Before World War II, the Catholic Church shared a close bond with the Fascist Government. Catholicism was strong in European countries that had a Fascist Government in control. The Catholic Center Party even voted in favor of Hitler, showing they wanted him to rule Germany (ANT 39). This was because Hitler guaranteed "Catholics freedom to profess and practice their religion freely" and he helped Catholics get "finance and property

The Catholic Church has a very complex structure. To be part of the church you must participate in the sacraments and tend to your obligations. There is also a group of rankings that extends from God all the way down to the clergy member. It is a year round job that should be on your mind at every waking moment. The Catholics even celebrate more occasions and people than other protestant religions do. The Catholic Church is like a chair, if you take away one leg it will still stand, but it will be missing a vital part of its structure.

There are two main aspects of the Catholic Church that most protestant religions either do not support or support in a different way. The first aspect is the Virgin Mary. Mary is the mother of Jesus of Nazareth. She is the only person in recorded history to give birth to a child as a virgin. The story is that the Angel Gabriel came to Joseph, her fiance and told him that Mary is going to give birth to God's son and that he needed to support her. A lot of religions do not believe in this notion of immaculate conception and choose not to support her, while others do not support her or any other forms of mortal idols. In the Catholic Church, Mary is supposed to be the mother of all, who is to take the place of Eve, the woman who was the downfall of humanity (BC 74).

The church obligations, for most people, are the hardest part of being a good Catholic. There are only four obligations. The first is as long as one is healthy you must attend mass every Sunday and every Holy Day of obligation. Holy Days of obligation are appointed by the church council and are announced during the Sunday mass. The second obligation is to observe the rules of lent. There will be more discussion of lent later in this paper. The third obligation of the church is for parents to teach their children the catholic religion. They can do this by either enrolling them in a parochial school or to take them to catechism. The final obligation of the church is to live by the Ten Commandments that were given to us from God and to live by the commandments given to us by the church (YC 217). The commandments given to us by the church comes from the many people who are involved in the church.

a class that allows them to distribute the Holy Eucharist, which is known as the Body of Christ, during communion. Right when the Catholic Church smoothed out their relationship with women, it was inevitable that they would face another adversary.

rucifix like in the movie "The Exorcist." These articles make the public feel that the church is an over oppressive authoritarian institution (ACM 18, 230-231).

The parish is composed of a church, the pastor and the congregation. The parish and the pastor are funded through the collections from the congregation and by fundraisers. This is the most important level of the church. Every Sunday and holy day of obligation the members of the parish meet at the church. They then sing songs, say prayers and confess their faith to God. During the mass a speaker reads a section from the Jewish testament and either an epistle from a saint, the Book of Acts or the Book of Revelation. After the speaker is done, the priest, continuing the work of Jesus, reads a section from one of the four gospels and later explains it in his sermon (YC 234-236). A priest also includes in his sermon the very unique parts of Catholicism that few other protestant support.

One of the toughest parts about being a Catholic is lent. This is the second aspect of the Catholic Church that is supported differently than the other Christian religions. Most protestant religions acknowledge lent, but they do not treat it as sacred as Catholics. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends Easter Sunday. Catholics break lent down into three parts: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. There are four types of prayer that Catholics can choose from. They are to participate in liturgical prayer, which is don

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