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May 17, 2024 · Catholicism is a Christian religion, a reformation of the Jewish faith that follows the teachings of its founder Jesus Christ. Like other Christian religions (and Judaism and Islam), it is also an Abrahamic religion; Catholics consider Abraham as the ancient patriarch. The current head of the church is the Pope, who resides in Vatican City.
- Saints
Many non-Catholic Christians believe that it is wrong to...
- Five Types
"Prayer," St. John Damascene wrote, "is the raising of one's...
- Homily of St. John Chrysostom
On Easter Sunday, in many Eastern Rite Catholic and Eastern...
- Ignatius of Antioch
Ignatius of Antioch (ca 50–ca 110 CE) was an early Christian...
- Holy Trinity
So, while God is the one, true God. He is the only God, He...
- Ascension
The reality of Christ's Ascension is so important that the...
- Monotheistic
Monotheism is a religion or belief system that involves a...
- Mary
Many Protestants also believe that Mary remained a virgin,...
- Saints
2 days ago · Roman Catholicism - Sacraments, Dogma, Liturgy: The idea of faith shared by all Christian churches is rooted in the New Testament. But the New Testament idea of faith is not simple; indeed, it possesses a breadth of meaning that has led to varying understandings, even within a single Christian communion. Most modern interpreters of the New Testament would agree to a description of faith as the ...
Mar 31, 2023 · The Catholic Church is a Christian religion that is monotheistic, meaning that Catholics believe that there is only one supreme being, called God. Catholics believe that God is the creator of the universe and that He is the lord of heaven and earth. The Catholic God has three aspects, known as the Trinity. The three persons of the Trinity are ...
- Overview
- The emergence of Catholic Christianity
Christianity is an important world religion that stems from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus. Roman Catholicism is the largest of the three major branches of Christianity. Thus, all Roman Catholics are Christian, but not all Christians are Roman Catholic. Of the estimated 2.3 billion Christians in the world, about 1.3 billion of them are Roman Catholics. Broadly, Roman Catholicism differs from other Christian churches and denominations in its beliefs about the sacraments, the roles of the Bible and tradition, the importance of the Virgin Mary and the saints, and the papacy.
Read more below: Christianity: Contemporary Christianity
Roman Catholic Saints
Learn more about the importance of the saints in the Roman Catholic faith.
Who founded Roman Catholicism?
As a branch of Christianity, Roman Catholicism can be traced to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ in Roman-occupied Jewish Palestine about 30 CE. According to Roman Catholic teaching, each of the sacraments was instituted by Christ himself. Roman Catholicism also holds that Jesus established his disciple St. Peter as the first pope of the nascent church (Matthew 16:18). Centuries of tradition, theological debates, and the wiles of history have shaped Roman Catholicism into what it is today.
At least in an inchoate form, all the elements of catholicity—doctrine, authority, universality—are evident in the New Testament. The Acts of the Apostles begins with a depiction of the demoralized band of the disciples of Jesus in Jerusalem, but by the end of its account of the first decades, the Christian community has developed some nascent criteria for determining the difference between authentic (“apostolic”) and inauthentic teaching and behaviour. It has also moved beyond the geographic borders of Judaism, as the dramatic sentence of the closing chapter announces: “And thus we came to Rome” (Acts 28:14). The later epistles of the New Testament admonish their readers to “guard what has been entrusted to you” (1 Timothy 6:20) and to “contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the holy ones” (Jude 3), and they speak about the Christian community itself in exalted and even cosmic terms as the church, “which is [Christ’s] body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way” (Ephesians 1:23). It is clear even from the New Testament that these catholic features were proclaimed in response to internal challenges as well as external ones; indeed, scholars have concluded that the early church was far more pluralistic from the very beginning than the somewhat idealized portrayal in the New Testament might suggest.
As such challenges continued in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, further development of catholic teaching became necessary. The schema of apostolic authority formulated by the bishop of Lyon, St. Irenaeus (c. 130–c. 200), sets forth systematically the three main sources of authority for catholic Christianity: the Scriptures of the New Testament (alongside the Hebrew Scriptures, or “Old Testament,” which Christians interpret as prophesying the coming of Jesus); the episcopal centres established by the Apostles as the seats of their identifiable successors in the governance of the church (traditionally at Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome); and the apostolic tradition of normative doctrine as the “rule of faith” and the standard of Christian conduct. Each of the three sources depended on the other two for validation; thus, one could determine which purportedly scriptural writings were genuinely apostolic by appealing to their conformity with acknowledged apostolic tradition and to the usage of the apostolic churches, and so on. This was not a circular argument but an appeal to a single catholic authority of apostolicity, in which the three elements were inseparable. Inevitably, however, there arose conflicts—of doctrine and jurisdiction, of worship and pastoral practice, and of social and political strategy—among the three sources, as well as between equally “apostolic” bishops. When bilateral means of resolving such conflicts proved insufficient, there could be recourse to either the precedent of convoking an apostolic council (Acts 15) or to what Irenaeus had already called “the preeminent authority of this church [of Rome], with which, as a matter of necessity, every church should agree.” Catholicism was on the way to becoming Roman Catholic.
Central to the Catholic faith is the belief in the Holy Trinity, which holds that God is one being in three divine persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. This belief emphasizes the unity and diversity within the Godhead. Faith in the Incarnation. Catholics believe in the Incarnation, the doctrine that God became human ...
Apr 23, 2018 · Immaculate Conception of Mary - Roman Catholics are required to believe that when Mary herself was conceived, she was without original sin. Protestants deny this claim. Infallibility of the Pope - This is a required belief of the Catholic Church in matters of religious doctrine. Protestants deny this belief.
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Mar 18, 2024 · Catholics believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the second person of the Holy Trinity. They hold that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human, who died for the sins of humanity and was resurrected, offering salvation to all who believe. This belief is foundational to the Catholic faith and practice.
