Catholic Church's History Reflects The life of Christ? Background: A while back I had a very devout friend of mine explain to me that the life (or as I understood, the History) of the Catholic Church sort of paralleled the life of Jesus. That, like Jesus, the Gospel and the Church were accepted by many, and many believed. But then in the end the world would turn against the Church, and condemn it- just as Jesus was condemned. After this persecution, the Church would return, living in the same Resurrection that Christ received (And I presume, with Christ Himself).

My friend said he read this in a book while he was in Europe, but he couldn't remember its name or author. 

My Question is this: Is this an idea that any theologians have had? Does the Catholic Church have any teachings out its History and Life that sound like this? I've googled it a handful of times but don't ever seem to find anything.

Edit &amp; Clarification: I'm not insinuating that the Catholic Church never experienced corruption - and obviously, Jesus never sinned. What I am asking for is whether the Catholic Church has any teaching on its view of History and Salvation that sounds like the concept stated above.
So, the short answer is that the Church suffers as a participation in the redemptive suffering of Christ. As the Church is Christ's body, that means that she must suffer as he suffered. So if he meant that the Church suffers as Christ the answer is "yes, and many agree".



This provides us with some useful information, including the JPII quote: 


  For, whoever suffers in union with Christ— just as the Apostle Paul bears his “tribulations” in union with Christ— not only receives from Christ that strength already referred to but also “completes” by his suffering “what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”


That combined with the fact that the sufferings of an individual are the sufferings of the corpus (If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it), we see confirmation of the summary above.

As to how the Church's sufferings will manifest over time, Revelation points out that the sufferings are not complete. However, a striking difference is that there is no point where the Church on earth can or will die. If the gates of hell cannot prevail, then there will most certainly never be a time when the Church is not present on the Earth until this Earth is no more.