Who do Roman Catholics worship?
16086178#63
Catholic belief holds that the church exists both on earth and in heaven simultaneously, and thus the Virgin Mary and the saints are alive and part of the living church. Prayers and devotions to Mary and the saints are common practices in Catholic life. These devotions are not worship, since only God is worshiped. The church teaches that the saints "do not cease to intercede with the Father for us. ... So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped."
Catholic theology
70364#5
Mass is the central act of divine worship in the Catholic Church. The Congregation for Divine Worship at the Vatican publishes a "Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy". Roman Catholic devotions are "external practices of piety" which are not part of the official liturgy of the Catholic Church but are part of the popular spiritual practices of Catholics. They do not become part of liturgical worship, even if conducted in a Catholic church, in a group, in the presence of a priest.
Worship
32549834#18
Toleration of worship was later extended to Protestants who did not believe in Trinitarian doctrine in the Unitarians Relief Act 1813. Roman Catholics ("Papists") were allowed to worship under strict conditions through the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791. As time went on, oaths and tests that barred non-conformists and Roman Catholics from holding public offices, keeping schools, and owning land were rescinded by laws such as Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1778, the Roman Catholic Charities Act 1832, the Test Abolition Act 1867, the Promissory Oaths Act 1868, the Promissory Oaths Act 1871 and the Oaths Act 1978. The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 allowed followers of that religion to be elected to Parliament and to hold most offices under the Crown, while the Jews Relief Act 1858 had a similar effect for adherents of Judaism. The Religious Disabilities Act 1846 ended restrictions on Roman Catholics for education, charities, and owning property, although Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham universities were allowed to continue to exclude Roman Catholics until University Tests Act 1871 took effect. By the passage of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855, an optional system of registration for non-Anglican places of worship was passed which gave certain legal and fiscal advantages for those that registered, and "alternative religion was not only lawful, but was often facilitated by the law."
Toleration Act 1689
2203791#12
Some Catholics who recognize the authority of the Holy See choose to worship clandestinely due to the risk of harassment from authorities. Several underground Catholic bishops have been reported disappeared or imprisoned, and harassment of unregistered bishops and priests is common. There are reports of Catholic bishops and priests being forced by authorities to attend the ordination ceremonies for bishops who had not gained Vatican approval. Chinese authorities also have reportedly pressured Catholics to break communion with the Vatican by requiring them to renounce an essential belief in Roman Catholicism, the primacy of the Roman Pontiff. In other instances, however, authorities have permitted Vatican-loyal churches to carry out operations.
Freedom of religion in China
24002394#35
We use the term "Roman Catholic Worship" throughout to make it clear that we are not covering all forms of Catholic worship. There are a number of Eastern Rite churches that can justly claim the title "Catholic", but many of the statements we make do not apply to them at all.
Compared to the Roman Rite, the other Western liturgical rites have little following. Hence, the Vatican department that deals with forms of worship (including music) in the Western Church often issues documents that deal only with the Roman Rite.
Roman Catholic (term)
31851551#4
Roman Catholic worship was outlawed for centuries after the English Reformation, but from the mid-19th century it experienced "a striking growth ... in and around Arundel", helped by the construction of the lavish Church of Our Lady and St Philip Howard in 1869–73. This became Arundel Cathedral in 1965 when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton was created, and is the administrative centre of that region. The staunchly Catholic Dukes of Norfolk, whose seat is at Arundel Castle, were influential in Catholicism's development in Arundel and the rest of England for many years. An Anglican vicar of the 1860s said there were more Roman Catholics than Anglicans in the parish of Arundel, and about 750 lived in the area in 1973. Elsewhere in the district, Roman Catholic worship has taken place at Slindon since the late 18th century, and the present church dates from 1865; a late-19th-century priest at Arundel founded churches at Angmering, Houghton (both now closed) and Littlehampton; and Rustington and East Preston gained churches in the 20th century. Monks of the Servite Order founded Bognor Regis's Church of Our Lady of Sorrows in 1881.
List of places of worship in Arun
32722177#6
After the English Reformation, Roman Catholic worship was illegal in England for nearly 250 years until 1791, and it grew slowly thereafter in comparison to West Sussex, where many large estates were owned by gentry who secretly kept the faith over many generations. Ill-feeling towards Catholics apparently persisted well into the 19th century in Battle, where the 1886 Church of Our Lady Immaculate and St Michael was set well back from the street (in the garden of its presbytery) and does not have an ecclesiastical appearance. In the early 20th century, bolder architectural statements were made with the Gothic Revival church at Bexhill-on-Sea and the elaborate Italian Romanesque-style church at Rye, both of which are listed buildings. Most of the other Roman Catholic churches in Rother district are simple mid-20th-century buildings, sometimes with distinguishing architectural features such as a modernistic portico-style entrance at Sidley, dalle de verre glass at Burwash and a Mediterranean-style blank-arcaded tower at Little Common.
List of places of worship in Rother
31239705#5
Roman Catholic worship in the area has had an unbroken history since before the English Reformation, despite being outlawed for centuries by various Acts of Parliament. Rich families such as the Wappingthorns at Steyning and the Carylls at West Grinstead maintained the faith, sometimes using secret rooms to celebrate Mass. Example survives in the Priest's House next to the 19th-century Church of Our Lady of Consolation and St Francis in West Grinstead, and possibly at Henfield. Mass was sometimes said in private houses (as at Henfield) before permanent churches were built, and three of the district's present Roman Catholic churches are linked to monasteries and convents. Public worship takes place in the chapels at St Hugh's Charterhouse Monastery at Parkminster and The Towers Convent in Upper Beeding, and the Priory Church of Our Lady of England in Storrington is physically linked to the Premonstratensian monastery there.
List of places of worship in Horsham District
879519#12
The baptistery in the south-west corner of the church is noted for its marble tiling which features an image of the "Pelican in her Piety" in the ceiling tiles, a symbol of the fall and redemption of man.
The church's style of worship is Anglo-Catholic, "the Catholic faith as taught by the Church of England", offering members and visitors a traditional style of liturgy, as advocated by the Oxford Movement of the mid-nineteenth century, including ritual, choir and organ music, vestments and incense. Fr Cyril Tomkinson (vicar 1943–51), rebuking a visiting priest who asked for the use of the Roman Missal, said "the rule here is music by Mozart, choreography by Fortescue, decor by Comper, but libretto by Cranmer". Masses are now generally according to the liturgy of "Common Worship" (with the High Mass on Sunday according to Order 1 in traditional language), while the offices are still prayed according to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
All Saints, Margaret Street
11775453#5
The people of Magheracloone worship in three churches; two Roman Catholic (Ss. Peter & Paul, and St. Patrick's) and one Church of Ireland (St. Molua's). St. Molua's is located on the site of the original Roman Catholic church, from which Catholics were barred during the penal laws. At that time, Catholics attended school and worshipped outside at 'hedge schools' and 'mass rocks', as they were barred from having suitable buildings for these purposes, speaking Irish was banned, and the people were required (in public office and many professions) to take an oath citing the supremacy of the monarch over the Roman Pontiff - an oath which Catholics obviously could not take. A mass rock exists on private property along the River Glyde in Tonaneave; a long stone crosses the river to form a bridge; the priest would stand on one side, and the congregation on the other; the river served both to separate the people from the sacrament (the function performed by a redoros in a church) and to drown out their prayers, for fear of being heard by British soldiers. It is said that, during the Penal Laws, local Protestants kept watch on the hills above to ensure the safety of their Catholic neighbours hearing mass by the river in the valley below. Another example of such kindness comes from the story of a woman who was to be evicted from her home in the parish by bailiffs because she could not pay her rent; one of the soldiers took pity on her and passed around an iron cooking pot, collecting money from the other soldiers until enough was donated such that the woman's rent could be paid. Mass was most recently celebrated at this mass rock in the Jubilee Year 2000; it was concelebrated by PP Fr. Tom Finnegan, Canon Mohan and Fr. Michael J. Gilsenan and attended by a large congregation.
The ceremony served to memorialise the victims of the penal laws, which climaxed in the tragedy of The Great Famine. Catholic Emancipation saw an explosion in the number of Roman Catholic churches and schools built in Ireland.
Magheracloone
4968287#4
The Petre family were recusants, remaining loyal to the Roman Catholic Church after the English Reformation had turned the Kingdom of England into a Protestant country. Statutes were passed prohibiting Catholic worship in England, the Book of Common Prayer was established as the official liturgy of the Church of England, and practising Catholics faced severe punishments. Like many noble Catholic families, the Petres worshipped in secret, holding clandestine Catholic Mass in the private family chapel at Ingatestone Hall.
Ingatestone Hall