Roman Catholic Church, the largest single Christian body, composed of those Christians who acknowledge the supreme authority of the bishop of Rome, the pope, in matters of faith. The Roman Catholic church regards itself as the only legitimate inheritor, by an unbroken episcopal succession descending from Saint Peter to the present time, of the commission and powers conferred by Jesus Christ on the 12 apostles. The church has had a profound influence on the development of European culture and on the introduction of European values into other civilizations. Its total membership in the early 1990s was about 958.4 million (about 17 percent of the world population). The church has its greatest numerical strength in Europe and Latin America.

The fundamental unit of organization in the Roman Catholic church is the diocese, headed by a bishop. The bishop is distinguished from the priest principally by the power to confer holy orders and to act as the usual minister of confirmation. The bishop also wields the highest jurisdictional powers within the diocese. Directly under the bishop are the clergy, both secular and religious. Secular clergy are not members of religious orders or congregations. The religious clergy, on the other hand, are primarily committed to their orders or congregations, which transcend diocesan boundaries. While working within a given diocese, these clergy must adhere to the bishop's decisions in matters of public worship but otherwise enjoy considerable discretion in their ministry.

At the head of the Roman Catholic church is the pope, who has final authority in all matters. The pope is assisted in his administration of the church by a complex bureaucracy known as the Curia. The pope appoints bishops to dioceses and transfers them to others. Cardinals are the highest dignitaries in the church after the pope. Appointed by the pope, they constitute the supreme council of the church, the Sacred College. On the death of a pope, the cardinals elect his successor.

Locating its beginnings in the earliest Christian communities and refusing to acknowledge any decisive break in its history, the Roman Catholic church considers itself heir to all the theological speculation of the apostolic, patristic, medieval, and modern periods. Like other Christian churches, the Roman Catholic church accepts the Bible as the basis for its teaching. Theologians also hold that certain truths or practices, although not found in Scripture, are validated by the tradition of the church. They also agree that the solemn decisions of the church, especially those that were arrived at by the ecumenical councils, are authentic interpretations of Christian doctrine.

Somewhat related to the theological notion of tradition is the doctrine of apostolic succession— that is, the continuous transmission of ministry from the time of Jesus until today. The most specific instance of these claims is that the pope is the successor of Saint Peter, who was chosen by Jesus as head of his church. Fundamental to Catholic belief in all ages has been the assumption that God's love and grace are mediated to the world in a uniquely efficacious way through the ministry of the church. With greater enthusiasm than other Western churches, Roman Catholicism fosters the veneration of the saints and especially of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Catholics also believe that they can help by their prayers and good works those who have died without being fully purified of their sins.

Catholic worship is centered on the Mass, at which the faithful are expected to be present every Sunday and on a few major feasts during the year. The Mass consists of several parts, of which the longest and most important are the so-called liturgy of the Word and the eucharistic liturgy, during which the Eucharist, one of the seven sacraments, is celebrated. Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist through the change of bread and wine into his body and blood (see transubstantiation) and are encouraged to receive the Eucharist at every Mass in which they participate. The other sacraments are baptism, confirmation, penance, holy orders, marriage, and the anointing of the sick. At the Second Vatican Council the church encouraged Catholics to work with members of other religions for common human goals and for the reunion of the various Christian churches.

Until the break with the Eastern church (see Orthodox Church) in 1054 and the break with the Protestant churches in the 1500s, it is impossible to separate the history of the Roman Catholic church from the history of Christianity in general. The first great change in Christian history was its spread from Palestine to the rest of the Mediterranean world in the first few decades after Jesus' death, at which time Christianity adopted some procedural and organizational practices of the Roman Empire. The characteristically Christian figure of the bishop had clearly emerged by the middle of the 2nd century. By the time of 5th-century pope Leo I, the bishop of Rome was claiming and to some extent exercising a primacy of leadership over the other churches (see Papacy).

The decline of the Roman Empire in the West and the assimilation of the Germanic peoples into the church had great impact on all aspects of religious life. In the late 11th century the papacy emerged as the acknowledged leader of the Western church, possessing a centralized and increasingly efficient Curia. The emphasis on the role of the papacy in governing the church made reconciliation with the Eastern church more difficult after the Great Schism of 1054.

When the Protestant Reformation broke out in the 1500s, the Catholic church responded by reaffirming the traditions that had developed through the ages and especially by emphasizing those elements that were most under attack, such as Scholastic theology (see Scholasticism), the efficacy of the sacraments, and the primacy of the pope. The attacks launched against the church by the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century and the French Revolution (1789-1799) were largely responsible for the defensive postures struck by Catholicism long afterward. The Second Vatican Council (1962-1966) tried to reverse this trend.

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Canonization, in the Roman Catholic church, an act by which the pope publicly proclaims the holiness of a deceased person, whom he then presents for the universal church to venerate. Canonization is usually the final act of a lengthy process beginning with beatification. Beatification is an official declaration that a person lived a holy life and can be venerated as one of the "blessed"; canonization awards the full title of "saint."
Canonization cannot be decreed until 50 years after the candidate's death. Two characteristics are used as criteria in the process: eminent virtues, or virtues in a "heroic degree"; and the performance of at least two authentic miracles. The ceremony of canonization occurs in Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City and is one of the most solemn and imposing of all papal functions.

Celibacy, state of being unmarried, with abstinence from sexual activity. Considered a form of asceticism, it has been practiced in many religious traditions.
In Christianity, celibacy is practiced by monks and nuns in both the Western and Eastern churches. In the Eastern church, parish clergy are permitted to marry before ordination, but bishops must be unmarried. In the Roman Catholic church, celibacy is required of all clergy. The law is based on two principles: (1) that the clergy may serve God with more freedom and with an undivided heart; and (2) that, being called to serve Jesus Christ, they may embrace the holier life of self-restraint. Priestly celibacy in the Catholic church has a stormy history. Although Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the traditional position in a 1967 encyclical, the requirement remains a much-disputed ecclesiastical issue. Protestant Reformers rejected any law of celibacy when they broke with Roman Catholicism in the 16th century.

Charismatic Movement, international, interdenominational Christian revivalistic movement, also referred to as Neo-Pentecostalism. The individuals who make up the movement believe that they have been "filled" or "baptized" with the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. Signs of this include such spiritual gifts as speaking in tongues (glossolalia), prophecy, healing, and interpretation of tongues. The movement is usually considered to have begun in 1960, with a group of Episcopalians in Van Nuys, California. Distinct charismatic networks soon arose within Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and other Protestant denominations. A small element exists within Eastern Orthodoxy. It has produced myriad groups, independent preachers and healers, and a few near-cultic offshoots. Most charismatics, however, are orthodox in doctrine and are active within their own denominations. They are ecstatic in worship and emphasize evangelism and personal faith in Christ.

Infallibility, in Roman Catholic theology, doctrine that divine guidance protects the church from error in matters of faith and morals. The doctrine is widely rejected by Protestants on the grounds that only God can be described as infallible.

Roman Catholicism asserts that the entire church is infallible when it shows universal agreement in matters of faith and morals. Only the following are believed to proclaim doctrine infallibly: (1) the entire body of bishops in union with the pope; (2) an ecumenical council that receives papal approval; and (3) under certain conditions, the pope alone. According to the First Vatican Council, the pope exercises infallibility only when (1) he speaks ex cathedra, in his official capacity as pastor and teacher; (2) he speaks with the manifest intention of binding the entire church to acceptance; and (3) the matter pertains to faith or morals taught as a part of divine revelation from apostolic times.

Prayer, in religion, both a person's act of communion with God, or any other object of worship, and the words used. It is the natural result of a person's belief in God. Prayer may be individual or group, formal or spontaneous, silent or spoken. In one or more forms, it is at the center of worship.
In its narrowest sense, prayer is understood as spiritual communion for the sake of requesting something of a deity. In its broadest sense, prayer is any ritual form designed to bring one into closer relation to whatever one believes to be the ultimate. In this sense, both the dance ceremonials of Native Americans and the meditations of Buddhists are forms of prayer. At the highest level, sacrifice is absorbed into prayer in the sacrificial offering of self to God through total commitment.

Predestination, in Christian theology, the teaching that a person's eternal destiny is predetermined by God's unchangeable decree. Most exponents of the doctrine have maintained that it is only the individual's final destiny that is predetermined, not the individual's actions, which remain of free will. The doctrine customarily takes one of two forms: single predestination or double predestination.

Single predestination is based on the experience of God's presence and love, and on the understanding that the gift of God's presence is an act of sheer grace. In order to emphasize that the gift is independently willed by God, some Christians have asserted that their relation to God depends only on God and on God's eternal decree established before the foundation of the world. Double predestination asserts that, because salvation and glory are predestined, condemnation and destruction must also be predestined.

Sacrament, any of several liturgical actions of the Christian church, believed to have been instituted by Christ to communicate God's grace or power through material objects. Fourth-century theologian Saint Augustine defined sacraments as "outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace."

Some Christian doctrines assert that believers understand and gain access to the saving work of Christ through certain liturgical actions such as baptism and the Eucharist. In Roman Catholic and much Protestant theology, these and other sacraments are regarded as "communicating signs"— that is, the sign itself actually conveys the reality that it represents. In some Protestant theology, however, sacraments are simply "arbitrary signs" that call the believer's attention to the inner reality of grace.

Certain sacraments, such as the Eucharist and penance, are repeated often. Others— baptism, confirmation, Holy Orders— are administered only once. A series of decisions by 13th century councils officially recognized seven sacraments:

Sin, in religion, transgression of a sacred or divinely sanctioned law or practice. Some idea of sin is found in most religions. Perhaps the earliest manifestation of it was the strong opprobrium attached to violating a taboo. In no other sacred book is the sense of sin so fully developed as in the Bible, where sin is the element that puts human beings at enmity with God. In the New Testament, sin is the essential human condition that calls for the redeeming work of Christ. However, it was not until the time of theologian Saint Augustine that the Christian doctrine of sin was fully developed. Augustine maintained that Adam's sin corrupted humanity's whole nature, and that his guilt and its penalty pass to all his descendants (see Adam and Eve). The Orthodox church has continued to affirm that the human will is as free as Adam's was before the fall. During the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, German reformer Martin Luther and Swiss reformer John Calvin maintained the Augustinian emphasis on original sin and on God's grace as the means of redemption, while the doctrine of Arminianism denied hereditary sin altogether.

Stations of the Cross, series of 14 crosses, usually accompanied by images, representing events in the Passion of Christ and its immediate aftermath. Each station signifies the actual site of the event in Jerusalem or on Calvary, or Golgotha, and the series as a whole is a model of the route along which Christ was taken to Calvary. The stations may be placed along the walls of a church or a chapel. They also may be placed outdoors, along the way to a place of pilgrimage, as a wayside shrine, or in a freestanding group. The Stations of the Cross have considerable importance as a devotional exercise in the Roman Catholic church; the devout meditate and pray at each station successively.

Catholic Church. The term catholic was first used in the letter of Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans (about AD 110). French theologian Vincent of Lérins expressed the formal principle of the Catholic church as "that which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all. This is what is truly and properly catholic." See also Christianity; Roman Catholic Church; Eastern Church.

Pope, ecclesiastical title recognized in the West as belonging exclusively to the bishop of Rome, head of the Roman Catholic church. The pope also holds these titles: vicar of Christ, successor of Saint Peter, supreme pontiff of the universal church, patriarch of the West, primate of Italy, archbishop and metropolitan of the Roman province, sovereign of the State of Vatican City, and servant of the servants of God. See also Papacy.

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Saint, name applied in the New Testament to members of the general Christian community, but restricted in ecclesiastical usage to those who have been virtuous to a heroic degree. Saints are traditionally categorized into several classes: apostles and evangelists, martyrs, confessors, doctors, virgins, and matrons and widows.

By the 4th century AD the practice of venerating saints was widespread, but the practice was surrounded with superstition during the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century). The Council of Trent (1545-1563) affirmed the practice of calling on saints to obtain blessings from God. In Christian art, saints are often represented with a halo, a ring or area of radiance about the head or entire figure. A martyr with a special interest in a place is called its patron. Trades and professions had patrons, and for every disease a saint could be invoked to cure it. Popular patron saints are Andrew of Scotland, Denis of France, George of England, Nicholas of Russia, Patrick of Ireland, James the Great of Spain, and Stephen of Hungary.

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Bishop, in Christian churches, the chief priest, ruler, and teacher of one or a number of churches, usually in a specific geographic area, called a diocese. In the Roman Catholic church, Orthodox church, and most Anglican churches, a bishop is an ecclesiastic who, through sacramental consecration, holds special powers of the ministry as well as special administrative prerogatives.

According to the theory of apostolic succession held by the Roman, Orthodox, and Anglican churches, the order of bishop was instituted in apostolic times; when the apostles appointed successors, they transmitted apostolic authority and priority of rank. These churches claim an unbroken succession of bishops from apostolic times. A certain hierarchy exists within the order of bishop. A bishop is supreme ecclesiastical ruler of the diocese. An archbishop is in charge of several dioceses that have been grouped into an archdiocese.

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