Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Denominations

Roman Catholicism

Also Known As Catholic Church The institution as almost everyone names it. The atlas files the tradition as Roman Catholicism. · Catholicism Short form of Roman Catholicism.
Christianity

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Origin 30 to 1100 CE

The largest Christian communion, united under the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, held to be the successor of the Apostle Peter and visible head of the Church. It teaches apostolic succession through ordained bishops, seven sacraments, and the change of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, called transubstantiation, at the heart of the Mass. Authority rests jointly on Scripture, sacred Tradition, and the teaching office, the Magisterium, which under defined conditions may speak infallibly. Catholic life is marked by devotion to the Virgin Mary and the saints, belief in purgatory and prayer for the dead, a vast religious life of monks and nuns, and a detailed moral and social teaching. It shares the ancient creeds and sacraments with Eastern Orthodoxy, from which it became progressively estranged through disputes over authority, doctrine, jurisdiction, and politics, conventionally dated from 1054 and hardened by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It was the body against which the Protestant Reformers protested in the sixteenth century.

Facts
Practice
Liturgical Language
Latin 1
Liturgical Language
The vernacular 1
Practice StatusSourced to the subject's own account
Catholic doctrine, liturgy and canon law are published in full and freely available, including the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the Church actively welcomes outside study. Reception of the Eucharist by non-Catholics is restricted under canon law, a specific and openly stated rule rather than a hidden one. 9
Reach
Adherents TodaySourced to the subject's own account
1,406,000,000 10
Adherents TodaySourced to the subject's own account
The Holy See's own count, compiled from diocesan returns of baptisms; it is not a survey of self-identification and exceeds census self-identification in several countries 10
Accountability
Documented Accused Count
1670 14
Germany only, 1946 to 2014, per the MHG Study (German Bishops' Conference, 2018). Not additive with any other jurisdiction's figure on this fact.
Documented Accused Count
1880 15
Australia only, Catholic Church, per the Royal Commission's own case-file data: 1,880 alleged perpetrators identified from claims of child sexual abuse made to Catholic Church authorities, January 1980 to February 2015. The Commission separately found that 7 percent of the Catholic priests active in Australia between 1950 and 2010 were alleged to have abused a child, a different measure over a different period; the two figures are not the same count and are not additive. Not additive with any other jurisdiction's figure on this fact.
Documented Accused Count
19 16
Ireland only, Diocese of Cloyne, 1996 to 2009, per the Cloyne Report (Government of Ireland, 2011). Not additive with the Ferns Report's Ireland figure or any other jurisdiction's figure on this fact: a different diocese and period.
Documented Accused Count
21 17
Ireland only, Diocese of Ferns, 1962 to 2002, per the Ferns Report (Government of Ireland, 2005). Not additive with the John Jay US figure or any other jurisdiction's figure on this fact; each is its own country's count.
Documented Accused Count
237 18
United States only, Archdiocese of Boston, 1940 to 2002, per the Massachusetts Attorney General's report (2003). Not additive with the John Jay national US figure: this is one archdiocese, not the whole country.
Documented Accused Count
2900 19
France only, per the CIASE (Sauve) Commission's own range: 2,900 to 3,200 credibly identified abusers holding a position in the Catholic Church in France, 1950 to 2020, from direct testimony and archives. This fact records the floor of that range, not an invented midpoint. Not additive with any other jurisdiction's figure on this fact. The commission's separate victim-estimate (216,000, rising to 330,000 including lay staff) is an extrapolation from a survey sample, not a headcount, and is recorded as debated on the CIASE Report entity itself, distinct from this directly identified accused count.
Documented Accused Count
4392 20
United States only, 1950 to 2002, per the John Jay Report's diocesan self-report survey; not a global count. France's CIASE report separately documents 2,900 to 3,200 abusers in France, 1950 to 2020; Pennsylvania's grand jury separately documents 301 in six dioceses.
Documented Accused Count
800 21
Netherlands only, per the Deetman Commission report (2011), named in complaints from roughly 1,795 people who came forward directly to the commission. Not additive with any other jurisdiction's figure on this fact.
Settlement Total
1,500,000,000 22
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles alone, cumulative settlements as of 2024 reporting; not a national total. No single verified aggregate exists across every US diocese and religious order; see abuse-bankruptcy-count for the separate bankruptcy-proceeding figure, which is smaller and counted differently.
Settlement Total
5,590,000,000 11
A national aggregate for United States dioceses and eparchies, not scoped to one archdiocese: the USCCB's own annual Charter compliance reporting, compiled with Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and audited by StoneBridge Business Partners, tracked Charter-era settlement payouts at about 4.384 billion dollars through 2023; two further 2024 settlements, an 880 million dollar Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreement and a 323 million dollar Diocese of Rockville Centre agreement, brought the twenty-year running total to roughly 5.59 billion dollars, recorded here as the floor of that reporting. Some tallies that also count a separate 2007 Los Angeles settlement place the figure above 6.24 billion dollars; this fact records the USCCB's own Charter-era running total rather than that broader tally. This complements, rather than duplicates, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles cumulative figure already recorded separately on this same fact key; the two describe different scopes and are not additive with each other.
Bankruptcy Filings
28 22
US dioceses and territories that have filed for bankruptcy citing clergy abuse claims, per reporting dated February 2026; a floor that will move as new filings occur. 15 of the 28 had reached settlements totaling close to 900 million dollars to more than 2,600 victims through those bankruptcy proceedings specifically, distinct from the Los Angeles total recorded separately above.
Response Policy Adopted
Dallas Charter (2002, United States) and Vos Estis Lux Mundi (2019, worldwide) 23
Response Policy Adopted
German Bishops' Conference post-MHG reforms: revised prevention and abuse-handling order (2019/2020) and the reformed recognition payment procedure through the independent UKA commission (2020/2021), up to 50,000 euros per case 24
Germany only, the German Bishops' Conference's own institutional response following the 2018 MHG Study; a separate policy from Dallas Charter (United States, 2002) and Vos Estis Lux Mundi (worldwide, 2019), already recorded on this same fact key.
History
Separation or Divergence
Constantinople and the eastern churches: the mutual excommunications of 1054 and the estrangement completed by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 1
Separation or Divergence
Each holds that it kept the faith of the undivided church 1
Separation or Divergence
Neither communion accepts a description of itself as having separated 1
Separation or Divergence
The excommunications were lifted by both sides in 1965 1
Date of Separation
1054 to 1204 1
Belief
Defining Doctrinal Position
Trinitarian: one God in three persons 1Tradition: Christianity
Defining Doctrinal Position
Chalcedonian: two natures in the one person of Christ (Chalcedon, 451) 1Tradition: Christianity
Defining Doctrinal Position
Affirms the Filioque: the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son 1Tradition: Christianity
Position on Usury
Interest is permitted but bound by ethical constraints against exploiting the poor 2 3
Since Benedict XIV's 1745 encyclical Vix Pervenit, interest is licit when justified by a title separate from the loan contract itself, such as the lender's real risk of loss or lost opportunity, while a plain charge for the use of money alone remains condemned as usury.
Usury Position Detail
Roman Catholic teaching bars taking a return from a loan contract by itself: Vix Pervenit states plainly that "any gain which exceeds the amount he gave is illicit and usurious." What the same encyclical does not bar is a return owed for a reason genuinely separate from the loan, an "extrinsic title" such as compensation for real risk of loss or for an opportunity the lender gave up to make the loan, reasons the text describes as "not at all intrinsic to the contract" itself. This distinction, not a simple ceiling on the interest rate, is what lets ordinary lending operate today without the charge counting as usury in the sense the Church has condemned since antiquity. 2
Position on Marriage
Marriage is held to be a lifelong, monogamous, indissoluble union; remarriage after divorce is not sanctioned while a spouse lives 4 5
Sourced to the subject's own accountCanon 1141 states a ratified and consummated marriage between baptized persons can be dissolved by no human power and by no cause except death. The Church's process of annulment, where it applies, holds that no valid marriage existed from the start; it does not dissolve one.
Marriage Position DetailSourced to the subject's own account
The Catechism describes marriage as "the matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life," a covenant between the baptized that Christ raised to the dignity of a sacrament. Canon 1141 of the Code of Canon Law states plainly that a marriage of this kind, once consummated, "can be dissolved by no human power and by no cause, except death." What looks from outside like the Church ending a marriage, an annulment, is not that: a decree of nullity holds that no valid marriage existed in the first place, most often for a defect in consent or capacity at the time of the wedding, and it is a declaration about the past rather than a dissolution of a real marriage in the present. 5
Position on Sexuality
Same-sex sexual relationships are held contrary to teaching; LGBT individuals are welcomed as members but not ordained, and same-sex unions are not blessed 6
Sourced to the subject's own accountThe Church does not recognize same-sex unions as marriage or authorize a liturgical rite resembling marriage. Since 2023, it permits brief, non-liturgical pastoral blessings requested by same-sex couples, while stating that such blessings do not legitimize the union. A January 2024 clarification from the Church's own doctrinal office confirmed the permission does not require or forbid the practice locally and does not amount to blessing the union as a marriage.
Sexuality Position DetailSourced to the subject's own account
The Catechism states that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law" (2357), while it also states of the inclination itself that persons "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity" and that "every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided" (2358). Homosexual persons are called to chastity like every unmarried Catholic (2359). The Church does not ordain on the basis of the inclination and does not celebrate a same-sex union as a marriage; the teaching's own framing distinguishes the inclination and the person, who is owed welcome, from the act, which is held contrary to teaching. 5
Status
Status Today
Living tradition, practised today 1
Giving
Standing Giving Expectation
Canon 222 of the Code of Canon Law, restated as the fifth of the Precepts of the Church ("you shall help to provide for the needs of the Church"), obliges Catholics to support the material needs of the Church according to their own ability. It names no fixed percentage: the Church rarely exercises its right to require a specific amount, leaving each Catholic to judge how and when to give through Sunday collections, annual appeals and other ordinary means. The widely known figure of ten percent is a homiletic tradition borrowed from tithing, not a requirement of canon law itself. 12
How the Expectation Is Enforced
Obligation to Support, No Set Rate 12
Health Facilities Operated
Hospitals and Health Facilities Operated
According to the Fides News Agency's Catholic Church Statistics 2025 dossier, drawn from the Church's own Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae ("Church's Book of Statistics"), the Catholic Church runs 103,951 charity and healthcare centres worldwide as of 31 December 2023. These include 5,377 hospitals and 13,895 dispensaries, chiefly in Africa and the Americas, plus 504 care homes for people with leprosy, 15,566 homes for the elderly, chronically ill or disabled, and 8,593 orphanages. 13
Health Facility Count As Of
2023-12-31 13
Basis of the Health Facility Count
The Body's Own Published Statistics 13
Identity
Also Known As
Roman Catholic 1
Also Known As
Roman Catholic Church 1
Origins
Origin Period
30 to 1100 CE 1
Place of Origin
Rome 1
Founder
A monarchical episcopate at Rome is not documented before the second century 1
Founder
Attributed by the church to the apostle Peter as first bishop of Rome 1
Organisation
Governance
Universal primacy of a single bishop 1
Governance
Episcopal: governed by bishops 1
Ordination
Restricted to men 1
Ordination
Celibacy required of the ordained 1
Celibacy is required of priests of the Latin church
Ordination
Married clergy permitted 1
Married men are ordained as permanent deacons, and the Eastern Catholic churches ordain married men to the priesthood
Ordination Practice DetailSourced to the subject's own account
This restriction has never had a datable point of adoption within the tradition's own account of itself. Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, issued 22 May 1994, is a reaffirmation of that continuous teaching rather than its origin: the letter itself states that priestly ordination "has in the Catholic Church from the beginning always been reserved to men alone" and that the teaching "has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church," declaring only that the Church has no authority to change it. 7
Relation to the State
Varies by Province 8
The Catholic Church's legal status varies by country rather than following one pattern: Costa Rica's constitution names the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Religion the religion of the State, and Malta's constitution does the same, while concordats with the Holy See in states such as Italy and the Dominican Republic grant recognition and privileges short of formal establishment, and still other states, including France and the United States, recognise no relationship at all.
Finances
Institutional Wealth or Finances
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual Charter compliance reports, compiled with survey research from Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and audit procedures from StoneBridge Business Partners, track diocesan and eparchial payouts settling clergy sexual abuse claims since the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People took effect in 2002. Charter-era settlement totals reported through 2023 reached about 4.384 billion dollars; two further settlements in 2024, an 880 million dollar agreement by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced 16 October and a 323 million dollar agreement by the Diocese of Rockville Centre announced in September, brought the twenty-year running total for United States dioceses to roughly 5.59 billion dollars, with some tallies that also count a 2007 Los Angeles settlement placing the figure above 6.24 billion dollars. This is a national aggregate covering many separate dioceses and eparchies, counting settlement payouts rather than the church's total assets or income, and it is distinct from the finances of the Holy See itself, recorded separately on this atlas. 11
Basis of the Wealth Figure
Audited Annual Report 11
Financial Disclosure Regime
The Roman Catholic Church in the United States publishes no single consolidated balance sheet; each diocese and eparchy reports separately, and the aggregate figure recorded here comes from the USCCB's annual Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People compliance reports, compiled with CARA survey research and StoneBridge Business Partners audit procedures, plus individually reported 2024 settlements. It tracks abuse settlement payouts specifically, not the church's total wealth, property or investment holdings. 11
Wealth Figure As Of Year
2024 11
Education Facilities Operated
Schools and Universities Operated
The same Fides dossier reports that the Catholic Church runs 74,550 kindergartens with 7,639,051 pupils, 102,455 primary schools with 36,199,844 pupils, and 52,085 secondary schools with 20,724,361 pupils worldwide, as of 31 December 2023. A further 4,468,875 students attend university institutes affiliated with the Catholic Church, and 2,688,615 pupils attend Catholic-affiliated senior secondary institutes counted separately from the main secondary-school total. 13
Education Facility Count As Of
2023-12-31 13
Basis of the Education Facility Count
The Body's Own Published Statistics 13
Trajectory
Membership Over Time
By the 2014 wave of the same Religious Landscape Study, the Catholic share of US adults had fallen to 21 percent. 25
Membership Over Time
In the 2023-24 wave of the same study, the Catholic share of US adults stood at 19 percent, continuing a gradual decline from 24 percent in 2007, an independent self-identification measure recorded here separately from any church-reported baptized-member count. 25
Membership Over Time
In the Pew Research Center's 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Study, 24 percent of US adults identified as Catholic. This is a national self-identification survey, a different measure from the Church's own count of baptized or registered Catholics, which the Vatican and individual dioceses record separately. 25
Membership Figure As Of
2007-01-01 25
Membership Figure As Of
2014-01-01 25
Membership Figure As Of
2024-01-01 25
Basis of the Membership Figure
Independent Survey 25
Learn More
The Claim, and What It Rests On

Rome's own account of its origin is a straight line: Christ gave the keys to Peter, Peter died at Rome, and the bishop of Rome has held what Peter held ever since. The historical account is less tidy, and the two are worth setting side by side.

Almost no historian disputes that Peter was at Rome and died there. What is disputed is when the bishop of Rome became the pope in the sense the word now carries. The earliest Roman succession lists are later compilations; the second-century Roman church appears to have been led by a body of presbyters rather than a single monarchical bishop; and the move from a precedence of honour among the ancient sees to a jurisdiction over them is visible unfolding across the fourth to eleventh centuries rather than present at the start. John Henry Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845) answers that a seed is not less itself for growing: a doctrine can unfold under fidelity to what it already held without that unfolding making it a novelty. Catholic theology has broadly followed Newman's argument since, while conceding the developmental point itself, that jurisdiction was not present in its later form at the start, which older polemics had denied.

The sharpest form of the claim is recent. Papal infallibility was defined at the First Vatican Council in 1870, not in the apostolic age, and not without opposition inside the council, whose minority left Rome rather than vote against it. A body of German-speaking Catholics refused the definition outright and became the Old Catholic churches. Since 1870 the power has been exercised in a way all parties agree on exactly once, in the definition of the bodily Assumption of Mary in 1950.

Two ruptures followed from the broader claim to Roman primacy and jurisdiction traced above, not from the 1870 infallibility definition itself: the Greek East had already refused that claim centuries earlier, the mutual excommunications of 1054 marking the parting long before Vatican I. The Reformers of the sixteenth century rejected it root and branch, and the Council of Trent, sitting between 1545 and 1563, answered them by defining the disputed points rather than conceding any of them.

How It Is Actually Governed

A doctrinal summary will not tell you how the Catholic Church makes a decision. The structure is episcopal and monarchical at once, and the second half is what distinguishes it from every other church with bishops.

Every Catholic belongs to a parish, grouped into a diocese under a bishop who holds real ordinary authority there. Bishops are not elected locally; they are appointed by the pope, usually from names worked up through the papal representative in the country. That single fact does more to shape the church's behaviour than most doctrinal statements, because it means the line of accountability runs upward to Rome rather than outward to the diocese.

Rome itself governs through the Roman Curia, a set of departments handling doctrine, worship, bishops, clergy, religious orders, the eastern Catholic churches and the rest. Its judgements bind. Alongside it stands the college of cardinals, whose one irreducible function is to elect a pope in conclave on the death or resignation of the last. Law is codified: the Latin church has run on a Code of Canon Law since 1917, revised in 1983, and the eastern Catholic churches on a separate code since 1990.

Two counterweights exist and are genuinely contested in strength. The Second Vatican Council, sitting from 1962 to 1965, recovered the language of collegiality, the bishops as a body sharing responsibility for the whole church, and created a standing Synod of Bishops. National bishops' conferences were also strengthened. How much either can actually decide, as against advise, has been argued over ever since, and the argument is not settled.

Where It Is Now

The church's own returns put baptised Catholics at roughly 1.4 billion, comfortably the largest religious body under a single government on earth. Those are baptismal registers rather than counts of practice, and the gap between the two is enormous in some countries and small in others: measured against this atlas's own figure for the world's Christian population, the baptismal count alone comes to well over half, while independent demographic surveys, which count self-identification rather than parish registers, have generally put the Catholic share of the world's Christians closer to half.

The distribution has moved. Europe, which supplied the church's law, its liturgy and most of its popes for a thousand years, is now a minority share and a declining one, with weekly attendance in single-digit percentages across much of the continent. Latin America still holds the largest regional bloc but has been losing members steadily to Pentecostal and evangelical churches for four decades. Sub-Saharan Africa is where the growth is, in members, in vocations and increasingly in influence.

Three live disputes are worth naming without taking a side. The abuse crisis has produced state inquiries in Ireland, Australia, Germany, France and the United States, findings of institutional concealment, and settlements that have bankrupted dioceses; it is the single largest cause of the church's loss of authority in the West. The liturgy is contested again: permission for the older Latin Mass was widened in 2007 and sharply restricted in 2021, and the restriction is resented. And the church is pulling in two directions at once on sexuality and church discipline, with German bishops pressing for change and African bishops publicly refusing it, most visibly over the 2023 permission for non-liturgical blessings of couples in irregular situations.

Liberation Theology, and Rome's Two Answers

Liberation theology is a movement within Catholic theology, not a church or a party, and it began as a description of what Latin American priests were already doing rather than as a programme handed to them.

Its founding text is Gustavo Gutierrez's A Theology of Liberation of 1971, which named the movement. Its institutional moment was the meeting of the Latin American bishops at Medellin in 1968, applying the Second Vatican Council to a continent where most Catholics were poor and many lived under military governments. Its central formula is the preferential option for the poor: that God is not neutral between the poor and those who impoverish them, and that theology must be done from where the poor stand rather than about them. Its characteristic institution was the base ecclesial community, small lay groups reading scripture together and organising around land, wages and disappearance.

The controversial element was analytical. Some liberation theologians used Marxist categories (class, structural conflict, ideology), as tools for describing what they saw, while denying that this committed them to Marxist atheism or to revolution. Their critics denied the separation was possible.

Rome responded twice, both times through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Ratzinger, and the two documents are not the same document.

  • Libertatis Nuntius (1984) was the sharp one. It attacked the use of Marxist analysis as inseparable from Marxist ideology, warned that reducing salvation to political liberation empties it, and criticised a reading of the church itself as divided by class. It also stated explicitly that the phrase "theology of liberation" is a thoroughly valid term and that the aspiration behind it is legitimate.
  • Libertatis Conscientia (1986) was the constructive one, setting out a positive Catholic doctrine of freedom and liberation, affirming the preferential option for the poor, and defending the right of the poor to organise.

Individual theologians were disciplined. Leonardo Boff was silenced for a year in 1985 and eventually left the priesthood. Others, including Gutierrez, were investigated and not condemned.

The later history complicates the usual story. Gutierrez was received warmly at the Vatican in 2013 and co-wrote a book with Gerhard Muller, then prefect of the same congregation that had investigated him. Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope, canonised Oscar Romero in 2018 and made economic justice and the condition of the poor central to his teaching, without adopting the movement's analytical apparatus.

The movement's numerical decline in Latin America owes less to Roman discipline than to two things it did not control: the fall of the military governments it had defined itself against, and the very large migration of the poor it addressed into Pentecostal churches.

Controversies and Responses

This record documents two distinct clusters of controversy involving the Roman Catholic Church, each carrying its own institutional response.

The first is the clergy sexual abuse crisis, documented here through eight inquiries: the John Jay Report's count of 4,392 accused clergy in the United States from 1950 to 2002, the Boston Globe Spotlight investigation, Pennsylvania's grand jury, Ireland's Murphy and Ryan reports, Australia's Royal Commission, France's CIASE Sauve report, and the Vatican's own McCarrick Report on how the Holy See handled warnings about Theodore McCarrick before his 2019 laicization, the Church's most severe penalty for clergy. Twenty eight US dioceses have filed for bankruptcy citing abuse claims; fifteen reached settlements totaling near 900 million dollars, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles alone has paid roughly 1.5 billion dollars in cumulative settlements as of 2024. The responses stand alongside the findings: the 2002 Dallas Charter adopted a zero tolerance policy in the United States, and Vos Estis Lux Mundi set a worldwide reporting procedure for bishops in 2019.

The second cluster is institutional wealth and disclosure. The Holy See discloses its finances voluntarily, through APSA, the Secretariat for the Economy and the Institute for the Works of Religion, each publishing its own figures on its own schedule, answerable to no outside regulator. German dioceses alone received about 6.63 billion euros in church tax in 2024. Critics ask why dioceses holding such resources turn to bankruptcy protection rather than settling claims directly; this record carries the wealth and settlement figures side by side without asserting a link neither source establishes.

Denominations of Roman Catholicism
Cross-Tradition Connections

Adopted Policy

Associated With

Roman Catholicism is held in most Andean communities together with the huaca, Pachamama and apu complex rather than in place of it.

Source The Incas, 2nd editionTerence N. D'Altroy

Benedictine monk of Bec and Archbishop of Canterbury (1093 to 1109); canonized, and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1720.

Keeper of the Shroud of Turin since 1578, with ownership passed to the Holy See in 1983.

Source The Holy Shroud - Archdiocese of Turin (Diocesi di Torino)Archdiocese of Turinthe holders' own account

One of the seven pilgrimage churches of Rome, keeping Passion relics traditionally associated with Helena's collecting.

Source The Relics of the Passion - Basilica di Santa Croce in GerusalemmeBasilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemmethe holders' own account

A Catholic parish church keeping the Holy Tunic venerated as the garment Jesus wore at his crucifixion.

Source La Sainte Tunique d'Argenteuil - Basilica of Saint-DenysBasilique Saint-Denys d'Argenteuilthe holders' own account
Basques, Cultures

Christianity, in its Catholic form, has been theirs for many centuries; the Society of Jesus was founded by a Basque.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Camisard Rebellion, Wars & Conflicts

The French crown enforced Catholic religious uniformity in the Cevennes after 1685, and the war was fought against that campaign of forced conversion.

Keeps the Sudarium of Oviedo, venerated as the head cloth of Jesus, within the Camara Santa.

Source The Sudarium and the Arca Santa - Cathedral of San Salvador, OviedoCabildo de la Catedral de Oviedothe holders' own account

This source names Roman Catholicism directly: "own library research guide on Roman Catholicism in western Pennsylvania records that a February 1967 student retreat organized by Ralph Keifer and William Storey at the Ark and the Dove retreat..."

Clement VII, Figures

Pope from 1523 to 1534.

From the excommunication decree of 1949 through Ostpolitik to John Paul II and Solidarity, the Catholic Church was a principal actor on the religious front.

Source Religion and the Cold WarDianne Kirby (editor)
Constance, Cities

The decrees Haec sancta and Frequens issued here are the high point of the conciliar claim against papal authority.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

The targeted tradition. This is an Associated With edge to the tradition that was persecuted, not a perpetrator-tradition edge; the perpetrator was the liberal Ecuadorian state.

Source The Dutch Revolt (Parker)Geoffrey Parker
Franks, Cultures

Clovis accepted Catholic rather than Arian Christianity around the turn of the sixth century, aligning the kingdom with the bishops of Gaul.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The established Catholic Church, alongside the region's secular princes, was among the authorities the rebels' Twelve Articles challenged.

Green, Colors

Green is the vestment colour of Ordinary Time in the Roman Rite, the weeks that fall outside the Christmas and Easter cycles and their preparatory seasons. It is by a wide margin the commonest colour of the liturgical year.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The targeted tradition. This is an Associated With edge to the tradition that was persecuted, not a perpetrator-tradition edge; the perpetrator was the liberal Guatemalan state.

Emperors were crowned by popes and fought them for the right to invest bishops, a contest settled in form at Worms in 1122.

The Avignon papacy and the Western Schism ran through the war, and Joan of Arc was condemned by a Catholic tribunal in 1431 and canonised by the same church in 1920.

Source Joan of Arc: Her StoryRegine Pernoud and Marie-Veronique Clin
Hussite Wars, Wars & Conflicts

Five successive popes authorized crusades against the Hussites, and the institutional Catholic Church, through the Council of Basel, was the party that ultimately negotiated the settlement permitting Utraquist practice.

This source names Roman Catholic Church directly: "The Roman Catholic Church in Austria's own official explanation of the Kirchenbeitrag, the mandatory contribution owed by registered members under the 1939 Church Contribution Act, roughly one..."

Itza, Cultures

Catholicism followed after 1697, with Maya practice continuing beside it.

Joachim of Fiore composed and taught this calculation as a Catholic abbot in good standing and was never condemned in his own lifetime; only a later, posthumously attributed treatise on the Trinity was censured, and his own order was explicitly left undisturbed.

She was baptised a Catholic and claimed possession by Saint Anthony of Padua. Capuchin missionaries condemned her, and the record of her movement is theirs rather than her own.

The kingdom took the Papal States and then Rome, and three popes refused to leave the Vatican until the settlement of 1929.

Catholicism was adopted by the kingdom's own decision in 1491 and remained the religion of the state for four centuries.

Kutna Hora, Cities

A Gothic ossuary chapel whose cemetery soil was, by local tradition, sanctified with earth brought from Golgotha by an abbot returning from the Holy Land.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Leo X, Figures

Pope from 1513 to 1521.

Lyon, Cities

The archbishop of Lyon holds the title Primate of the Gauls, and the conclave rules of 1274 were enacted here.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)
Source Codex Iuris Canonici (1983 Code of Canon Law)Pope John Paul IIthe holders' own account

Bishop of Paris from 1160 until his death.

This source names Roman Catholicism directly: "Frisian priest whose 1536 break from Roman Catholicism and subsequent leadership consolidated the Anabaptist movement that became known as Mennonite, is a community edited tertiary encyclopedia..."

Source Menno Simons (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Catholicism has been held in many Mesoamerican communities since the sixteenth century alongside the older calendar and pantheon.

Source The Maya (9th edition)Michael D. Coe and Stephen Houston

Keeps the Santo Caliz, venerated by many Catholics as the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Munster Rebellion, Wars & Conflicts

The besieging army was raised and led by Munster's own expelled Catholic prince-bishop, Franz von Waldeck, though it was reinforced by Lutheran territories that shared his opposition to the Anabaptist regime.

Nahua, Cultures

Catholicism has been held in most Nahua communities since 1521 alongside continuing household and healing practice.

The Concordat of 1801 restored Catholic worship in France on the state's terms; by 1809 he had annexed the Papal States and taken Pius VII into custody.

A concordat was signed with the Vatican in July 1933; Rome protested its breaches in the 1937 encyclical Mit brennender Sorge.

Nicaea, Cities

The creed of 325, in its later expanded form, is recited at Mass in the Latin church.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

Career canon of Frauenburg Cathedral; dedicated De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543) directly to Pope Paul III seeking the Church's protection for the work.

She was baptised Ana de Sousa at Luanda in 1622, afterwards returned to Mbundu ritual practice, and reconciled with the Capuchin mission in the 1650s.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Orange, Cities

The canons of 529 were confirmed by Boniface II in 531 and are quoted in Catholic teaching on grace.

Source Canons of the Second Council of OrangeSecond Council of Orangethe holders' own account

The Catholic All Souls observance that Dia de los Muertos is built around in most of Mexico.

Catholicism has been present since the seventeenth century, held alongside rather than in place of the older kiva-based observance.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The Franciscan mission system was the specific institution whose decades of suppressing Pueblo ceremonial life the revolt was organized to end, and Franciscan missions and missionaries were its principal target.

Quechua, Cultures

Roman Catholicism is held together with address to Pachamama and the apu, and evangelical Protestantism has grown since the later twentieth century.

Roman Catholicism runs the only centralised juridical process for recognising saints.

This source names Roman Catholicism directly: "enslaved Yoruba practice blended with Roman Catholicism, the only legally permitted religion under Spanish colonial rule, and Spiritism; and for the 1960s emigration following the 1959 Cuban..."

Source Santeria (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The wartime diplomacy of Pius XII and the conduct of the Catholic Church through the war remain among the most debated questions in modern church history.

This source names Roman Catholic Church directly: "sexual abuse of minors within the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands from 1945 onward."

Source Sexual Abuse of Minors in the Roman Catholic Church (the Deetman Commission report)Commission of Inquiry into Sexual Abuse of Minors in the Roman Catholic Church (Wim Deetman, chair)

The rebel population descended from converts of the earlier Portuguese Jesuit mission to Kyushu.

The massacre's victims were the Huguenot Reformed Protestant population of Paris and the provinces.

This source names Roman Catholicism directly: "Buddhism, Judaism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism and World Christianity."

The targeted tradition. This is an Associated With edge to the tradition that was persecuted, not a perpetrator-tradition edge; the perpetrator was the Czechoslovak communist state.

The targeted tradition. This is an Associated With edge to the tradition that was persecuted, not a perpetrator-tradition edge; the perpetrator was the revolutionary French state.

The targeted tradition: Catholic clergy and laity were the victims of this campaign, in contrast to the Marian Persecutions' targeting of Protestants a generation earlier.

The tribunal enforced Catholic orthodoxy against suspected Judaizers, crypto-Hindu practice and other perceived heresy; this is an Associated With edge to the enforcing tradition, not a perpetrator-tradition edge, since the perpetrator was the Portuguese crown's own institution.

The rural Catholic Church's catechist and clergy network, tied to liberation theology, was targeted alongside the Maya communities the army was attacking.

Source Guatemalan Genocide (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
The Kulturkampf, Wars & Conflicts

The German Empire's Catholic clergy and laity were the campaign's target throughout.

This source names Roman Catholicism directly: "and 1558, following her restoration of Roman Catholicism as the state religion and her revival of the medieval heresy laws."

Source Marian Persecutions (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The enforcing tradition, exercised through both the local bishop's episcopal authority and the later crown-appointed Holy Office; not a perpetrator-tradition edge, since the perpetrator was the colonial church and crown institution itself.

Malagrida's formal condemnation was carried out through the machinery of the Portuguese Inquisition, itself an instrument of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authority even as it acted here under direct crown pressure.

The tribunal enforced Catholic orthodoxy against suspected Judaizing among the Converso population; this is an Associated With edge to the enforcing tradition, not a perpetrator-tradition edge, since the perpetrator was the Portuguese crown's own institution acting under papal authorization.

The targeted tradition. This is an Associated With edge to the tradition that was persecuted, not a perpetrator-tradition edge; the perpetrators acted under a revolutionary political programme, not a rival religious tradition.

Pope Clement V co-acted through the 1312 dissolution bull. This is an intra-Catholic episode, crown against a Church-chartered military order with papal complicity, not one tradition persecuting a rival, so this edge is Associated With rather than a perpetrator-tradition edge.

Source The Trial of the TemplarsMalcolm Barber
The Troubles, Wars & Conflicts

Northern Ireland's Catholic community supplied the great majority of the conflict's republican and nationalist combatants and voters, though McGarry and O'Leary's own reading holds the conflict's deeper divide is national rather than doctrinal.

The Habsburg emperors and the Catholic League fought to hold and reclaim the Empire for Catholicism, from the White Mountain to the Edict of Restitution.

Trent, Cities

The Tridentine liturgical books, catechism and profession of faith all take their name from the council held here.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account
Trier, Cities

The cathedral of Trier is a Roman Catholic see.

This source names Roman Catholicism directly: "75 of the 1949 constitution naming Roman Catholicism the state religion, the Catholic Church's special legal recognition under its 1852 concordat with the Holy See rather than registration as an..."

Source US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Costa RicaUnited States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom
Vadstena, Cities

Built around the abbey Bridget of Sweden founded, motherhouse of the Bridgettine order's expansion across northern Europe.

Source The Catholic EncyclopediaCharles George Herbermann et al. (eds.)

This source names Roman Catholicism directly: "in roughly the way Rome functions for Roman Catholicism."

Source The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern TimesRichard G. Hovannisian (ed.)

Ngo Dinh Diem's Catholic administration governed a Buddhist majority, and the church's colonial era privileges were at the centre of the 1963 crisis.

Wars of Kappel, Wars & Conflicts

The Catholic Five Cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Zug were the other organized party to both wars, fighting to preserve Catholic worship in the Confederation's jointly governed territories against Zurich's Reformation policy; Gordon records that the First War began after Catholic Schwyz executed a Reformed preacher for heresy. This edge names that community's part as the historical record gives it; it is not an assertion that Roman Catholicism as such initiated the conflict, which Gordon attributes chiefly to Zurich's own expansionist religious policy.

Source The Swiss ReformationBruce Gordon

Belongs to Tradition

Branch Of

Conducted

Cristero War, Wars & Conflicts

The Cristero rebels fought in defense of Roman Catholic religious practice against state suppression, though the Church hierarchy itself did not officially direct the uprising.

The papacy formally sponsored later Reconquista campaigns as crusades from the twelfth century onward.

Source Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval SpainJoseph F. O'Callaghan
Source God's War: A New History of the CrusadesChristopher Tyerman

The tribunals were organs of the Catholic Church, under papal authority in the medieval and Roman inquisitions and under the Spanish crown from 1478.

Source InquisitionEdward Peters

Contains

An Eastern Catholic church in full communion with Rome, Byzantine in rite.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Rejected Here

Sola Fide, Doctrines

Trent's sixth session, in 1547, affirmed that grace makes a person genuinely righteous and that a justified person cooperates in meritorious works, and anathematized the proposition that the sinner is justified by faith alone.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account
Sola Scriptura, Doctrines

The Council of Trent answered the principle in its fourth session in 1546, receiving the unwritten apostolic traditions with equal reverence alongside the canonical scriptures and reserving the interpretation of scripture to the church.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account
The Priesthood of All Believers, Doctrines

Trent's twenty-third session, in 1563, affirmed a visible and external priesthood in the New Testament and anathematized the view that all Christians alike hold power to preach and to administer the sacraments.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account
Freemasonry, Secret Societies

The Roman Catholic Church has prohibited membership of Freemasonry since 1738 and has restated the prohibition since, holding the obligations a candidate undertakes to be incompatible with the obedience a Catholic owes his church. A Catholic who joins is barred from communion.

Source In Eminenti Apostolatus SpeculaPope Clement XIIthe holders' own account
Holy Prepuce, Artifacts & Relics

The cult was suppressed by decree in 1900, which forbade writing or speaking of the relic on pain of the gravest censure. It is the clearest case of Rome closing down a devotion it had tolerated for centuries.

Calvin's works were placed on the Index of Prohibited Books, and the Council of Trent answered the Institutes point by point on justification, the sacraments and the authority of scripture.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Rome refused the statute, and those who would not swear to it, More and Fisher among them, are counted in the Roman calendar as martyrs.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Pius X condemned the separation law in 1906 and forbade the associations of worship it required, so the French church lost the use of its buildings rather than accept the arrangement.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
The Quinisext Council, Councils and Synods

Rome never received the Trullan canons. Pope Sergius refused to sign them, and several bear directly against Roman practice, including the canon permitting a married priesthood. This is a council the East holds and the West does not, which is the reverse of the usual direction.

Source The Council in Trullo RevisitedGeorge Nedungatt and Michael Featherstone (eds.)
Western Astrology, Disciplines

The Roman catechism names astrology among the forms of divination to be rejected, together with horoscopes, clairvoyance, the interpretation of omens and recourse to mediums, on the ground that they contradict the honour owed to God alone.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Derived from This

The founders were Catholic, and the movement grew out of claimed Marian apparitions.

Source World Religions and Spirituality ProjectDavid G. Bromley (founding director) and the profile authors of record

Holds Element

The abbess governs a community of nuns with the same authority within her house that an abbot has in his.

Source The Rule of Saint BenedictBenedict of Nursia

The abbot is elected by the professed monks of the house and holds it for life, and the Rule gives him wide discretion tempered by the counsel of the community.

Source The Rule of Saint BenedictBenedict of Nursia

Sung in full in the Byzantine Catholic churches in communion with Rome, and used in Latin parishes in translation as a devotion apart from the Mass.

The white full length tunic worn beneath the outer vestments by ministers of every rank.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account
Alleluia, Mantras

Sung before the gospel and suppressed for the whole of Lent, so that its return at the Easter Vigil is heard as an event.

The altar is consecrated and anointed, and Latin practice reads it as the table of the supper and the place of the sacrifice at once.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account
Amen, Mantras

The people's assent, said at the end of every prayer and at the receiving of communion.

The existence of angels is a truth of faith in Roman teaching, attested by scripture and by tradition together, and they appear throughout the liturgy.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Apostle, Religious Roles & Titles

Rome holds that the apostles had no successors in their office as witnesses of the resurrection, and that what passed to the bishops was their pastoral charge rather than the apostolate itself.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

The sprinkler used at the rite of blessing water, at dedications and at the absolution of the dead.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account
Ave Maria, Mantras

Repeated fifty-three times in a full rosary.

Set as an antiphon in plainchant long before any composer took the text up, and sung on the Marian feasts.

The basilica was built to house the relics of the Passion brought from Jerusalem, and its earth is held to have been carried from there.

The basilica houses the small dark image of the Immaculate Conception recovered by fishermen in the eighteenth century, and is the national shrine of Brazil.

The tunic kept at Argenteuil is venerated as the seamless robe and is shown publicly at long intervals.

Beguine, Religious Roles & Titles

The beguines lived a religious life without vows and outside any order, which is exactly why they were repeatedly investigated and finally suppressed by a council. They were present in the medieval church and never regularised by it.

The stiffened square cap of the Latin clergy, whose colour and number of peaks mark the wearer's degree.

A distinct and highest order of the sacrament of orders, holding the fullness of the priesthood, and the only minister who can ordain.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

The book of the hours, which clergy and religious are bound to pray daily.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account
Canterbury Cathedral, Sacred Sites

Becket's shrine drew Catholic pilgrimage from across Europe until it was destroyed in 1538, and the cathedral remains a Catholic pilgrimage destination without being a Catholic church.

The college of cardinals exists so that there is a defined body of men who elect the pope, and membership carries precedence over every bishop who is not one.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

Choir and everyday dress for the Latin clergy, worn under the surplice or the alb and coloured by rank, black for a priest, violet for a bishop, scarlet for a cardinal.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The cathedral holds the sudarium in a chest venerated since the medieval period, shown on a small number of fixed days a year.

The cup of the eucharist, required to be of noble material and blessed before use.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The cup at Valencia has been used by visiting popes at Mass, which is an honour paid to the tradition and not a judgement on the object.

Charity, Virtues

Charity is the form of the virtues in Roman teaching, the love of God for his own sake that orders faith and hope to their end.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Chastity, Virtues

Chastity in Roman teaching is the successful integration of sexuality within the person, required of every baptised person in the form proper to their state of life.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The chasuble is the vestment proper to the priest celebrant at Mass in the Roman rite, worn over the alb and stole.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The monogram is cut into the paschal candle at the Easter vigil, worked into vestments and altar linen, and set on tombs. It is the older Christian sign in Roman use and it never displaced the cross.

The oil consecrated by the bishop at the chrism Mass, used at baptism, at confirmation, at ordination and at the dedication of an altar.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Bells are blessed, often named, and rung at the consecration as well as to call the parish.

The organ is named as the instrument held in the highest esteem in the Latin church, and its use is restrained rather than forbidden in the penitential seasons.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

A priest alone may consecrate the Eucharist and absolve, and only a bishop may ordain, so the category is defined by what the laity may not do.

Ordinary daily dress for the secular clergy outside liturgical functions, in place of the cassock in most countries since the twentieth century.

The codex has been in the Vatican Library since at least its catalogue of 1475 and is among the manuscripts the modern Roman critical editions of the New Testament rest on.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Restored the Roman Catholic Church's legal standing in France

Augustine is the doctor whose account of grace, sin and the will the Roman tradition built on, and the Confessions is the work in which that account is set out as a life rather than as an argument.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The consecration of virgins living in the world was restored as a distinct vocation in 1970, and a woman so consecrated is answerable to her bishop rather than to a religious superior.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

The full open mantle worn for processions, for benediction and for the offices, where a chasuble belongs only to the Eucharist.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The sign of the cross opens and closes every act of Latin worship, and a cross stands on or beside the altar at every Mass.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Kept in Paris and venerated publicly on the Fridays of Lent, and carried out of the burning cathedral in 2019 ahead of everything else in it.

A cross bearing the figure of Christ crucified is required to be visible to the people at Mass, so the sculpted corpus is not optional in the Roman rite.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The deacon's outer vestment at Mass, and worn by a bishop beneath the chasuble at a solemn pontifical liturgy to show that he holds the lower orders too.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

A deacon is ordained but not to the priesthood, and since the Second Vatican Council the diaconate has been restored as a permanent office open to married men.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)
Deer Cry, Hymns & Liturgical Texts

Saint Patrick's Breastplate is carried in the hymnals of Irish and diaspora parishes as devotion, and belongs to no part of the missal.

Rome holds the fall of the angels as a real event and retains a rite of exorcism reserved to the bishop's delegate, so the subject remains a matter of pastoral practice rather than of history.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The declaration on religious liberty holds that the human person has a right to immunity from coercion in religious matters, a position the Roman magisterium had previously refused.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The diocese is the basic unit of the Catholic church rather than a subdivision of it, and its bishop governs, ordains and teaches within his territory in his own right.

Envy (Invidia), Vices

Envy is among the capital sins Rome enumerates, the sadness at another's good and the desire for it inordinately.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Unleavened wheat bread and grape wine, held after the consecration to be the body and blood of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The bull condemned forty-one propositions drawn from Luther's writings and gave him sixty days to recant on pain of excommunication.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Faith, Virtues

Rome holds faith as an infused theological virtue that must be formed by charity if it is to justify, so faith without love is called dead faith rather than saving faith.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Fátima, Sacred Sites

The shrine grew from apparitions reported by three children in 1917, and the associated messages have been a substantial thread in twentieth century Catholic devotion.

Fortitude, Virtues

Fortitude is the cardinal virtue Rome defines as the firmness that pursues the good in the face of difficulty and, in the extreme case, renounces life itself.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Frankincense, Incense

Grains of the resin are put on charcoal and the altar, the gifts, the gospel book, the ministers and the people are censed in turn.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The mendicant orders are a Western creation of the thirteenth century, and the friar, unlike the monk, belongs to an order rather than to a house.

Gabriel, Archangels

Gabriel is one of the three archangels the Roman calendar names on 29 September, honoured as the messenger of the Annunciation.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Glastonbury Abbey, Sacred Sites

A Catholic pilgrimage is held at the abbey each year on a separate day, on a site the diocese owns and the Catholic church does not.

Sung at Mass on Sundays and feasts and omitted through Advent and Lent, so that its return marks the season changing.

Gluttony (Gula), Vices

Gluttony is among the capital sins in the Roman enumeration.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The book of the gospels is carried in procession, incensed and kissed, and is treated as the presence of Christ speaking.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

Avarice is among the capital sins Rome enumerates, the disordered desire for possession.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Named in the constitution on the liturgy as proper to the Roman rite and given first place among its forms of sung worship.

Source Western Plainchant: A HandbookDavid Hiley

The eight modes that classify the chant repertory and decide which psalm tone follows which antiphon.

Source Western Plainchant: A HandbookDavid Hiley

The Vienna lance belonged to the imperial regalia rather than to the church, and Rome has made no claim for it.

Blessed water at the doors of a church recalls baptism, and its use at entering is a renewal of that sacrament rather than an act of its own.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Hope, Virtues

Hope is the second of the three theological virtues in Roman teaching, the desire for the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as one's happiness, resting on Christ's promises.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The encyclical of 1968 reaffirmed the Roman teaching that each conjugal act must remain open to the transmission of life, against the recommendation of the commission that had studied the question.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Ichthys, Religious Symbols

The fish belongs to the catacombs and to the Greek acrostic behind it, and its modern use is devotional and popular rather than liturgical. No rite calls for it and no vesture carries it by rule.

The monastery holds the icon of the Black Madonna and is the national shrine of Poland, and the defence of the monastery in 1655 became a founding episode of Polish Catholic identity.

Jesus Prayer, Mantras

Received in the West through translations of the Philokalia and read as private devotion rather than taught as a discipline of the rite.

Justice, Virtues

Justice is the cardinal virtue Rome defines as the constant and firm will to give God and neighbour their due.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Knights Templar, Secret Societies

The Templars were founded as a religious order under papal protection and were suppressed by the pope at the Council of Vienne in 1312, after a trial conducted largely by the French crown. The order belonged to the Roman church and was ended by it.

Source The Trial of the TemplarsMalcolm Barber
Kyrie Eleison, Mantras

Kept in Greek at the beginning of Mass, one of the few Greek phrases the Latin rite never translated.

The encyclical of 2015 addresses the care of the common home and is the first to make ecology the subject of a papal document of that rank.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Lourdes, Sacred Sites

The grotto where a young woman reported apparitions in 1858, and the spring associated with them, receive several million pilgrims a year and a formal medical bureau examines reported cures.

Lust (Luxuria), Vices

Lust is among the capital sins in the Roman enumeration, the disordered desire for sexual pleasure separated from its ends.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The teaching office of the pope and the bishops in communion with him, exercised solemnly in definitions and ordinarily in the constant teaching of the bishops throughout the world.

Said or sung every day at Evening Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours.

The lace head covering was once ordinary for women at Mass in the Latin west. It is worn by choice now and required nowhere.

Matachines, Sacred Dances

Danced on Catholic feast days in northern Mexico and in the Rio Grande villages, at the church door and in procession rather than within the Mass.

Michael, Archangels

The Roman calendar keeps 29 September as the feast of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, the three archangels named in the scriptures Rome receives, and Michael is invoked in the Roman rite as the defender of the people of God.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The book of the Mass, whose typical edition is issued in Latin and translated for each conference of bishops.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The encyclical of 1937 was written in German and read from the pulpits of Germany, protesting the breaches of the concordat and condemning the deification of race and state.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Worn by bishops and abbots of the Latin church in the two peaked western form, whose two points are read as the two testaments.

Monastic life under a written rule has been continuous in the Latin church since Benedict, and its houses are self-governing under their own abbots.

Western monasticism is governed by a rule, most often that of Benedict, and the monk vows stability, obedience and conversion of life to a particular house.

Source The Rule of Saint BenedictBenedict of Nursia

An honorific the pope confers on certain priests, carrying rank and dress but no additional order or jurisdiction.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

The vessel in which the consecrated host is exposed for adoration outside Mass, a devotion held to follow from the reservation of the sacrament.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Myrrh, Incense

Blended with frankincense in the grains blessed at the Easter vigil and set into the paschal candle, where the five marks stand for the wounds.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The declaration of 1965 on the church's relation to non-Christian religions repudiated the charge of collective guilt against the Jewish people and is the hinge of modern Catholic interreligious teaching.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The cathedral of Paris, gutted by fire in 2019 and reopened in 2024.

Canon law distinguishes nuns under solemn vows in enclosure from sisters in active congregations, and both are large in the Roman Catholic Church.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

The basilica at Tepeyac holds the image associated with the apparitions of 1531 and is the most visited Catholic shrine in the Americas.

Conferred by the pope on metropolitan archbishops as the sign of their office and of their communion with Rome.

Composed by Thomas Aquinas for the feast of Corpus Christi and sung at the procession, its last two stanzas standing alone at Benediction.

The bishop of Rome holds universal ordinary jurisdiction over the whole church, together with the power to teach infallibly when defining doctrine on faith or morals, as set out by the First Vatican Council in 1870.

In Catholic law the parish is a defined territory whose pastor holds an office with fixed rights and a duty of care toward everyone living in it.

Lit from the new fire at the Easter vigil and burned through the fifty days, at baptisms and at funerals.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The First Vatican Council defined the pope's universal and immediate jurisdiction and his infallibility when he defines a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the whole Church.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The plate that carries the host, blessed with the chalice before first use and treated with the same care afterward.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account
Philokalia, Other Writings

The collection has been read in the West since its translation but belongs to a tradition of prayer the Roman church did not form.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

The bishop of Rome, holding universal jurisdiction over the whole church and, since 1870, defined as preserved from error when he teaches on faith or morals from the chair of Peter.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

Pride heads the capital sins in the Roman enumeration, called capital because they engender other sins and other vices.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The priest is ordained to offer the sacrifice of the Mass and to absolve, and in the Latin church he is ordinarily bound to celibacy.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account
Prudence, Virtues

Prudence is the first of the four cardinal virtues in Roman teaching, the disposition that discerns the true good in each circumstance and chooses the right means to it.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Appointed in the psalter of the Liturgy of the Hours and read or sung at funerals.

Raphael, Archangels

Raphael is the third archangel of the Roman feast of 29 September, named in the Book of Tobit, which Rome receives as canonical scripture.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The relics at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme are the Roman collection of the passion relics and have a basilica built around them.

The habit of an order is worn as the public sign of consecrated life, and its form is set by the institute rather than by the liturgy.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Friars, clerks regular and apostolic congregations are organised into provinces under a superior general so that members can be moved and directed to work outside a single house.

Relics are venerated and were once required in the altar stone. The veneration is directed to the saint and not to the remains.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The encyclical of 1891 on capital and labour is the founding document of the Roman church's social teaching, affirming the right to private property alongside the right to a living wage and to association.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The book of 1614 set the form of the Roman rite's occasional offices, baptism, marriage, burial, blessings and exorcism, and governed them until they were revised piecemeal after the Second Vatican Council.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

The Marian rosary is commended as a form of popular piety drawn from the liturgy and leading back to it.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The Rule governs the Augustinian canons and friars and, through them, a large part of the Roman church's active religious life.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The Rule governs the Benedictine, Cistercian and Trappist houses of the Roman communion and shaped the whole Western pattern of the daily office.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Rome canonises after a judicial process, and a canonised saint may be venerated publicly and invoked in prayer throughout the church.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

The basilica stands over the necropolis in which the burial place of Peter is traditionally identified, and is the principal church of the Catholic world without being its cathedral.

The cathedral holds the shrine identified with the apostle James, and the roads leading to it have carried pilgrims continuously since the medieval period.

Worn in its full form by members of religious orders and in the small form by any enrolled layperson, as a devotional habit attached to a confraternity.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The Council of Trent required a seminary in every diocese, and the residential model it set spread by imitation well beyond the Catholic church.

Shroud of Turin, Artifacts & Relics

The Holy See permits the veneration of the shroud and has never pronounced on its authenticity, which is a settled position rather than an unfinished one.

Sloth (Acedia), Vices

Sloth is among the capital sins in the Roman enumeration, spiritual laziness that refuses the joy that comes from God.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The sequence of the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, and the hymn sung between the Stations of the Cross.

Worn by deacons, priests and bishops as the mark of ordained order, over the alb at every liturgical function.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The bull declares the peoples of the Americas to be true men, capable of receiving the faith, and not to be deprived of their liberty or their property.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Leo XIII prescribed the teaching of Thomas Aquinas as the ground of Catholic philosophy and theology in 1879, and the Summa held that place in seminary formation for most of the century that followed.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Worn over the cassock by ministers, servers and choristers for the offices, for processions and for anything that is not the Mass itself.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account
Taize Chant, Sacred Sound

Sung at vigils, youth gatherings and pilgrimages without belonging to the order of any rite.

Sung at the Office of Readings on Sundays and feasts, and at the announcement of a new pope.

Temperance, Virtues

Temperance in Roman teaching moderates the attraction of pleasure and provides balance in the use of created goods, which admits the moderate use of wine rather than requiring abstinence.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The basilica holds the tomb of Francis and is the mother church of the Franciscan order.

The underground cemeteries of the Roman church hold the earliest Christian burial art, and several remain in the care of the Vatican.

The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land holds the Latin share, with the chapel of the apparition and defined rights in the shrine over the tomb and at the stone of anointing.

The Latin share is held by the Franciscans, whose church of Saint Catherine adjoins the basilica and from which the Christmas midnight liturgy is broadcast.

The two cities of Augustine's answer to the sack of Rome became the frame in which the Western church understood its relation to the political order.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Received as an ecumenical council for having ended the schism of three rival claimants to the papacy, though Rome does not receive its conciliarist decree that a council stands above a pope.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

The third ecumenical council, and the source of the title Mother of God, which Rome holds to be a statement about the identity of Christ before it is a statement about his mother.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

Received as an ecumenical council, and the decree of union with the Greeks is read in Rome as a settlement that the East afterwards abandoned rather than one that failed.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

The council that answered the Reformation, and its decrees on scripture and tradition, on justification and on the seven sacraments are the foundation of Roman Catholic teaching down to the present.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account

The Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the World Council and was not present at its constitution. It has sent observers to the assemblies since the nineteen sixties and works with the council through a joint commission.

The second ecumenical council, and the creed in the form Rome uses at Mass is the one this council issued rather than the shorter text of 325.

Source The Nicene-Constantinopolitan CreedFirst Council of Constantinoplethe holders' own account

Rome numbers Nicaea the first of the ecumenical councils and reads its confession of the Son as of one substance with the Father as the fixed measure of Christian belief about Christ.

Source The Canons of the First Council of NicaeaFirst Council of Nicaeathe holders' own account

The council that defined the universal jurisdiction of the pope and his infallibility when he teaches on faith and morals from the chair of Peter.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

Received as the twelfth ecumenical council, and the council at which transubstantiation was defined and annual confession and communion required of every believer.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

The robe at Trier is exposed at long intervals and draws large pilgrimages when it is, and the diocese presents it as an object of devotion rather than as an authenticated relic.

The treaty of 1929 settled the Roman question, recognised the sovereignty of the Vatican City State and remains the legal basis of the Holy See's independence.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

The cathedral of Cordoba, consecrated after the city was taken in 1236, with a Renaissance choir built into the middle of the prayer hall in the sixteenth century.

The concordat of 1933 guaranteed the church's freedom in Germany in exchange for the withdrawal of the clergy from party politics; it survived the regime that signed it and remains in force.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

The fifth ecumenical council, received for its condemnation of the Three Chapters and its reading of Chalcedon in a Cyrilline sense.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

Received as the fourteenth ecumenical council, and the first of the two at which a reunion with the Greek church was proclaimed.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

The seventh ecumenical council, which distinguished the veneration owed to an image from the worship owed to God alone, and settled the legitimacy of images in the Latin west as well as the Greek east.

Source Decrees of the Second Council of NicaeaSecond Council of Nicaeathe holders' own account

Received for its canons against the view that the first movement toward God is the unaided work of the human will.

Source Canons of the Second Council of OrangeSecond Council of Orangethe holders' own account

The council that reset the Roman Catholic Church relation to the liturgy, to the other churches and to the modern world, and every later Roman document is read in its light.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

The synod at which the Northumbrian church took the Roman reckoning of Easter and the Roman tonsure, and Bede tells it as the moment the English church joined the practice of the wider Latin west.

The Taize Community, Organizations

Catholic brothers belong to the community and Catholic pilgrims form much of the crowd, but the community is not a Catholic institution and is not under a Catholic superior.

The sixth ecumenical council, received for its definition of two wills and two operations in Christ, and remembered in Rome for condemning one of its own bishops, Honorius.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

The Spanish council at which the Visigothic kingdom abandoned Arianism, and one of the earliest places where the creed is recited with the addition that the Spirit proceeds from the Son as well as the Father.

Source Early Christian Creeds, 3rd editionJ. N. D. Kelly

Received as the eleventh ecumenical council, and the source of the rule that a pope is elected by a two thirds majority of the cardinals.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

Incense is used at Mass, at the gospel, at the offerings and at the altar, and at funerals over the body.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The shroud is kept in the cathedral and the church permits its veneration while never having pronounced on its origin.

The bull declares that submission to the Roman pontiff is necessary for salvation, and its closing sentence is the strongest single statement of papal authority in the medieval canon.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Uriel, Archangels

Uriel is not among the three archangels the Roman calendar names on 29 September and has no feast in the Roman rite, though the name is old in Western devotion and appears in the Latin text of 2 Esdras.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The cup kept in the cathedral is venerated as the chalice of the last supper and has been used by visiting popes.

Veil of Veronica, Artifacts & Relics

The veil has a devotion attached to it and no authenticated object behind it, several churches having held a claim at once.

Sung at Pentecost, at ordinations and at the opening of a conclave.

Sung at Vespers in Passiontide and at the carrying in of the cross.

The Catholic national shrine is at the Slipper Chapel a mile outside the village, restored to use in the nineteen thirties, and it keeps its own pilgrimage.

Wrath (Ira), Vices

Wrath is among the capital sins Rome enumerates, a desire for revenge that goes beyond the correction of a fault.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The small skullcap, coloured by rank, retained under the mitre and removed only at the canon of the Mass.

Held Differently

Dies Irae, Hymns & Liturgical Texts

The sequence was taken out of the funeral Mass in the reform of 1970 and placed in the last week of the year in the Liturgy of the Hours, so the same verses are still sung but no longer over the dead. The older Roman rite keeps them in the Requiem.

Metropolitan, Religious Roles & Titles

In the Latin church a metropolitan is simply the archbishop of a province, with limited oversight of its suffragan dioceses and no rank between bishop and patriarch.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account
Patriarch, Religious Roles & Titles

Rome has patriarchal sees in the Latin church and reckons Eastern Catholic patriarchs among its own hierarchy, but the title carries nothing like the standing it has in the East.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)
Synod, Religious Organization & Structure

The Synod of Bishops established in 1965 advises the pope and does not legislate, so the word names a consultative body in Catholic use and a governing one almost everywhere else.

Trisagion, Mantras

The Latin rite sings the thrice-holy once a year, in the reproaches of Good Friday and alternately in Greek and Latin, where the Byzantine rite sings it at every liturgy.

Atonement, Doctrines

Atonement for sin through Christ is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Grace, Doctrines

Grace as God's unearned favor and enabling power is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
The Real Presence in the Eucharist, Doctrines

The Real Presence in the Eucharist, defined as transubstantiation, is dogma per the Council of Trent's decree on the Eucharist, Session 13.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account
Atonement, Doctrines

Satisfaction, in modified forms, with recapitulation retained as a frame. The satisfaction account holds that the offence of sin against the divine honour required a compensation only the God-man could render.

Grace, Doctrines

Grace as infused and cooperating with the will, received through the sacraments. Signatory to the 1999 Joint Declaration with the Lutheran World Federation.

The Real Presence in the Eucharist, Doctrines

Transubstantiation: the substance of the bread and wine becomes the body and blood, the appearances remaining. Defined at the Fourth Lateran Council and at Trent.

Critiqued Here

Dum Diversas, Religious Legal Instruments

The Holy See issued a joint statement in 2023 repudiating the concept of discovery that this bull and its successors were later used to support, and stating that they had never been expressions of the Catholic faith.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Inter Caetera, Religious Legal Instruments

This bull is among the three the Holy See named in repudiating the concept of discovery in 2023, alongside an acknowledgement of the harm the doctrine was used to justify.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

This bull is among the three the Holy See named in its 2023 repudiation of the concept of discovery, which it stated had been manipulated for political purposes by colonial powers.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican's 2023 declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings, permits a priest to offer a brief, non liturgical blessing to a same sex couple while stating explicitly that this is not an approval of their union and does not equate to marriage; ordination remains closed under the Church's own instructions. The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar publicly declined to implement even that blessing in its own dioceses the following year, so reception of Rome's own position is itself divided.

Source Fiducia Supplicans, Declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessingsDicastery for the Doctrine of the Faiththe holders' own account
Additional Source Final communique of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar on Fiducia SupplicansSymposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)The African bishops' own 2024 communique declining to implement Fiducia Supplicans in their diocesesthe holders' own account

Objects and Practices of This Tradition

Source Ordinatio SacerdotalisPope John Paul IIthe holders' own account

The Code recognises the abbess as major superior of an autonomous monastery of nuns, holding the same ordinary power over her community that an abbot holds over his.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

The Code recognises the abbot as major superior of an autonomous monastery, holding ordinary power over his community under the constitutions of his institute.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

An act of contrition is required of the penitent in the sacrament of penance, in one of several approved forms.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Declared canonical scripture for the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent, Session IV, 1546, as part of the Greek additions to Daniel.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account

Declared canonical scripture for the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent, Session IV, 1546, as part of the Greek additions to Esther.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account
Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)

He made Catholicism the religion of the Kongo court, corresponded with Lisbon and Rome, and saw his son Henrique consecrated bishop in 1518.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Agnus Dei, Prayers

The Agnus Dei is sung or said during the breaking of the bread in the Order of Mass.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account
Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)

A commemoration proper to the Roman Catholic calendar, resting on the doctrine of purgatory and intercession for the dead.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Almsgiving stands with prayer and fasting as one of the three works of penance this church names, and the corporal works of mercy give it its shape.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Ordained at Shanghai in 1845, the first Korean born Catholic priest, and executed the following year.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Angelus, Prayers
Source The Raccolta, 1910 editionAmbrose St John (translator and compiler)
Anima Christi, Prayers
Source The Raccolta, 1910 editionAmbrose St John (translator and compiler)

Since the Second Vatican Council the anointing has been offered to the seriously ill rather than only to the dying, and it may be received more than once.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Apocalypse, Doctrines

Apocalyptic and eschatological revelation is received as canonical and doctrinally significant across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Apostolic succession, an unbroken line of ordination from the apostles, is claimed and taught as doctrine by this tradition.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Canon 435 places an archdiocese under an archbishop, who is also metropolitan of his province and carries a defined and limited oversight of the suffragan dioceses within it.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

An archbishop governs an ecclesiastical province or a major archdiocese, a rank above ordinary bishop, per the Code of Canon Law, canons 435 to 438.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

The Shroud is owned by the Holy See and entrusted to the archbishop of Turin as its custodian, so the holder is a Catholic diocesan office rather than a museum.

Source The Holy Shroud - Archdiocese of Turin (Diocesi di Torino)Archdiocese of Turinthe holders' own account
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Source Autos Sacramentales (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Baptism, Rituals

Baptism is the gateway sacrament, ordinarily by pouring rather than immersion, and in an emergency it may be conferred validly by any person, including one who is not baptised.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Baptism is held to mark the soul with an indelible character and to found the whole Christian life, so that living the baptismal promises is the ordinary form of discipleship.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme is a Catholic basilica in Rome founded to house relics of the Passion, and it holds them as a place of pilgrimage rather than as a collection.

Source The Relics of the Passion - Basilica di Santa Croce in GerusalemmeBasilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemmethe holders' own account

National Marian shrine of the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil.

The Basilica of Saint-Denys at Argenteuil is a Catholic parish church, and the tunic it keeps is shown at intervals set by the diocese rather than on permanent display.

Source La Sainte Tunique d'Argenteuil - Basilica of Saint-DenysBasilique Saint-Denys d'Argenteuilthe holders' own account

The beatific vision, the direct sight of God after death, is dogma per the papal bull Benedictus Deus, 1336.

Source Benedictus DeusPope Benedict XIIthe holders' own account

Matches Roman Catholicism already carried alongside Christianity by the other Catholic religious institutions on file.

Benedict XVI, Figures

Held the papal office; his 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum reopened general use of the pre-conciliar Roman Missal.

The Benedictus is the gospel canticle of Lauds, said every morning.

A Franciscan of the first missionary generation in Mexico.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

Bishops, successors of the apostles by episcopal consecration, govern dioceses in communion with the Pope, per the Code of Canon Law, canons 375 to 380.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

Canon 375 holds that bishops succeed the apostles by divine institution and are constituted pastors in the Church, with the office of teaching, sanctifying and governing.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account
Boniface IV, Figures

Held the papal office and gave his own Roman house over as a monastery.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Boniface VIII, Figures

Held the papal office from Rome.

Declared canonical scripture for the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent, Session IV, 1546.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account

Declared canonical scripture for the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent, Session IV, 1546.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account

Declared canonical scripture for the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent, Session IV, 1546.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account

Declared canonical scripture for the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent, Session IV, 1546, covering both First and Second Maccabees.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account
Callixtus III, Figures

Held the papal office; canonized Vincent Ferrer and ordered the retrial that annulled the condemnation of Joan of Arc.

Catholics light tapers before a shrine or an icon and leave them.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)
Canon law, Doctrines

Canon law is a formal, codified legal system in this tradition, per the Code of Canon Law.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

Canudos was a lay Catholic penitential and millenarian community, built around a preacher who worked to restore Catholic worship in the backlands even as the settlement's own religious authority stood apart from the institutional church's control.

Cardinals form the Pope's senior council and, gathered as the College of Cardinals, elect his successor, per the Code of Canon Law, canons 349 to 359.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

Canon 349 constitutes the cardinals as a special college whose particular charge is the election of the Roman Pontiff, and who assist him collegially in the graver questions and individually in the government of the Church.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

A confederation of 162 national Catholic relief, development and social service organizations, headquartered at the Vatican and canonically linked to the Holy See, per Caritas Internationalis's own description.

Source Caritas Internationalis: Who We AreCaritas Internationalis

The twentieth century revival is practiced today chiefly in the Roman Catholic Church, though other Christian traditions have adapted comparable forms.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Notre-Dame de Paris is the cathedral church of the Catholic archdiocese of Paris. The relics it holds are kept as objects of devotion, and the building is in worship rather than in collection.

Source Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris (institutional record)the holders' own account

The cathedral church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the United States.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

The Cathedral of San Salvador at Oviedo keeps the Sudarium in the Camara Santa, a Catholic reliquary chapel, and shows it on a small number of fixed days each year.

Source The Sudarium and the Arca Santa - Cathedral of San Salvador, OviedoCabildo de la Catedral de Oviedothe holders' own account

Catholic Charities USA is the national office of the United States Catholic bishops' own diocesan social service agency network.

Source Catholic Charities USA (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The national body of Roman Catholic dioceses in Germany, organized through the German Bishops' Conference (Deutsche Bischofskonferenz).

CRS is the international humanitarian and development agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Source Catholic Relief Services (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Rome requires celibacy of its Latin-rite priests as well as of monks and nuns, a discipline rather than a doctrine, and one it has never imposed on its Eastern Catholic churches, whose parish clergy may be married.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The lay power on which the Catholic side of the Reformation crisis depended, and the ruler who pressed the papacy for two decades to call the council that met at Trent.

Source Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700Diarmaid MacCulloch
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

A pre-Reformation civic Catholic production; Elizabethan authorities judged the surviving cycle Popery and suppressed it in 1578.

Source Chester Mystery Plays (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source Quas PrimasPope Pius XIthe holders' own account

Christian eschatology, the doctrine of last things, is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition, though particulars vary.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Kept on December 25 as a solemnity with its own vigil, and one of the days on which every Catholic is bound to attend Mass.

Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)

The blessing of a mother after childbirth survives in the Roman ritual books as an optional rite, having been near universal in the West before the twentieth century.

Source Codex Iuris Canonici (1983 Code of Canon Law)Pope John Paul IIthe holders' own account
Compline, Practices

Restored the Roman Catholic Church's legal standing in France

Confession, Practices

Catholics confess privately to a priest, who absolves under an absolute seal of secrecy, and the church obliges the confession of grave sin at least once a year; a penance is assigned, and indulgences are attached to the sacrament.

Source The Holy BibleAnonymous (multiple authors)
Confirmation, Rituals

Confirmation is separated from baptism and is ordinarily conferred by a bishop at an age of discretion, which is the point on which the Western and Eastern practice divide.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Catholic dedication of a church involves anointing the altar with chrism and depositing relics beneath it.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Covenant, Doctrines

The biblical covenant tradition, old and new, is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Holy BibleAnonymous (multiple authors)

Creation ex nihilo is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

He wrote as a Spanish parish priest, gathering testimony from Quechua speaking informants for the church's use.

Source The Incas, 2nd editionTerence N. D'Altroy
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

Restored as a permanent order of its own by the Second Vatican Council, which taught that the deacon is ordained not to the priesthood but to a ministry of service, of the word and of charity.

Source Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the ChurchSecond Vatican Councilthe holders' own account

Deacons are ordained to a ministry of service, word and charity, either as a step toward the priesthood or permanently, per the Code of Canon Law, canons 1008 to 1009 and 236.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

Deutscher Caritasverband is the institutional association of Catholic Caritas in Germany, recognised by the German Catholic bishops, so linked to Roman Catholicism.

Source Deutscher Caritasverband e.V.: Jahresabschluss und Lagebericht fur das Geschaftsjahr 2024Deutscher Caritasverband e.V.; audited by RSM Ebner Stolz GmbH and Co. KG

The movement was a renewal within the late medieval Western church.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

As a department of the Roman Curia, the dicastery belongs specifically to the Catholic Church rather than to Christianity as a whole.

Source Our History, Dicastery for Interreligious DialogueDicastery for Interreligious Dialogue

A Franciscan friar and later a bishop of the Spanish church in Yucatan.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Diary: Divine Mercy in My SoulMaria Faustina Kowalska

Divine simplicity, that God is not composed of parts, is classical Western doctrine per Aquinas's Summa Theologiae.

Source Summa TheologiaeThomas Aquinas

He wrote as a Christian Nahua, dating the record of the altepetl by the Christian year alongside the Nahua count.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

The summit of the Roman calendar, from which the whole movable cycle is reckoned, opened by the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night.

Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)
Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)
Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The play's theology of salvation rests explicitly on the pre-Reformation Catholic sacraments of confession, penance, the Eucharist and last rites.

Source Everyman (15th-century play) (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Exorcism, Practices

Simple exorcism belongs to the rite of baptism itself, and the solemn form is reserved to a priest holding the express permission of his bishop.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The Fabbrica di San Pietro is the papal body responsible for the fabric of St Peter's Basilica and for what is kept in it. It is an office of the Holy See.

Source The Veronica and the Relics of St Peter's BasilicaFabbrica di San Pietro in Vaticanothe holders' own account
Fasting, Practices

Fasting and abstinence are binding disciplines, kept on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and, in the traditional form, on the Fridays of Lent.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Fátima, Sacred Sites
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Kept inside Catholic cathedrals from the twelfth century by subdeacons and other lower clergy, who elected a mock bishop and staged a burlesque of the liturgy. Church authorities campaigned against it repeatedly from the thirteenth century and it had mostly died out by the sixteenth, so it is recorded here as a suppressed medieval usage and not as an observance of the present Roman calendar.

Source Munificentissimus DeusPope Pius XIIthe holders' own account
Source Ineffabilis DeusPope Pius IXthe holders' own account

He writes as a Christian Andean, arguing for Andean good government under a Christian king while cataloguing what the clergy and the corregidores did.

Source The Incas, 2nd editionTerence N. D'Altroy

He wrote as a Christian Nahua noble for a Spanish readership.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

The washing of feet is kept at the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Maundy Thursday, the celebrant washing the feet of members of the congregation.

He held office in the archdiocese of Lima and ran its campaigns against Andean practice.

Source The Incas, 2nd editionTerence N. D'Altroy

A member of a mendicant religious institute, professing the evangelical counsels under the Code's title on institutes of consecrated life and living from the ministry and support of the wider Church rather than from monastic enclosure.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account
Funeral Rites, Rituals

The funeral is ordinarily a Mass, with the commendation of the dead and the rite of committal, and prayer for the dead follows from the doctrine of purgatory.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Source Ghent Altarpiece (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Gloria Patri, Prayers

The Gloria Patri closes each psalm in the Liturgy of the Hours and each decade of the Rosary.

Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)

The Grand Silence is kept in the Benedictine, Cistercian and Trappist houses of this communion, running from the end of Compline to the following morning.

Gregory XIII, Figures

Held the papal office and endowed the Roman College and the national colleges that trained clergy for the Catholic missions of the Counter-Reformation.

Hail Mary, Prayers
Source The Holy BibleAnonymous (multiple authors)
Heresy, Doctrines

The concept of heresy as a formally rejected teaching is operative in this tradition's own doctrinal and disciplinary system.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Holy Orders, Rituals

Ordination is to the diaconate, the presbyterate or the episcopate, and in the Latin church the presbyterate is ordinarily reserved to men who accept celibacy.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Holy Spirit, Doctrines

The Holy Spirit as the third person of the Trinity is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)

The hypostatic union of two natures in one person of Christ is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account

He wrote as a Catholic humanist in Spain, which is part of why his defence of Inca religion takes the form it does.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Incarnation, Doctrines

The Incarnation, God the Son taking human nature, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account

A Catholic thurible is swung at the gospel book, the gifts, the altar, the clergy, the congregation and the coffin.

Source The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)Anonymous (multiple authors)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Infants are baptised, and the practice is defended on the ground that grace is not withheld until a child can ask for it.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Innocent I, Figures

His letters are among the earliest sustained statements of the Roman see's claim to decide disputed cases for the whole Western church.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Intinction, Practices

Communion by intinction is permitted, the minister dipping the host in the chalice and placing it on the tongue, but it may not be self-administered.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The Confederation bound its own members by the Oath of Association, a religious oath to defend "the public and free exercise of the Roman Catholic and apostolic religion" alongside the king's prerogative, and seated Catholic clergy as full members of its governing General Assembly. This edge records the Confederation's own declared religious cause and structure exactly as O Siochru's constitutional study gives it, not a claim that the whole war was fought over doctrine alone.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Julius II, Figures

Recovered the Papal States by force, rebuilt Saint Peter's, and legislated against simony in papal elections.

Last Rites, Rituals

The deathbed sequence of this church is penance, anointing and Viaticum, and the popular name attaches to the anointing, which is not in fact reserved for the dying.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Lauds, Practices

The classic monastic way with the Bible, historically the Western Catholic monastic tradition.

Source The Holy BibleAnonymous (multiple authors)
Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)
Leo III, Figures

His coronation of Charlemagne set the precedent that the pope crowns the emperor, the root of centuries of argument over papal and imperial authority.

Declared canonical scripture for the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent, Session IV, 1546.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account
Limbo, Doctrines

Limbo, a state for the unbaptized dead, is a historical Catholic theological opinion, not a dogma, and has been de-emphasized in modern magisterial teaching.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The Roman scheme of liturgical colours is the one the other Western churches inherited: violet, white, red, green, and rose on two Sundays of the year.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account
Logos, Doctrines

The Logos Christology of John's Gospel prologue is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Holy BibleAnonymous (multiple authors)

Canonized in 1297; his feast is kept on 25 August, and he is the patron of the Third Order of Saint Francis.

Matches Roman Catholicism already carried alongside Christianity by the other Catholic religious institutions on file.

Source Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the ChurchSecond Vatican Councilthe holders' own account

Malteser International is the relief agency of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a Roman Catholic lay religious order, so linked to Roman Catholicism.

Source Malteser International (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The couple are held to confer the sacrament on each other and the priest to be the church's witness, which is why consent, and not the ceremony, is the ground on which a marriage can later be declared null.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Mass in B Minor, Musical Works

Sets the full Catholic Mass Ordinary text and liturgical form, though Catholic worship never adopted this particular setting into its own use.

Source Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Matins, Practices
Memorare, Prayers
Source The Raccolta, 1910 editionAmbrose St John (translator and compiler)

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Valencia is a Catholic cathedral, and the chalice it keeps is displayed in a chapel of the working church.

Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)
Monastic Vows, Rituals

Poverty, chastity and obedience are professed in the religious institutes of this church, under a rule approved by the Holy See.

A member of a monastic religious institute, professing the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience under the Code's title on institutes of consecrated life.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Clergy or specialist role within Roman Catholicism.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

A Catholic Marian devotional drama staged inside a Catholic basilica under continuous local patronage.

Source Mystery Play of Elche (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international lay voluntary organization of the Catholic Church, so its US National Council is linked to Roman Catholicism.

Source Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Natural law, Doctrines
Source Summa TheologiaeThomas Aquinas

Twenty-seven-book New Testament canon, shared across the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican traditions.

Novena, Practices
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

A pre-Reformation Catholic touring cycle from East Anglia.

Source N-Town Plays (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Nun, Religious Offices

A woman in vows in a religious institute, professing the evangelical counsels under the Code's title on institutes of consecrated life.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account
Nunc Dimittis, Prayers

The Nunc Dimittis is the gospel canticle of Compline, said every night of the year.

A vow made by a Bavarian Catholic community, staged as a continuing Catholic devotional practice.

Source Oberammergau Passion Play (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The obligation is transferred to Sunday, the Lord's Day, on which the faithful are bound to attend Mass and to refrain from work that would hinder the worship owed to God.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Omnipotence, Doctrines

God's omnipotence is affirmed as classical theism common ground across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

God's omnipresence is affirmed as classical theism common ground across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Omniscience, Doctrines

God's omniscience is affirmed as classical theism common ground across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Source Opus Dei (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Ordination, Practices

Catholic teaching holds that ordination imparts an indelible character and the capacity to consecrate.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Original sin, inherited guilt and corruption from Adam, is defined doctrine per the Council of Trent's Decree on Original Sin.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account
Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)

Papal primacy and infallibility are dogma per Pastor Aeternus, the First Vatican Council's 1870 constitution on the Church.

Source Pastor Aeternus, First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of ChristFirst Vatican Councilthe holders' own account
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Canon 519 makes the parish priest the proper pastor of the parish entrusted to him, exercising the care of that community under the authority of the diocesan bishop.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account
Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)

The massacre was carried out under sustained pressure from Turin's Council for the Propagation of the Faith and the Extermination of Heresy, a Catholic Church body created in 1650 specifically to press the case against the valleys' Protestant population.

Pilgrimage, Practices

Pilgrimage to Rome, to Marian shrines and to the tombs of the saints is a long-standing devotion of this church rather than a private custom.

Pius X, Figures

Condemned Modernism, imposed the anti-Modernist oath, opened frequent Communion to the laity and began the codification of canon law.

Pius XI, Figures

Settled the church's standing in Italy, instituted the feast of Christ the King, and restated Catholic social teaching for the industrial depression.

The Pope, Bishop of Rome, holds supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power over the whole Church, per the Code of Canon Law, canon 331.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

Canon 331 of the 1983 Code vests in the Roman Pontiff, as successor of Peter and head of the college of bishops, full, supreme and universal power over the Church, which he may always freely exercise.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account
Prayer, Practices

Prayer is treated as the whole fourth part of the Catechism, which sets out vocal prayer, meditation and contemplative prayer as the three expressions of the Christian life of prayer.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The prayer circulates widely in this church as a devotional text. It is not by Francis of Assisi and first appears in print in French in 1912.

The rosary is Catholic devotion rather than liturgy, five decades at a sitting being ordinary, and it is very commonly said at a wake. John Paul II added five luminous mysteries in 2002 to the joyful, sorrowful and glorious.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Priests are ordained co-workers of the episcopal order, authorized to celebrate the sacraments including the Eucharist, per the Code of Canon Law, canons 1008 to 1009.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

One of the three orders conferred by the sacrament of order in the Latin Church, between the episcopate and the diaconate, and the order by which the Code entrusts the celebration of the Eucharist and the absolution of sins.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account
Prime, Practices
Prophecy, Doctrines

Old and New Testament prophecy is affirmed as a mode of divine revelation across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of World ReligionsJohn Bowker (ed.)
Prophecy of the Popes, Prophecies

Circulates within Catholic devotional and traditionalist writing; the Church has never examined, endorsed or condemned the text as teaching, so this edge is deliberately associated rather than holds.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Purgatory, Doctrines

Purgatory, a final purification after death, is dogma per the Council of Trent's decree, Session 25.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account

The pilgrimage's central image and its organizing calendar, tied to the Easter cycle, are Catholic.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Rabinal Achi, Performance Works

Performed annually on the Catholic feast of Saint Paul, Rabinal's patron saint, and organized by the town's Catholic lay cofradias.

Source Rabinal Achi Dance Drama Tradition, UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of HumanityUNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
Redemption, Doctrines

Redemption through Christ's sacrifice is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Holy BibleAnonymous (multiple authors)
Regina Caeli, Prayers

The Regina Caeli replaces the Angelus through Eastertide, said standing rather than kneeling.

An active Roman Catholic cathedral in the Archdiocese of Reims.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

A practising Catholic whose works were nonetheless placed on the Index in 1663.

Source Requiem in D Minor, K. 626 (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The bodily resurrection of the dead is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Roman Rite, Rituals
Rudolf II, Figures

His own confession, and the reason the papal nuncio at his court had standing to press against Dee and Kelley.

Source Sacra Rappresentazione (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Salvation, Doctrines

Salvation through Christ is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition, though the mechanism of justification is debated separately.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Salve Regina, Prayers

The Salve Regina closes Compline through the greater part of the year and ends the Rosary.

The satisfaction theory of the atonement, from Anselm's Cur Deus Homo, is the classical Latin scholastic account foundational to this tradition's theology.

Source Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man)Anselm of Canterbury
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

The seminary as an institution was created by the Council of Trent.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account
Source National Museum of the Philippines, "Senakulo"National Museum of the Philippines
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sext, Practices
Sixtus IV, Figures

Built the Sistine Chapel, established the Vatican Library on a formal footing, and left the Roman jubilee city rebuilt for 1475.

Son of God, Doctrines

Christ as the Son of God is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Holy BibleAnonymous (multiple authors)

The war's immediate cause was the federal diet's closure of Aargau's monasteries and its campaign against the Jesuit order, which the seven Catholic cantons read as an attack on their own religious institutions. The Sonderbund formed to defend those institutions rather than to impose Catholicism on the wider Confederation.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Source The Raccolta, 1910 editionAmbrose St John (translator and compiler)

The Synod is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Terce, Practices

The Kielce crowd was overwhelmingly Polish Roman Catholic by ordinary demographic fact, and the blood libel rumor at its center drew on a specifically Christian antisemitic tradition, but no church authority ordered or endorsed the violence; this edge connects that shared communal identity to the event without asserting it as Roman Catholicism's own position.

The Anaphora, Rituals

The Roman rite calls its anaphora the canon, and since the Second Vatican Council several eucharistic prayers stand alongside the Roman Canon.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account
The Epiclesis, Rituals

The Roman rite places the invocation of the Spirit before the institution narrative rather than after it, the reverse of the Byzantine order.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The Filioque, that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, stands in this tradition's text of the Nicene Creed.

Source The Nicene-Constantinopolitan CreedFirst Council of Constantinoplethe holders' own account
The Fraction, Rituals

The breaking of the host accompanies the Agnus Dei, and a fragment is placed in the chalice.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The Kingdom of God, present and coming, is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Holy BibleAnonymous (multiple authors)

The general judgment at Christ's return is taught alongside the particular judgment each soul meets at death, the two being distinguished rather than merged.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

The Lord's Prayer is treated as the summary of the whole gospel, and the last part of the Catechism is a commentary on its seven petitions.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account

Catholics hold the Mass to be the sacrifice of Calvary offered again without bloodshed, the bread and wine becoming the body and blood of Christ by transubstantiation, and attendance is obliged on Sundays and holy days.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

The perpetual virginity of Mary is affirmed per the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 499 to 501.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

Roman Catholic Marian apparition tradition.

The oath of orthodoxy of the Roman church from 1564 until it was replaced by modern formulas.

The virgin birth of Christ is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

The words of institution stand at the heart of the Roman canon, and Western theology has traditionally located the consecration in them.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account

The problem of evil is a live theological question this tradition addresses within classical theism.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Theosis, Doctrines

Theosis or divinization is affirmed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 460, drawing on the church fathers.

Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd editionHoly Seethe holders' own account
Theotokos, Doctrines

Mary as Theotokos, God-bearer, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Christological definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account

God's transcendence and immanence are affirmed as classical theism common ground across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Trinity, Doctrines

The doctrine of the Trinity, one God in three persons, is affirmed across Nicene Christianity, including this tradition.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Kept on the Sunday after Pentecost as a solemnity of the Lord in Ordinary Time.

Source Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman CalendarPaul VI (motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis)

Twenty two of the executed converts were Catholic; the Catholic Church beatified them in 1920 and canonized them in 1964 as martyrs of the faith.

Source Britannica, "Martyrs of Uganda"The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Urban II, Figures

Held the papal office from Rome, seat of the Latin church.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Vespers, Practices
Viaticum, Rituals

Catholic teaching makes it the last sacrament a Christian receives.

Source The Westminster Confession of FaithWestminster Assemblythe holders' own account

Canon 475 requires every diocesan bishop to appoint a vicar general, who holds ordinary power to assist him in governing the whole diocese.

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

The Vulgate was declared the Roman Catholic Church's authentic Latin text of scripture at the Council of Trent, Session IV, 1546, including the deuterocanonical books.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account

A pre-Reformation civic Catholic production, like its York and Chester counterparts.

Source Wakefield Mystery Plays (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source Pilgrimage in Medieval EnglandDiana Webb

The rising was organized in defense of Catholic parish life against the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the wider revolutionary campaign of dechristianization; its leadership and its rank and file identified the cause as the defense of the Roman Catholic Church against a state that had made war on it.

Source Wilton Diptych (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Declared canonical scripture for the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent, Session IV, 1546.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account

Declared canonical scripture for the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent, Session IV, 1546.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account

A pre-Reformation civic Catholic production; suppression followed the 1548 abolition of Corpus Christi as an English feast day and later religious controversy over its content.

Source York Mystery Plays (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Persecuted In

Position On

Amillennial: the thousand years is the present age of the church, not a future earthly reign.

Evolution admitted as a subject of study, with the soul held to be created directly. Humani Generis permitted the inquiry in 1950 and later statements went further.

Ensoulment, Doctrines

Immediate animation in practice since the nineteenth century, so that the protections attach from conception.

Heresy, Doctrines

Heresy defined canonically: the obstinate denial or doubt, after baptism, of a truth to be believed by divine and Catholic faith.

Incarnation, Doctrines

The Chalcedonian definition: two natures in one person, without confusion, change, division or separation.

Closed communion, with eucharistic hospitality admitted only as a narrow exception within that discipline.

The Western reading: a fallen nature and inherited guilt, remitted in baptism.

Universal immediate jurisdiction and infallibility when the pope defines a doctrine of faith or morals ex cathedra, defined at the First Vatican Council in 1870.

The Tridentine settlement, which permits both the Thomist and the Molinist schools inside it and condemns neither. Grace is efficacious, and the will remains genuinely free.

Purgatory, Doctrines

Purgatory defined as a state of purification for those who die in God's friendship but imperfectly purified, dogmatised at Florence and Trent.

Repentance, Doctrines

Repentance as sacramental: contrition, confession, satisfaction and absolution by a priest.

Bodily resurrection at the end, with a conscious intermediate state between death and the general resurrection.

The Filioque, Doctrines

Double procession: the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one principle. The clause entered the Latin creed locally and was received at Rome in 1014.

Regions Where This Is Principal

California, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey, not a claim of religious establishment or an outright population majority.

Connecticut, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey.

Delaware, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey; the state carries a second, comparably close plurality for Evangelical Protestantism.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Florida, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey; the state carries a second, comparably close plurality for Evangelical Protestantism.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Illinois, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey.

Italy, Regions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Massachusetts, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey.

Mesoamerica, Regions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
New Jersey, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey.

New Mexico, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey.

New York, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey.

Leading religious affiliation among the territory's residents per the source.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Pennsylvania, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey.

Rhode Island, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey.

The Andes, Regions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Wisconsin, States & Territories

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey.

Related To

The See is the government of the Catholic Church.

Phenomenology, Philosophical Schools

Twentieth century Catholic philosophy, including the phenomenological personalism of Karol Wojtyla, adopted the method; Husserl's own phenomenology is not itself a religious position.

Received as the fourth ecumenical council.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account

The council met under Roman Catholic convocation and proclaimed union on largely Latin terms.

Source The Catholic EncyclopediaCharles George Herbermann et al. (eds.)

Trent shaped Roman Catholic worship, teaching and clerical formation until the twentieth century.

Source Canons and Decrees of the Council of TrentCouncil of Trentthe holders' own account

Defined papal primacy and infallibility for the Roman Catholic Church.

Source Pastor Aeternus, First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of ChristFirst Vatican Councilthe holders' own account

Confirmed by Pope Boniface II in 531.

Reshaped Roman Catholic liturgy, ecclesiology and relations with other religions.

Source Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the ChurchSecond Vatican Councilthe holders' own account

Rooted in This Tradition

Sacred to This Deity

Dominican parish since the colonial era; Ximenez served as parish priest here.

Source Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the MayaAllen J. Christenson
Cholula, Cities

The post-conquest layer: the church built on the pyramid summit from the 1570s onward.

A cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church, seat of the Archbishop of Paris

Studied By

Source The Boston Globe Spotlight Team's Investigation of Clergy Sexual AbuseThe Boston Globe Spotlight Team (Walter V. Robinson, Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer, Matt Carroll)
Source Sexual Violence in the Catholic Church, France 1950-2020 (the CIASE / Sauve Report)Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Jean-Marc Sauve, chair)
Source Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Diocese of CloyneCommission of Investigation (Judge Yvonne Murphy, chair)
Source Sexual Abuse of Minors in the Roman Catholic Church (the Deetman Commission report)Commission of Inquiry into Sexual Abuse of Minors in the Roman Catholic Church (Wim Deetman, chair)
Source The Ferns ReportThe Ferns Inquiry
Source Report 1 of the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury (Pennsylvania)40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Source Final Report of the Independent Commission for the Study of Sexual Abuse of Children in the Catholic Church in PortugalIndependent Commission for the Study of Sexual Abuse of Children in the Catholic Church in Portugal (Pedro Strecht, chair)
Source Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (the Ryan Report)Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (Justice Sean Ryan, chair)

Traditions Fused into This

Cao Đài, Religions

Cao Dai models its government on the Catholic hierarchy, with a pope seated at Tay Ninh above cardinals and bishops, an organisational borrowing rather than a doctrinal one.

Sources
1. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition
F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005s.v. Roman CatholicismView the Source
2. Vix Pervenit: On Usury and Other Dishonest Profit (Benedict XIV, 1745)
Pope Benedict XIV, The Holy See, 1745the live usury-position and its extrinsic titles doctrineView the Source
3. Usury (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
Robert Appleton Company (New Advent), 1913the canon law history of usury from Nicaea through VienneView the Source
4. Codex Iuris Canonici (1983 Code of Canon Law)
Pope John Paul II, Holy See, 1983the stated position on marriage, canon 1141 on indissolubilitythe holders' own accountView the Source
5. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition
Holy See, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997Prologue
Quote, Prologue
God our Saviour desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
the holders' own accountView the Source
6. Fiducia Supplicans, Declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Holy See, 2023the holders' own account
6. Fiducia Supplicans, Declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Holy See, 2023Objects and Practices of This Tradition: The full inclusion of LGBTQ people in ordination and marriage, The 2023 declaration permitting non liturgical blessing while explicitly not equating it to marriagethe holders' own account
7. Ordinatio Sacerdotalis
Pope John Paul II, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994the holders' own account
8. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source
9. Wikipedia, Catholic Church (source)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia
10. Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2023
Central Office of Church Statistics, Secretariat of State, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2025Statistical tables for 2023the holders' own account
11. 20 Years of Abuse Settlements for US Catholic Dioceses Exceeds $5 Billion Total (OSV News)
OSV News, 2024View the Source
12. Code of Canon Law, Canon 222
CanonLaw.Ninja, Code of Canon Law, 1983View the Source
13. Catholic Church Statistics 2025 (Fides News Agency, World Mission Sunday Dossier)
Elena Grazini and Luca Mainoldi, for Agenzia Fides, Agenzia Fides, the mission news agency of the Dicastery for Evangelization, 2025View the Source
14. Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests, Deacons and Male Members of Religious Orders in the Area of the German Bishops' Conference (the MHG Study)
Universities of Mannheim, Heidelberg and Giessen (MHG research consortium), German Bishops' Conference (Deutsche Bischofskonferenz), 2018View the Source
15. Final Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Australia)
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Commonwealth of Australia, 2017View the Source
16. Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Diocese of Cloyne
Commission of Investigation (Judge Yvonne Murphy, chair), Government of Ireland, Department of Justice, 2011View the Source
17. The Ferns Report
The Ferns Inquiry, Government of Ireland, 2005View the Source
18. The Sexual Abuse of Children in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston: A Report by the Attorney General
Thomas F. Reilly, Attorney General of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, 2003View the Source
19. Sexual Violence in the Catholic Church, France 1950-2020 (the CIASE / Sauve Report)
Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Jean-Marc Sauve, chair), Commission Independante sur les Abus Sexuels dans l'Eglise (CIASE), 2021View the Source
20. The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States, 1950-2002
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2004View the Source
21. Sexual Abuse of Minors in the Roman Catholic Church (the Deetman Commission report)
Commission of Inquiry into Sexual Abuse of Minors in the Roman Catholic Church (Wim Deetman, chair), Dutch Bishops' Conference and Conference of Dutch Religious, 2011View the Source
22. A Look at the Largest Clergy Abuse Settlements Reached by Catholic Organizations in the US (U.S. News and World Report)
U.S. News and World Report staff, wire service reporting, U.S. News and World Report, 2026View the Source
23. Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (the Dallas Charter)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2002View the Source
24. German Bishops' Conference Recognition Payment Reform and the Independent Commission for Recognition Payments (UKA)
German Bishops' Conference, Permanent Council (Staendiger Rat), German Bishops' Conference (Deutsche Bischofskonferenz), 2020View the Source
25. Pew Research Center: 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study
Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source
Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)
Holy See, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1983the holders' own accountView the Source
Western Plainchant: A Handbook
David Hiley, Clarendon Press (Oxford University Press), 1993View the Source
Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumes
Norman P. Tanner (ed.), Sheed and Ward / Georgetown University Press, 1990View the Source
The Canons of the First Council of Nicaea
First Council of Nicaea, 325the holders' own account
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed
First Council of Constantinople, 381The Nicene Creed text
Quote, The Nicene Creed text
We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
the holders' own accountView the Source
Church Vestments: Their Origin and Development
Herbert Norris, J. M. Dent and Sons, 1949
Decrees of the Second Council of Nicaea
Second Council of Nicaea, 787the holders' own accountView the Source
Declaration on Masonic Associations (Quaesitum Est)
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1983the holders' own account
The Matachines Dance: Ritual Symbolism and Interethnic Relations in the Upper Rio Grande Valley
Sylvia Rodriguez, University of New Mexico Press, 1996
The Council in Trullo Revisited
George Nedungatt and Michael Featherstone (eds.), Pontificio Istituto Orientale, 1995
General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical edition
Congregation for Divine Worship, Congregation for Divine Worship, 2002the holders' own accountView the Source
The First Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Amsterdam 1948: Official Report
W. A. Visser 't Hooft (ed.), SCM Press, 1949
The Rule of Saint Benedict
Benedict of Nursia
Canons of the Second Council of Orange
Second Council of Orange, J. Thornton, 529the holders' own accountView the Source
Early Christian Creeds, 3rd edition
J. N. D. Kelly, Longman, 1972View the Source
Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Bede, Clarendon Press, 731View the Source
The Trial of the Templars
Malcolm Barber, Cambridge University Press, 2006View the Source
Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages
C. H. Lawrence, Longman, 2001View the Source
In Eminenti Apostolatus Specula
Pope Clement XII, 1738the holders' own account
Montes Pietatis (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
Robert Appleton Company (New Advent), 1913the Monte di Pieta relaxation and its 1515 approvalView the Source
Communique of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Regarding the Reception of Fiducia Supplicans
Victor Manuel Fernandez, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Holy See, 2024the stated position on sexualitythe holders' own account
Pastor Aeternus, First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ
First Vatican Council, 1870Chapters 3 and 4
Quote, Chapters 3 and 4
Papal universal jurisdiction and infallibility were defined in 1870, not in the apostolic age.
the holders' own accountView the Source
Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
Second Vatican Council, 1964Chapter 3, on the episcopate
Quote, Chapter 3, on the episcopate
The Second Vatican Council restated the collegial responsibility of the bishops alongside papal primacy.
the holders' own accountView the Source
Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent
Council of Trent, 1563Sessions 6, 7 and 13
Quote, Sessions 6, 7 and 13
Trent defined justification, the sacraments and transubstantiation against the Reformers rather than conceding any point.
the holders' own accountView the Source
Annuario Pontificio and Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae
Central Office of Church Statistics, Holy See, Libreria Editrice VaticanaAnnual returns
Quote, Annual returns
Baptised Catholics reported at roughly 1.4 billion; these are baptismal registers rather than counts of practice.
the holders' own account
A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation
Gustavo Gutierrez, Orbis Books, 1971A Theology of Liberation, 1971
Instruction on Certain Aspects of the Theology of Liberation (Libertatis Nuntius)
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1984Libertatis Nuntius, 1984the holders' own account
Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation (Libertatis Conscientia)
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1986Libertatis Conscientia, 1986the holders' own account
On the Revolutions (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium), dedicatory preface to Pope Paul III
Nicolaus Copernicus (Edward Rosen, trans.), Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978
Saint Anselm (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry)
Thomas Williams, Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford UniversityIntroduction
Quote, Introduction
He is best known for the celebrated 'ontological argument' for the existence of God in the Proslogion.
View the Source
Final communique of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar on Fiducia Supplicans
Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), 2024Objects and Practices of This Tradition: The full inclusion of LGBTQ people in ordination and marriage, The African bishops' own 2024 communique declining to implement Fiducia Supplicans in their diocesesthe holders' own account
Opus Dei (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, 2026Objects and Practices of This Tradition: Opus DeiView the Source
Portret van paus Julius II, Rijksmuseum (after Tobias Stimmer, 1549-1573)
RijksmuseumObjects and Practices of This Tradition: Portrait of Pope Julius II (Rijksmuseum, after Tobias Stimmer, 1549-1573), Rijksmuseum RP-P-1874-12-101-1View the Source
Paus Innocentius I, Rijksmuseum (Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493)
RijksmuseumObjects and Practices of This Tradition: Pope Innocent I, Nuremberg Chronicle Woodcut (Rijksmuseum, 1493), Rijksmuseum RP-P-2016-49-59-10View the Source
Paus Bonifatius IV, Rijksmuseum (atelier of Michel Wolgemut, 1493)
RijksmuseumObjects and Practices of This Tradition: Portrait of Pope Boniface IV (Rijksmuseum, atelier of Michel Wolgemut, 1493), Rijksmuseum RP-P-2016-49-60-3View the Source
Paus Sergius I, Rijksmuseum (atelier of Michel Wolgemut, 1493)
RijksmuseumObjects and Practices of This Tradition: Portrait of Pope Sergius I (Rijksmuseum, atelier of Michel Wolgemut, 1493), Rijksmuseum RP-P-2016-49-62-7View the Source
Our Lady of Mercy, called the Pilgrim of Quito, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Cuzco School, circa 1730 to 1740)
Metropolitan Museum of ArtObjects and Practices of This Tradition: Our Lady of Mercy, called the Pilgrim of Quito (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cuzco School, circa 1730 to 1740), Metropolitan Museum of Art 2018.652.4View the Source
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