Catholicism (The Catholic Church)

The Catholic Church, sometimes known informally as the Roman Catholic Church, is a denomination of Christianity headquartered in Vatican City. The Catholic Church teaches the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and worships the God of Abraham. The Catholic Church has a single leader, the pope, the Bishop of Rome. The current pope is Francis. Present day governance of the Church is divided hierarchically into dioceses, each overseen by a diocesan bishop, who in turn oversees diocesan priests and deacons on the level of the individual parish.

The word "catholic" means "universal." Its use as a name for the Church comes from Nicene-Constantinople Creed of 381, which defines the church as, "one, holy, catholic and apostolic." In the Christological controversy of the fourth century, Catholics opposed the heresy of Arianism.

The Church has always been pro-life and its leadership is mostly conservative, as illustrated by how it "launched a crackdown on the umbrella group that represents most of America's 55,000 Catholic nuns" for "a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." The Church noted that "the group was not speaking out strongly enough against" abortion.

Members believe that theirs is the oldest Christian denomination in the world. It is certainly the largest, with more than 1.3 billion officially baptized adherents, or 17.4% of the world's population; over 64 million of these are in the United States. In recent years growth has been greatest in Africa and Latin America, while membership and influence have declined in Europe.

The Catholic Church asserts that the Pope is the divinely-chosen successor of St. Peter, believing him to be the 'rock' (Matthew 16:18) upon whom Jesus built his Church. The Catholic Church consists of those Christians who are in full communion with the Pope. This includes members both of the Latin Church and of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches. The Eastern Catholic Churches were once known as the "Uniate" Churches; though once used with pride at remaining in union with Rome after the East-West Schism, this term has fallen out of use due to derogatory connotations that have come to be associated with it over the centuries.

The Catholic Church has suffered several schisms over its history. Most notable are those involving the Church of the East following the First Ephesian Council, the Oriental Orthodoxchurches following the Council of Chalcedon, the Eastern Orthodox Church following the Great Schism of 1054, and the several Reformations of the 16th century leading to the development of Protestantism.

The Protestants made the most radical break. Two of the principal issues raised by Protestants were sola scriptura, the doctrine that the Bible alone is the final authority for Christians (which is also a denial of the infallibility of Sacred Tradition, the Pope, and the infallibility of ecumenical Church councils as being preserved and guided by God the Holy Spirit in ignorance of Colossians 2:8) and sola fide, the doctrine popularized by Martin Luther that faith alone, as opposed to the need for both faith and good works together, is sufficient for salvation (as is written in Ephesians 2:8-9).