I would like to point out one very dangerous thing: most people do not know what the Catholic Church is, they only know a minimum of information about it. You will hear about most of the information in the article for the first time. About the hierarchy, mentality and system in the RCC
I would like to point out one very dangerous thing: most people do not know what the Catholic Church is, they only know a minimum of information about it. Strongly religious people and other people are isolated from each other and do not know each other's opinions. Fanatical Christians only have fanatical Christian friends and are practically isolated from other people. It is very bad and dangerous that most people do not know the Catholic mentality, so people do not realize the danger of the RCC.
Therefore, as a former Catholic Christian, I want to reveal all information, including the unknown facts about the RCC and the mentality of its believers (especially priests and fanatical laypeople):
– A Catholic perceives criticism of the Church as criticism of God himself. After all, the Church is the body of Christ, or the bride of Christ. Catholics cannot stand criticism of the Church, and according to them, a critic of the Church is a messenger of the devil. Catholics are very reluctant to admit that the RCC has any flaws.
– although a Catholic admits that the church also has some flaws, he believes it is a big mistake to criticize the church, because criticizing the church and finding fault with it is, according to them, an outrageous insult to God
– Some Catholics even have the opinion that it is strictly forbidden and a great sin to read websites that criticize the church!! These are incredibly fanatical views, but such people can be found.
– In the hierarchy of the RCC, total devotion and obedience to the superior/superior is extremely emphasized. Disobedience to the superior is literally considered disobedience to God!!! It is incredible fanaticism, but that's how it works in the RCC!!!
Organizational hierarchy of the Catholic Church:
– very few people know what the hierarchy of the RCC is, so we will describe it here
– The Pope is at the top. A large number of officials work around the Pope, who are: cardinals, bishops (note, these are not diocesan bishops, they work exclusively in the Vatican), priests (there are even two Slovaks in these lucrative positions) and rarely a few lay people.
– below the Pope are the conferences of bishops, in our country the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia (KBS). The extended arm of the Pope over the conferences of bishops is the bishop-nuncio, who controls the bishops and gives reports to the Pope.
– The KBS includes 8 dioceses, each headed by a bishop. The diocese is managed from the bishop's office. The bishop's representative is either an auxiliary bishop or a vicar general (a vicar is a priest). The bishop has several vicars for different areas. The bishop's office has a large number of officials, who are most often priests, but also several laypeople. Lawyers and notaries are of particular importance in the bishop's office. After all, it is important when the church has so much property, land, and real estate. All priest-officials in the bishop's office receive a very high salary and are very rich.
– under the bishop's office are the individual deaneries. The deanery is headed by a priest-dean. Deaneries mostly correlate with district towns.
– below the dean are individual parishes, which include churches. One parish usually includes 1-3 churches. The parish is managed by a priest with the title "parish priest" or "parish administrator". The difference between these two titles is the salary of the priest; a parish priest receives a slightly higher salary. I have heard that some priests went to the bishop to be promoted from parish administrator to parish priest so that they could receive a higher salary. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you how much a parish priest earns, but it will certainly not be the minimum wage. But even if a parish priest does not have a very high salary, he can live in luxury because he has practically no expenses for anything, except for a car and food. The parish priest has free accommodation in the rectory (while an ordinary person has to rent or pay off a loan for housing), and the maintenance and management of the rectory comes from parish funds.
The parish's income comes from: what people throw into the collection box, renting out various plots of land, which often serve lucrative purposes, and much more. From the parish's money, the priest can ensure a nice luxury for himself in the rectory.
– below the priest, there are various Christian communities (the most effective way of brainwashing), whose members may or may not be priests, but are mostly laypeople. See more in the article " Christian communities, the greatest danger today"
The Catholic Church also includes a large number of religious orders, which also have a well-developed hierarchy.
The hierarchical sophistication in the RCC is even better than in state organizations. The RCC is a very well-developed organization. Every organization needs to receive money to function; without money, it cannot exist. The RCC receives extremely generous support from the state. And I have a very simple guide on how to liquidate the Catholic Church within one year: let the state stop financing it. People in Slovakia are poor and will not be able to support it sufficiently, and the RCC would fare even worse than under communism. Priests would then have to fight for bare survival; they would have to be employed in some other job to survive. They would not have time for church activities.
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The Church is unfairly favored financially: half of the people in Slovakia are below the poverty line, working for 400 EUR. And what about the priest? The priest has a decent salary and no expenses for renting or paying off an apartment, he has no children who need to be expensively financed (clothes, food, school supplies), the priest does not pay for heating, but the ordinary person does. Isn't that unfair? The priest lives very decently, often very luxuriously, while most people struggle to survive because they are in poverty.
While the priest doesn't have much work, the average person works from morning to night.
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And by pouring outrageous amounts of money into the church, the state also has a huge influence. Imagine if the state didn't pour any money into the church. What would happen? Priests would have to fight for their own survival and would have no strength left for any evangelization. If no money went to the church, the church would practically cease to exist, because voluntary contributions from people would not be enough.
And what if the money that goes to the RCC went to atheist or agnostic associations?
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According to the 2011 census, 66% of the population in Slovakia officially declares allegiance to the Catholic Church. http://portal.statistics.sk/files/tab-14.pdf . However, only 10-15% of people regularly (on Sundays) attend church. People don't want to declare themselves as atheists during the census; they were baptized as Catholics, so they declare themselves as Catholics, even though they couldn't care less about the entire church and Christianity. It's sad that the Catholic Church receives money even for such people who have nothing in common with the Catholic Church, except for baptism. The Church is unfairly favored, receiving money even for people who have practically nothing in common with the Christian faith.
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I write emails of the following type to the church sheep: The highest dogma of the Christian faith is to be immune, resistant, and especially closed to the truth. The Christian faith is the opposite of truth and reason. You should learn to listen to opinions that are not comfortable for the church. Throughout its history, the church has always had a problem with this; it could not listen to the opinions of others and burned such people. Today, something of that burning by the church still remains: plugging their ears to uncomfortable opinions.
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I will give you one specific proof that the church is just one big limited liability company, and I will also mention specific names. The head of probably the most important Christian community in Slovakia, Julo Slovák, lives a very luxurious life. One Christian had him as a friend on Facebook, and on the computer behind his back, I saw photos that clearly showed Mr. Slovák's above-standard luxury.
The head of a Christian community should be a holy and poor person, and this luxury is very scandalous. Moreover, it is certain that Julo Slovák did not get the money in a completely serious and fair way: first he attracts the sheep to himself through evangelization and then he runs a Christian shop with exorbitant product prices. Another problem is whether he has embezzled money from sponsors intended for evangelization.
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The largest Catholic Christian communities in Slovakia, Godzone and SP (eSPé), operate on a disgusting business. These communities are supported by large sums of money from various corporate sponsors, and are subsidized by some state institutions such as IUVENTA, not to mention that the church as a whole is very generously supported by the state.
These two communities organize Christian events, which they call conferences. One such conference, which lasts less than two days, costs an outrageous 27 EUR. It's a disgusting business. Isn't the generous sponsorship and subsidies enough for them? They first lure the sheep into their trap through evangelization and then squeeze outrageous money from them!
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In an online discussion, I wrote the following: Dear friends, please note the following: here, one Catholic church sheep called criticism of the church "attacks" on the church . All church sheep call truthful criticism of the church "attacks" on the church!! According to church sheep, speaking the truth about the church is an "attack." This is very sophisticated manipulative rhetoric among church sheep.
Talking about "attacks on the church" is one of the most common phrases used by church sheep. After all, according to them, the RCC is beyond criticism.
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A side note: Protestantism is a lesser evil compared to the Catholic faith:
– Protestantism does not consider a wafer to be the body of God like the RCC, which is very ridiculous and irrational.
– Luther, audaciously and boldly, does not promise, like the RCC, that after death there will be two contrasts: heaven or hell. This is a great cynicism of the RCC, which promises that after death, a person will end up according to how obedient they were to the church and how honestly they believed in blind church dogmas; the RCC also frightens people with hell.
According to the Protestant faith, it is enough to believe in Jesus for salvation, and that is all.