Catholic Church Portal

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Introduction

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.28 to 1.39 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2024. It is among the world’s oldest and largest international institutions and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.

The church consists of 24 sui iuris churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and eparchies around the world. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the chief pastor of the church. The Diocese of Rome, known as the Holy See, is the central governing authority of the church. The administrative body of the Holy See, the Roman Curia, has its principal offices in Vatican City, a small independent city-state within Rome, of which the pope is head of state and absolute elective monarch.

The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The Catholic Church teaches that it is the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church founded by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission. Its bishops are the successors of Christ’s apostles, and the pope is the successor to Saint Peter, upon whom primacy was conferred by Jesus Christ. It maintains that it practices the original Christian faith taught by the apostles, preserving it infallibly through scripture and sacred tradition as interpreted by the magisterium of the church.

The Roman Rite and other Latin Church rites, Eastern Catholic liturgies, and institutes such as mendicant orders, enclosed monastic orders, and third orders reflect a variety of theological and spiritual emphases in the church. Of its seven sacraments, the Eucharist is the principal one, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest, the sacrificial bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ.

The Virgin Mary is venerated as the Perpetual Virgin, Mother of God, and Queen of Heaven, honored in dogmas and devotions. Catholic social teaching emphasizes voluntary support for the sick, poor, and afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

The Catholic Church operates tens of thousands of schools, universities, colleges, hospitals, and orphanages worldwide and is the largest non-government provider of education and health care. It also runs numerous charitable and humanitarian organizations.

Music and Culture

Gregorian Chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song. Though it fell out of use after the 1600s, it experienced a revival in the 19th century in the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Anglican Communion. Organized, codified, and notated mainly in the Frankish lands of western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, many of its texts and melodies date back centuries earlier. Though legend credits Pope Gregory the Great with inventing it, scholars believe Gregorian chant arose from a Carolingian synthesis of Roman and Gallican chant. Chants are organized into eight scalar modes.

Selected Image

Credit: Blieusong
The façade of Notre-Dame de Paris, showing the Portal of the Virgin, Portal of the Last Judgment, and Portal of St. Anne.

Selected Biography

Pope Benedict XVI
(Latin: Benedictus PP. XVI; German: Benedikt XVI; Italian: Benedetto XVI; born Joseph Alois Ratzinger on 16 April 1927) was the 265th Pope, spiritual head of the Catholic Church, and Sovereign of Vatican City until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Elected on 19 April 2005, he celebrated his papal inauguration on 24 April 2005 and took possession of his cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on 7 May 2005. He held both German and Vatican citizenship and succeeded Pope John Paul II. Benedict XVI was a well-known Catholic theologian, prolific author, and defender of traditional Catholic doctrine and values.

Did You Know?

• During the 2006 student protests in Chile, students threw stones at Bishop Alejandro Goic Karmelic’s residence, though he had offered to mediate.

• Retired Sacramento bishop Alden John Bell was stabbed in his office while preparing to see Pope John Paul II.

• Codex Vaticanus 2061, a double palimpsest, contains parts of the New Testament, homilies from several authors, and Strabon’s Geographica.

Feast Day of January 25

Maurus, OSB (512–584)
Italian Catholic monk, first disciple of Benedict of Nursia. Stories of his life, including the rescue of Placidus, influenced the ideal formation of Benedictine monks.

Attributes: crutch; weighing scale; young monk holding an abbot’s cross and spade
Patronage: cripples; rheumatism; epilepsy; gout; hoarseness; cold; Azores; charcoal burners; cobblers; coppersmiths; shoemakers

Selected Quote

“Whoever is separated from this Catholic Church, by this single sin of being separated from the unity of Christ, no matter how estimable a life he may imagine he is living, shall not have life, but the wrath of God rests upon him.” — Saint Augustine

News Highlights

• 6 January 2025: Pope Francis appoints Sister Simona Brambilla as Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life, the Vatican’s first female prefect of the Roman Curia.

• 17 November 2024: In the Israel–Hamas conflict, Pope Francis called for a global investigation into potential genocide in Gaza.

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• Catholic bibles, buildings, charities, culture, dioceses, liturgy, missions, orders, organization, popes, saints, spirituality, theology

Topics and Index

History: Jesus, Apostles, Ecumenical Councils, East–West Schism, Crusades, Reformation, Catholic Reformation, Vatican II, Modern Era, Sexual Abuse Scandal, COVID-19 Pandemic

Theology & Doctrine: Bible, Tradition, Catechism, Dogma, Nicene Creed, Sacraments, Mariology, Philosophy, Social Teaching

Organization & Governance: Pope, Holy See, Roman Curia, Dicasteries, Synod of Bishops, Bishops, Laity, Religious Orders

Culture: Art, Architecture, Music, Literature, Museums, Education, Health Care, Distinctions

External Resources

• Website of the Holy See

• Website of the Vatican City State

Wikimedia Projects

• Commons: Free media

• Wikibooks: Textbooks and manuals

• Wikidata: Knowledge base

• Wikinews: News

• Wikiquote: Quotations

• Wikisource: Library

• Wikiversity: Learning tools

• Wiktionary: Dictionary