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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Catholic Church: . Catholicism – largest denomination of Christianity.Catholicism encompasses the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole.
In the early Church, the biblical passage Matthew 22:21 ("Render to Caesar, the things that are Caesar's, and to God, the things that are God's") was a source of discussion regarding the role of the Church and its relations with secular governments, defining the dualism of Catholic political thinking - unlike earlier religions, the Catholic ...
The Catholic theology of Scripture has developed much since the Second Vatican Council of Catholic Bishops ("Vatican II", 1962-1965). This article explains the theology (or understanding) of scripture that has come to dominate in the Catholic Church today. It focuses on the Church's response to various areas of study into the original meaning ...
The prayers of the Mass, the public prayer of the Church, are characteristically addressed to God the Father. The Catholic bishops declared in 1963: "Devotions should be so drawn up that they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some fashion derived from it, and lead the people to it, since, in fact, the ...
The relations between the Catholic Church and the state have been constantly evolving with various forms of government, some of them controversial in retrospect. In its history, the Church has had to deal with various concepts and systems of governance, from the Roman Empire to the medieval divine right of kings, from nineteenth- and twentieth-century concepts of democracy and pluralism to the ...
The Catholic Church considers that faith is twofold. Objectively, faith is the sum of truths revealed by God in Scripture and tradition and which the Catholic Church presents in a brief form in its creeds. Subjectively, faith stands for the habit or virtue by which these truths are assented to. [12]
The most recent Catechism of the Catholic Church, the official summary of Church beliefs, devotes a large section to the Commandments, [7] which serve as the basis for Catholic social teaching. [4] According to the Catechism, the Church has given them a predominant place in teaching the faith since the fifth century. [7]
In the Catholic Church, authority rests chiefly with bishops, [4] while priests and deacons serve as their assistants, co-workers or helpers. [5] Accordingly, "hierarchy of the Catholic Church" is also used to refer to the bishops alone. [6] The term "pope" was still used loosely until the sixth century, being at times assumed by other bishops. [7]