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- 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.
www.learnreligions.com/catholicism-beliefs-and-practices-3897877
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
True worship (as opposed to veneration or honor) does indeed...
- Five Types
He has written about Catholicism for outlets including...
- 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
Catholicism Latter Day Saints View More. By. Kelli Mahoney....
- Ascension
History of the Ascension of Our Lord . The reality of...
- Monotheistic
Monotheism is a religion or belief system that involves a...
- Mary
The strongest focus on Mary has occurred within Catholicism,...
- Saints
- 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.
Mar 18, 2024 · At its core, Catholicism is a Christian tradition that claims to be rooted in the teachings of Jesus Christ and the scriptures of the Bible. It emphasizes the sacraments as means of grace, particularly the Eucharist, and adheres to doctrines such as the Trinity, the Virgin Mary's Immaculate Conception, and the Communion of Saints.
Mar 31, 2023 · The core beliefs of the Catholic faith are found in the Nicene Creed. This creed proclaims belief in the Holy Trinity; the Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection of Christ; the Second Coming and Last Judgment; the forgiveness of sins; and the life everlasting.
May 1, 2024 · The Catholic Church is an ancient religious institution boasting over a billion members worldwide. As such, Catholicism is the largest Christian ecclesiastical body in the world. Because of this alone, it is important to have an accurate understanding of the Roman Catholic Church’s history and beliefs.
- Barton Gingerich
The term “Catholic” is in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds, and many Protestants, claiming the term for themselves, give it a meaning that is unsupported historically, ignoring the term’s use at the time the creeds were written.
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Catholics belong to a Christ-centered faith community that views Jesus Christ as the foundation. Catholics share Jesus’ vision and model their lives after Jesus’ example of love. Catholics are called to care for one another and to use their unique gifts and talents for the good of the community and the world.
