Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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]
The treasury of all merit or treasury of the Church (thesaurus ecclesiae; Greek: θησαυρός, thesaurós, treasure; Greek: ἐκκλησία, ekklēsía‚ convening, congregation, parish) consists, according to Catholic belief, of the merits of Jesus Christ and his faithful, a treasury that because of the communion of saints benefits others, too. [1]
Choir dress of a cardinal, in scarlet Cardinals are senior members of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome. They are typically ordained bishops and generally hold important roles within the church, such as leading prominent archdioceses or heading dicasteries within the Roman ...
Encyclicals are letters of a more hortatory nature, addressed to all or to a majority of the higher officials of the Church. A motu proprio is a document prepared at the personal initiative of the pope, without previous petition to him, and issued with a partial avoidance of the otherwise customary forms of the chancery.
Under this general heading may be included all abbreviated forms of addresses in ordinary intercourse, whether of individuals or of members of religious orders, congregations, institutes, to which may be added the forms of addresses usual for members of Catholic lay societies and the Papal orders of merit. (See Catholic societies, orders of merit.)
For ordination to diaconate or priesthood of a member of a religious institute, the major superior of the institute gives the letters, if the person to be ordained is a permanently professed member of the institute; all other members must obtain their dimissorial letters in the same way as the secular clergy do. [4]
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. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 9 ] 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 is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered." –Augsburg Confession [8] Christian theologians such as Bostwick Hawley teach that church membership is commanded in scripture, grounding this in the fact that "apostolic letters are addressed to the Churches", "Apostolic salutations are to Churches", "Jesus Christ is ...