Richard A.

Canagahan BSCE-2A

RS Final Exam ( Engineering )

1. Enumerate and discuss at least three controversies that the Catholic
Churched faced during the early period. ( 10 Pts. )
 Fall of Rome and the Germanic Invasions – Invasions by the Germans
caused the decline of the Roman Empire and the Church. In the brief
historical account of Jean Comby on the conquering Germanic tribes, we
can have a glimpse of how fast the glory of Rome fell and disappeared.
 Rise of Islam – As if the world was doomed to more and more
conquests, Islam in the seventh century, was born in modern day Saudi
Arabia and through the leadership of the great Prophet Mohammed.
Spread Islam to the entire Mediterranean world, sometimes with the
inevitable use of domination and force. We may learn on how the
Islamic religion expanded to the entire Mediterranean world.
 Evil of Feudalism – In the 10th Century, social structure known as
Feudalism dominated the people’s way of life, even influenced the
Church on its attitude towards the world and its people. Jean Comby
gives us a basic understanding of the concept of Feudalism.

2. What are the issues that the three reformers namely, Luther, Calvin and
Zwingli fought and sought to be reformed in the Catholic Church. Kindly
discuss one by one. (10 Pts.)
 Martin Luther (1483) – He nailed his famous (95) theses on the door of
the Church at Wittenberg as his “protest” to the Catholic Church; an act
that would bring Luther to separation from the Church and to an
eventual birth Protestant movements. His enduring legacies to
Protestantism are the following: the condemnation of the sale of
indulgence, the translation of the Bible into the vernacular (German
Language) in order to make it available to the Ordinary People,
consideration of Baptism and Eucharist as the only valid sacraments, his
attack on the veneration of saints and Marian devotions, the Sacred
Scripture as the only authority of Christian teaching ( sola scriptura,
scripture alone) and his famous doctrine on justification by faith alone (
sola fide, faith alone).
 John Calvin (1564) – He was a Protestant reformer known for his
influential writing, Institutes of the Christian Religion, which eventually
became a “handbook of Protestant doctrine.” Like his Protestant
counterparts, he put primacy on the Sacred Scripture as a source of
 belief, rejected the papacy and stressed on divine grace for salvation. He
went to extreme in his teaching on Predestination. He taught that “God
has already determined our destiny… and that God indeed allows many
to be damned to manifest divine justice.” Thus, the Church, for Calvin, is
the “Company of the elect.”
 Ulrich Zwingli (1531) – Ulrich Zwingli of Zurich, Switzerland “began to
abolish the Mass itself. He also challenged the legitimacy of some of the
Sacraments. Zurich began to seize Church property, rejected celibacy
and the convents and monasteries were suppressed.” He even claimed
as far as the saying that the Holy Eucharist is just an ordinary, memorial
meal: thus, “Jesus was not really present in the Eucharist.”

3. How did the Catholic Church respond to the reformers such as Luther,
Calvin, and Zwingli? (10 Pts.)
 With the problems inherent in the Church and the external
controversies caused by the Protestant Reformers, the Catholic
Church braced itself to resolve its own concerns and carefully
addressed the valid points raised by the reformers. According to
scholars and historians, reform was already underway in the Church,
even before the emergence of the reformers. For instance, there
was great development in the fields of Christian mission and
education especially the ones initiated by Ignatius of Loyola and his
companion, (known today as the Society of Jesus), who “sought to
be the servants of the Church par excellence.” In addition, there was
“the flowering of spirituality and the rise of religious orders” like the
Order of the Carmelites in Spain (notable among them were Saints
Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross). Fairly, we may say that the
Church was conscious of its own problems and made independent
progress prior to the reformation.

4. What happened to the Catholic Church after Vatican II? If you are to
describe the Post Vat. II Catholic Church, what would it be? (10 Pts.)
 If I were to describe the Post Vat. II Catholic Church, it would be
Proper Organized or Well Utilized it is because of the greatest
number of delegates with 2600 Bishops from all over the world and
the additional participation of theologians and experts. It was also
greatly represented in terms of nations and cultures, wherein
bishops and participants from various countries like South America,
North America, Asia, Africa, Central America and Oceania attended
the Council. And these priests and bishops were non-Europeans,
 native citizens from missionary areas representing their place and
culture of origin. It is also the first council to include the presence of
non-Catholics, lay participants as guests and observers of the
council. First to utilize the gift of modernization, like the modern
means of communication and transportation and was emphasized
promotion of peace and unity among nations, not the usual pattern
in an ecumenical council which usually focused on the
condemnation of heretics, or the formulation of doctrines.

5. Can the Church separate herself from the social-political realities of the
world? Kindly expound. (10 Pts.)
 Yes it can separate itself from the social-political problems and
realities of the world. It’s because separation of Church and state is
a philosophic and jurisprudential concept for defining political
distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the
nation state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a
secular state (with or without legally explicit church – state
separation) and to disestablishment, the changing of an existing,
formal relationship between the church and the realities of the
world. The Church – state separation varies from total separation,
mandated by the country’s political constitution to a state religion.

6. What is the meaning of the term, ‘’ Church of the Poor’’? Kindly elaborate
further. (10 Pts.)
 In my own opinion the term, “Church of the Poor” somehow means
that it is a Church for the people who are Poor in Spirit whereby
individuals humble themselves and seek for the Lord. It is a place
where you can find peace and people treated as equal. A Church
that embraces and practices the evangelical spirit of poverty which
combines detachment from possessions with a profound trust in the
Lord as the only source of salvation. A Church that will courageously
defend and vindicate the rights of the poor and the oppressed even
doing so will mean alienation or persecution from the rich and
powerful. A Church where nobody is so poor as to have nothing to
give, and nobody so rich as to have nothing to receive.”
7. Why is it that the family is considered ‘’ Domestic Church’’? What are the
challenges that the family faces today? (10 Pts.)
 The term “Domestic Church” refers to the family, the smallest body
of gathered believers in Christ. Though recovered only recently, the
term dates all the way back to the first century (After Death). “Our
Early Church Fathers understood that the home was fertile ground
for discipleship, sanctification, and holiness. Domestic Church plays
a key role in our sanctification because it is the primary place where
we practice coming to intimately love other persons and also to the
person who we loved the most.

8. What is the meaning of sacrament? Enumerate and discuss the seven

sacraments of the Catholic Church? (10 Pts.)
 Sacrament is a “Sensible sign, instituted by Christ in order to give
grace.” In a more updated definition, the catechism for the Filipino
Catholics clearly states that Sacraments “are saving symbolic acts or
visible signs, arising from the ministry of Jesus Christ and continued
in, by and for the Church, which, when received in faith, fashions us
into likeness to Christ in his Paschal Mystery, through the power of
the Holy Spirit.”
 The Seven Sacraments:
1.) Baptism – is a sacrament rooted in Jesus’ command to his
apostles. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus said to his apostles:
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And
behold, I am with you always, until the end of age.
2.) Confirmation – Contrary to what some critics say about the
sacrament of Confirmation that it was just added by the Catholic
church, the Acts of the Apostles 8:14-17 bears witness to its
apostolic origin:
“Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had
accepted the World of God, they sent them Peter and John, who
went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the
Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had
only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid
hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
3.) Holy Eucharist – Among all the sacraments, the Holy Eucharist is
considered as the “Source and Summit of the Christian Life. The
Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime the cause of that
 communion in divine life and that unity of the People of god by
which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of
God’s action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship
men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy
Spirit.”
4.) Holy Order – The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes
Holy order as: the sacrament through which the mission
entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in
the Church until the end of time: thus it is the sacrament of
apostolic ministry. It includes three degrees: episcopate,
presbyterate and diaconate.
5.) Holy Matrimony – Is a Holy Sacrament, officiated by a priest, of
uniting a man to a woman. Through this Holy Sacrament, the
man and woman become one, for as the Lord Jesus said, “For
this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So then,
they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has
joined together, let not man separate”(Matthew 19:5-6).
“Marriage is honourable among all and the bed
undefiled.”(Hebrews 13:4).
6.) Penance – is the Virtue or disposition of heart by which one
repents of one’s own sins and is converted to God. Also the
punishment by which one atones for sins committed, either by
oneself or by others. And finally the sacrament of penance,
where confessed sins committed after baptism are absolved by
a priest in the name of God.
7.) Anointing the sick – is to bring spiritual and even physical
strength during an illness, especially near the time of death. It is
most likely one of the last sacraments one will receive. A
sacrament is an outward sign established by Jesus Christ to
confer inward grave. In more basic terms, it is a rite that is
performed to convey God’s grace to the recipient, through the
power of the Holy Spirit.

9. In your own opinion, do you think that Jesus is happy with the way the
institutional Church is administered and manage today? Why? (10 Pts.)
 Yes, because the people and its ministers are well administered and
well managed of their daily living routine within the institute and
also no, it’s because not of a 100% people or individuals are willing
to participate this kind of institution, some may participating but
 aren’t willing, it is by the heart to participate by willingness in this
kind of administration.

10. As Cor Jesian, what suggestions or actions can you contribute for the welfare
of the church and kits members in today’s time? (10 Pts.)
 As a Cor Jesian it is a call of action, we must contribute for the
welfare of the church because it is an appeal especially to the
pastors, educators, and catechists to teach the Catholic social
tradition in its fullness. These reflections are not a comprehensive
summary of its rich heritage and content. Our social tradition has
been developed and expressed through a variety of major
documents. The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the
essence of this social teaching of the Church. The focus of this action
statement is the urgent task to incorporate Catholic social teaching
more fully and explicitly into Catholic educational program. This
must be undertaken the context of efforts to share Faith in its
entirety and to encourage Catholics to experience the gospel call to
conversion in all its dimensions. The sharing of our social tradition is
a defining measure of Catholic education and formation.