Roman Catholic Church

The worldwide Christian church in communion with the bishop of Rome. It is a communion of local churches united by shared faith, sacraments, and governance under the pope.

Pope: The bishop of Rome, regarded by the Catholic Church as its chief pastor and a successor of Saint Peter. The pope presides over the church’s worldwide communion and exercises its highest office of governance.
Diocese: A geographic church district entrusted to a bishop, who leads its clergy and community. Dioceses are the primary local units through which the church is governed.
Early Christianity: The diverse movement of communities following Jesus in the first centuries of the Common Era. The Catholic Church traces its origins to these earliest Christian communities.
Eastern Orthodox Church: A communion of autocephalous Christian churches that shares ancient traditions with Catholicism but does not recognize papal supremacy. Its relationship with Rome marks the major historical division between Eastern and Western Christianity.
Canon law: The body of laws and regulations governing the Catholic Church and its members. It provides a legal framework for the church’s institutions and internal life.
Holy See: The central governing authority of the Catholic Church, headed by the pope and distinct from Vatican City State. It conducts the church’s central governance and diplomatic relations.
College of Bishops: The body of Catholic bishops worldwide, understood to act with authority when united with the pope. It links local episcopal leadership to the church’s universal governance.
Saint Peter: An apostle of Jesus and an early Christian leader whom Catholic tradition identifies as the first bishop of Rome. Catholic claims about papal succession center on Peter’s role in the church’s beginnings.
Protestantism: A family of Christian traditions that emerged from the Reformation and rejects papal authority as binding on the church. Its churches differ from Catholicism over authority, doctrine, and ecclesial structure.
Catholic social teaching: The body of Catholic doctrine addressing social, economic, and political life, grounded in human dignity and the common good. It carries Catholic moral reasoning into debates about society and public policy.

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