65 Facts About The Roman Catholic Church

1.

The administrative body of the Holy See, the Roman Curia, has its principal offices in Vatican City, a small enclave of the Italian city of Rome, of which the pope is head of state.

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2.

The Catholic Church teaches that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church founded by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission, that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles, and that the pope is the successor to Saint Peter, upon whom primacy was conferred by Jesus Christ.

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3.

The Roman Catholic Church social teaching emphasises voluntary support for the sick, the poor, and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

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4.

The Catholic Church operates thousands of Catholic schools, universities and colleges, hospitals, and orphanages around the world, and is the largest non-government provider of education and health care in the world.

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5.

Catholic Church has profoundly influenced Western philosophy, culture, art, music and science.

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6.

The Catholic Church shared communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church until the East–West Schism in 1054, disputing particularly the authority of the pope.

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7.

Catholic theology teaches that the contemporary Catholic Church is the continuation of this early Christian community established by Jesus Christ.

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8.

The Catholic Church teaches that its public ministry began on Pentecost, occurring fifty days following the date Christ is believed to have resurrected.

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9.

The Catholic Church teaches that the college of bishops, led by the bishop of Rome are the successors to the Apostles.

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10.

The Catholic Church considers the bishop of Rome, the pope, to be the successor to Saint Peter.

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11.

Catholic Church was the dominant influence on Western civilisation from Late Antiquity to the dawn of the modern age.

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12.

The studia conventualia and studia generalia of the mendicant orders played a large role in the transformation of The Roman Catholic Church-sponsored cathedral schools and palace schools, such as that of Charlemagne at Aachen, into the prominent universities of Europe.

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13.

The Roman Catholic Church's theses protested key points of Catholic doctrine as well as the sale of indulgences, and along with the Leipzig Debate this led to his excommunication in 1521.

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14.

The Roman Catholic Church attempted to mediate between the powers and established a Vatican relief office, to assist victims of the war and reunite families.

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15.

The Roman Catholic Church expressed concern against race killings on Vatican Radio, and intervened diplomatically to attempt to block Nazi deportations of Jews in various countries from 1942 to 1944.

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16.

Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church was at its most intense in Poland, and Catholic resistance to Nazism took various forms.

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17.

The Roman Catholic Church clergy played a leading role in the government of the fascist Slovak State, which collaborated with the Nazis, copied their anti-Semitic policies, and helped them carry out the Holocaust in Slovakia.

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18.

Jozef Tiso, the President of the Slovak State and a The Roman Catholic Church priest, supported his government's deportation of Slovakian Jews to extermination camps.

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19.

The Roman Catholic Church gave SS General Wolff a corresponding order to prepare for the action.

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20.

Many The Roman Catholic Church priests continued to be sent to prison for refusing to renounce allegiance to Rome.

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21.

Several teachings of the Catholic Church came under increased scrutiny both concurrent with and following the council; among those teachings was the church's teaching regarding the immorality of contraception.

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22.

The Roman Catholic Church instituted World Youth Day as a "worldwide encounter with the pope" for young people; it is held every two to three years.

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23.

The Roman Catholic Church travelled more than any other pope, visiting 129 countries, and used television and radio as means of spreading the church's teachings.

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24.

The Roman Catholic Church emphasised the dignity of work and natural rights of labourers to have fair wages and safe conditions in Laborem exercens.

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25.

The Roman Catholic Church emphasised several church teachings, including moral exhortations against abortion, euthanasia, and against widespread use of the death penalty, in Evangelium Vitae.

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26.

The Roman Catholic Church was known for upholding traditional Christian values against secularisation, and for increasing use of the Tridentine Mass as found in the Roman Missal of 1962, which he titled the "Extraordinary Form".

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27.

The Roman Catholic Church's resignation has caused controversy among a minority of Catholics who say Benedict did not fully resign the papacy.

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28.

Pope Francis, the current pope of the Catholic Church, succeeded Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 as the first pope from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first Pope from outside Europe since the Syrian Gregory III, who reigned in the 8th century.

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29.

The Roman Catholic Church's installation was attended by Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the first time since the Great Schism of 1054 that the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has attended a papal installation.

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30.

Catholic Church follows an episcopal polity, led by bishops who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders who are given formal jurisdictions of governance within the church.

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31.

Hierarchy of the Catholic Church is headed by the pope—currently Pope Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013 by a papal conclave.

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32.

The Catholic Church holds that Christ instituted the papacy upon giving the keys of Heaven to Saint Peter.

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33.

Latin The Roman Catholic Church is governed by the pope and diocesan bishops directly appointed by him.

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34.

The pope exercises a direct patriarchal role over the Latin The Roman Catholic Church, which is considered to form the original and still major part of Western Christianity, a heritage of certain beliefs and customs originating in Europe and northwestern Africa, some of which are inherited by many Christian denominations that trace their origins to the Protestant Reformation.

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35.

Eastern Catholic Churches follow the traditions and spirituality of Eastern Christianity and are churches that have always remained in full communion with the Catholic Church or who have chosen to re-enter full communion in the centuries following the East–West Schism or earlier divisions.

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36.

Some Eastern Catholic churches are governed by a patriarch who is elected by the synod of the bishops of that church, others are headed by a major archbishop, others are under a metropolitan, and others are organised as individual eparchies.

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37.

The Roman Curia has a specific department, the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, to maintain relations with them.

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38.

The Roman Catholic Church ministers include ordained clergy, lay ecclesial ministers, missionaries, and catechists.

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39.

The Roman Catholic Church doctrine has developed over the centuries, reflecting direct teachings of early Christians, formal definitions of heretical and orthodox beliefs by ecumenical councils and in papal bulls, and theological debate by scholars.

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40.

Sacred Scripture consists of the 73 books of the The Roman Catholic Church Bible, consisting of 46 Old Testament and 27 New Testament writings.

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41.

Catholic Church holds that there is one eternal God, who exists as a perichoresis of three hypostases, or "persons": God the Father; God the Son; and God the Holy Spirit, which together are called the "Holy Trinity".

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42.

Catholic Church teaches dogmatically that "the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, not as from two principles but as from one single principle".

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43.

The New Testament records several events considered integral to the establishment of the Catholic Church, including Jesus' activities and teaching and his appointment of the apostles as witnesses to his ministry, suffering, and resurrection.

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44.

Catholic Church teaches that, immediately after death, the soul of each person will receive a particular judgement from God, based on their sins and their relationship to Christ.

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45.

Catholic Church teaches that it was entrusted with seven sacraments that were instituted by Christ.

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46.

The Catholic Church recognises as valid baptisms conferred even by people who are not Catholics or Christians, provided that they intend to baptise and that they use the Trinitarian baptismal formula.

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47.

Catholic Church sees the sacrament of confirmation as required to complete the grace given in baptism.

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48.

The ceremony in which a The Roman Catholic Church first receives the Eucharist is known as First Communion.

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49.

The present ordinary form of Mass in the Roman Rite, found in the post-1969 editions of the Roman Missal, is usually celebrated in the local vernacular language, using an officially approved translation from the original text in Latin.

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50.

An instruction issued four years later spoke of the two forms or usages of the Roman Rite approved by the pope as the ordinary form and the extraordinary form .

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51.

Pope Pius V's The Roman Catholic Church Missal was subjected to minor revisions by Pope Clement VIII in 1604, Pope Urban VIII in 1634, Pope Pius X in 1911, Pope Pius XII in 1955, and Pope John XXIII in 1962.

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52.

Since 2014, clergy in the small personal ordinariates set up for groups of former Anglicans under the terms of the 2009 document Anglicanorum Coetibus are permitted to use a variation of the Roman Rite called "Divine Worship" or, less formally, "Ordinariate Use", which incorporates elements of the Anglican liturgy and traditions, an accommodation protested by Anglican leaders.

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53.

The Eastern Catholic Churches are groups of faithful who have either never been out of communion with the Holy See or who have restored communion with it at the cost of breaking communion with their associates of the same tradition.

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54.

Rites used by the Eastern Catholic Churches include the Byzantine Rite, in its Antiochian, Greek and Slavonic varieties; the Alexandrian Rite; the Syriac Rite; the Armenian Rite; the Maronite Rite and the Chaldean Rite.

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55.

Eastern Catholic Churches have the autonomy to set the particulars of their liturgical forms and worship, within certain limits to protect the "accurate observance" of their liturgical tradition.

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56.

However, in recent years Eastern Catholic Churches have returned to traditional Eastern practices in accord with the Vatican II decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum.

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57.

The Roman Catholic Church social teaching, reflecting the concern Jesus showed for the impoverished, places a heavy emphasis on the corporal works of mercy and the spiritual works of mercy, namely the support and concern for the sick, the poor and the afflicted.

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58.

The Roman Catholic Church has addressed stewardship of the natural environment, and its relationship to other social and theological teachings.

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59.

Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and medical services in the world.

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60.

The Roman Catholic Church has always been involved in education, since the founding of the first universities of Europe.

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61.

Catholic Church calls all members to practise chastity according to their state in life.

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62.

Overturning the The Roman Catholic Church's teaching on this point features high on progressive agendas.

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63.

Similarly, the Catholic Church opposes artificial insemination regardless of whether it is homologous or heterologous and in vitro fertilisation, saying that the artificial process replaces the love and conjugal act between a husband and wife.

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64.

Certain dissenting Catholic groups oppose the position of the Catholic Church and seek to change it.

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65.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responded by issuing a statement clarifying that any Catholic bishops involved in ordination ceremonies for women, as well as the women themselves if they were Catholic, would automatically receive the penalty of excommunication, citing canon 1378 of canon law and other church laws.

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