Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest organizational body of Christians. Its membership is over one billion. 1,085,557,000 is the figure, rounded to the nearest thousand, given in the 2003 Statistical Yearbook of the Church, page 43. Because of obstacles to regular contacts, this figure does not include Roman Catholics in mainland China and perhaps in some other places. According to canon law, members are those who have been baptized in the Catholic Church or have been received into the Catholic Church after being baptized elsewhere, and who have not formally defected.

Beliefs

The Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed are the most succinct statements of what the Catholic Church believes; the most elaborate statement is found in the recent (1992) Catechism of the Catholic Church.

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The nature of God

Lex orandi lex credendi is a traditional Latin phrase to the effect that our belief shows in the way we pray. So the Catholic Church's theology, like its liturgy, is Trinitarian. A Catholic Christian is baptized in the name (singular) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit - not three gods, but One God in three persons. The faith of the Church and of the individual Christian is based on a relationship with these three Persons of the one God.

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The Catholic Church believes that God has revealed himself to humanity as Father to one Son who is in an eternal relationship with the Father: "No one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him" (Matthew 11:27).

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Catholics believe that God the Word, one of the three persons of God, became incarnate as Jesus Christ, a human being, born of the Virgin Mary. He remained truly divine and at the same time truly human. In what he said, and by how He lived, He taught us how to live, and revealed God as love, the giver of unmerited favours or Graces.

Related Topics:
Incarnate - Jesus Christ - Virgin Mary

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After Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, his followers, foremost among them the Apostles, spread more and more extensively their faith in Jesus Christ with a vigour that they attributed to the Holy Spirit sent upon them by Jesus.

Related Topics:
Crucifixion - Resurrection - Apostles

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Humanity's separation from God

Human beings, in Catholic belief, were originally created perfect, to live in union with God and all creation. However, through disobedience to God, the first humans broke that unity and introduced sin and death into the world (cf. Romans, 5:12). Man?s Fall left him condemned, when he died, to remain eternally separate from God. But when Jesus came into the world, as both God and man, He was able through His sacrifice to pay the penalty for the sins of men and to reconcile the human with the Divine. By becoming One in Christ, through the Church, humanity was once again capable of participation in the Divine Life, called also the Beatific Vision.

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The role of the Church

Catholics believe that Jesus established only one Church, not many, and that that Church is truly, though of course not physically, the Body of Christ, made up of members both on earth and in heaven. They believe that Jesus chose the Apostle Peter to lead the Church, that Peter went to Rome and became bishop of the Church there, and that Peter's authority was subsequently passed on to the successive bishops of Rome. The one true Church therefore consists of those who follow Jesus and who recognise the religious authority of Peter in his current successor, popularly called the Pope.

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Catholics believe that Jesus has promised that the Church on earth will always be guided and maintained in truth by the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Church will always and infallibly teach true doctrine. This truth is contained both in the written Scriptures and the oral traditions passed down through the Church. The written Scriptures arose within a Church that handed on true doctrine orally, and can be properly understood only in the light of the Church's living tradition. There can be no contradiction between these two ways in which the "deposit of faith" (from Latin depositum, something entrusted, cf. 1 Timothy 6:20) is guarded and handed down, so that no Catholic belief or practice can contradict the Sacred Scriptures.

Related Topics:
Latin - Sacred Scriptures

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Magisterium

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 85 states that authentic interpretation of the Word of God is entrusted to the living Magisterium of the Church, namely the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter. Catholic theology places the authoritative interpretation of scripture in the hands of the corporate judgment of the Church rather than the private judgment of the individual.

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Salvation

The Church teaches that salvation to eternal life is God's will for all people, and that God grants it to sinners as a free gift, a grace, through the sacrifice of Christ. Man cannot, in the strict sense, merit anything from God (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2007). It is God who justifies, that is, who frees from sin by a free gift of holiness (sanctifying grace, also known as habitual or deifying grace). Man can accept the gift God gives through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22) and through baptism (Romans 6:3-4). Man can also refuse the gift. Human cooperation is needed, in line with a new capacity to adhere to the divine will that God provides (cf. Response of the Catholic Church to the Joint Declaration of the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation on the Doctrine of Justification, 2-3).http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_01081998_off-answer-catholic_en.html The faith of a Christian is not without works, otherwise it would be dead (cf. James 2:26). In this sense, "by works a man is justified, and not only by faith" (James 2:24), and eternal life is, at one and the same time, grace and the reward given by God for good works and merits. See Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1987-2016.

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The Christian Path

Following baptism, the Catholic Christian must endeavour to be a true disciple of Jesus. The believer must seek forgiveness of subsequent sins, and try to follow the example and teaching of Jesus. To help Christians, Jesus has provided seven sacraments which give Grace from God to the believer. These are, Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation/Confession, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.

Related Topics:
Confirmation - Eucharist - Reconciliation - Anointing of the Sick - Holy Orders - Matrimony

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Catholics believe that God works actively in the world. Christians may grow in grace through prayer, good works, and spiritual disciplines such as fasting and pilgrimage. Prayer takes the form of praise, thanksgiving and supplication. Christians can and should pray for others, even for enemies and persecutors (Matthew 5:44). They may address their requests for the intercession of others not only to people still in earthly life, but also to those in heaven, in particular the Virgin Mary and the other Saints. As Mother of Jesus, the Virgin Mary is also considered to be the spiritual mother of all Christians. Unless a Christian dies in unrepented mortal sin, which is normally remitted in Penance, that person has God's promise of inheriting eternal life. Before entering heaven, some undergo a purification, known as Purgatory. Catholic teachings include a stress on forgiveness, doing good to others, and on the sanctity of life, opposing euthanasia, eugenics, contraception and abortion, which can destroy divinely created life.

Related Topics:
Saint - Mortal sin - Purgatory - Euthanasia - Eugenics - Contraception - Abortion

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The Catholic Church maintains that, through the graces Jesus won for humanity by sacrificing himself on the cross, salvation is possible even for those outside the visible boundaries of the Church, whether non-Catholic Christians or non-Christians, if in life they respond positively to the grace and truth that God reveals to them. This may sometimes include awareness of an obligation to become part of the Catholic Church. In such cases, "they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it, or to remain in it" (Second Vatican Council: Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 14).

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Social teaching

The Church holds that the teachings of Jesus call on its members to act in a particular way in their dealings with the rest of humanity. While not endorsing any particular political agenda, the Church holds that this teaching applies in the public (political) realm, not only the private. Among these teachings, as they have been elaborated in recent decades by Catholic thinkers, Bishops' statements and Papal encyclicals, are that every person has a right to life and to a decent minimum standard of living, that humanity's use of God's creation implies a responsibility to protect the environment, and that the range of circumstances under which military force is permissible is extremely limited.

Related Topics:
Jesus - Encyclical - Right to life

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