have come disputes within the hierarchy and the earlier ones were about the ecclesia vs imperialism.

Our Lord’s kingdom is not of this world…today’s gospel by the way.

The life, focus, and structure of the Church is based on the living reality of Jesus Christ guided by the Holy Spirit. If you get mixed up or confused by like let’s say, the talk coming out of the recent Synod these days, all you have to do is pull out our Catholic catechism to hang in there. The catechism contains all our beliefs and these will never change.

When there were anti popes, the latter were vigorous in disciplining lapsed Catholics, but the original elected pope focusing on reconcilation and pastoral care. Resolution would come by partisan uprisings, even, and the original issue being resolved…which would come at the first elected pope, not the anti pope.

Don’t let anti pope title scare you. Pope John XIII had a statue of anti pope Apolitis made and put in entrance to Vatican Library because he had added to many doctrines of the Church. He was just so vigorous as a theologian, wanting to excommunicate lapsed Catholics who did not have the strength to die for Christ in persecutions.

It is the Papacy who is truly representing Christ the Good Shepherd Who always is seeking His lost sheep.
 
Tommy999 said:
To me, the biggest strengths of the Catholic Church are its consistency, unity, leadership structure, and its ties to the early Church.

*Consistency *-- It doesn’t change its long-held beliefs or bow to political correctness or latch on to every popular fad that exists out there like some other Christian traditions do.

*Unity *-- Catholics seem to stay united and try to work out their differences instead of just leaving and forming another Christian denomination.

*Leadership Structure *-- Easy to understand and logical leadership structure similar to the military, in my opinion.

*Ties to Earliest Christians *-- The Catholic Church can trace its origins back to the beginning of Christianity. Very few other Christian faith traditions can.
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And you’re joining RCIA when? 😃
 
Without a doubt, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. :highprayer:
 
wendiek said:
Of course the Eucharist. I’m always amazed and saddened that lapsed Catholics have so many excuses for leaving the church when in the end, they deny themselves the grace of the Eucharist every Sunday. I struggle without Him.
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Beautiful but direct answer. The Eucharist should be the center of our lives as Catholics becuasei ti is the Lord.
 
Tommy999 said:
To me, the biggest strengths of the Catholic Church are its consistency, unity, leadership structure, and its ties to the early Church.

*Consistency *-- It doesn’t change its long-held beliefs or bow to political correctness or latch on to every popular fad that exists out there like some other Christian traditions do.

*Unity *-- Catholics seem to stay united and try to work out their differences instead of just leaving and forming another Christian denomination.

*Leadership Structure *-- Easy to understand and logical leadership structure similar to the military, in my opinion.

*Ties to Earliest Christians *-- The Catholic Church can trace its origins back to the beginning of Christianity. Very few other Christian faith traditions can.
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Very good I like your response.
 
CrossofChrist said:
The other thread I started seems to be headed in the direction of “why you aren’t Catholic”. So, to prevent this question from being passed over, I decided to start this thread. 🙂

To non-Catholics: What do you think is the biggest strength of the Catholic Church?
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Prayer Life.
 
I would say the biggest strength of the Catholic Church is the huge amount of money it has. Or perhaps its ability to control or at least influence the opinions of its huge membership worldwide.
 
CrossofChrist said:
Like, different devotions or spiritualities? Numerous religious orders and monasteries? How much the Church promotes prayer (e.g Eucharistic adoration)? etc…

Or just everything?
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Everything. The Mass, Devotions, Spiritualities, LotH, Monasteries, et. al. The Prayer Life of the Church is amazing.
 
Kliska said:
From the other thread; The biggest strength, that’s tough. I think there is a definite pull for many non-denominational protestants like me that it would be a relief if we actually believed that the pope was infallible and could just tell us what to do, believe, etc… Kind of like having a leader in an army and everything they say goes, only they were never wrong when issuing direct orders. I also like the connected idea that each parish (in theory) is on the same page, so you can go in any RCC parish and (theoretically) have the same beliefs and actions present.

I’ve always felt that protestants do a good, clear, concise job presenting the gospel, and putting the emphasis on a direct relationship with God, but where we struggle is with the “now what?” lol
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I personally don’t like to interpret the leadership of the Pope in the way that you describe in the bolded. We already know what to do and believe from Jesus. The Holy Spirit guides us into all Truth, and many times he uses the Pope as a tool of Confirmation and of universal practice. Though, like you say, there is some “relief” about letting him as a legitimate and authorative leader guide us in matters which spring up from time to time. This, I think is what you meant, and if so, I agree.
cheese_sdc said:
The biggest strength of Catholicism is it’s stories. The story central to Christianity is the incarnation of your god. It drives the rest of your theology and is the basic foundation of all Catholic thought. It drives your thinking on sacraments, original sin, atonement.

The story of resurrection and redemption are second in importance and power to the incarnation.

Finally, the multitude of miracle stories are somewhat important, but not as much as the incarnation.
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Intresting Cheese…
I think our Father has revealed this to you. I would remind that the Church considers Easter (Pascha) to be the holiest of events in time, but I can also see how you can see the Incarnation as containing all of the mysteries wrapped up inside. Kinda like an unarmed bomb in a peacefull environment. 😛 That’s a wierd way to imagine it, sorry.
 
Tied between the sacraments and our lineage that goes all the way back to Christ himself. No other Church has these.
No other Church has the sacrifice and no other Church has the early Church fathers who were so clearly Catholic.
 
Nixbits said:
I would say the biggest strength of the Catholic Church is the huge amount of money it has. Or perhaps its ability to control or at least influence the opinions of its huge membership worldwide.
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I wish that both of these things were really true.
 
The Roman Catholic Church offers a lot of structure to those who want it, and that structure is backed up by a robust intellectual tradition.

I suppose they’re also widely known, so you don’t have to explain yourself to people when they ask what church you go to.
 
The Church is the greatest humanitarian institution in the world giving more to those in need than any other country, including the USA. The managing office is not located at the Vatican.

However, the Vatican itself has its deficits and parishes every so often need help as their lights are ready to be shut off. True. And the Vatican does not own Bank of America, like some people in the USA.
 
I don’t know about Catholicism as a whole, but the thing that stuck out to me as being pretty cool was the Rosary. My husband gave me one, and I still keep it in my pocket even though I don’t really buy into the faith aspects. It’s a nice symbol.
 
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