Roman Catholic Church
Article
August 19, 2022
The Roman Catholic Church or, simply, the Catholic Church, is the main church and religious denomination of Christianity. In 2019 there were almost 1.1 billion baptized Catholics worldwide. The Catholic Church is a communion of Western, or Latin Rite churches, and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches, called particular churches, with a total of 2,795 dioceses in 2008. The highest authority of the Church in earthly affairs of faith, morality and governability is the Bishop of Rome, also called the Pope. The Roman Catholic Church establishes the origin of the apostolic succession of the pope with Saint Peter and the apostles. Currently, the pope is Francis, who has supreme authority in collaboration with the College of Bishops, of which he is the head. The Catholic community is composed of an ordained ministry and the laity, and members of both groups can belong to the organization of religious communities. The Church defines its mission to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, the administration of sacraments and the exercise of charity. It operates in social programs and institutions around the world, including Catholic schools, universities, hospitals, missions and shelters, as well as helping families, the poor, the elderly and the sick. With a history that spans nearly two thousand years, the Church is "the oldest and greatest institution in the world", and has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilization since at least the 4th century. In the eleventh century, a major division, which has been called the Great Schism, occurred between Eastern and Western Christianity. Of these Eastern churches, those that maintained or re-established communion with the Pope are known as Eastern Catholic Churches, while those that remain independent of papal authority are known as Orthodox. In the 16th century, partly in response to the rise of the Protestant Reformation, the Church began its own substantial process of reform and renewal, known as the Counter-Reformation.