How is it that Catholic countries such as Spain and Portugal promoted the slave trade in America, if, as you claim, the Catholic Church actually brought the end of slavery?
Summary statistics that reflect the Catholic Church's worldwide presence of service and apostolates. Also included are figures on the number of priests and bishops and totals for all the world religions.
Still, behind the figure most embodying the commercial nature of Christmas in the minds of the public, we find a humble and saintly Bishop, and a clear Christian message for our times: the need for generosity both towards our neighbors, and towards God.
While Jubilee celebrations started with the opening of the Holy Door on December 24, 1999 and ended with its closing on January 6, 2000, it is less clear whether this is really the 2000th anniversary of Christ's birth.
How many divisions does the Pope have? Joseph Stalin once ironically asked the official warning him of the Vatican's power. Decades later, totalitarian regimes have all but vanished, while the Catholic Church, founded strictly on an evangelical message of love, has continued to grow.
Although there is a secularistic stream in the nation's history, it is not the only American tradition. Moreover, it is not the original American tradition and it is certainly not the genuine and authentic one.
The American Declaration of Independence, which is so admirable and dignified an expression of the American mind," is at the same time an accurate expression of the Catholic mind, medieval and modern.
Catholics were guilty for centuries of having slaves or profiting from the slave trade in spite of the fact that the popes taught clearly and frequently the evil of slavery,"and even legislated severe ecclesiastical penalties for engaging in it.
