Catholicism

According to church tradition, various sources, particularly the Bible, serve as the foundation for the doctrines of the Catholic Church (Barron 17). The bible contains stories about Jesus' life and teachings. The key Church councils, creeds, and the teachings of the Catholic hierarchy on Jesus make up the church's tradition. These pillars include details about Jesus, the Israelites' Messiah. He is also viewed as being God, albeit in the flesh. God's son, who came second in the Blessed Trinity, was made human in the former body of Jesus, constituting to the main act of passion by God. This human nature and divine unity within one individual, Jesus, cannot be fully interpreted scientifically. People accept the mystery, paradox and eventually believe that Jesus is completely God and completely human. Hence Catholics take it that Jesus is one individual and that divinity and humanity of Jesus are completely combined, not separated at all (Barron 21). Upon the healing of Jesus, both his divine and physical natures were healed. When he experienced pain, human and God felt pain. These actions can be appalling to the ordinary mind; the completely theoretical mind cannot understand the contradiction of the universal God being made human and adopting nature.
Jesus and Judaism
Jesus was regarded as the most influential followers of Judaism and therefore the most damaging among all untrue messiahs (Wright 29). Nonetheless, because the common Jewish faith is that the coming of the messiah is to happen yet and that the Messianic age is still being awaited, the complete dismissal of Jesus as deity or messiah has not been a major problem for Judaism. Judaism forbids all the declared divination that Christianity ascribes to Jesus. The worship of an individual as a kind of idolatry since the main belief of Judaism is the complete singularity and unity of God. The eschatology of Jewish states that the appearance of the Messiah is related to a certain series of occurrences, which are yet to happen which comprise the temple's reconstruction and the coming back of Jewish to their birth place (Wright 32). The notion that Jesus is part of the Trinity, God's son and God himself is not similar to the theology of Jewish. According to the Jewish beliefs, Jesus failed to fulfil prophesies of the messiah which determine the criteria for the returning of the messiah. Reliable books of Judaism dismiss Jesus as saint, the messiah, divine being and God. Besides other principles of the Catholicism, faith in the Trinity also conflicts with Judaism (Wright 39).
The center of the teachings of Jesus focused on the subject of God's Kingdom. This utterance appears in sixty-one distinct phrases within the Synoptic Gospels (Wright 31). It can be seen in the primary key settings like John the Baptists preaching where he tells people to repent because the kingdom of God is near, and Jesus initial declaration that the time had come. In spite of this expression's centrality in the teachings of Jesus, there have been a lot of debates for a long time concerning its meaning. The debates exist because neither teachers nor Jesus ever explained what was meant by the phrase. However, according to the view of the political kingdom, Jesus wanted to build a nation within Jerusalem similar to the one of David (Wright 35) Another of the most debated teaching of Jesus is the "Sermon on the Mount". One of the major arguments in the debate relates to the traditional Judaism. The majority of Catholics believe that Jesus gave a modern law during the sermon to replace the Law of Moses. In the Beatitudes, Jesus asserts that those who are thirsty and hungry for justice, as well as those who face prosecution for the same, belong to God's Kingdom (Wright 44). He declares the same for the people who love making peace. He preaches that the God's kingdom and His righteousness should be sought first before anything else.
Question 2
Catholicism Devotion towards Justice
The focus on human rights is rooted in the theological anthropology of the Catholic Church. Theology in the twentieth century has had a considerably anthropocentric view and as other views have corrupted that bias, still theology is not merely about God. However, God is for every person (Baron 27). It is this firm foundation that strengthens the Catholic Church's resistance to practices such as assisted suicide, euthanasia, abortion and other intentional attacks on people's lives. As a result, the Catholic Church across the world strives toward the scrapping of capital punishment. The foundation also motivates the church to champion for enough health care for the elderly, HIV, people living with AIDS, children and low-income families. The church is also against human cloning and embryonic stem cell studies as well as processes that involve the reduction of a human life to develop a product for helping another person. As Christians, members of the Catholic Church are obligated to safeguard and promote human life's dignity in every condition and during all stages. Besides dismissing unjust strategies which endanger people's lives, the church operates dynamically to improve human life through recommending alternatives to abortion like adoption and subsidized prenatal care. It also supports options to assisted suicide like hospice homes for terminally ill patients and palliative care.
According to the Catholic Church, it is the obligation of the government to support and empower every parent in practicing their responsibilities and rights in educating their children. Consequently, the church contributes towards initiatives such as vouchers or tuition tax credits to assist parents in choosing schools for their children. The church also participates in policies that help in bringing unity in families and rewarding sacrifice and responsibility for children. Social teachings of Catholicism constitute the primary and fundamental component of peoples' faith. Its basis is in the prophets of Hebrews who declared God's exceptional affection for the needy and welcomed the people of God to a commitment of justice and love (Baron 32). Hence the church looks for ways to assist domestic violence victims, caregivers without respite, persons addicted to drugs and children who are vulnerable to abuse.
A custom organized around the concept of the law of God for people, Judaism bears a lengthy history of thought on justice in political and social issues (Wright 46). A Catholic Conference held at the New York State urged members of the Catholic church to learn and participate actively in the process of legislation and to use their voices in speaking on behalf of the voiceless, protect the vulnerable and needy and promote the common good (Baron 39). These actions symbolize God's Kingdom. The objective of Jesus is focused on proclaiming and observing God's Kingdom. Catholics have faith in the true God who has a social and communal nature. Having been made in the image of God, Catholics share his social and communal life .They are therefore required to go to the world and form relationships of peace and love. In some ways, the Catholic inspired approach to criminal justice ensures non-tolerance to actions that violate rights and threatens lives of others (Wright 49). A statement of conscience is displayed by the Catholic's Vatican diplomatic corps as well as other representatives. This smooth operation comprises of the campaign on behalf of humanitarian development, human rights, and peace. It also assists in peacemaking across the world through programs of Catholic groups such as the Santiegidio community and several conferences of bishops. Most importantly the Pope practices a particular ministry for peace through public statements and in his teachings. He also preaches peace during special occasions like the Great Jubilee and Assisi Days of Prayer. Peace and Justice are placed centrally within the Kingdom of God (Baron 47).














Works Cited
Barron, Robert. Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith. New York: Image Entertainment, 2013.
Wright, Tom. Simply Christian. SCPK Publishing, May 2011.