Catholic Church

 

[Gr.,=universal], the body of Christians, living and dead, considered as an organization. The word catholic was first used c.110 to describe the Church by St. Ignatius of Antioch. In speaking of the time before the Reformation in Western Europe, Catholic is technically used to mean orthodox (i.e., those who accept the tradition as mediated by the Roman Church). Today in English it usually means the Roman Catholic Church. Protestants use the word catholic in its original sense to designate the Christian Church taken as a whole.

The name Catholic Church (literally "universal church") is used to refer to a number of entities and conceptualizations, viz.

• The Roman Catholic Church, often called the Catholic Church, consists of the at present 23 particular Churches (or Rites) in full communion with the Bishop of Rome.
• The Eastern Orthodox Church also identifies itself exclusively as "Catholic", as in the title of The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church known also as The Catechism of St. Philaret.
• Oriental Orthodoxy also identifies as "Catholic".
• The Old Catholic Church, the Polish National Catholic Church, the Orthodox Catholic Church, and other independent Catholic Churches incorporate the term "Catholic Church" in their name.
• Other Christian denominations identify explicitly as "Catholic", based on their affirmation of the Nicene Creed, but do not include the term in their proper names (as, for example, within Anglicanism and Lutheranism).
• Where "catholic church" is interpreted as encompassing all Christians, most Christian denominations will describe themselves as "catholic" and understand in this sense their affirmation, in the Nicene Creed and/or the Apostles' Creed, of belief in the 'One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church'.
• Some Anglicans hold what is called the "Branch theory", according to which the Catholic Church is an entity consisting of three "branches": the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion.

Particular Churches in the Roman Catholic Church

• Of Alexandrian liturgical tradition:
  • Coptic Catholic Church
  • Ethiopic Catholic Church
• Of Antiochian liturgical tradition:
  • Maronite Church
  • Syrian Catholic Church
  • Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
• Of Armenian liturgical tradition:
  • Armenian Catholic Church
• Of Byzantine (Constantinopolitan) liturgical tradition:
  • Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church
  • Belarusian Greek Catholic Church
  • Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church
  • Byzantine Church of the Eparchy of Križevci
  • Greek Byzantine Catholic Church
  • Hungarian Greek Catholic Church
  • Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
  • Macedonian Greek Catholic Church
  • Melkite Greek Catholic Church
  • Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic
  • Russian Byzantine Catholic Church
  • Ruthenian Catholic Church
  • Slovak Greek Catholic Church
  • Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
• Of Chaldean or East Syrian tradition:
  • Chaldean Catholic Church
  • Syro-Malabar Church
• Of Western liturgical tradition:
  • Latin Church

Orthodox

Orthodox Churches of the Eastern Orthodox tradition (Churches in full communion with the See of Constantinople)

• Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
  • Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
  • Finnish Orthodox Church
  • American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese
• Orthodox Church of Alexandria
• Church of Antioch
  • Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
• Orthodox Church of Jerusalem
• Russian Orthodox Church
  • Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
  • Japanese Orthodox Church
  • Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchy (UOC-MP) (Ukrainian only)
  • Hungarian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchy (Hungarian and Russian only)
• Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church
• Church of Serbia
  • Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
• Romanian Orthodox Church
• Bulgarian Orthodox Church
• Church of Cyprus
• Church of Greece
• Church of Albania
• Polish Orthodox Church (Polish only)
• Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church (Czech or Slovak only)
• Orthodox Church in America

Other Orthodox Churches in the Eastern Orthodox tradition

• Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece
• Macedonian Orthodox Church

Orthodox Churches in the Oriental Orthodox tradition

• The Armenian Apostolic Church
• The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria
  • The British Orthodox Church
• The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church
• The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
• The Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church
• The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of the East (also known as the Indian Orthodox Church)
• The Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch (also known as the Syrian Orthodox Church)

The Assyrian Church of the East

• Assyrian Church of the East

Provinces of the Anglican Communion

As in Orthodoxy, all thirty-eight provinces of the Anglican Communion are independent, each with its own primate and governing structure. These provinces may take the form of national churches (such as in Canada, Uganda, or Japan) or a collection of nations (such as the West Indies, Central Africa, or Southeast Asia). All are in union with the see of Canterbury. They are, in alphabetical order:

• The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia
• The Anglican Church of Australia
• The Church of Bangladesh
• The Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil (Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil)
• The Anglican Church of Burundi
• The Anglican Church of Canada
• The Church of the Province of Central Africa
• The Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America (Anglican Church in the Central Region of America)
• The Province de L'Eglise Anglicane Du Congo (Province of the Anglican Church of Congo)
• The Church of England
• Sheng Kung Hui (Hong Kong Anglican Church (Episcopal))
• The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean
• The Church of Ireland
• The Nippon Sei Ko Kai (The Anglican Communion in Japan)
• The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East
• The Anglican Church of Kenya
• The Anglican Church of Korea
• The Church of the Province of Melanesia
• The Anglican Church of Mexico
• The Church of the Province of Myanmar (Burma)
• The Church of Nigeria
• The Church of North India
• The Church of Pakistan
• The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea
• The Episcopal Church of the Philippines
• The Church of the Province of Rwanda
• The Scottish Episcopal Church
• The Church of the Province of South East Asia
• The Church of South India
• The Anglican Church of Southern Africa
• Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de las Americas (Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of the Americas)
• The Episcopal Church of the Sudan
• The Anglican Church of Tanzania
• The Church of Uganda
• The Episcopal Church in the United States of America
• The Church in Wales
• The Church of the Province of West Africa
• The Church in the Province of the West Indies

In addition, there are six extra-provincial churches, five of which are under the metropolitical authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

• The Anglican Church of Bermuda (extra-provincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
• Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba (Episcopal Church of Cuba) (under a metropolitan council)
• The Parish of the Falkland Islands (extra-provincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
• The Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church of Portugal (extra-provincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
• The Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church (extra-provincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
• The Church of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) (extra-provincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)

See also

For technical and theological discussions of the term and its attributions see:

• Catholic
• Catholicism
• One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church

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