Catholic Church
The Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the world, with over one billion adherents.[1] It comprises one of the three great divisions of Christianity, together with Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
The Church consists of those Christians who are in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, who is generally called the Pope, currently Pope Benedict XVI. The Church teaches that the Pope is the successor of St. Peter, whom Catholics regard as the original leader of Christ's apostles and as the first Bishop of Rome.
The Pope and the rest of the international leadership of the Church are based in Vatican City in Rome. Vatican City is an independent state in its own right, and is the smallest state in the world in terms both of geography and of population.
The split between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy dates to the eleventh century. The split between Catholicism and Protestantism occurred some time later, in the sixteenth century. It is generally known as the "Reformation", though Catholics sometimes refer to it as the "Protestant Revolt". The principal issues of contention between Catholics and Protestants are known as sola scriptura (the doctrine that the Bible alone is the final authority for Christians, which denies the authority of the Church) and sola fide (the doctrine, popularized by Martin Luther, that faith alone, as opposed to faith expressed in good works, is sufficient for salvation).
The Catholic Church has a complex hierarchy of clergy, including:
"Roman Catholic" versus "Catholic"
The term "catholic" (from the Greek katholikos) means "universal", and its roots in ecclesiastical parlance go back to the early years of Christianity. Some Protestants believe that (Roman) Catholics do not have the right to monopolize the term, and so prefix it with the adjective "Roman". Some Catholics object to this nomenclature, precisely because it denies the status of the (Roman) Catholic Church as the universal Church of Christ. Historically speaking, the term "Roman Catholic" was coined in nineteenth-century Britain as a euphemism to replace insulting terms such as "papist" that had previously been in use.
The Catholic Church is made up of thirty-one distinct branches or "rites", including the Byzantine Rite, the Ambrosian Rite (only in Lombardy, a northern Italian region) and the Maronite Rite. By far the largest Rite, and the most prevalent in the West, is the Latin Rite, and Catholics sometimes use the term "Roman Catholic" to denote this component of the Church.
Sacraments
The Roman Catholic Church has seven sacraments:
See also
External links
- Prayers Catholic Online.
- Catholic News
- Catholic.net
Further reading
- Bokenkotter, Thomas. A Concise History of the Catholic Church (2005) excerpt and text search
- Brown, Peter. The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity 200-1000 AD (2002), 640pp
- Chadwick, Owen. A History of the Popes, 1830-1914. (1998), 616pp; a standard recent history. online edition,
- Coppa, Frank J. The Modern Papacy since 1789. Longman, 1998. 296 pp.
- Daniel-Rops, Henri. The Church in the Eighteenth Century (1964)
- Daniel-Rops, Henri. The Church in an Age of Revolution (1965).
- Holland, Joe. Modern Catholic Social Teaching: The Popes Confront the Industrial Age 1740-1958. Paulist Press, 2003. 404 pp.
- Kung, Hans. The Catholic Church: A Short History (2003), by a leading Catholic scholar excerpt and text search
- Latourette, Kenneth Scott. Christianity in a Revolutionary Age: A History of Christianity in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 5 Vol (1958), a detailed history of Chritianity 1800-1950 by a fair-minded Protestant scholar. vol 1 online edition
- Logan, F. Donald. A History of the Church in the Middle Ages. 2002. online edition
- Mullett, Michael A. The Catholic Reformation, (1999), online edition
- O'Toole, James M. The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America (2008) [ excerpt and text search]
- Pastor, Ludwig von. History of the Popes From the Close of the Middle Ages, (1894-1930), 16 vol, older Catholic history online from books.google.com
- Ullmann, Walter. A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages, (2002), 393pp, online edition
- Schreck, Alan. The Compact History of the Catholic Church (2009)
- Vidmar, John. The Catholic Church through the Ages: A History (2005) excerpt and text search
Reference
- New Catholic 'Encyclopedia (1967), hundreds of articles
- Catholic Encyclopedia, "The Pope" (1913) online edition many articles on the Catholic Church; articles were written 100 years ago
- Coppa, Frank J., ed. Great Popes through History: An Encyclopedia. Greenwood, 2002. 600 pp.
- Kelly, J.N.D. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes (1988). 349pp; scholarly short biographies; online edition
References
- ↑ http://www.adherents.com/adh_branches.html#Christianity
- ↑ Which sacraments are recognized is one of the important distinctions between the theology of different Christian denominations. Many Protestant denominations follow Luther and recognize only Baptism, Eucharist, and Penance.