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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 .
Traditionalist Catholicism is a movement that emphasizes beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions and presentations of teaching associated with the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965).
Catholics believe that the church (community of Christians) exists both on earth and in heaven simultaneously, and thus the Virgin Mary and the Saints are alive and part of the living church. Prayers and devotions to Mary and the saints are common practices in Catholic life. These devotions are not worship, since only God is worshiped. The ...
Catholicity (from Ancient Greek: καθολικός, romanized: katholikós, lit. 'general', 'universal', via Latin: catholicus) [1] is a concept pertaining to beliefs and practices that are widely accepted by numerous Christian denominations, most notably by those Christian denominations that describe themselves as catholic in accordance with the Four Marks of the Church, as expressed in the ...
See also Laity in the Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council popularized spiritual movements among Catholics, and some lay Catholics now engage in regular contemplative practices such as the Rosary or Lectio Divina. Consistent with Vatican II, contemporary spiritual movements usually emphasize the necessity both of an interior relationship ...
Protestants hold doctrinal differences with the Catholic Church in a number of areas, including the understanding of the meaning of the word "faith" and how it relates to "good works" in terms of salvation, and a difference of opinion regarding the concept of "justification"; also regarding the Catholic Church's belief in sacred tradition as a ...
The Catholic Church's attitude was also expressed by Pope John Paul II in the image of the Church "breathing with her two lungs". [ 78 ] [ 79 ] He meant that there should be a combination of the more rational, juridical, organization-minded "Latin" temperament with the intuitive, mystical and contemplative spirit found in the East.
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]