2007-11-18 18:18:19 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The Catholic church would be nonexistent if they closed all their churches.
2007-11-18 18:31:37 · answer #1 · answered by Luv My Babies 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
The buildings that we worship in are not what makes up the Church. The Church is actually *the people themselves*, what we refer to as "The Mystical Body of Christ". Every Catholic Church building could burn down tomorrow, and it wouldn't matter. As it is written in Scripture "As long as two or more of you are gathered together in My Name, there I will be in the midst of you". The actual gathering place doesn't matter.
The Church survives as the Persecuted Church today in many countries where it is not allowed to meet openly, and where religious services are held clandestinely in people's homes. The early Catholic Church during Roman times did this also.
Consider this: If the Catholic Church were not a Divinely Inspired and Divinely Led entity, but solely a creation of man, it probably wouldn't have survived for the two thousand years that it has already.
2007-11-19 02:33:49 · answer #2 · answered by the phantom 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
It wouldn't make any sense for that to happen, as it is through the parishes that the Sacraments are administered, and it is through the Sacraments that we receive grace from the Lord.
Thankfully, there is no intention of closing all the churches. And in nations that have forced the closing of Catholic Churches (China, for example), Catholicism has persisted in an underground fashion.
2007-11-19 07:16:42 · answer #3 · answered by sparki777 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
The Catholic church will survive until the end of time, churches or not.
And once time as we know it ceases to exist, the church will continue on as the bride of Christ.
2007-11-19 03:33:11 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Hard to say -- In Ireland when the churches were closed by the English, they still thrived in secret, but that closing was imposed upon them.
Closing themselves down, I believe, would have extremely dire effects upon the church.
2007-11-19 02:35:35 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
It is impossible for the Catholic church to close all their churches because it is where they collect money from the members. However, this great city will fall come judgment day.
Revelation 18:21
And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
2007-11-19 02:33:10 · answer #6 · answered by BREAD 2 · 0⤊ 4⤋
Quite awhile, however interpretations would be wild as hell.
Parents would teach children. Children would teach their children. All the while, parents have to answer questions from children that they have no answers for, so they make it up. Rinse and Repeat.
2007-11-19 02:22:41 · answer #7 · answered by Atomic New Theory 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
well, your taking away their biggest source of revenue; untraceable cash. Therre would be no incentive for some people who work in the church.
And they'd have to get rid of all the high paid do nothings in the diocese.
Not long, maybe 10 years.
2007-11-19 02:22:50 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 2⤋
it's barely surviving now. i mean, they've got numbers, but all those expenditures... they must be flat broke.
2007-11-19 02:22:47 · answer #9 · answered by eelai000 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Quite a while - they launder money for the mafia.
2007-11-19 02:22:24 · answer #10 · answered by bocasbeachbum 6 · 3⤊ 2⤋