Catholic Church

This article is about the church in communion with the See of Rome. For other uses, see Catholic Church (disambiguation).

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, claiming more than a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity.

The Catholic Church is among the oldest institutions in the world and has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilisation. It teaches that its bishops are the successors of Jesus Christ's apostles, that the Pope, as the successor of St. Peter, possesses a universal primacy, and that it is the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ.

Catholic doctrine maintains that the Church is infallible when it dogmatically teaches a doctrine of faith or morals. Catholic worship is centred on the Eucharist in which the Church teaches bread and wine are supernaturally transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ.

The Church holds the Blessed Virgin Mary in special regard. Catholic beliefs concerning Mary include her Immaculate Conception without the stain of original sin and bodily Assumption into heaven at the end of her life.

Name

Further information: Roman Catholic (term)

The term "Catholic", derived from the Greek word καθολικός (katholikos), which means "universal" or "general", was first used to describe the Church in the early 2nd century. The term katholikos is equivalent to καθόλου (katholou), a contraction of the phrase κατὰ ὅλου (kata holou) meaning "according to the whole". Thus the full name Catholic Church roughly means "universal" or "whole" church.

Since the East-West Schism of 1054, the churches that remained in communion with the See of Rome (the diocese of Rome and its bishop, the Pope, the primal patriarch) have been known as "Catholic", while the Eastern churches that rejected the pope's authority have generally been known as "Orthodox" or "Eastern Orthodox". Following the Reformation in the 16th century, the Church "in communion with the Bishop of Rome" used the term "Catholic" to distinguish itself from the various Protestant churches that split off.

The name "Catholic Church" has been used on official documents such as the title of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is also the term that Paul VI used when signing the sixteen documents of the Second Vatican Council. However, Church documents produced by both the Holy See and by certain national episcopal conferences occasionally refer to the Church by the name "Roman Catholic Church". The Catechism of Pope Pius X published in 1908 also used the term "Roman" to distinguish the Catholic Church from other Christian communities.

Organisation and demographics

Communion of Churches

Main articles: Latin Church and Eastern Catholic Churches

The Catholic Church is made up of a number of churches and rites, marked by unity and obedience to the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope. These so called autonomous particular churches (in Latin, sui iuris), reflect different historical and cultural influences that affected communities of Christians rather than differences in doctrine.

The largest of these is the Latin Church, which claims over 1 billion adherents. The Latin Church is directly governed by the Pope and Roman Curia, and developed in Western Europe before spreading throughout the world. Within Catholicism, the Latin Church is considered the oldest and largest branch of Western Christianity, a heritage of certain beliefs and customs shared by many Christian denominations that trace their originals to Protestant Reformation.

Relatively small in terms of adherents compared to the Latin Church, but important to the overall structure of the Church, are the 22 self-governing Eastern Catholic Churches with a membership of 13.865 million as of 2010. The Eastern Catholic Churches follow the traditions and spirituality of Eastern Christianity and are composed of Eastern Christians who have always remained in full communion with the Catholic Church or who have chosen to reenter full communion in the centuries following the East-West Schism and earlier divisions.

Examples of Eastern Catholic Churches can be found in the side bar "Major Sui Iuris Churches".

Papacy and Roman Curia

Main article: Catholic Church hierarchy

The Church holds that Christ instituted the papacy, upon giving the keys of heaven to Saint Peter, here in a fresco by Pietro Perugino (1481–82), Sistine Chapel, Rome.

The Church's hierarchy is headed by the Bishop of Rome, the pope, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church (which is composed of the Latin Rite and the Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the see of Rome). The current office-holder is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected in a papal conclave on 19 April 2005.

The office of the pope is known as the Papacy. His ecclesiastical jurisdiction is often called the "Holy See" (Sancta Sedes in Latin), or the "Apostolic See" (meaning the see of the Apostle Saint Peter). Directly serving the Pope is the Roman Curia, the central governing body that administers the day-to-day business of the Catholic Church. The pope is also head of state of Vatican City State, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the city of Rome.

Following the death or resignation of a pope, members of the College of Cardinals who are under age 80 meet in the Sistine Chapel in Rome to elect a new pope. The title Cardinal is a rank of honour bestowed by previous Popes on certain ecclesiastics, such as leaders within the Roman Curia, bishops serving in major cities and distinguished theologians. Although this election, known as a papal conclave, can theoretically elect any male Catholic as pope, since 1389 only cardinals have been elevated to that position.

Dioceses, parishes, and religious orders

Individual countries, regions, or even major cities are served by local particular churches known as dioceses or eparchies, each overseen by a Catholic bishop. Each diocese is united with one of the worldwide "sui iuris" particular churches, such as the Latin Church, or one of the many Eastern Catholic Churches. As of 2008, the Catholic Church (both East and West) comprised 2,795 dioceses. The bishops in a particular country or region are often organised into an episcopal conference, which aids in maintaining a uniform style of worship and coordination of social justice programs within the areas served by member bishops. Dioceses are further divided into numerous individual communities called parishes, each staffed by one or more priests, deacons, and/or lay ecclesial ministers.

Ordained Catholics, as well as members of the laity, may enter into consecrated life as monks or nuns. A candidate takes vows confirming their desire to follow the three evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience. Examples of institutes of consecrated life are the Benedictines, the Carmelites, the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Missionaries of Charity, and the Sisters of Mercy.

Membership statistics

Further information: Catholicism by country

Total church membership (both lay and clerical) in 2007 was 1.147 billion people, increasing from the 1950 figure of 437 million and the 1970 figure of 654 million. On 31 December 2008, membership was 1.166 billion, an increase of 11.54% over the same date in 2000, only slightly greater than the rate of increase of the world population (10.77%). The increase was 33.02% in Africa, but only 1.17% in Europe. It was 15.91% in Asia, 11.39% in Oceania, and 10.93% in the Americas. As a result, Catholics were 17.77% of the total population in Africa, 63.10% in the Americas, 3.05% in Asia, 39.97% in Europe, 26.21% in Oceania, and 17.40% of the world population. Of the world's Catholics, the proportion living in Africa grew from 12.44% in 2000 to 14.84% in 2008, while those living in Europe fell from 26.81% to 24.31%. Membership in the Catholic Church is attained through baptism or reception into the Church (for individuals previously baptised in non-Catholic Christian churches). For some years until 2009, if someone formally left the Church, that fact was noted in the register of the person's baptism.

Among those serving the church in a clerical state, there has been a trend of moderate growth which began in 2000 following more than two decades of decrease. At the end of 2007 for instance, Vatican records showed 408,024 Catholic priests in the world, 762 more than at the beginning of the year. The main growth areas have been Asia and Africa, with 21.1 percent and 27.6 percent growth respectively. In North and South America, numbers have remained approximately the same, while there was a 6.8 percent decline in Europe and a 5.5 percent decrease in Oceania from 2000 to 2007.

Catholic worship

Among the 23 autonomous particular churches, numerous liturgical traditions exist, called "rites", that reflect historical and cultural diversity rather than differences in belief. A rite is the liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary patrimony, culture and circumstances of history of a distinct people, by which its own manner of living the faith is manifested in each particular church. The most commonly used liturgy is the Roman Rite, but even in the Latin Catholic Church a few other rites are in use, and the Eastern Catholic Churches have distinct rites.

In all rites the Mass, or Divine Liturgy, is the centre of Catholic worship. Catholics believe that at each Mass, the bread and wine are supernaturally transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ by the consecration celebrated by the priest. The Words of Institution, the words used by the priest to consecrate the sacrament, are drawn from the three synoptic Gospels and a Pauline letter. The Church teaches that Christ established a New Covenant with humanity through the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, as described in these biblical verses.

Because the Church teaches that Christ is present in the Eucharist, there are strict rules about who may celebrate and who may receive the Eucharist. The sacrament can only be celebrated by an ordained Catholic priest or bishop. Those who are conscious of being in a state of mortal sin are forbidden from receiving the sacrament until they have received absolution through the sacrament of Reconciliation (Penance). Catholics are normally obliged to abstain from eating for at least an hour before receiving the sacrament.

Catholics are not permitted to receive the Eucharist as celebrated in Protestant churches, which in the view of the Catholic Church lack the sacrament of Holy Orders. Likewise, Protestants are not normally permitted to receive communion in the Catholic Church. In relation to the churches of Eastern Christianity not in communion with the Holy See, the Catholic Church is less restrictive, declaring that "a certain communion in sacris, and so in the Eucharist, given suitable circumstances and the approval of Church authority, is not merely possible but is encouraged."

Roman Rite

Tridentine Mass in a chapel of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston in April 2009. This ancient form of the Roman Rite dates back to 1570; some elements are centuries older

The Roman Rite is the most common rite of worship used by the Catholic Church. Its use is found worldwide, spread by missionary activity originating in Western European nations throughout Christian history.

Two forms of the Roman Rite are authorized at present: that of the post-1969 editions of the Roman Missal (Mass of Paul VI), which is now the ordinary form of the rite and is celebrated mostly in the vernacular, i.e., the language of the people; and that of the 1962 edition (the Tridentine Mass), now an extraordinary form.

In the United States, certain "Anglican Use" parishes use a variation of the Roman rite that retains many aspects of the Anglican liturgical rites.Implementation is still awaited of the authorization granted in 2009 for the creation wherever appropriate of ordinariates for Anglicans who enter into communion with the Church and who may then use a rite that incorporates elements of Anglican tradition. Other Western rites (non-Roman) include the Ambrosian Rite and the Mozarabic Rite.

Eastern Rites

The liturgical rites of the Eastern Catholic Churches are very similar to, and often identical with the rites used by the Eastern Orthodox and other Eastern Christian Churches that historically developed in areas such as Eastern Europe, Northeastern Africa, and the Middle East, but are no longer in communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. The Eastern Catholic Churches are either groups of faithful that have restored full communion with the Bishop of Rome, while preserving their unique identity as Eastern Christians, or groups with which full communion has never been broken.

The 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. In the past some of the rites used by the Eastern Catholic Churches were subject to some degree of liturgical Latinisation. However, in recent years Eastern Catholic Churches have returned to traditional Eastern practices in accord with the Vatican II decree, Orientalium Ecclesiarum. Each church has its own liturgical calendar.

Doctrine

See also: Catholic theology and Catholic social teaching

Catholic beliefs are summarised in the Nicene Creed and detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Based on the promises of Christ in the Gospels, the Church believes that it is continually guided by the Holy Spirit and so protected infallibly from falling into doctrinal error. The Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Spirit reveals God's truth through Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium. Sacred Scripture consists of the 73 book Catholic Bible. This is made up of the 46 books found in the ancient Greek version of the Old Testament—known as the Septuagint—and the 27 New Testament writings first found in the Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 and listed in Athanasius' Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter.

Sacred tradition consists of those teachings believed by the Church to have been handed down since the time of the Apostles. Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition are collectively known as the "deposit of faith" (depositum fidei). These are in turn interpreted by the Magisterium (from magister, Latin for "teacher"), the Church's teaching authority, which is exercised by the Pope and the College of Bishops in union with the Pope.

Trinity

Crucifixion of Christ
by Albrecht Altdorfer, 1526

The Catholic Church holds that there is one eternal God, who exists as a mutual indwelling of three persons: God the Father; God the Son; and the Holy Spirit, which make up the Trinity.

Catholics believe that Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son. In an event known as the Incarnation, the Church teaches that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God became united with human nature when Christ was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Christ is believed, therefore, to be both fully divine and fully human. It is taught that Christ's mission on earth included giving people his teachings and providing his example for them to follow as recorded in the four Gospels.

The Church teaches that through the passion (suffering) of Christ and his crucifixion as described in the Gospels, all people have an opportunity for forgiveness and freedom from sin, and so can be reconciled to God. The Resurrection of Jesus, according to Catholic belief, gained for humans a possible spiritual immortality previously denied to them because of original sin. By reconciling with God and following Christ's words and deeds, the Church believes one can enter the Kingdom of God, which is the "... reign of God over people's hearts and lives".

The Greek term "Christ" and the Hebrew "Messiah" both mean "anointed one", referring to the Christian belief that Jesus' death and resurrection are the fulfillment of the Old Testament's Messianic prophecies.

Apostolicity

Catholic belief holds that the Church "... is the continuing presence of Jesus on earth." To Catholics, the term "Church" refers to the people of God, who abide in Christ and who, "... nourished with the Body of Christ, become the Body of Christ." Catholics profess that this Church is the Catholic Church, which is described in the Creed as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, the true Church of Christ. In the papal encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi, the Catholic Church is further described as the Mystical Body of Christ.

According to its doctrine, the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ. The New Testament records the activities and teaching of Christ's appointment of the twelve Apostles and giving them authority to continue his work. The Church teaches that Jesus designated Simon Peter as the leader of the apostles by proclaiming "upon this rock I will build my church ...I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven ..." The Church teaches that the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, in an event known as Pentecost, signaled the beginning of the public ministry of the Church. All duly consecrated bishops since then are considered the successors to the apostles, and they hand on the Sacred Tradition received from the apostles.

Because of its roots in Christ's ministry, the Church teaches that the fullness of the "means of salvation" exists only in the Catholic Church but acknowledges that the Holy Spirit can make use of Christian communities separated from itself to bring people to salvation. It teaches that anyone who is saved is saved indirectly through the Church if the person has invincible ignorance of the Catholic Church and its teachings (as a result of parentage or culture, for example), yet follows the morals God has dictated in his heart and would, therefore, join the Church if he understood its necessity. It teaches that Catholics are called by the Holy Spirit to work for unity among all Christians.

Sacraments

According to the Council of Trent, Christ instituted seven sacraments and entrusted them to the Church. These are Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Reconciliation (Penance), Anointing of the Sick (formerly called Extreme Unction, one of the "Last Rites"), Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony. Sacraments are visible rituals that Catholics see as signs of God's presence and effective channels of God's grace to all those who receive them with the proper disposition (ex opere operato).

Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the Eucharist at the canonization of Frei Galvão in São Paulo, Brazil on 11 May 2007

Baptism

As viewed by the Catholic Church, baptism is the first of three sacraments of initiation as a Christian. It washes away all sins, both original sin and personal actual sins. It makes one a member of the Church. As a gratuitous gift of God that requires no merit on the part of the person who is baptised, it is conferred even on children, who, though they have no personal sins, need it on account of original sin. It marks a person permanently and cannot be repeated. The Catholic Church recognises as valid baptisms conferred even by people who are not Catholics or Christians, provided that they intend to baptize ("to do what the Church does when she baptizes") and that they use the Trinitarian baptismal formula.

Confirmation

The Catholic Church sees the sacrament of confirmation as required to complete the grace given in baptism. When adults are baptised, confirmation is normally given immediately afterwards, a practice followed even for infants in the Eastern Catholic Church. In the West confirmation of children is delayed until they are old enough to understand or even until they are in their teens. In the West, the sacrament is called confirmation, because it confirms and strengthens the grace of baptism; in the East, it is called chrismation, because the essential rite is the anointing of the person with chrism, a mixture of olive oil and some perfumed substance, usually balsam, blessed by a bishop. Those who receive confirmation must be in a state of grace, which for those who have reached the age of reason means that they should, if necessary, first be cleansed spiritually by the sacrament of Penance; they should also have the intention of receiving the sacrament, and be prepared to show in their lives that they are Christians.

Eucharist

For Catholics, the Eucharist, the sacrament that completes Christian initiation, is the perpetuation of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and a banquet in which Christ himself is consumed. The Eucharistic celebration always includes prayers, readings from the Bible, consecration of wheat bread and grape wine, and communion by at least some of the participants in the consecrated elements, which by the consecration become, in a way surpassing understanding, the body and blood of Jesus Christ, a change known as transubstantiation.

Penance

The sacrament of penance (also called reconciliation, forgiveness, confession and conversion) exists for the conversion of those who, after baptism, separate themselves from Christ by sin. Essential to this sacrament are acts both by the sinner (examination of conscience, contrition with a determination not to sin again, confession to a priest, and performance of some act to repair the damage caused by sin) and by the priest (determination of the act of reparation to be performed and absolution). Serious sins (mortal sins) must be confessed within at most a year and always before receiving Holy Communion, while confession of venial sins also is recommended. The priest is bound under the severest penalties to maintain the "seal of confession", absolute secrecy about any sins revealed to him in confession.

Anointing of the Sick

Chrism may also be used by a priest or bishop to bless a Catholic parishioner in a time of grave sickness or near death. This sacrament, known as Anointing of the Sick, is believed to forgive the person's sins and strengthen his or her soul against the hardship caused by the illness. It is often administered as one of the Last Rites.

Ordination

Holy Orders is the sacrament that, when administered, ordains a baptised man to the priesthood. The priesthood itself has three orders, the diaconate (deacons), presbyteriate (priests), and the episcopate (bishops), and is administered successively for each position.

The Church has defined rules on who may be ordained into the clergy. In the Latin Rite, the priesthood is generally restricted to celibate men. Men who are already married may be ordained in the Eastern Catholic Churches, and may become deacons in any rite. All clergy, including deacons, priests, and bishops, may preach, teach, baptize, witness marriages and conduct funeral liturgies. Only bishops and priests are allowed to administer the sacraments of the Eucharist, Reconciliation (Penance) and Anointing of the Sick. Only bishops can administer the sacrament of Holy Orders, which ordains someone into the clergy.

Matrimony

Marriage between any baptised man and woman is considered a sacrament by the Catholic Church. The Church teaches that marriage is reserved for heterosexual couples and that marriage is an indissoluble union. The church permits divorce only as a means of protecting children or property, but does not allow remarriage following divorce. The church recognises as valid all marriages performed among all non-Catholics and non-Christians (except second marriages) but obliges Catholic to follow the church's norms regarding marriage. Failure to observe the Church's regulations, or other defects such as coercion into a marriage, may be grounds for an annulment.

Judgment after death

The Church teaches that, immediately after death, the soul of each person will receive a particular judgment from God, based on the deeds of that individual's earthly life. This teaching also attests to another day when Christ will sit in a universal judgment of all mankind. This final judgment, according to Church teaching, will bring an end to human history and mark the beginning of a new and better heaven and earth ruled by God in righteousness. The basis on which each person's soul is judged is detailed in the Gospel of Matthew, which lists works of mercy to be performed even to people considered "the least". Emphasis is upon Christ's words that "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven".

According to the Catechism, "The Last Judgement will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life." Depending on the judgement rendered, a soul may enter one of three states of afterlife:

• Heaven is a time of glorious union with God and a life of unspeakable joy that lasts forever.

• Purgatory is a temporary condition for the purification of souls who, although saved, are not free enough from sin to enter directly into heaven. Souls in purgatory may be aided in reaching heaven by the prayers of the faithful on earth and by the intercession of saints.

• Final Damnation: Finally, those who persist in living in a state of mortal sin and do not repent before death subject themselves to hell, an everlasting separation from God. The Church teaches that no one is condemned to hell without having freely decided to reject God. No one is predestined to hell and no one can determine whether anyone else has been condemned. Catholicism teaches that through God's mercy a person can repent at any point before death and be saved. Some Catholic theologians have speculated that the souls of unbaptised infants who die in original sin are assigned to limbo although this is not an official doctrine of the Church.

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Prayers and devotions to Mary are part of Catholic piety but are distinct from the worship of God. The Church holds Mary, as Perpetual Virgin and Mother of God, in special regard. Catholic beliefs concerning Mary include her Immaculate Conception without the stain of original sin and bodily assumption into heaven at the end of her life, both of which have been infallibly defined as dogma, by Pope Pius IX in 1854 and Pope Pius XII in 1950 respectively.

Mariology deals not only with her life but also her veneration in daily life, prayer and Marian art, music and architecture. Several liturgical Marian feasts are celebrated throughout the Church Year and she is honoured with many titles such as Queen of Heaven. Pope Paul VI called her Mother of the Church, because by giving birth to Christ, she is considered to be the spiritual mother to each member of the Body of Christ. Because of her influential role in the life of Jesus, prayers and devotions, such as the Rosary, the Hail Mary, the Salve Regina and the Memorare are common Catholic practices.

The Church has affirmed the credibility of certain Marian apparitions such as Our Lady of Lourdes, Fátima, Guadalupe and the Shrine Of Our Lady of Good Hope in Wisconsin, USA. Pilgrimages to these sites are popular Catholic devotions.

History

Main articles: History of the Catholic Church and History of the Papacy

Further information: History of Christianity

Early Christianity

Main article: History of early Christianity

Further information: Historiography of early Christianity

Stained-glass window depicting St. Peter, from St. Aiden's Cathedral. According to Catholic doctrine, the Popes are successors to the Apostle Peter.

Catholic doctrine teaches that the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ in the 1st century AD and that the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles signaled the beginning of its public ministry.

Conditions in the Roman Empire facilitated the spread of new ideas, and Jesus's apostles gained converts in Jewish communities around the Mediterranean Sea. As preachers such as Paul of Tarsus began converting Gentiles, Christianity grew away from Jewish practices and established itself as a separate religion.

The early Church was more loosely organised and based on evangelism, at times resulting in diverse interpretations of Christian beliefs. In part to ensure a greater consistency in their teachings, by the early 2nd century, Christian communities had adopted a more structured hierarchy, with a central 'bishop' having authority over the clergy in his city. The organisation of dioceses was established mirroring the territories and cities of the Roman Empire. Bishops in politically important cities exerted greater authority over bishops in nearby cities. The churches in Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome held the highest positions, but sees considered "apostolic" retained certain rights of governance and discipline over the other sees "because of their superior origin". By at least the 3rd century, the Roman bishop already functioned as a court of appeals for problems that other bishops could not resolve. Beginning in the 2nd century, bishops often congregated in regional synods to resolve doctrinal and policy issues. Doctrine was further refined by a series of influential theologians and teachers, known collectively as the Church Fathers. Ecumenical councils came to be recognised as infallible and authoritative in resolving theological disputes.

Unlike most religions in the Roman Empire, Christianity required its adherents to renounce all other gods. Christians' refusal to join pagan celebrations meant they were unable to participate in much of public life. This refusal caused non-Christians to fear that the Christians were angering the gods. Christian secrecy about their rituals spawned rumours that Christians were orgiastic, incestuous, atheistic cannibals. Local officials sometimes saw Christians as troublemakers and sporadically persecuted them. A series of more centrally organised persecutions of Christians took place in the late 3rd century, when emperors decreed that the Empire's military, political, and economic crises were caused by angry gods. All residents were ordered to give sacrifices or be punished. Relatively few Christians were executed, others were imprisoned, tortured, put to forced labor, castrated, or sent to brothels; others fled or managed to go undetected, and some renounced their beliefs. Disagreements over what role, if any, these apostates should have in the Catholic Church led to the Donatist and Novatianist schisms.

Late antiquity

Constantine the Great, Mosaic in Hagia Sophia, c. 1000

Catholic Christianity was legalised in 313 under Constantine's Edict of Milan, and declared the state religion of the Empire in 380. After its legalization, a number of doctrinal disputes led to the calling of ecumenical councils. The doctrinal formulations resulting from these ecumenical councils were pivotal in the history of Christianity.

The first seven Ecumenical Councils, from the First Council of Nicaea (325) to the Second Council of Nicaea (787), sought to reach an orthodox consensus and to establish a unified Christendom. In 325, the First Council of Nicaea convened in response to the rise of Arianism, the belief that Jesus had not existed eternally but was a divine being created by and therefore inferior to God the Father.

In order to briefly express the basic tenets of the Christian belief, the council promulgated a creed that became the basis of what is now known as the Nicene Creed. In addition, it delineated Church territory into geographical and administrative areas called dioceses. The Council of Rome in 382 established the first official Biblical canon when it listed the accepted books of the Old and New Testament.

In the same century, Pope Damasus I commissioned a new translation of the Bible in fine classical Latin. He chose his secretary St Jerome, who delivered the Vulgate– the Church was now "committed to think and worship in Latin." Latin continued to play a role as the liturgical language of the Roman Rite of the Church, and is still to this day used in the official documents of the Church. The Council of Ephesus in 431 and the Council of Chalcedon in 451 defined the relationship of Christ's divine and human natures, leading to splits with the Nestorians and Monophysites.

Constantine moved the imperial capital to Constantinople, and the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451) elevated the See of Constantinople to a position "second in eminence and power to the bishop of Rome". From c. 350 to c. 500, the bishops, or popes, of Rome steadily increased in authority.

Middle Ages

Pope Gregory the Great

By the time of the decline of the Roman Empire, many Germanic barbarian tribes had converted to Christianity, but most of them (the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, and Vandals) had adopted it in the form of Arianism, a teaching that had since been declared a heresy by the Catholic Church. When these conquering peoples established kingdoms on what had been territory of the Roman Empire, the Arian controversy became a subject of religious discord between the ruling Germanic Arians and the subjected Catholic Romans. Unlike the other barbarian kings, Clovis I, the Frankish ruler, converted in 497 to orthodox Catholicism rather than Arianism, thereby allying himself with the papacy and the monasteries, strengthening the position of the Franks. Some other Germanic kingdoms eventually followed his lead (the Visigoths in Spain in 589, and the Lombards in Italy gradually during the 7th century). Beginning in the 6th century, European monasteries followed the structure of the Rule of St Benedict, becoming spiritual centres with workshops for the arts and crafts, scriptoria and libraries, and agricultural centres in remote regions. By the end of the century Pope Gregory the Great initiated administrative reforms and the Gregorian missions to evangelise Britain; Early in the 7th century Muslim armies had conquered much of the southern Mediterranean posing a threat to western Christendom.

The Carolingian kings strengthened the relationship between kings and the papacy: in 754 Pippin the Younger was crowned in a lavish ceremony (including anointing) by Pope Stephen II. Pippin then vanquished the Lombards and added more territory to the papal state. When Charlemagne came to the throne he quickly consolidated his power, and by 782 he was considered the strongest of the western kings with the strongest sense of Christian mission. He received a papal coronation in Rome in 800, and he interpreted his role as protector of the church with rights of intervention. After his death, however, the degree to which a ruler had the right to intervene with the papacy was treated in an inconsistent manner.

Great Schism with former borders in 1054

In Bulgaria, the invention of the Cyrillic alphabet in the 9th century by Saints Cyril and Methodius established a vernacular liturgy. In the 8th century, iconoclasm, the destruction of religious images, initiated a rift with the eastern church. The 9th century conflicts over ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the Byzantine-controlled southern Italy, Bulgarian missions, led to further disagreements that created the East–West Schism which is generally considered to have become formalized in 1054 although there is no single date on which the schism started. After the schism, the eastern side came to be called the Orthodox Church, while the West, which remained in communion with the Pope, retained the name Catholic. Efforts to mend the schism at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274 and the Council of Florence in 1439 were unsuccessful.

The Cluniac reform of monasteries sparked widespread monastic growth and renewal. The 11th and 12th century saw internal efforts to reform the church. In 1059 the college of cardinals was created to free papal elections from interference by Emperor and nobility. Lay investiture of bishops, a source of rulers' dominance over the Church, was attacked by reformers and under Pope Gregory VII, erupted into the Investiture Controversy between Pope and Emperor. The matter was eventually settled with the Concordat of Worms in 1122 where it was agreed that bishops would be selected in accordance with Church law. By the early 14th century a centralized Church organisation had been established, a Latin speaking culture was prevalent, the clergy were literate and celibacy was required.

Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont (1095); the Pope announced the launch of a Holy War between Christians and Islam. In an impassioned speech he urged all good Christians to wrest the Holy Land 'from the wicked race and subject it to yourselves' - those who died on the expedition would earn immediate remission of sins. The First Crusade had begun.

In 1095, Byzantine emperor Alexius I appealed to Pope Urban II for help against renewed Muslim invasions, which caused Urban to launch the First Crusade aimed at aiding the Byzantine Empire and returning the Holy Land to Christian control. The crusades saw the formation of various military orders such as the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller, and the Teutonic Knights. In 1208, after they were accused of murdering a papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, Pope Innocent III declared the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars, a gnostic Christian sect in Languedoc. Up to a million people were killed in a conflict that combined both religious and political struggles. To root out those with Cathar sympathies, Gregory IX instituted the Papal Inquisition in 1231.

Mendicant orders were founded by Francis of Assisi and Dominic de Guzmán, which brought consecrated religious life into urban settings. These orders also played a large role in the development of cathedral schools into universities. Scholastic theologians such as the Dominican Thomas Aquinas studied and taught at such universities, and his Summa Theologica was a key intellectual achievement in its synthesis of Aristotelian thought and Christianity.

The Church was the dominant influence on the development of Western art, overseeing the rise of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance styles of art and architecture. Renaissance artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Bernini, Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, and Titian were among a multitude of artists sponsored by the Church. In music, Catholic monks developed the first forms of modern Western musical notation in order to standardise liturgy throughout the worldwide Church, and an enormous body of religious music has been composed for it through the ages. This led directly to the emergence and development of European classical music and its many derivatives.

Reformation and Counter-Reformation

In the 14th century, the Papacy came under French dominance, with Clement V moving to Avignon in 1305. The Avignon Papacy ended in 1376 when the Pope returned to Rome, but was followed in 1378 by the 38-year-long Western schism with claimants to the papacy in Rome, Avignon and (after 1409) Pisa. The Western Schism resulted in a call for a "collective authority rather than the single primacy of the bishop of Rome" which gained support, but was overturned in 1417 at the Council of Constance with Martin V declared pope, and a decree issued that the Pope received authority "immediately from Christ". In reaction to the lack of authority created by the Great Schism, in England John Wycliffe wrote that the "eternal existing Church" was to be found in the Bible and available to all. His work was brought to Bohemia, where in Prague, Jan Hus embraced Wycliffe's ideas and gained wide support. At the Council of Constance, Hus was charged with heresy and ordered to be executed by burning at the stake.

Desiderius Erasmus

The Council of Constance, the Council of Basel and the Fifth Lateran Council each attempted to reform internal Church abuses, with the "popular and persistently recommended" creation of a council. In 1460, following the fall of Constantinople to the Turks, Pope Pius II forbade further appeal for a general council. Consequently worldly men such as Roderigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) were elected to the papacy, followed by Pope Julius II who presented himself as a secular prince. Early in the 16th century, the publication of In Praise of Folly, written by Erasmus, "included some biting criticisms of the unreformed Church."

In Germany in 1517, Martin Luther sent his Ninety-Five Theses to several bishops. His theses protested against key points of Catholic doctrine as well as the sale of indulgences. In Switzerland, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and others further criticised Catholic teachings. These challenges developed into the European movement called the Protestant Reformation.

In Germany, the reformation led to a nine-year war between the Protestant Schmalkaldic League and the Catholic Emperor Charles V. In 1618 a far graver conflict, the Thirty Years' War, followed. In France, a series of conflicts termed the French Wars of Religion were fought from 1562 to 1598 between the Huguenots and the forces of the French Catholic League, with the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre marking the turning point in the conflict. Survivors regrouped under Henry of Navarre who became Catholic and began the first experiment in religious toleration with his 1598 Edict of Nantes. This Edict, which granted civil and religious toleration to Protestants, was hesitantly accepted by Pope Clement VIII.

The English Reformation during the reign of Henry VIII began as a political dispute. When the pope denied Henry's petition for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, he had the Acts of Supremacy passed, making him head of the English Church. Although he tried to maintain traditional Catholicism, Henry initiated the confiscation of monasteries, friaries, convents and shrines throughout his realm. A more thoroughgoing doctrinal and liturgical Reformation was initiated at the end of Henry VIII's reign and continued through the reign of Edward VI under Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Under Mary I, England was briefly reunited with Rome, but Elizabeth I later restored a separate church that outlawed Catholic priests and prevented Catholics from educating their children and taking part in political life until new laws were passed in the late 18th century and 19th century.

The Council of Trent (1545–1563) became the driving force behind the Counter-Reformation. Doctrinally, it reaffirmed central Catholic teachings such as transubstantiation and the requirement for love and hope as well as faith to attain salvation. It also made structural reforms, most importantly by improving the education of the clergy and laity and consolidating the central jurisdiction of the Roman Curia. To popularize Counter-Reformation teachings, the Church encouraged the Baroque style in art, music and architecture, and new religious orders were founded such as the Theatines and the Barnabites in which were established the "evangelistic zeal of the original monastic vocation." The Society of Jesus was formally established in the mid-16th century, and they quickly saw the importance of providing education during the Counter-Reformation, viewing it as a "battleground for hearts and minds". At the same time, the writings of figures such as Teresa of Avila, Francis de Sales and Philip Neri spawned new schools of spirituality within the Church.

Toward the latter part of the 17th century, Pope Innocent XI reformed abuses that were occurring in the Church's hierarchy, including simony, nepotism and the lavish papal expenditures that had caused him to inherit a large papal debt. He promoted missionary activity, tried to unite Europe against the Turkish invasion, prevented influential Catholic rulers (including the Holy Roman Emperor) from marrying Protestants but strongly condemned religious persecution.

Early modern period

Ruins of the Jesuit Reduction at São Miguel das Missões in Brazil.

Main article: Catholic Church and the Age of Discovery

The Age of Discovery saw the expansion of Western Europe's political and cultural influence worldwide. Because of the prominent role the strongly Catholic nations of Spain and Portugal played in Western Colonialism, Catholicism was spread to the Americas, Asia and Oceania by explorers, conquistadors, and missionaries, as well as by the transformation of societies through the socio-political mechanisms of colonial rule.

Pope Alexander VI had awarded colonial rights over most of the newly discovered lands to Spain and Portugal and the ensuing patronato system allowed state authorities, not the Vatican, to control all clerical appointments in the new colonies. Although the Spanish monarchs tried to curb abuses committed against the Amerindians by explorers and conquistadors, it was Antonio de Montesinos, a Dominican friar, who is particularly known for openly rebuking the Spanish rulers of Hispaniola in 1511 for their cruelty and tyranny in dealing with the natives. King Ferdinand enacted the Laws of Burgos and Valladolid in response. The issue resulted in a crisis of conscience in 16th-century Spain. and, through the writings of Catholic clergy such as Bartolomé de Las Casas and Francisco de Vitoria, led to debate on the nature of human rights and to the birth of modern international law. Enforcement of these laws was lax, and some historians blame the Church for not doing enough to liberate the Indians; others point to the Church as the only voice raised on behalf of indigenous peoples.

In 1521 the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan made the first Catholic converts in the Philippines. Elsewhere, Portuguese missionaries under the Spanish Jesuit Francis Xavier evangelised in India, China, and Japan. Church growth in Japan came to a halt in 1597 when the Shogunate, in an effort to isolate the country from foreign influences, launched a severe persecution of Christians or Kirishitan's. An underground minority Christian population survived throughout this period of persecution and enforced an isolation that was eventually lifted in the 19th century. In China, despite Jesuit efforts to find compromise, the Chinese Rites controversy led the Kangxi Emperor to outlaw Christian missions in 1721. These events added fuel to growing criticism of the Jesuits, who were seen to symbolize the independent power of the Church, and in 1773 European rulers united to force Pope Clement XIV to dissolve the order. The Jesuits were eventually restored in the 1814 papal bull Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum. In Las Californias, Franciscan priest Junípero Serra founded a series of missions. In South America, Jesuit missionaries sought to protect native peoples from enslavement by establishing semi-independent settlements called reductions.

From the 17th century onward, the Enlightenment questioned the power and influence of the Catholic Church over Western society. 18th century writers such as Voltaire and the Encyclopedists wrote biting critiques of both religion and the Church. One target of their criticism was the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes by King Louis XIV, which ended a century-long policy of religious toleration of Protestant Huguenots.

The French Revolution of 1789 brought about a shifting of powers from the Church to the State, destruction of churches and the establishment of a Cult of Reason. In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte's General Louis Alexandre Berthier invaded Italy, imprisoning Pope Pius VI, who died in captivity. Napoleon later re-established the Catholic Church in France through the Concordat of 1801. The end of the Napoleonic wars brought Catholic revival and the return of the Papal States. In 1833, Frederic Ozanam began the work of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Paris to assist the poor created by the industrial revolution. The society would grow to more than 1 million members in 142 countries by the year 2010.

The spread of the British Empire brought the first Catholics to Australia with the arrival of Irish convicts at Sydney in 1788. By the close of the 19th century, missionaries had taken Catholicism to the neighbouring islands of Oceania.

In Latin America, a succession of anti-clerical regimes came to power beginning in the 1830s. Church properties were confiscated, bishoprics left vacant, religious orders suppressed, the collection of clerical tithes ended, and clerical dress in public prohibited. Pope Gregory XVI challenged the power of the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs by appointing his own candidates as colonial bishops. He also condemned slavery and the slave trade in the 1839 papal bull In Supremo Apostolatus, and approved the ordination of native clergy in the face of government racism.

At the end of the 19th century, Catholic missionaries followed colonial governments into Africa and built schools, hospitals, monasteries and churches.

Industrial age

In response to the social challenges of the Industrial Revolution, Pope Leo XIII published the encyclical Rerum Novarum. It set out Catholic social teaching in terms that rejected socialism but advocated the regulation of working conditions, the establishment of a living wage and the right of workers to form trade unions. Although the infallibility of the Church in doctrinal matters had always been a Church dogma, the First Vatican Council, which convened in 1870, affirmed the doctrine of papal infallibility when exercised under specific conditions. This decision gave the pope "enormous moral and spiritual authority over the worldwide" Church. Reaction to the pronouncement resulted in the breakaway of a group of mainly German churches, which subsequently formed the Old Catholic Church. The loss of the papal states to the Italian unification movement created what came to be known as the Roman Question, a territorial dispute between the papacy and the Italian government that was not resolved until the 1929 Lateran Treaty granted sovereignty to the Holy See over Vatican City.

In 1872, John Bosco and Maria Mazzarello founded the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco in Italy which would grow to be the largest Catholic institute for women in the world, with 14,420 members in 2009.

The 20th century saw the rise of various politically radical and anti-clerical governments. The 1926 Calles Law separating church and state in Mexico led to the Cristero War in which over 3,000 priests were exiled or assassinated, churches desecrated, services mocked, nuns raped and captured priests shot. In the Soviet Union following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, persecution of the Church and Catholics continued well into the 1930s. In addition to the execution and exiling of clerics, monks and laymen, the confiscation of religious implements and closure of churches was common. In the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War, the Catholic hierarchy allied itself with Franco's Nationalists against the Popular Front government, citing Republican violence against the Church and "foreign elements which have brought us to ruin". Pope Pius XI referred to these three countries as a "Terrible Triangle" and the failure to protest in Europe and the United States as a Conspiracy of Silence.

After violations of the 1933 Reichskonkordat that had guaranteed the Church in Nazi Germany some protection and rights, Pope Pius XI issued the 1937 encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, which publicly condemned the Nazis' persecution of the Church and their ideology of neopaganism and racial superiority. After the Second World War began in September 1939, the Church condemned the invasion of Poland and subsequent 1940 Nazi invasions. Thousands of Catholic priests, nuns and brothers were imprisoned and murdered throughout the areas occupied by the Nazis including Saints Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein. In the Holocaust, Pope Pius XII directed the Church hierarchy to help protect Jews from the Nazis. While Pius XII has been credited with helping to save hundreds of thousands of Jews by some historians, the Church has also been accused of encouraging centuries of antisemitism and Pius himself of not doing enough to stop Nazi atrocities. Debate over the validity of these criticisms continues to this day.

Postwar Communist governments in Eastern Europe severely restricted religious freedoms. Although some priests and religious collaborated with Communist regimes, many were imprisoned, deported or executed and the Church would be an important player in the fall of communism in Europe. The rise to power of the Communists in China in 1949 led to the expulsion of all foreign missionaries. The new government also created the Patriotic Church whose unilaterally appointed bishops were initially rejected by Rome before many of them were accepted. The Cultural Revolution of the 1960s led to the closure of all religious establishments. When Chinese churches eventually reopened they remained under the control of the Patriotic Church. Many Catholic pastors and priests continued to be sent to prison for refusing to renounce allegiance to Rome.

Contemporary

Pope John Paul II with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

The Second Vatican Council (1962–65), initiated by Pope John XXIII, became one of the major influences on the Catholic Church in the second half of the 20th century. It intended to engage the Church more closely with the present world (aggiornamento), which was described by its advocates as an "opening of the windows". It led to changes in liturgy within the Latin Church, a re-focusing of its mission and a redefinition of ecumenism, but also rethinking its relationship with Judaism in its document Nostra aetate. In the declaration Dignitatis humanae on religious freedom, the council rejected the imposition of a certain religion on people by force and underscored that although all men are bound to seek the truth, "(the) truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it makes its entrance into the mind at once quietly and with power". (DH 1)

Reception of the council has formed the basis of multifaceted internal positions and some strife within the Church since then. Proponents of the Spirit of Vatican II such as Swiss theologian Hans Küng claimed Vatican II had "not gone far enough". On the other hand, Traditionalists represented by figures such as Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre strongly criticised the council, arguing that the liturgical changes that it had stated "defiled" the sanctity of the Latin Mass, promoted religious indifferentism towards "false religions" and compromised historical Catholic dogma and tradition. A group positioned in between - including major church figures such as popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI - hold that the council was ultimately positive, but that there were abuses in interpretation.

In the aftermath of the Sexual Revolution, the teaching of the Catholic Church about sexuality became an issue of increasing controversy, also internally. In his encyclical Humanae Vitae (1968), Pope Paul VI rejected all kinds of contraception (though he favored the regulation of births by means of natural family planning), contradicting those voices in the Church that saw at the time the birth control pill as an ethically justifiable method of contraception. This teaching was continued especially by John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, where he decried contraception and abortion as well as euthanasia as symptoms of a "culture of death" and called for a "culture of life".

In 1978, Pope John Paul II, formerly archbishop of Cracow in then-Communist Poland, became the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years. His 27-year pontificate was one of the longest in history. Mikhail Gorbachev, the last premier of the Soviet Union, credited the Polish pope with hastening the fall of Communism in Europe.

He supported debt relief in the Third World and the campaign against the Iraq War. Disapproving of the influence of Marxism on the Liberation Theology prevalent in Latin America during the 1980s, he said the Church should not work for the poor and oppressed through partisan politics or revolutionary violence. He canonised 483 saints - more than any his predecessors. In 1986, he established World Youth Day, a mass gathering of young Catholics taking place about every three years. He worked for reconciliation with Jews and Muslims, offering forgiveness to persecutors of the Church, and asking forgiveness for the historical errors of the Church, including religious intolerance and injustice toward Jews, women, indigenous peoples, immigrants, the poor and the unborn. In 1992, the Catholic Church issued a new, binding compilation of its teachings, the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Campaigns for human rights and social justice led to the martyrdom of Catholics during this period - notably in Latin America, where Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador was gunned down at the altar in 1980, and six Jesuits of the University of Central America were assassinated in 1989.

The Catholic nun Mother Teresa of Calcutta was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work among India's poor. Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo won the same award in 1996 for "work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor".

In the 1990s and 2000s, the issue of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy became the subject of media coverage, legal action and public debate in the United States, Ireland, Australia and other countries. The Church was criticised for its handling of abuse complaints when it became known that some bishops had shielded accused priests, transferring them to other pastoral assignments where some continued to commit sexual offences. In response to the scandal, the Church has established formal procedures to prevent abuse, encourage reporting of any abuse that occurs and to handle such reports promptly, although groups representing victims have disputed their effectiveness.

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External links

• Vatican.va  – official website of the Holy See
• Vatican YouTube  – official YouTube channel