Chapter 2
Who Are Catholics?
Catholicism in Canada
• French Catholics were among first European settlers to come to Canada over 400
years ago.
– Samuel de Champlain led an expedition to the New World in 1605.
– He built the first permanent settlements in Nova Scotia.
– The French spread east and north into Québec, eastern Ontario, and
northern Ontario.
– The majority of French Catholics settled in Québec, so the Catholic Church
became very influential in Québec.
• The Catholic Church was present in everyday life:
– It set up first social services, feeding the hungry, serving the poor, taking
care of orphans and elderly people, built the first hospitals, and set up
schools so settlers and their children could be educated.
– Catholic communities formed across the land, made up of Aboriginal
peoples, Irish and Scottish people, and later Italians, Ukrainians, Portuguese,
Filipinos, and other Catholics from many countries.
Catholics in Canada Today
• Although religion does not play a dominant role in society today, as it did in
the past, 78% of Canada’s total population are Christians.
• 43% are Catholics, nearly 1/2 of whom are French-speaking.
• 1 in every 4 immigrants to Canada is Catholic, so the percentage of Catholics
has stayed fairly stable over the past few decades, even though the birth rate
among Canadian-born Catholics is declining.
• About 75% of Canada’s Catholics live in Québec, eastern Ontario, the Greater
Toronto Area, and New Brunswick.
The History of Catholicism
Jesus of Nazareth
• Catholics trace their origin to Jesus of Nazareth, whom they acknowledge to
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be the Son of God.
Jesus came from Nazareth, a small village in the Galilee region of the Holy
Land.
He was the son of Mary and Joseph, a carpenter.
We know almost nothing about Jesus until he was about 30 years old.
Around 28 CE, he travelled to the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin,
John the Baptist.
The Gospel of Mark says as Jesus was coming up out of the water after being
baptized, the heavens were torn apart and the Holy Sprit descended on Jesus
like a dove. A voice from heaven said “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I
am well pleased” (Mark 1:9–11).
After his baptism, Jesus went to Galilee and began a ministry of healing and
preaching.
He taught his followers about the “kingdom of God” and how it was near and
already at work in his deeds and works.
Jesus’ Death and Resurrection
• Jesus chose 12 disciples and sent them around Galilee to proclaim the
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kingdom of God and to heal people.
Jesus’ message was not well received by Jewish religious leaders.
His impact on the unstable political situation in Judea also made Roman
authorities uneasy.
As a result, Jesus was condemned to death in 30 CE, leaving his followers
devastated.
On the third day after his death, some women followers went to his tomb to
anoint his body, but the tomb was empty.
That same day, Jesus appeared to his disciples and wished them peace.
The disciples experienced the risen Jesus and realized Jesus was the Messiah.
They began to spread this message, and from their preaching, Christianity was
born.
Jesus had promised to send the Holy Spirit as their helper.
He repeated that promise during his appearance to the 12 disciples after his
resurrection.
50 days later, the Holy Spirit descended upon them in tongues of fire.
Christians celebrate this day as the beginning of the Church.
Rituals: The Building Blocks of Religion
• The Catholic tradition is structured as and acts as a religion.
• One main point of comparison between Catholicism and other religions is
ritual structure.
The Need for Religion
• Human beings need religion because it gives our lives meaning.
• Language and ritual actions are what set us apart from all other life forms.
The Importance of Stories
• Humans have created meaningful explanations about their place on Earth in
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the form of myths.
Cultures are formed from sets of meanings in myths.
Myths tells us about people, events, or actions by relating stories about their
origins.
A myth of the creation of the first man and woman tells us about man and
woman, their origin in God, their relationship, marriage, children, etc.
A myth is neither history nor fiction, but is a way of telling a deep truth.
Religion has played a key role in creating these stories and cultures.
In expressing the meaning of their lives, humans acknowledge their lives are
bonded to something holy that is bigger than they are.
Rituals: The Holy and Identification
• Rituals are the actions and language that bond people to the holy.
• Rituals are at the heart of all religions and they help us discover who we are.
• Ritual actions identify someone, their religion, and their identity.
Similarities among Religious Rituals
• Many things are common to all rituals:
– they began in the distant past
– they follow set rules of conduct that change very little over time
– they have clear beginnings and ends
– they do not seem to have practical results in the world
– they say something about the individuals who participate in them; who
we are as human beings, where we are going
– they say something about our Earth, about time, about the holy, about
God or other sacred beings
– ritual and story together spell out the way of life of the participants
– participating in rituals forms us for a particular view of the world and
tells us what it means to live in the world
Differences among Religious Rituals
• Because the rituals of each religion are different, they shape different
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worldviews and express different beliefs, different understandings of human
existence, of the holy, of time, and of the divine.
Religious rituals help create relationships between individuals and
communities and what is seen as most important in their faith tradition.
To participate in a ritual is to say “I accept what this religion considers sacred; I
say yes to the world that this ritual seeks to bring into being.”
For these reasons, it is normally improper to take part in the rituals of another
religion.
However, learning about their religious rituals can help us understand another
person’s religion.
Catholic Rituals: Sacraments and Liturgy
Sacraments
• Catholics have many rituals, some of which are sacramental liturgies.
• The most important liturgy for Catholics is Sunday Mass.
• Christians believe that God encounters them in the rituals of the sacraments.
• Catholics believe there are seven sacraments.
• All Christians accept baptism, but not all the other sacraments.
• The Church believes all sacraments have their source in Jesus Christ and make
Jesus present to us today through the work of the Holy Spirit.
• All important life experiences have rituals, including birth, growth, forgiveness,
sickness, and vocation in life.
• In the Sacraments, Christians encounter Jesus in important moments of their
lives.
Liturgy
• In the liturgy of all sacrament, Jesus’ life and teachers are recalled and
celebrated through scripture stories and rituals.
– In the sacrament of anointing the sick, the priest reads a story of Jesus
healing someone.
– The priest lays hands on the sick person and anoints the person’s head
and hands with oil.
– In marriage, a story from the Bible about love and commitment is read
and followed by the bride and groom’s words of commitment to each
other.
– The word of God and the ritual action together make the two into a
married couple.
• Through participation in the liturgical rituals, God’s work in Christ comes alive
in people today.
Rite of Initiation
• Through the ritual actions and words of baptism, people become Christians
and members of the Catholic Church.
• For full initiation into the Church, a person is baptized, confirmed, and
receives the Eucharist.
Baptism
• Baptism involves a priest or deacon pouring water over the person’s head and
saying “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit.”
• Through these actions and words, the baptized person receives a new identity
and new life in God—he or she becomes Christian.
Confirmation
• The sacrament of confirmation is celebrated through the laying on of hands
and the anointing with perfumed oil.
• It completes baptism.
Eucharist
• Initiation is completed and continued in Sunday Mass.
• The liturgy of Mass has hardly changed since the 3rd and 4th centuries.
• Mass or Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life.
• It has two parts: the Liturgy of the Word, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
• Through the Eucharistic prayer, the whole Church prays that the Holy Spirit
will unite all people in one body and one spirit and heal all divisions among
people.
• The highlight of participation is Communion, in which people eat and drink
the gift of the Body and Blood of Christ.
• By participating in the Eucharist, Catholics are affirming and committing
themselves to God’s great act of saving and reshaping the world in the image
of Jesus Christ.
Marking Time
• Religious rituals identify what we think is important in life and shape how and
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when we celebrate our traditions.
Each religion has certain times set aside for the sacred: for Muslims it is
Friday; for Jews, it is Shabbat (Saturday); and for Christians, it is Sunday.
Each religion determines when its rituals are celebrated based on different
historical and cultural factors, such as
– a five-day, seven-day, or nine-day week
– a calendar based on the cycle of the Sun or Moon
– the importance of specific feasts or festivals and the division of a
liturgical year into High and Ordinary times
Rituals are celebrated in cycles that stay the same from year to year and
generation to generation.
Though the rituals do not change themselves, they create change in the
people who celebrate them.
Through rituals, people are shaped into mature members of their religion.
Catholics and the Marking of Time
• For Catholics, time is intended to develop one’s relationship to God and to
fashion a world that reflects the compassionate and loving God.
• Time also unfolds the mystery of Jesus in one’s life.
The Liturgical Year
• The Church has created a liturgical calendar that organizes the liturgical year
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around the stories of Jesus.
The liturgical year celebrates all the major events in the life of Jesus, feast days
and holy days like Pentecost, and saints’ days like the feast of St. Paul.
It is divided into 5 seasons: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and two sessions of
Ordinary Time, and begins with the first Sunday of Advent.
By celebrating the rituals of the liturgical calendar, Catholics remember all the
major events of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.
The last Sundays before Advent look forward to the second coming of Christ.
Each season is represented in the liturgical year by a colour:
– green for Ordinary Time
– white for Holy Thursday and Easter
– purple for Advent and Lent including Good Friday
The Importance of Sunday
• Early Christians celebrated Jesus’ resurrection every Sunday.
• Easter Sunday is the most solemn of Christian feasts, and is called the “Sunday
of Sundays,” and the “feast of feasts.”
Marking the Times of the Day
• Jesus said to “pray always.”
• Catholics are encouraged to pray in the morning, evening, and before meals.
Easter
• The death and resurrection of Jesus is one of the most important beliefs of
Christianity.
• The celebration of this Paschal Mystery begins with Mass on Holy Thursday
evening and ends with evening prayer on Easter Sunday—this is called
Triduum.
• The most solemn liturgy of the Triduum takes place on Holy Saturday night and
is called the Easter Vigil.
• The Vigil begins in darkness until the light of the risen Christ is brought into the
church, and the Paschal candle is lit.
• New members are baptized, confirmed, and admitted to Eucharist at the Vigil.
• The Easter season lasts for 50 days and ends with the feast of Pentecost.
Christmas–Epiphany (Theophany)
• Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus and ends with the arrival of the Magi
on the feast of the Epiphany.
• In the Western Church, the birth of Jesus is celebrated on December 25.
• The Eastern Church, using the Julian calendar, celebrates it on January 7.
Feasts of Mary and the Saints
• The Church celebrates a number of feast days honouring Mary because God’s
call for Mary to be the mother of Jesus connects her to the ministry and to
Jesus.
• The Church also remembers the martyrs and other saints who lived as Christ
did.
• The Canadian saints are the Canadian Martyrs, St. Marguerite d’Youville, St.
Marguerite Bourgeoys, Blessed Marie de l’Incarnation, Blessed Kateri
Tekakwitha, and Blessed François de Laval.
• Catholics often turn to the saints in prayer to intercede with God because they
resemble Christ in different ways.
Rituals and Community
• Rituals bond communities together in a common experience.
• The longer a ritual lasts and the more often it is repeated, the more the
community moves as one.
Catholic Rituals Strengthen a Person’s Belonging to the Church
The Eucharist Makes the Church
• Community is very important to Catholicism.
• Catholics celebrate that in this broken world, God acts among them to
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overcome division and to make all of humanity one.
The Eucharist makes the Church a sign and symbol of God’s community.
The symbols of this unity are the bishops, especially the Bishop of Rome—the
pope.
Bishops oversee the gathering of all believers into communion or community.
Because the final prayer of Jesus was a prayer for unity of his followers, the
division of Christianity into churches that do not accept each other is an
obstacle to the mission of Christians to be one.
Catholics believe that, in the Eucharist, God gathers into one family all who
believe in Christ, wherever they live in the world.
Central Beliefs
Rituals Shape the Beliefs of a Religion
• Rituals communicate something important through symbol, word, and action
that words alone cannot convey.
• Catholics sign themselves with the sign of the cross to signify the importance
of and their belief in the Trinity.
• Religious beliefs are usually learned by participating in rituals, and become
part of life.
• Liturgical rituals reveal the holy and express the deepest convictions about
what is ultimately true.
Catholic Liturgy Shapes Catholic Beliefs
• Catholics express and affirm their beliefs in their ritual celebrations.
• The primary source of their beliefs is found in the Bible and in the
interpretations of the Bible.
• During the Liturgy of the Word, passages from the Old and New Testaments
are read and explained.
• The proclamation of the Gospel about Jesus is the high point of the Liturgy of
the Word.
The Creed
• Catholics recite the Creed each Sunday after the homily.
• The Creed is like a story with three parts.
• “I believe in God, the Father almighty…”
– Catholics pledge themselves to the Father because they love and trust
God.
– “Abba” or “Father” is the name Jesus used when he spoke to God in
prayer.
• “I believe in Jesus Christ…”
– The heart of the Creed is about Jesus Christ, the Father’s only Son and the
Lord.
– Catholics pledge themselves to Jesus because he is the Word of God.
– The creed speaks only about the death and resurrection of Jesus because it
reveals the mystery of God’s participation in human suffering and death.
• “I believe in the Holy Spirit…”
– The Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son.
– The Spirit of God is “the gift” that dwells within human hearts and acts in
the rest of creation.
– When Catholics pledge themselves to the Holy Spirit, they also promise to
respect, protect, and promote all living things.
Morality
• Moral teachings tell believers how to live in the world and what kind of people
they are to become.
• The ritual or liturgical life of each religion shapes that religion’s moral teachings.
Catholic Liturgy and Morality
• Catholic moral teaching is based on philosophical positions and theological
reflections.
• Three examples of the Catholic tradition and morality shaped through scriptures
are:
– Catholicism is the celebration of God’s love of humans and the world.
Scriptures say God has an intense desire for human well-being and health
and, to express that, the scriptures use the word “salvation.”
– Catholics are grateful for the gift of love at the heart of all existence.
Catholic liturgy is to give praise and thanks, mirroring the love God has for
them.
– The highest expression of this response is in the Sermon on the Mount,
which says followers of Jesus must be perfect “as your heavenly Father is
perfect.”
Love and Justice
• Justice means giving others what is due to them—adequate food, shelter,
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security, and whatever they need to live a life of dignity.
Catholics are fed through the scriptures and Communion at Sunday Mass and
are told to feed others.
The Catholic Church teaches that this is achieved through the doctrine of social
justice.
These teachings were developed in the 19th and 20th centuries to help working
people who were suffering because of industrialization.
The Church pointed out that all people deserve to be respected and treated
well because they were created by God.
God’s desire for justice is found in the Spirit's presence in the world’s religions .
Love and Respect for Life
• Catholics believe human life has great value and dignity and that it is a gift from
God.
• The life of every person is sacred from the moment of conception until the
moment of natural death.
• Christ teaches about respecting life in all people.
Family Life
Catholics and Family Life
• The family and the home play key roles in the Catholic faith.
• For Catholics, marriage is a sacrament.
• Catholic couples are to model their relationship on the faithfulness of Christ
and love that Jesus had for all people in the Gospels.
• The Second Vatican Council called the family a “domestic church.”
• A child learns how to love through the love he or she receives from parents,
siblings, and relatives.
• Catholic parents are called to teach their children how to live, love, pray, and
take part in the life of the Church, particularly the Sunday Eucharist.
A Catholic Home
• In a Catholic home Catholic symbols are often displayed: a cross or crucifix, a
palm branch, or an advent wreath.
• At Christmas they may set up a nativity scene and decorate their home with
lights.
• Catholics are also urged to pray together.
• Many pray before meals or at bedtime with children.
Catholic Education
• For Catholics, religion is a public act that has a place in all aspects of their
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lives, including education.
The Catholic Church says parents have the right to choose their children’s
education.
In many countries, parents can send their children to a Catholic school.
In the 1960s, the pope and the world’s Catholic bishops prepared a document
saying, “The future of humanity lies in the hands of those who are strong
enough to provide coming generations with reasons for living and hoping.”
Catholic schools work to contribute to society in this way.