Day 4

Thursday we went to a Catholic Church and a Mormon Church. The first place we went to was the Catholic church. The name of the church was called St. Mary the Virgin. The pastoral assistant showed us around the church. He gave us a brief history of the church and told us about how the church is run. The head of the Catholic Church is the Pope. The Pope lives in Vatican City which is also the headquarters for Roman Catholicism. Catholics make sure to take communion every week because it is very important to their faith. One the main differences between Catholicism and Protestantism is the style of worship. Catholics are very traditional with their style of worship. They use hymn books, and normally only have a piano playing for music. One main difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is that Catholics believe in Purgatory. Purgatory is the place between Heaven and Hell. It is where people are held for punishment for small sins.

After we visited the Catholic church, we went to the Mormon church. The people who showed us around were very nice. We even got to meet some Mormon missionaries. Mormons are similar to Catholics in a few ways, but also very different. One similarity between Catholics and Mormons is that they take communion every week. They also meet on Sundays for church. Some differences between Catholics and Mormons is that Mormons don't believe in the Blessed Virgin Mary. They also believe that if a person did not get the chance to hear about Jesus in their lifetime, they don't go to Hell, they go to a spirit world. They believe that if they baptize themselves for the people in the spirit world, the people can choose to accept Jesus and go to Heaven. They also believe in three heavens instead of one. The first heaven is where the Mormons go. This is the best heaven where God, Jesus, and the founder of their religion are. You go to the second heaven if you were a Christian but did not accept the Mormon faith. The last heaven is where the people go if they were good people but weren't Christians. The Mormons believe in spreading their religion all over the world. I'm sure you've seen those men in the white shirts on the double-bycicle going around to spread the Mormon faith. The Mormon missionaries take two years off of their college career to be a missionary. During those two years, they travel to different places to spread their belief. On our way out, the people actually gave each of us a bag filled with magazines, videos, books, and yes... the Book of Mormon. The Mormon religion is very interesting, and I'm very glad I had the chance to learn about it.

By: Rebecca Boudreaux