Blog #6 GL 350

Rome is like the origin of the Catholic Church, when you go through the city and visit all of the different historic monuments you can just see how the Roman lifestyle has just always intertwined with the Catholic Church and vice-versa. Roman people often reflect the catholic traditions and do everything in the name of the church. You can really see this devotion in the construction of the buildings. Nowhere else in the world can you find massive beautiful churches covered in the wonderful arts of the most skilled painters and sculptors in history on every block that you walk. You can also see this devotion in their words as well; they have always truly appreciated what has been given to them by God. “I fall, I stray, and yet your beauty makes me happy and nothing else can please my heart in love with everything sublime but that, descending here to me on earth, you are not set apart…” – Michelangelo.

            The Catholic Church is even usually understood to mean the same as Roman Catholic Church. It’s obvious that a culture has made a major impact on a religion and way of life when the name of your city is globally understood and combined with the name of the actual religion. If you look at the Italian health care system it always has and still does reflect the ideas of the Catholic Church. The church believes in caring for everyone around you, loving everybody like they were family because everybody is family. One must take care of the others around them and in return other people will take care of him. Barzini often talks about the importance of family for the Italians and how much support they will get from their families. Italians are a very close knit people. This is how Rome has always operated, looking at the grand scale of the churches view and taking care of its entire people. In the past Rome made aqueducts and public fountains to give the people of the city places to receive fresh drinking water, who otherwise would not have this precious resource. They built public bath houses so people who could not afford the luxury of a bath could come and clean their bodies for a price so cheap any citizen could afford it. An endless amount of public churches so that any person could come and give praise no matter what class they were or how much money they had. Even the public Piazzas, every class would gather here and socialize with each other. These allowed all of Gods children to come together in one area to simply enjoying each other’s company and conversation. These piazzas would allow people to ignore the usual boundaries of social class. Even when you look at modern day they have created a universal health care system. So that everybody including the poor and the rich could have access to the health care when they or sick, injured, or just need a checkup and medicine. Regardless of job and income they can receive help and that kind of community support is what the church emphasizes.

            How is the Catholic Church global? Well I personally have never been to mass in a catholic church ever in my life until this trip. I do know many catholic people though. My girlfriend and her family are Catholics, her parents are from Mexico and she is from Columbus. I have many friends at Walsh from all over the United States who are also catholic. Now these people have often explained to me how mass works and the things that they do in each mass. What I found amazing is that even all the way over here in Rome they have the same exact routines. All over the world Catholic churches have the same routines in different languages. These traditions are the same across so many miles, so many different people and through so many different countries. That is truly the definition of global. During the Easter mass it was truly noticeable how global the catholic church is. During the mass as i sat awaiting the pop you could literally hear about 15 different languages in the c rowd as I listned to people talking. Also what I found to be very interesting is during the mass about 10 different fathers came up to tell a prayer all on a different language. It just truly shows how vast the catholic religion is because the mass amount of people from different countries that will appear for a major mass. My step dad had even sent me a picture of CNN covering the Easter mass and the message the Pope was giving. The roman catholic religion is truly global and a message that is delivered all around the world.