a lot of catholic trappings could well have been borrowed from the far east. prayer beads and the apearence of monks (and there celibate states) being just a couple.
Except that prayer beads don't show up until around the 8th or 9th century ACE, and monks were established over the last thousand years BCE in Palestine/Israel/whatever. (They were called prophets in the OT.) I really don't see Buddhism having any effect on Jesus. Buddha taught that gods were simply caught in the illusion of desire, hate and fear like the rest of us, and that the true state of reality was one of freedom from all that. Jesus was a Jew and a firm believer in his god, with some very interesting notions that do point east, but more towards certain religious practices emerging in the region of modern Iran/Iraq. There is no Buddhist equivalent to the magic rite of transubstantiation, for example--how could there be, since Buddha denied the reality of gods?--but it is powerful magic that transcends its Christian use. There are definite pagan ties, there, in my opinion.
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