Catholicism and the Italian people are so entwined they make most ivy look independent. The Catholic religion has been around since the time of the Apostles. The Catholic church is the basis of all of today's forms of Christianity. It is also largely the basis of Italian culture, or the Italian culture is the basis of Catholicism, no one is really sure any more. This is how the Catholic Church is set up.
The Catholic Religion is the Christian Religion set up with a hierarchical system that leads to a man with funny hats. The Pope or the King of the Catholics as Protestants may call him is the head of the church, he is the successor to Jesus’ right hand man St.Peter. Underneath him there are cardinals, they are kind of like the congressmen of the church, and yes, they too argue to no end preventing any sort of progress in the church. Below the cardinals are the arch bishops, the archbishops are like a bass player in a band. The arch bishop is quite important, he rules over a whole region of the church, but when it comes down to it you are more attracted to the Lead singer and the guitar player. Once you get past the arch bishop you have the regular bishop. There is a bishop for every cathedral, bishops are kind of likes lords in England, you have to respect them because they have their own castle but in the long run, they’re really just the arch bishop’s pawn. Under the bishop is your local priest, he like a sales man, he travels from church to church telling stories and trying to get you to buy his product. Under the priest are the deacons, deacons are simply alter boys who liked being alter boys a little too much. Finally you have the congregation, that is all of you out there who sit in the crowd and sing along every Sunday. Having said all this, I am a devout Catholic and will have to go to confession for writing this blog. I’ll explain what confession is in a later blog, but it isn’t what the press makes it out to be.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=5358
