When visiting a religious site and service I tend to be critical about the way in which the service was performed and how it differs from my own experiences, however I like to learn more. Consequently for my last religious site visit report I was able to accompany a friend of mine to his St. Joseph Catholic Church service in the Elk Grove area. I had for a long time wanted to attend a Catholic service and found it much like I had anticipated.

The Catholic Mass was held in an old building that had been greatly remodeled and was very modern in art, style and construction. We sat in the first half section of the congregation and I had a good view of everything that was going on. I found out that in order to have an official catholic mass meeting place it must have three things. First the meeting place must have a crucifix, second it must have a tabernacle with bread or the body of Christ in it and third it must have a candle lit near the tabernacle. The crucifix is to remind the congregation and clergy of the sacrifice Christ made for us on the cross. The tabernacle, covered bowl or container holds the bread, which has been blessed and turned into the body of Christ. The Tabernacle always holds the body of Christ in between meetings and when a new meeting is held the bread or body is replaced with a newly blessed bread or body of Christ. The Catholics believe that this bread once blessed becomes the body of Christ. This is not to be confused with representing the body of Christ like most Protestant churches believe. The third and last object that is needed to create a place of worship is a candle burning near the tabernacle and I believe it is remnant from the flame the lord required the Israelites to burn in the tabernacle. As long as there is the body of Christ in the tabernacle the flame is to be still lit.

The service, or mass as called in Catholicism, had songs, prayers and teachings, but the single most important part of the service was the communion or partaking of the body of Christ. This is partaken by all the congregation in form of a wafer and the blood of Christ soon follows in the form of wine or grape juice.

The Catholics have sacraments or special tenants, which in some cases help separate them from other Christian religions. The first is called Baptism and is performed by a sprinkling of water over the believer’s head. This is to symbolize rebirth and must be performed in order to become a member of the church. The second is confirmation, which is a verbal agreement between the newly baptized member and God or the Priest. Penance is the third sacrament and is performed by confessing your sins to the Priest during a special confession time. Priests are protected from the law in a case where the member has committed an illegal activity and they are not responsible to report it to the government. Eucharist is also a form of sacrament where the blood of Christ is partaken and reminds the member of the sacrifice Christ made for us all. Marriage is a different type of sacrament and is performed by a priest in the church. This brings together a man and wife to be “blessed” by the church. Holy Orders are special orders done by and to priests in the church. For example when an ordination is taken place and a priest receives the priesthood this is a Holy Order. Unction is the last sacrament and is considered healing of the sick. I was able to see this sacrament when I attended and it was performed by reading off the names of people who where sick and needed the blessings of the Lord.

The Catholic religion has lots of symbolism involved and the experience is to help create, as some would say, a “World Full of God.” Catholics place God everywhere and most devout Catholics carry a rosary or cross around their neck.

The Catholic Church believes abortion to be a sin before God. They believe life starts at conception and aborting a child out of this world is murder and should be treated as such. The Catholic Catechism states “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person -- among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.”

Capital punishment unlike most other civil rights issues is different going from every religion to another. Eighty percent of Catholics including priests support the death sentence as a form of punishment. The Catechism states: “the traditional teaching of the Church has acknowledged as well-founded the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty."

The Catholic Church has been very welcoming of different races and I believe this is one of the reasons the Catholic Church has been so successfully spread around the world. For example in the early history of California the Catholic Spaniards came and tried to convert all the natives. They did a very good job and this is one reason why the Mexicans have such a deep Catholic history. The Catholics have supported colored priests such as in South Africa and in other places around the world. The Catholic Church has been very welcoming to all people and I believe will continue to in the future.

I personally found the catholic mass very interesting and honestly I found this religion (as I see it) to have many of the basic tenants that a more pure Christianity has. I believe the people as a whole tend to desire to be good people and strive to do what the church says. I think that for the most part the catholic people are probably above average in morals, education and maturity compared to most others around them. I believe that for the common participator Catholicism is a nice place to rest and enjoy the peace God brings.

Despite my obviously positive opinion of the people of the church, I believe the clergy or priesthood is confused by power. I think that due to modern social issues the people with the help of the clergy have bent the church. The Catholics used to be called a democratic church because they would elect a clergyman by election of the people. We must realize that a church of God cannot be lead by the elect of the world but must be by the elect of God. We must strive to be more like God and his ways and in the process we cannot be swayed by the election of the people. I have also found the activities of the Catholic Priests in these modern days to be very embarrassing to the church and the people. All churches no matter how right or how wrong they are, will have mistakes of men, however to have such serious mistakes in such a large numbers is an alarming signal of what is really going on in these churches. These recent acts would make you question who is really leading and what else are they hiding?

I believe that the Catholic Church is trying to cleanse itself and is trying to change however this will mean one of two things, either the church will fail or it will succeed in becoming once again a respected and growing denomination.

Work Cited:

Chappell, Dave. A Citizens Guide to Washington State Legislature. 11-24-03. <http://www2.localaccess.com/chappell/>.

Lobby, Websters Dictionary. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam Webster, 1998.

Marsh, Benjamin C. Lobbyist For The People. Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1953.

Nelson, Thomas. Interest Groups and Lobbying. Thomas Learning. 11-24-03 <http://polisci.nelson.com>.

Patterson, Thomas E. We The People. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000.

Vivian, John. The Media of Mass Communication. Boston: Winona State University, 2003.

© Copyright 2004, John Heathcote. All Rights Reserved.