Comparing Roman Catholic and the Presbyterian Religions

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Compare and contrast Roman Catholics religion to the Presbyterian religion. For example origin, texts, days of worship, rituals, central of beliefs, Nature of God, historical figures/events and their ethics. Please provide references and there is a 1,800 word minimum.

Let's look closer at the following information drawn from various sources, that you can use to fill in the above outline. It is important to remember that not all Roman Catholics and Presyterians believe the same, but the following information is based on the main tenets.

Roman Catholic

Belief in one God (three persons in the Trinity), e.g. all loving, the sovereignty of God, and omnipresent (same as Presbyterian)

• Roman Catholic Christians are devoted to Jesus and pray to Jesus.
• Catholics believe Jesus is the saviour.
• They believe in the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist. Roman Catholics believe in the Nicene Creed, which is the ultimate authority (versu the Bible for the Presbyterians). The belief in the Trinity (nature of God, as three persons in one -God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost or Spirit. It is a mystery for the RC). (Presbyterians believe in the Trintiy, but less mystery invlovled as the Bible is the authoity, which provides a clear understanding of who Jesus "God in the flesh" and the Holy Spirt are in relation to God the Father).
• They teach that it's the one holy catholic and apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ, the sole Church of Christ.
• All Catholics are disciples of Jesus.
• The Catholic Church maintains that, through the graces Jesus won for humanity by sacrificing himself on the cross, salvation is possible even for those outside the visible boundaries of the Church, whether non-Catholic Christians or non-Christians (e.g., through the Chruch and sacraments versus Presbyterian belief that salvation is through Jesus).
• New Testament worship "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24) is not linked exclusively with any particular place or places, since Christ is seen as the true temple of God, and through him Christians too and the whole Church become, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16). Everything is in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/26591

The basic religious beliefs of Roman Catholics are those shared by other Christians (Presbyterian Christians, as well) as derived from the New Testament and formulated in the ancient Creeds of the early ecumenical councils, such as Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381). The central belief is that God entered the world through the Incarnation of his Son, the Christ or Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. The founding of the church is traced to the life and teachings of Jesus, whose death is followed by resurrection from the dead after which he sends the Holy Spirit to assist believers. This triple mission within the Godhead is described doctrinally as the divine Trinity, God one in nature but consisting in three divine persons. http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/rcatholi.htm
Roman Catholics attach special significance to the rites of Baptism and Eucharist. Baptism is sacramental entry into Christian life, and the Eucharist is a memorial of Christ's death and resurrection in which he is believed to be sacramentally present. The Eucharist is celebrated daily in the Roman Catholic Church. Catholics also regard as Sacraments the forgiveness of sins in reconciliation with the church (Confession), ordination to ministry (Holy Orders), marriage of Christians, postbaptismal anointing (Confirmation), and the Anointing of the Sick. http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/rcatholi.htm
Ethics: Catholic ethical doctrines are based ultimately on the New Testament teachings but also on the conclusions reached by the church, especially by the popes and other teachers. In recent times the pope and bishops have formulated guidelines regarding social justice, racial equality, disarmament, human rights, contraception, and abortion. The official opposition to artificial contraception is not accepted by a large number of practicing Catholics. The Roman Catholic Church's prohibition of remarriage after divorce is the strictest of the Christian churches, although the church does admit the possibility of annulments for marriages judged to be invalid. http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/rcatholi.htm

Presbyterian church seems more lax in terms of allowing the followers the freedom to choose their own ethical behavior.

Example 1: History and Early Church Leaders
Jesus is the founder of the Catholic church and carried on through apostolic successive (Peter, etc.).
First mention of the Catholic Church is writing - a letter that, in about 107, Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch wrote to Christians in Smyrna, is the earliest surviving witness to the use of the term "Catholic Church" (Smyrnaeans, 8).[1] By it Saint Ignatius designated the Christian Church in its universal aspect, excluding heretics, such as those who disavow "the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again" (Smyrnaeans, 7).[2] He called such people "beasts in the shape of men, whom you must not only not receive, but, if it be possible, not even meet with" (Smyrnaeans, 4).[3]
Yet more explicit was the manner in which Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (circa 315-386) used the term "catholic Church" precisely to distinguish this Church from heretical "Churches". He urged: "If ever thou art sojourning in cities, inquire not simply where the Lord's House is (for the other sects of the profane also attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord), nor merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Church, the mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God" (Catechetical Lectures, XVIII, 26).[4]
Only slightly later, when Christians still applied the word "priest" only to bishops and not yet to those who are now called "priests" in English, Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430) wrote:
"In the Catholic Church, there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom. The consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it in charge to feed His sheep (Jn 21:15-19), down to the present episcopate.
"And so, lastly, does the very name of Catholic, which, not without reason, amid so many heresies, the Church has thus retained; so that, though all heretics wish to be called Catholics, yet when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church meets, no heretic will venture to point to his own chapel or house.
"Such then in number and importance are the precious ties belonging to the Christian name which keep a believer in the Catholic Church, as it is right they should ... With you, where there is none of these things to attract or keep me... No one shall move me from the faith which binds my mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian religion... For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church."
— St. Augustine (354-430): Against the Epistle of Manichaeus called Fundamental, chapter 4: Proofs of the Catholic Faith[5]
A contemporary of Augustine, St. Vincent of Lerins, wrote in 434 under the pseudonym Peregrinus a work known as the Commonitoria ("Memoranda"). While insisting that, like the human body, Church doctrine develops while truly keeping its identity (sections 54-59, chapter XXIII), he stated: "[I]n the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense 'Catholic,' which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors" (section 6, end of chapter II). (Excerpted from ...