Shelby Cline Reflective Essay 8/6/14

I chose the topic of Catholicism to write my paper on this semester. It has truly evolved
for me from what I thought of Catholicism, to what Catholicism really is. Many people see
Catholicism as being a very strictly taught religion. However, as I conducted an interview on a
contemporary Catholic and did some research, I found that Catholics are quite similar to many
others of a Christian based background or religion. Although there are only a few significantly
different aspects, overall the Christian religions basically believe the same thing.
This culture has truly evolved over the years, becoming less strict in certain ways, and
more strict in others. Something that has recently been highlighted in the Roman Catholic
Church is that the current pope has recently taken a stand against homosexuals. He does not
believe that is how God intended humans to be. Therefore, he does not support it.
Moreover, Catholicism is a religion that is based solely on aspects of Christianity. The
Roman Catholic Church has many traditions that have been carried over throughout the years.
Some of these traditions include holidays such as Christmas, Easter, Lent, and Palm Sunday.
Other common traditions include things such as, baptism and first communion.
My essay changed quite a bit this semester, as I gathered more information on
Catholicism as well as, conducted a couple of interviews to learn more about the life of a
Catholic, and not only that, but, to compare say, the life of a Baptist to the life of a Catholic. This
topic has been quite interesting to study. As I have compared Catholicism to a couple of other
Christian religions, I have found that no matter what Christian background we come from or
what our Christina religion be, we all have some similarities