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 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.

Pope John Paul II was born Karol Wojtyla on May 18, 1920 in Poland. He was ordained a priest in 1946, an archbishop in 1964 and a cardinal in 1967. He was elected pope October 16, 1978. Pope John Paul II still has very traditional values. He is against women as priests, he won't allow priests to become involved in government, and takes a stand against homosexuality, abortion, artificial reproduction, birth control and is for priest celibacy. Some people think that his views are a little too harsh. At the Vatican on May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul was shot at close range. He suffered no life threatening injuries (Encarta Encyclopedia). If by chance he had died, he would have been replaced by one of the Cardinals.

This is the general structure of the Catholic Church, as you can see it is not easy to be a practicing part of the church. That may be one of the reasons that many people in the 20th century tried to stray away from it. This is not the only reason that the church has lost the power that it once had over a hundred years ago. In particular the last forty years has been the toughest for the church. In a time of sex, women's rights movements and censorship being disregarded, Catholicism seems to have been outdated.

After the advertisements in the New York Times ran, it seemed that there was a growing tradition to criticize Catholicism in the media. In a study done by CCCCCCCCCCCC of how the media portrays the Catholic Church in different time frames over the 20th century, they found that it wasn't until the early 80's that the media turned against Catholicism. The articles that they found in this time framed made the church look both conservative and oppressive and at many times irrelevant. For example, Pope Paul VI's view on birth control was disputed in a social studies book that was written in the 80's. It said that he should be brought before a world court to be tried for damaging humanity due to over population. Another example is that displayed in a college newspaper, available to the surrounding community was a parody of Mother Elizabeth Seton, the first American Saint. It showed her underneath the title, "Mother Elizabeth Semen: First American Saint" masturbating with the c!

The bishops are supposed to carry out the same role as Jesus' Apostles. Their main duties are to govern the diocese, promote observing Catholic laws and to protect Catholic education. To become a bishop, a man must have been born in wedlock, be at least 30 years old, five of those years he must have spent as a priest, and he must be an informed theologian. Bishops also administer the sacraments of confirmation to the new members of the congregation and holy orders to the new priests (YC 233).

Sacraments and obligations are two of the most essential tasks of being a member of the Catholic Community. There are seven sacraments and a member is required to complete six of them. A member of the church completes these tasks chronologically throughout their life starting at birth, although there are members that join wh

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)