The Catholic Religion: Both Universal and Roman

This week we had the chance of a lifetime. The chance that not a lot of people get to receive and we may never receive it again. This chance is the ability to see the pope and have seats for his audience presentation. This was a life changing experience to say the least! When Walsh University was called out, I felt very honored to attend such a great university. Every Wednesday people from all over the world come to Rome, Italy to see the Pope speak. Because of this tremendous outcome every week, a sense of universal comes to the church, but when viewing the history and tradition of the church a sense of roman also comes to play.

The Catholic religion is probably the most well known and universal religion that exists today. Back in the United States, every big city and county has a catholic school. The Pope is universally known as the moral leader of the world, and if there is ever an issue in the world, the Pope usually always releases statements that express the church’s view. Another way that the church is universal is through the Vatican II. Before the church was spoken just in Latin which did not make the church easily accessible to people uneducated. However, now the mass is in the language that is spoken in the region that the church is located in. This allows for the church to be practiced all over the world and in any language making it more universal.

Even though the church is universal, there is still a sense of the religion being roman. First, the history that is behind the catholic religion allows it to be most roman. For example, the pope has always resided in Rome, Italy and once had secular power over the entire Roman region. Second, one of the most important saints (St. Peter) was buried in Rome right under the Basilica that houses the capitol of the catholic religion. Second item that makes the religion roman is the tradition of the religion. Every week day the address is completed only in Rome. People come to Rome to view the most religious practices and artifacts. No matter how universal the catholic religion gets, Rome is and will always be the Capitol of the church. This practice allows the catholic religion to be named Roman Catholic.

In all, no matter what religion someone is, they know who the pope is and how important he is in the world. The catholic religion is known everywhere and is one of the most universal religions in this world. Rome is also a very important symbol of this religion. Because of this, the religion is both universal and roman.