Catholicism is the term that has come to describe the Christian traditions of the Roman Catholic Church under the episcopal jurisdiction of the Pope, Bishop of Rome. Catholicism literally means “according to the whole” (from Greek) and the term became interchangeable with Christianity in the centuries after the death of Jesus Christ when describing his followers.
Although the Roman Catholic Church (which at 1.2. billion followers comprises 50% of all Christians worldwide – around one sixth of the world’s total population) would dispute alternate usage, the term ‘Catholicism’ is also used by a number of other churches that believe
they can trace their lineage back to the very earliest days of the Church.
Catholics hold that Jesus Christ is not only the son of God but the divine manifestation of God. They also venerate Jesus Christ’s mother the Virgin Mary and many, many Saints (holy people). Catholic Christians pray to God and place great stock in the seven sacraments (rituals) that they see as channels of God’s grace on Earth. These are:
1) Baptism (the forgiveness of sin, including original sin, often performed using water at birth)
2) Confirmation (the verbal completion of baptism when a congregation member becomes old enough to make a conscious profession of faith)
3) The Eucharist (the eating and drinking of blessed bread and wine which Catholics believe is transformed into the body and blood of Christ)
4) Confession/ Penance (seeking forgiveness or absolution from actual sins committed)
5) Anointing of the Sick (healing of suffering by a priest using consecrated oil; also part of The Last Rites before death along with Penance and The Eucharist)
6) Holy Orders (the formal act of new bishops, priests and deacons joining the Church)
7) Holy Matrimony (the joining of a man and a woman in marriage)
Christians who may consider themselves Catholic include:
• The Roman Catholic Church
• The Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, who also claim unbroken Apostolic Succession from the early Church (continuous leadership dating back to the Apostles of Jesus Christ) and would identify themselves as the true Catholic Church
• Some Anglicans and Lutherans who similarly claim unbroken Apostolic Succession and would identify themselves as a constituent part of the original Church
The thought of some Protestants such as Lutherans potentially self-identifying as Catholics is completely new to me and honestly a bit confusing, so let’s turn back the clock and try to get some clarity. The early Christian Church was organised under three patriarchs: the Bishop of Rome, Bishop of Alexandria and Bishop of Antioch. Bishops of Constantinople and Jerusalem were added later, but the Bishop of Rome – the Pope – was recognised as a ‘first among equals’ due to Rome’s strong connection to the Apostles St Peter and St Paul, both of whom were said to have been martyred in Rome. However, the Church began to splinter as early as the 5th Century when regional Persian and Oriental churches split away due to disagreements over the divine nature of the Virgin Mary (Jesus Christ’s mother) and the exact nature of Christ’s own divinity and humanity. The East-West Schism of the Church occurred in the 11th Century, in many ways because of irreconcilable political differences between Rome in the west and Constantinople in the east about where the rightful seat of the Church should lay (in addition to theological differences and the evolution of different rites and practices).
So the Roman Catholic Church (comprising Western Europe and Scandinavia) and the Eastern Orthodox Church (comprising Greece, Russia, Eastern Europe and portions of the Middle East) became two distinct branches of Christianity. The final big split in Christianity/Catholicism came in the 16th Century when the Protestant Reformation took place and many parts of the Western Church simply rejected the Papal authority of Rome, which they saw as having become corrupt. So, in summary, all Christians are essentially Catholic, but only half of Christians belong to the Roman Catholic Church, which has become interchangeable with the term Catholicism itself. Clear? Not entirely? I think I’m getting it now but let’s go back even further and try to get to the source of it all.
To learn more about the individual from whom the Christian religion grew, jump to Chapter 14: Jesus Christ
To learn more about the 16th Century split in the Christian Church, jump to Chapter 15: Protestant Reformation
