Hindu Catholic Dialogue Commemorative Brochure 20150523

Author(s): United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Publisher: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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A5. What are the main divisions and how did they arise? In the period after the death of the last apostles, a number of disagreements arose among Christians in the Mediterranean world, giving rise to heretical movements alongside mainstream Catholic Christianity. Some rejected the authority of the Old Testament (Marcionism); some taught that salvation comes through esoteric knowledge that enables the soul to escape from the evil material world to return to God (Gnosticism); others debated the meaning of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; others had various theories about what it meant for Jesus to be the Son of God or the “Word of God incarnate.” Even before becoming a legal religion, leading Catholic theologians argued against the tenets of these movements. Soon after the Catholic Church was given legal status in the Roman Empire (313 A.D.), the Council of Nicaea affirmed the traditional faith of the Church on the question of Jesus' divinity. The Latin Church and the Greek Orthodox Church were in union with one another for most of the first millennium of Christianity. In 1054 A.D. the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other in a tragic dispute; over the centuries, this division became more and more permanent; the modern ecumenical movement is striving to heal this division between the two great churches representing old growth” historic Christianity. In recent decades, some of the long-separated Middle Eastern Churches have reconciled their theological differences with the Latin Church. In the sixteenth century, conflicts involving church governance, theology, and civil society within the Latin Catholic Church in Western Europe gave rise to a reform movement led by the Augustinian friar and theologian, Martin Luther. His movement came to be known as the Protestant Reformation, whose beginning is traced to his posting of the famous “95 Theses” - theological challenges to be debated in public - in 1517 A.D.
A6. How do you greet and part from each other? There is no specific form of greeting among Catholic Christians. "The Lord be with you" and "Peace be with you” are used during liturgical worship services.
A7. Is there a way to praise God in a greeting? Although there is no universal form for mentioning God with reverence, in some countries the expressions "If God wills” (Romance language countries) or "God is great” (south Germany and Austria) or "May Jesus Christ be praised” (Romance and Slavic countries) are still in use.
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HINDU - CATHOLIC DIALOGUE