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Catholic Belief
God,
according to Catholic belief, is worshipped
in church as the eternal and merciful One who has created
the universe in all its vastness, beauty and complexity and
has created woman and man, all individually, as the apex of creation.
In an act of further selfdisclosure, God became incarnate
Himself in a particular time and place in the person of Jesus
Christ, the God-Man, a Galilean Jew who lived just over 2000 years
ago and still lives today. Through his torture and physical
crucifixion just outside the walls of Jerusalem, he has
transformed all human and cosmic creation with all its suffering
and sinfulness through His rising from the dead on the first
Easter Sunday.
Each person living in the world is called to be a follower of
Jesus, and each at the end of time will stand before God to be
judged on their response to His call in the way they have
believed, in the way they have behaved.
The Christian Church, composed of saints and sinners, was
established by Christ and has continued down through history, led
by the College of Bishops united around the Pope, the Bishop of
Rome. God's presence continues in our time through His word in the
Bible and the Church's living tradition and in the seven
sacraments which celebrate life's most sacred moments such as
birth and marriage. Each Sunday, in the Eucharist, all Catholics
around the world come together in a religious celebration where
God is made truly present through the bread and wine, fruits of
the earth and work of human hands.
As a way of healing, the Church continues God's transforming
action through its work in schools and universities, its work in
helping the poor and the disadvantaged, the refugee and the
dispossessed, and in working for change against evils such as
abortion, gambling, drug addiction, people and drug trafficking,
sexuality misuse, corporate and internet crime, and the
misuse of authority and power. The glory of God is man and woman
fully alive.
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