Catholicism is a broad term for 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. Although for many the
term usually refers to Christians and churches belonging to the
Catholic Church in communion with
the Holy See, for others it refers to continuity "back to the
earliest churches", as claimed even by churches in dispute with one
another over doctrine and practice such as the
Catholic Church, the
Eastern Orthodox Church,
Oriental Orthodoxy, the
Assyrian Church of the East, the
Old Catholic Church and the
Anglican Communion. The claim of
continuity may be based on
Apostolic Succession, especially in
conjunction with adherence to the
Nicene
Creed. In this sense of indicating historical continuity, the
term "catholicism" is at times employed to mark a contrast to
Protestantism, which tends to look
instead to the Bible as interpreted by the 16th-century
Protestant Reformation as its
ultimate standard. It was thus used by the
Oxford Movement.
According to
Richard McBrien,
Catholicism is distinguished from other forms of
Christianity in its particular understanding
and commitment to tradition, the
sacraments, the mediation between God, and
communion.
Catholicism can
include a monastic life, religious order, a religious appreciation of
the arts, a communal understanding of sin and redemption,
missionary activity, and always "communion the Bishop of Rome
" and the degree or form of primacy that what he
calls the Communion of Catholic Churches attribute to his chair or
office.
McBrien maintains that Eastern Catholic Churches should not come
under the heading "Roman Catholic Church": "The Catholic Church
itself is a communion of local churches, known as dioceses and
patriarchates, of Roman and non-Roman Churches." Thus "to be
Catholic—whether Roman/Latin or non-Roman/Latin—is to be in full
communion with the Bishop of Rome and as such an integral part of
the Communion of Catholic Churches." Other writers, such as Kenneth
D. Whitehead, disagree with McBrien by objecting to the use of the
term "Roman Catholic Church" even for the
Catholic Church of the West. Whitehead has
pointed out that this term appears nowhere in the 16 documents of
the
Second Vatican Council.
Avery Dulles pointed out that in the
dogmatic constitution
Lumen
Gentium the Council used instead of "Roman Catholic
Church" the circumlocution, "the Catholic Church, which is governed
by the successor of Peter and the bishops in union with that
successor", and referred only in a footnote to documents of similar
authority that used the term "Roman" for the whole Church (the
Profession of Faith of
Trent and
the documents of the
First Vatican
Council). The Popes continue to use the term "Roman Catholic
Church", especially for identifying the Church unambiguously in
written agreements with other churches, but even when addressing
Catholics. In all these references, the Popes apply the term "Roman
Catholic Church" to the whole Church, not to the Latin or Western
Church. In popular usage also, "Catholic" usually means "Roman
Catholic", a usage decried by some, including certain Protestants.
"Catholic" usually refers to members of all the 23
constituent
Churches, the one
Western and the 22
Eastern. Newspaper reports
generally reflect common usage.
History of use of "Catholic Church"
The earliest recorded evidence of the use of the term "Catholic
Church" is the
Letter to
the Smyrnaeans that
Ignatius of Antioch wrote in about 107
to Christians in Smyrna. Exhorting Christians to remain closely
united with their bishop, he wrote: "Wherever the bishop shall
appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as,
wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."
Of the meaning for Ignatius of this phrase J.H. Srawley wrote:
This is the earliest occurrence in Christian literature
of the phrase 'the Catholic Church' (ἡ καθολικὴ
ἒκκλησία).
The original sense of the word is
'universal'.
Thus Justin Martyr (Dial.
82) speaks of the 'universal or general resurrection',
using the words, (ἡ καθολικὴ ἀνάστασις.
Similarly here the Church universal is contrasted with
the particular Church of Smyrna.
Ignatius means by the Catholic Church 'the aggregate of
all the Christian congregations' (Swete, Apostles Creed,
p.
76).
So too the letter of the Church of Smyrna is addressed
to all the congregations of the Holy Catholic Church in every
place.
And this primitive sense of 'universal' the word has
never lost, although in the latter part of the second century it
began to receive the secondary sense of 'orthodox' as opposed to
'heretical'.
Thus it is used in an early Canon of Scripture, the
Muratorian fragment (circa 170 A.D.), which refers to
certain heretical writings as 'not received in the Catholic
Church'.
So too Cyril of Jerusalem, in the fourth century, says
that the Church is called Catholic not only 'because it is spread
throughout the world', but also 'because it teaches completely and
without defect all the doctrines which ought to come to the
knowledge of men'.
This secondary sense arose out of the original meaning
because Catholics claimed to teach the whole truth, and to
represent the whole Church, while heresy arose out of the
exaggeration of some one truth and was essentially partial and
local.
As indicated in this quotation,
Cyril
of Jerusalem (circa 315–386) used the term "Catholic Church" in
opposition to other groups, whose right to call themselves ἐκκλησία
(assembly or church) he admitted:
Since the word Ecclesia is applied to different things
(as also it is written of the multitude in the theatre of the
Ephesians, And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the
Assembly (Acts 19:14), and since one might properly and truly
say that there is a Church of evil doers, I mean the
meetings of the heretics, the Marcionists
and Manichees, and the rest, for this
cause the Faith has securely delivered to you now the Article, "And
in one Holy Catholic Church"; that you may avoid their wretched
meetings, and ever abide with the Holy Church Catholic in which you
were regenerated.
And if ever you are sojourning in cities, inquire not
simply where the Lord's House is (for the other sects of the
profane also attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord),
nor merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic
Church.
For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Church, the
mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Only-begotten Son of God.
Only slightly later, Saint
Augustine
of Hippo (354–430) wrote:
In the Catholic Church, there are many other things
which most justly keep me in her bosom.
The consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the
Church; so does her authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished
by hope, enlarged by love, established by age.
The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the
very seat of the Apostle Peter, to
whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it in charge to feed
His sheep (Jn 21:15–19), down to the present
episcopate.
And so, lastly, does the very name of Catholic, which,
not without reason, amid so many heresies, the Church has thus
retained; so that, though all heretics wish to be called Catholics,
yet when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church meets, no
heretic will venture to point to his own chapel or
house.
Such then in number and importance are the precious
ties belonging to the Christian name which keep a believer in the
Catholic Church, as it is right they should ...
With you, where there is none of these things to
attract or keep me...
No one shall move me from the faith which binds my mind
with ties so many and so strong to the Christian
religion...
For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as
moved by the authority of the Catholic Church.
—St. Augustine (354–430): Against the Epistle of
Manichaeus called Fundamental, chapter 4: Proofs of the
Catholic Faith.
On 27 February 380, by an edict issued in Thessalonica and
published in Constantinople, Emperor Theodosius declared Catholic
Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, and defined
the term "Catholic" in Roman Imperial law as follows
It is our desire that all the various nations which are
subject to our clemency and moderation, should continue the
profession of that religion which was delivered to the Romans by
the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful
tradition and which is now professed by the Pontiff Damasus and by
Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic
holiness.
According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of
the Gospel, let us believe in the one Deity of the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity.
We authorize the followers of this law to assume the
title Catholic Christians; but as for the others, since in
our judgment they are foolish madmen, we decree that they shall be
branded with the ignominious name of heretics, and shall not
presume to give their conventicles the name of
churches.
They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of
divine condemnation and the second the punishment of our authority,
in accordance with the will of heaven will decide to
inflict.
Theodosian Code XVI.i.2
A contemporary of Augustine,
St.
Vincent of Lerins, wrote in 434 under the pseudonym Peregrinus
a work known as the
Commonitoria ("Memoranda"). While
insisting that, like the human body, Church doctrine develops while
truly keeping its identity (sections 54–59, chapter XXIII), he
stated:
- "[I]n the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be
taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere,
always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense
'Catholic,' which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing
declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if
we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow
universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the
whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no
wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were
notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in
like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient
definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost
all priests and doctors" (section 6, end of chapter II).
Divergent interpretations of the term "Catholic"
Many individual Christians and
Christian denominations consider
themselves "catholic" on the basis, in particular, of
Apostolic Succession. They fall into
five groups:
- The Western and Eastern Churches of the Catholic Church in
communion with the Bishop of Rome.
These understand "Catholic" to involve unity with the Bishop of Rome, and hold that "the one Church of Christ
... subsists in the Catholic Church,
which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in
communion with him, although many
elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its
visible structure."
- Those, like the Eastern
Orthodox and Oriental
Orthodox, that claim unbroken Apostolic Succession from the early
Church and identify themselves as the Catholic Church;
they see themselves (along with the See of Rome) as part of a
patriarchal structure that developed in the East but never
developed in the West. To disassociate the See of Rome from this
equalisation of the "five Patriarchal Sees," Pope Benedict XVI dropped the title
"Patriarch of the West,"
seeing the designation as an attempt to Orientalize Western
ecclesiology.
- Those, like the Old
Catholic, Anglican, and some Lutheran and other denominations, that claim
unbroken Apostolic Succession
from the early Church, and see themselves as a constituent part of
the Church.
- Those who claim to be spiritual descendants of the Apostles but have no discernible
institutional descent from the historic Church, and normally do not
refer to themselves as catholic.
- Those who have acknowledged a break in Apostolic Succession,
but have restored it in order to be in full communion with bodies that have
maintained the practice. Examples in this category include the
Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Canada vis-à-vis their Anglican and Old
Catholic counterparts.
For some confessions listed under category 3, the self-affirmation
refers to the belief in the ultimate unity of the universal church
under one
God and one
Saviour, rather than in one visibly unified
institution (as with category 1, above). In this usage, "catholic"
is sometimes written with a lower-case "c". The Western
Apostles' Creed and the
Nicene Creed, stating "I believe in ... one
holy catholic ... church", are recited in worship services. Among
some denominations in category 3, "Christian" is substituted for
"catholic" in order to denote the doctrine that the Christian
Church is, at least ideally, undivided.
Brief organizational history of the Church
Ancient statue of Saint Peter in the
Basilica dedicated to him in the Vatican
According
to the theory of Pentarchy, the early
Catholic Church came to be organised under the three patriarchs of Rome
, Alexandria
and Antioch
, to which
later were added the patriarchs of Constantinople
and Jerusalem
. The
Bishop of
Rome was at that time recognized as first among them, as is
stated, for instance, in canon 3 of the
First Council of
Constantinople (381)—many interpret "first" as meaning here
first among equals—and doctrinal
or procedural disputes were often referred to Rome, as when, on
appeal by St Athanasius against the decision of the Council of Tyre
(335),
Pope Julius I, who spoke of
such appeals as customary, annulled the action of that council and
restored Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra to their sees. The
Bishop of Rome was also considered to have the right to convene
ecumenical councils. When the Imperial capital moved to
Constantinople, Rome's influence was sometimes challenged.
Nonetheless, Rome claimed special authority because of its
connection to
Saint Peter. and
Saint Paul, who, all agreed, were martyred
and buried in Rome, and because the Bishop of Rome saw himself as
the successor of Saint Peter.
The 431
Council of Ephesus,
the Third
Ecumenical Council, was
chiefly concerned with
Nestorianism,
which emphasised the distinction between the humanity and divinity
of Jesus and taught that, in giving birth to Jesus Christ, the
Virgin Mary could not be spoken of as giving birth to God. This
Council rejected Nestorianism and affirmed that, as humanity and
divinity are inseparable in the one person of Jesus Christ, his
mother, the Virgin Mary, is thus
Theotokos, God-bearer, Mother of God. The first
great rupture in the Church followed this Council.
Those who refused to
accept the Council's ruling were largely Persian
and are
represented today by the Assyrian Church of the East and
related Churches, which, however, do not now hold a "Nestorian"
theology. They are often called Ancient Oriental
Churches.
The next major break was after the
Council of Chalcedon (451). This
Council repudiated
Eutychian
Monophysitism which stated that the divine nature completely
subsumed the human nature in Christ. This Council declared that
Christ, though one person, exhibited two natures "without
confusion, without change, without division, without separation"
and thus is both fully God and fully human. The Alexandrian Church
rejected the terms adopted by this Council, and the Christian
Churches that follow the tradition of non-acceptance of the
Council—they are not Monophysite in doctrine—are referred to as
Pre-Chalcedonian or
Oriental
Orthodox Churches.
The next great rift within Christianity was in the 11th century.
Longstanding doctrinal disputes, as well as conflicts between
methods of Church government, and the evolution of separate rites
and practices, precipitated a split in 1054 that divided the
Church, this time between a "West" and an "East".
England
, France
, the
Holy Roman Empire, Poland
, Bohemia, Slovakia
, Scandinavia, the
Baltic countries, and Western
Europe in general were in the Western camp,
and Greece
, Romania
, Russia
and many
other Slavic lands, Anatolia
, and the Christians in Syria
and Egypt
who accepted
the Council of Chalcedon made up the Eastern camp. This
division between the
Western Church
and the
Eastern Church is called the
East-West Schism.
The fourth major division in the Church occurred in the 16th
century with the
Protestant
Reformation, after which many parts of the
Western Church either entirely rejected the
teachings and structure of the Western Church at that time and
became known as "
Reformed" or "
Protestant", or else repudiated papal
authority in the Western Church for the authority of a civil ruler
in religious matters (e.g., in
Anglicanism and parts of the
Lutheran Church).
A much less extensive rupture occurred when, after the Roman
Catholic Church's
First Vatican
Council, in which it officially proclaimed the dogma of papal
infallibility, small clusters of Catholics in the Netherlands and
in German-speaking countries formed the
Old-Catholic Church.
Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches
The
Latin and
Eastern Catholic Churches together
form the "Catholic Church" or "Roman Catholic Church", the world's
second largest single religious body after
Sunni Islam and the largest
Christian church, comprising over half of
all Christians (1.1 billion Christians) and one-sixth of the
world's population.
Richard McBrien would put the proportion
even higher, extending it to those who are in communion with the
Bishop of Rome only in "degrees". It comprises 23 component
"
particular churches" (also called
"rites" in the Second Vatican Council's Decree on the Eastern
Catholic Churches), all of which acknowledge a primacy of
jurisdiction of the
Bishop of Rome
and are in
full communion with the
Holy See and each other. These particular churches
or component parts are the
Latin Rite or
Western Church (which uses a number of different
liturgical rites, of which the
Roman Rite is the best known) and 22
Eastern Catholic Churches.
Of the latter particular churches, 14 use the
Byzantine liturgical rite. Within the Church
as a whole, each "particular Church", whether Eastern or Western,
is of equal dignity. Finally, in its official documents, the
Church, though made up of several particular Churches, "continues
to refer to itself as the 'Catholic Church or, less frequently but
consistently, as the 'Roman Catholic Church', owing to its
essential link with the Bishop of Rome. Theologian Richard McBrien,
in his book
Catholicism, disagrees, saying: "But is
'Catholic' synonymous with 'Roman Catholic'? And is it accurate to
refer to the Roman Catholic Church as simply the 'Roman Church'?
The answer to both questions is no. The adjective 'Roman' applies
more properly to the diocese, or see, of Rome than to the worldwide
Communion of Catholic Churches that is in union with the Bishop of
Rome. Indeed, it strikes some Catholics as contradictory to call
the Church 'Catholic' and 'Roman' at one and the same time.
Eastern-rite Catholics, of whom there are more than twenty million,
also find the adjective 'Roman' objectionable. In addition to the
Latin, or Roman, tradition, there are seven non-Latin, non-Roman
ecclesial traditions: Armenian, Byzantine, Coptic, Ethiopian, East
Syrian (Chaldean), West Syrian, and Maronite. Each to the Churches
with these non-Latin traditions is as Catholic as the Roman
Catholic Church. Thus, not all Catholics are Roman Catholic." Thus
"to be Catholic—whether Roman or non-Roman—in the ecclesiological
sense is to be in full communion with the Bishop of Rome and as
such to be an integral part of the Catholic Communion of Churches.
In spite of the use of "Roman Catholic Church" by Popes and
departments of the Holy See, McBrien affirms that, on an official
level, the "Communion of Catholic Churches" always refers to itself
as "The Catholic Church".
Sui iuris (i.e., self-governing) Churches in communion with the
Holy See
Eastern Christianity
The
Eastern Orthodox and
Oriental Orthodox Churches, as
well as the
Assyrian Church
of the East, each consider themselves to be the universal and
true Catholic Church. Each of these three regards the others—since
the divisions at the Councils of
Ephesus (431) and
Chalcedonia (451)—as heretical or at
least as
schismatic and as having
thus left the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
The
patriarchs of the Eastern Orthodox and
Oriental Orthodox Churches are
autocephalous hierarchs,
which roughly means that each is independent of the direct
oversight of another bishop, although still subject, according to
their distinct traditions, either to the
synod
of bishops of each one’s jurisdiction, or to a common decision of
the patriarchs of their own communion.
Today, the Orthodox
believe that among the five Patriarchs of the Pentarchy (i.e., Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and
Jerusalem) a special place of honor belongs to the pope, a
"primacy of honor," but not of supremacy. In this context,
the Orthodox are willing to concede a primacy of honor to the See
of Rome, but not of authority; nor do they accept its claim to
universal and immediate jurisdiction. However, in the 2007 Joint
International Commission (of Orthodoxy and Catholicism) held at
Revenna, Italy, the delegates of the Orthodox and Catholic churches
clearly asserted: "The fact of primacy at the universal level is
accepted by both East and West." Kallistos Ware notes that this
Ravenna statement has to be "received" and ratified by the Orthodox
Church as a whole. In October 2009, at a new session at Paphos,
Cyprus, "the role of the Bishop of Rome in the communion of the
Church in the first millennium" will be considered. "The key
question," Ware notes, "will be, how far did the Pope during the
first millennium exercise jurisdiction that was not only appellate
but direct and ordinary." The assertions and statements of the
Commission are not necessarily similar to the positions taken by
the
Lutheran World
Federation, the
Anglican
Communion, and the
Old Catholic
Church. There are about 250 million Orthodox, comprising 11.4%
of global Christianity.
Eastern Christian churches
Eastern Orthodox churches in communion
Eastern Orthodox churches not in communion
Oriental Orthodox churches
Assyrian Church of the East
Anglicans and other Catholics
Within Western Christianity, the churches of the
Anglican Communion, the
Old Catholics, the
Liberal Catholic Church, the
Apostolic Catholic Church
(ACC), the Aglipayans (
Philippine Independent
Church), the
Polish
National Catholic Church of America, and many
Independent Catholic Churches,
which emerged directly or indirectly from and have beliefs and
practices largely similar to
Latin Rite
Catholicism, regard themselves as "Catholic" without
full communion with the Bishop of Rome,
whose claimed status and authority they generally reject.
The
Chinese Patriotic
Catholic Association, a division of the People's
Republic of China
's Religious Affairs Bureau exercising state
supervision over mainland China's Catholics, holds a similar
position, while attempting, as with Buddhism and Protestantism, to
indoctrinate and mobilize for Communist Party
objectives.
Anglicanism
Introductory works on Anglicanism, such as
The Study of
Anglicanism, typically refer to the character of the Anglican
tradition as "Catholic and Reformed", which is in keeping with the
understanding of Anglicanism articulated in the
Elizabethan Settlement and in the
works of the earliest standard Anglican divines such as
Richard Hooker and
Lancelot Andrewes. Yet different strains
in Anglicanism, dating back to the
English Reformation, have emphasized
either the Reformed, Catholic, or "Reformed Catholic" nature of the
tradition.
Anglican theology and ecclesiology has thus come to be typically
expressed in three distinct, yet sometimes overlapping
manifestations:
Anglo-Catholicism
(or "
high church"), "
Evangelicalism" (or "
low
church"), and
Latitudinarianism (or "
broad church"), whose beliefs and practices
fall somewhere between the two. Though all elements within the
Anglican Communion recite the
same creeds, Evangelical Anglicans regard the word
catholic in the ideal sense given above. In contrast,
Anglo-Catholics regard the communion as a component of the whole
Catholic Church, in spiritual and historical union with the Roman
Catholic, Old Catholic and several Eastern Churches. Broad Church
Anglicans tend to maintain a mediating view, or consider the matter
one of
adiaphora. These Anglicans, for
example, have agreed in the
Porvoo
Agreement to interchangeable ministries and full eucharistic
communion with Lutherans.
The Catholic nature or strain of the Anglican tradition is
expressed doctrinally, ecumenically (chiefly through organisations
such as the
Anglican Roman
Catholic International Commission), ecclesiologically (through
its
episcopal governance and
maintenance of the
historical
episcopate), and in liturgy and piety. Anglicans (except
neo-evangelicals) maintain belief in
the
Seven Sacraments. Many
Anglo-Catholics practice
Marian
devotion, recite the
rosary and the
angelus, practice
Eucharistic adoration, and seek the
intercession of
saints. In terms of liturgy,
most Anglicans use candles on the altar and many churches use
incense and
sanctus bells in the
Eucharist, which is often referred to by the Latin-derived word
"Mass". In a small number of churches the Eucharist is still
celebrated facing the altar (often with a
tabernacle) by a priest assisted by a
deacon and
subdeacon. Some Anglicans believe in the
Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Others do not. Likewise, different Eucharistic prayers contain
different, if not necessarily contradictory, understandings of
salvation. For this reason, no single strain or manifestation of
Anglicanism can speak for the whole, even in ecumenical statements
(as issued, for example, by the Anglican - Roman Catholic
International Commission). This "ecumenical inconsistency", to
quote ecumenist, Edward Yarnold, is especially true in recent
agreements made between parts of the Anglican Communion and
different Lutheran churches, where decisions (pertaining to
traditions and doctrines dating back to the churches of the first
millennium) are entrusted to local and national Anglican church
bodies. To deal with other inconsistencies, the current archbishop
of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has suggested a "two-tier system" in
the Communion, putting some bishops on a lower tier than others
(for "overturing centuries of Christian understanding of marriage
and homosexuality without wider consensus from other Anglicans"),
thus over time giving the lower tier bishops a "reduced role in the
communion."
The growth of Anglo-Catholicism is strongly associated with the
Oxford Movement of the nineteenth
century. Two of its leading lights,
John Henry Newman and
Henry Edward Manning, both priests,
ended up joining the Roman Catholic Church, becoming
cardinal. Others, like
John Keble,
Edward Bouverie Pusey, and
Charles Gore became influential figures in
Anglicanism. The current
Archbishop of Canterbury,
Rowan Williams, is a patron of the Anglican
organisation,
Affirming
Catholicism, a more liberal movement within Catholic
Anglicanism. Conservative Catholic groups also exist within the
tradition, such as
Forward in
Faith. There are about 80 million Anglicans in the world,
comprising 3.6% of global Christianity.
Provinces of the Anglican Communion
As in Orthodoxy, all thirty-eight provinces of the Anglican
Communion are independent, each with its own
primate and governing structure.
These
provinces may take the form of national churches (such as in
Canada
, Uganda, or Japan
) or a
collection of nations (such as the West Indies
, Central Africa, or
Southeast Asia). All are in
union with the
see of
Canterbury.
The 38 provinces include:
In addition, there are six extraprovincial churches, five of which
are under the
metropolitical
authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Protestant churches
There are Catholic groups among the
Protestant churches. For example, The 20th
century "
High Church
Lutheranism" movement developed an
Evangelical Catholicity, combining
justification by faith with
Catholic doctrine on sacraments, in some cases also restoring
lacking
Apostolic Succession,
especially in Germany.
In
Reformed churches there is a
Scoto-Catholic grouping
within the Presbyterian Church of
Scotland
. Such groups point to their churches'
continuing adherence to the "Catholic" doctrine of the early Church
Councils. The
Articles Declaratory of the Constitution of the Church of
Scotland of 1921 defines that church legally as "part of the
Holy Catholic or Universal Church".
The
Roman Catholic Church,
which views Christians not in communion with itself as
"non-Catholics" and which sees a valid episcopate and Eucharist as
necessary for being a church, does not consider these denominations
and the
Anglican Communion as
churches "in the proper sense".
Distinctive beliefs and practices
Due to the divergent interpretations of the word "Catholicism," any
listing of beliefs and practices that distinguish Catholicism from
other forms of Christianity must be preceded by an indication of
the sense employed. If Catholicism is understood as the
Roman Catholic Church understands it,
identification of beliefs is relatively easy, though preferred
expressions of the beliefs vary, especially between the
Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches of
Greek tradition, and the other
Eastern Catholic Churches. Liturgical and canonical practices vary
between all these
particular
Churches constituting the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches
(or, as Richard Mc Brien states, the "Communion of Catholic
Churches.")
In the understanding of another Church that identifies Catholicism
with itself, such as the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox
Churches, clear identification of certain beliefs may sometimes be
more difficult, because of the lack of a central authority like
that of the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches. On the other hand,
practices are more uniform, as indicated, for instance, in the
single liturgical rite employed, in various languages, within the
Eastern Orthodox Church, in contrast to the variety of liturgical
rites in the
Roman Catholic
Church.
In all these cases the beliefs and practices of Catholicism would
be identical with the beliefs and practices of the Church in
question. If Catholicism is extended to cover all who consider
themselves spiritual descendants of the Apostles, a search for
beliefs and practices that distinguish it from other forms of
Christianity would be meaningless. Only if Catholicism is
understood in the sense given to the word by those who use it to
distinguish their position from a Calvinistic or Puritan form of
Protestantism is it meaningful to
attempt to draw up a list of common characteristic beliefs and
practices of Catholicism. In this interpretation, evidently by no
means shared by all, Catholicism includes the Roman Catholic
Church, the various Churches of Eastern Christianity, the Old
Catholic Church, Anglicanism, and at least some of the "independent
Catholic Churches".
The beliefs and practices of Catholicism, as thus understood,
include:
- Direct and continuous organizational descent from the original
church founded by Jesus , who, according to tradition, designated
the Apostle Peter as its first
leader.
- Belief that Jesus Christ is Divine, a doctrine officially
clarified in the First Council of
Nicea and expressed in the Nicene
Creed.
- Belief that the Eucharist is really, truly, and objectively the
Body and Blood of Christ, through the Real Presence. Many Catholics
additionally believe that adoration and worship is due to the
Eucharist, as the body and blood of Christ.
- Possession of the "threefold ordained ministry" of Bishops, Priests and Deacons.
- All ministers are ordained by, and subject to, Bishops, who
pass down sacramental authority by the "laying-on of hands", having
themselves been ordained in a direct line of succession from the
Apostles (see Apostolic
Succession).
- Belief that the Church is the vessel and deposit of the
fullness of the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles from which the
Scriptures were formed. This teaching is preserved in both written
scripture and in unwritten tradition, neither being independent of the
other.
- A belief in the necessity and efficacy of sacraments.
- The use of sacred images, candles,
vestments and music, and often incense and water, in worship.
- Veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus as the
Blessed Virgin Mary or Theotokos (i.e., "God-bearer" or "Mother of God"),
and veneration of the saints.
- A distinction between adoration (latria) for God, and veneration
(dulia) for saints. The term
hyperdulia is used for a special
veneration accorded to the Virgin Mary among the saints.
- The use of prayer for the
dead.
- The acceptance of canonizations.
- Requests to the departed saints for intercessory prayers.
Sacraments or Sacred Mysteries
Churches in the Catholic tradition administer seven
sacraments or "sacred mysteries":
Baptism,
Confirmation or
Chrismation,
Eucharist,
Penance,
Anointing of the Sick,
Holy Orders, and
Matrimony. In some Catholic
churches this number is regarded as a convention only.
In Catholicism, a sacrament is considered to be an efficacious
visible sign of God's invisible
grace.
While the word
mystery is used not only of these
rites, but also with other meanings with reference to
revelations of and about God and to God's mystical interaction with
creation, the word
sacrament
(Latin:
a solemn pledge), the usual term in the West,
refers specifically to these rites.
- Baptism - the first sacrament of
Christian initiation, the basis for all the other sacraments.
Churches in the Catholic tradition consider baptism conferred in
most Christian denominations "in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (cf. ) to be valid, since the effect
is produced through the sacrament, independently of the faith of
the minister, though not of the minister's intention. This is not
necessarily the case in other churches. As stated in the Nicene Creed, Baptism is "for the forgiveness
of sins", not only personal sins, but also of original sin, which it remits even in infants
who have committed no actual sins. Expressed positively,
forgiveness of sins means bestowal of the sanctifying grace by
which the baptized person shares the life of God. The initiate
"puts on Christ" (Galatians 3:27), and is "buried with him in
baptism ... also raised with him through faith in the working of
God" (Colossians 2:12).
- Confirmation or
Chrismation - the second sacrament of
Christian initiation, the means by which the gift of the Holy
Spirit conferred in baptism is "strengthened and deepened" (see,
for example, Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1303) by a sealing. In the Western tradition
it is usually a separate rite from baptism, bestowed, following a
period of education called catechesis, on
those who have at least reached the age of discretion (about 7) and
sometimes postponed until an age when the person is considered
capable of making a mature independent profession of faith. It is
considered to be of a nature distinct from the anointing with
chrism (also called myrrh) that is usually
part of the rite of baptism and that is not seen as a separate
sacrament. In the Eastern tradition it is usually conferred in
conjunction with baptism, as its completion, but is sometimes
administered separately to converts or those who return to
Orthodoxy. Some theologies consider this to be the outward sign of
the inner "Baptism of the Holy Spirit," the special gifts (or
charismata) of which may remain latent or become manifest
over time according to God's will. Its "originating" minister is a
validly consecrated bishop; if a priest (a "presbyter") confers the
sacrament (as is permitted in some Catholic churches) the link with
the higher order is indicated by the use of chrism blessed by a
bishop. (In an Eastern Orthodox
Church, this is customarily, although not necessarily, done by
the primate of the local autocephalous
church.)
- Eucharist - the sacrament (the third
of Christian initiation) by which the faithful receive their
ultimate "daily bread," or "bread for the journey," by partaking of
and in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and
being participants in Christ's one eternal sacrifice. The bread and
wine used in the rite are, according to Catholic faith, in the
mystical action of the Holy Spirit, transformed to be Christ's Body
and Blood—his Real Presence. This
transformation is interpreted by some as transubstantiation or metousiosis, by others as consubstantiation or Sacramental Union.
- Penance (also called Confession and Reconciliation) - the first of the
two sacraments of healing. It is also called the sacrament of
conversion, of forgiveness, and of absolution. It is the sacrament
of spiritual healing of a baptized person from the distancing from
God involved in actual sins committed. It involves the penitent's
contrition for sin (without which the rite does not have its
effect), confession (which in highly exceptional circumstances can
take the form of a corporate general confession) to a minister who
has the faculty to exercise the power to absolve the penitent, and
absolution by the minister. In some traditions (such as the Roman
Catholic), the rite involves a fourth element — satisfaction —
which is defined as signs of repentance imposed by the minister. In
early Christian centuries, the fourth element was quite onerous and
generally preceded absolution, but now it usually involves a simple
task (in some traditions called a "penance") for the penitent to
perform, to make some reparation and as a medicinal means of
strengthening against further sinning.
- Anointing of the Sick (or
Unction) - the second sacrament of healing. In it those who are
suffering an illness are anointed by a priest with oil consecrated
by a bishop specifically for that purpose. In past centuries, when
such a restrictive interpretation was customary, the sacrament came
to be known as "Extreme Unction", i.e. "Final Anointing", as it
still is among traditionalist
Catholics. It was then conferred only as one of the "Last
Rites". The other "Last Rites" are Penance (if the dying person is
physically unable to confess, at least absolution, conditional on
the existence of contrition, is given), and the Eucharist, which,
when administered to the dying, is known as "Viaticum", a word
whose original meaning in Latin was
"provision for a journey".
- The Sacrament of Holy Orders - that which integrates someone
into the Holy Orders of bishops, priests
(presbyters), and deacons, the threefold order of "administrators
of the mysteries of God" (1 Corinthians 4:1), giving the person the
mission to teach, sanctify, and govern. Only a bishop may
administer this sacrament, as only a bishop holds the fullness of
the Apostolic Ministry. Ordination as a bishop makes one a member
of the body that has succeeded to that of the Apostles. Ordination
as a priest configures a person to Christ the Head of the Church
and the one essential Priest, empowering that person, as the
bishops' assistant and vicar, to preside at the celebration of
divine worship, and in particular to confect the sacrament of the
Eucharist, acting "in persona Christi" (in the person of Christ).
Ordination as a deacon configures the person to Christ the Servant
of All, placing the deacon at the service of the Church, especially
in the fields of the ministry of the Word, service in divine
worship, pastoral guidance and charity. Deacons may later be
further ordained to the priesthood, but only if they do not have a
wife. In some traditions (such as those of the Roman Catholic
Church), while married men may be ordained, ordained men may not
marry. In others (such as the Anglican), clerical marriage is permitted, as is the
ordination of women. Moreover,
some sectors of Anglicanism "in isolation of the whole" have
approved the ordination of
openly active homosexuals to the priesthood and episcopacy, in
spite of the support that Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, voiced for the Anglican Church's teaching on
homosexuality, which he said the Church "could not change simply
because of a shift in society's attitude", noting also that those
churches blessing same-sex unions and consecrating openingly gay
bishops would not be able "to take part as a whole in ecumenical
and interfaith dialogue." Thus in ecumenical matters, only if the
Roman Catholic as well as Orthodox churches come to an
understanding with first tier or primary bishops of the Anglican
Communion can those churches (representing 95% of global
Catholicism) implement an agreement with second tier or secondary
Anglican bishops and their respective Anglican communities.
- Marriage (or Holy
Matrimony) - is the sacrament of joining a man and a woman
(according to the churches' doctrines) for mutual help and love
(the unitive purpose), consecrating them for their particular
mission of building up the Church and the world, and providing
grace for accomplishing that mission. Western tradition sees the
sacrament as conferred by the canonically expressed mutual consent
of the partners in marriage; Eastern and some recent Western
theologians not in communion with the see of Rome view the blessing
by a priest as constituting the sacramental action.
See also
References
- For McBrien, the "broad term" refers exclusively and
specifically to that "Communion of Catholic Churches" in communion
with the Bishop of Rome. Richard McBrien, The Church: The
Evolution of Catholicism (New York: HarperOne, 2008), 6,
281-2, and 356. In its Letter on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as
Communion the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith stressed that the idea of the universal
Church as a communion of Churches must not be presented as meaning
that "every particular Church is a subject complete in
itself, and that the universal Church is the result of a
reciprocal recognition on the part of the particular
Churches". It insisted that "the universal Church cannot be
conceived as the sum of the particular Churches, or as a federation
of particular Churches".
- Pierre Whalon, What is the difference between
Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism
- The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford
University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article
Catholic, p. 308
- Richard McBrien, The Church: The Evolution of Catholicism,
6, 281, 356.
- McBrien, p. 356
- Whitehead, "How Did the Catholic Church Get Her
Name?"
- Avery Dulles, The Catholicity of the Church, p.
132
- For example, Pope Benedict XVI in the 23 November 2006 Common Declaration of Pope Benedict XVI and the
Archbishop of Canterbury, His Grace Dr Rowan Williams
- The 1950 encyclical Humani Generis is an
example; another is the talk that Pope John Paul II gave at the general
audience of 26 June 1985, in which he spoke of the division between
"the Catholic (Roman Catholic) Church and the Orthodox Church or
Churches".
- In a speech by John Paul II to President Hillery of
Ireland, the Pope referred to the church he headed both as the
"Roman Catholic Church" and as the "Catholic Church".
- J.C. Cooper, Dictionary of Christianity (Taylor
& Francis, Inc. 1996 ISBN 9781884964497), p. 47
- James Hastings Nichols, Primer for Protestants
(Kessinger Publishing Company 2004 ISBN 9781417998241), p.
9
- the New York Times.
- See also the Second Vatican Council Decree on the
Catholic Churches of the Eastern Rite, " Orientalium Ecclesiarum" (Latin, "Of the
Eastern Churches"). The document proclaims the equality of the
Eastern and Western traditions of Christianity (no. 3), as well as
the importance of preserving the spiritual heritage of the Eastern
Churches (no. 5), "for it is the mind of the Catholic Church that
each individual Church or Rite should retain its traditions whole
and entire and likewise that it should adapt its way of life to the
different needs of time and place" (no. 2).
- [J.H. Srawley, The Epistles of St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch,
vol. II,] pp. 41-42
- another edition, p.97
- This Church is commonly referred to by this name even by others
(see for instance Cultural Portraits: A Synoptic Guide, by Byron P.
Palls (AuthorHouse, 2008 ISBN 1434388670) and even by those who
are hostile to it mention that it is "commonly called the Catholic
Church" ( A discourse on the worship of Priapus, and its
connection with the mystic theology of the ancients).
- John Allen, "the 'Patriarch of the West' retires," The
National Catholic Reporter April 7, 2006, 21.
- Joseph Ratzinger, "Sister Churches," The Tablet 9
September, 2000, 1205.
- McBrien, The Church, 356. McBrien also says they form
the "Communion of Catholic Churches", a name not used by the Church
itself, which has pointed out the ambiguity of this term in a 1992
letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith "on some aspects of the Church understood as
communion", 8.
- "The Catholic Church is also called the Roman Church to
emphasize that the centre of unity, which is an essential for the
Universal Church, is in the Roman See" ( Thomas J. O'Brien, An Advanced Catechism of
Catholic Faith and Practice, Kessinger Publishers, 2005, ISBN
1417984473, page 70)
- Richard McBrien, The Church: The Evolution of
Catholicism, 6. ISBN 978-0-06-124521-3 McBrien says this:
Vatican II "council implicitly set aside the category of membership
and replaced it with degrees." "...it is not a matter of
either/or—either one is in communion with the Bishop of Rome, or
one is not. As in a family, there are degrees of relationships:
parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, neices,
in-laws. In many cultures, the notion of family is broader than
blood and legal relationships."
- Orientalium Ecclesiarum, 2
- Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 43
- Annuario Pontificio, 2007 edition, pages
1169–1170 (ISBN 978-88-209-7908-9).
- Orientalium Ecclesiarum, 3
- Thomas P. Rausch, S.J., Catholicism in the Third
Millennium (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press), xii.
- For example, in his encyclical Humani Generis, 27-28
Pope Pius
XII decried the error of those who denied that they were bound
by "the doctrine, explained in Our Encyclical Letter of a few years
ago, and based on the Sources of Revelation, which teaches that the
Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one and
the same thing"; and in his Divini Illius Magistri Pope Pius
XI wrote: "In the City of God, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, a
good citizen and an upright man are absolutely one and the same
thing." On other occasions too, both when signing agreements with
other Churches (e.g. that with Patriarch Mar Ignatius Yacoub III of the
Syrian Orthodox Church) and in giving talks to various groups
(e.g. Benedict XVI in Warsaw, the Popes refer to the
Church that they head as the Roman Catholic Church.
- Richard McBrien, The Church, 6.
- McBrien, The Church, 351-371
- Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church (London: Penguin
Press, 1993), 27.
- Kallistos Ware, "Primate or Protos?" The Tablet, 25
July, 2009, 8-9.
- David Barrett, "Christian World Communities: Five Overviews of
Global Christianity, AD 1800-2025," in International Bulletin
of Missionary Research January, 2009, Vol. 33, No 1, pp.
31.
- Simon Scott Plummer, "China's Growing Faiths" in The
Tablet, March, 2007. Based on a review of Religious
Experience in Contemporary China by Kinzhong Yao and Paul
Badham (University of Wales Press).
- Anglican-Lutheran agreement signed," The Christian
Century 13 November, 1996, 1005.
- "Two Churches Now Share a Cleric," New York Times, 20
October, 1996, 24.
- Rowan A. Greer," "Anglicanism as an ongoing argument," The
Witness May, 1998, 23.
- Matt Cresswell, "Anglican conservatives say 'second
reformation' is already under way," The Tablet 28 June,
2008, 32.
- Philip Jenkins, "Defender of the Faith," The Atlantic
Monthly Novermber, 2003, 46-9.
- Edward Yarnold, S.J., "A word in due season", The Tablet 18, July 1998,
935-6. Yarnold, a Jesuit ecumenist and former member of the
Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, says this: "The
recent agreements made between parts of the Anglican Communion and
different Lutheran Churches are a case in point [of this
inconsistency] -- in Germany (Meissen), in northern Europe
(Provoo), and in the United States (though the Lutherans failed to
ratify this third scheme). Each of these documents involves not
only the mutual participation of Anglican and Lutheran bishops in
future ordinations, but in the interim recognizes orders as they
stand, even though there was an acknowledged breach in the
episcopal succession. Yet when Anglicans are talking to Catholics,
a different principle is accepted: both the Final Report
of the first Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission
(ARCIC) and the Clarifications to that report affirm the
need for ordination to take place within an unbroken episcopal
succession. I am glad to acknowledge that the drafters of Porvoo
made an effort not to contradict ARCIC, but although I have looked
again and again, I cannot see that they were successful. The
problem once again illustrates the impossibility of deciding which
voice speaks for the Anglican Communion."
- Daniel Burke, "Williams suggests secondary role for rebel
Episcopal church", National Catholic Reporter 7 August,
2009, 6.
- "The ecclesial communities which have not preserved the valid
Episcopate and the genuine and integral substance of the
Eucharistic mystery are not Churches in the proper sense; however,
those who are baptized in these communities are, by Baptism,
incorporated in Christ and thus are in a certain communion, albeit
imperfect, with the Church" ( Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Dominus Iesus,
17
- "(The expression sister Churches) has been applied
improperly by some to the relationship between the Catholic Church
on the one hand, and the Anglican Communion and non-catholic
ecclesial communities on the other. ... it must also be borne in
mind that the expression sister Churches in the proper
sense, as attested by the common Tradition of East and West, may
only be used for those ecclesial communities that have preserved a
valid episcopate and Eucharist" ( Note on the expression "sister Churches" issued
by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on 30 June
2000).
- Mc Brien, The Church, 6.
- "And I tell you, you are Peter [Πετρός, meaning "rock"], and on
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." (Mt
16:18)
- In regard to the ordination of women to the episcopacy, one
cannot underestimate the chasm that is currently developing between
the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental and Roman Catholic Chuches, on the
one hand, and the Lutheran, Anglican and Independent Catholic
Churches, on the other hand. Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of
the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, for example,
noted this when he addressed some Anglican bishops in 2006. Quoting
St Cyprian of Carthage (d. 258), he said the episcopate is one,
which means that "each part of it is held by each one for the
whole"; that bishops were instruments of unity not only within the
contemporary Church, but also across time, within the universal
Church. This being the case, he continued, "the decision for the
ordination of women to the Episcopal office ... must not in any way
involve a conflict between the majority and the minority." Such a
decision should be made "with the consensus of the ancient Churches
of the East and West." To do otherwise "would spell the end" to any
kind of unity. James Roberts, "Women bishops 'would spell the end
of unity hopes'" in The Tablet, 10 June 2006, 34.
- "Rowan Williams predicts schism over homosexuality" (The
Tablet 1 August 2009, 33).
- The Russian Orthodox Church, which
because of the episcopal ordination of Gene Robinson severed its dialogue with
the United States Episcopal Church, while declaring itself open to
"contacts and cooperation with those American Episcopalians who
remain faithful to the gospel’s moral teaching", stated that it was
willing to restore relations with those Episcopal dioceses that
refused to recognize the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori as their
Church's presiding bishop ( Letter of Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and
Kaliningrad).
- Stan Chu Ilo, "An African view on ordaining Gene Robinson,"
The National Catholic Reporter, 12 December, 2003,
26.
- Matthew Moore, "Archbishop of Canterbury foresees a 'two-tier'
church to avoid gay schism," The Telegraph.co.uk, 27 July,
2009.
Further reading
- Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity,
Islam by Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
(Basic Books, 0465006345, 2006).
- Catechism of the Catholic Church English translation
(Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000). ISBN 1-57455-110-8
- H. W. Crocker III, Triumph—The Power and the Glory of the
Catholic Church: A 2,000-Year History (Prima Publishing,
2001). ISBN 0-7615-2924-1
- Leo J. Trese, The Faith Explained Third Edition
(Fides/Claretian, 2001). ISBN 1-889334-29-4
- Eamon Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A History of the
Popes (Yale Nota Bene, 2002). ISBN 0-300-09165-6
- K. O. Johnson, Why Do Catholics Do That? (Ballantine,
1994). ISBN 0-345-39726-6
- Ludwig von Pastor, History
of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages; Drawn from the
Secret Archives of the
Vatican and other original sources, 40 vols. St. Louis,
B.Herder 1898
- Basic Catechism Seventh Revised Edition (Pauline Books
& Media, 1999). ISBN 0-8198-0623-4
- Peter Lynch, The Church's Story: A History of Pastoral Care
and Vision (Pauline Books & Media, 2005). ISBN
0-8198-1575-6
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