Explain what the Roman Catholic Church teaches and believes about prejudice and discrimination.
RE Coursework
1. Explain what the Roman Catholic Church teaches and believes about prejudice and discrimination.
I will start by giving the definitions of prejudice and discrimination and giving examples of both of them. Prejudice can be described as the prejudgement of a person with no knowledge of, or about them. For example calling a person homosexual because they like things that in your eyes a heterosexual person wouldn’t like is prejudice. Discrimination can be described as the exclusion of a person because they are different. For example a male suggesting that a female cannot play football simply because she is female is discrimination. The Catholic Church believes that prejudice and discrimination are wrong and show this in many bible readings such as The Good Samaritan in which the most unexpected man that could possibly help the man on the side of the road does so and pays for his hospital fees also. This was unexpected because the man that help was a Samaritan and was looked on as an outcast in society. This means that this story was an example of the Catholic Church ruling out discrimination. However the Catholic Church could be seen as quite hypocritical in the sense that although they believe and preach equal rights they will not allow a woman to become a priest. The Catholic Church also tries to show that it rules out prejudice and discrimination by doing charity work such as collecting money for the poor in masses and by setting up organisations such as CAFOD. This shows the ruling out of prejudice and discrimination by giving the effect that the Catholic Church helps anyone in a bad condition no matter of what gender, race, age, etc. that the victim is. The Catholic Church is one of the biggest religions in the world which means that the Catholic Church has a bigger authority over people which means that more people will hear these messages against prejudice and discrimination and go against it at all costs. The Catholic Church could be described as a worldwide organisation against prejudice and discrimination due to its power over its followers. As you can see the Catholic Church is widely against prejudice and discrimination and will stop it with costs but that does not mean that the Catholic Church can stopped being seen as hypocritical. One of the most famous Catholic teachings is Love thy neighbour as you love yourself.
