“What is Roman Catholicism?”

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole. For many the term usually refers to Christians and churches, western and eastern, in full communion with the Holy See(see below). For others it refers to churches with historical continuity from the first millennium.

In the sense of indicating historical continuity of faith and practice, the term “catholicism” is at times employed to mark a contrast to Protestanism, which tends to look solely to the Bible as interpreted on the principles of the 16th-centuryProtestant Reformation as its ultimate standard.

Catholicism is distinguished from other forms of Christianity in its particular understanding and commitment to tradition, the sacraments, the mediation between God, communion, and the See of Rome (Holy See)

Holy See

The Holy See (Latin: Sancta Sedes “holy chair”) is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome. The primacy of Rome makes its bishop the worldwide leader of the Catholic Church, commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic Church. It is also recognized by other subjects of international law as a sovereign entity, headed by the Pope, with which diplomatic relations can be maintained.” Although it is often referred to as “the Vatican”, the Holy See is not the same entity as the Vatican City State, which came into existence only in 1929; the Holy See, the episcopal see of Rome, dates back to early Christian times. Ambassadors are officially accredited not to the Vatican City State but to “the Holy See”, and papal representatives to states and international organizations are recognized as representing the Holy See, not the Vatican City State.

Though all episcopal sees may be considered “holy”, the expression “the Holy See” (without further specification) is normally used in international relations (and in the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church)[3] to refer to the See of Rome viewed as the central government of the Roman Catholic Church.

The website of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office speaks of Vatican City as the “capital” of the Holy See, although it compares the legal personality of the Holy See to that of the Crown in Christian monarchies and declares that the Holy See and the state of Vatican City are two international identities. It also distinguishes between the employees of the Holy See (2,750 working in the Roman Curia with another 333 working in the Holy See’s diplomatic missions abroad) and the 1,909 employees of the state.[4] The British Ambassador to the Holy See uses more precise language, saying that the Holy See “is not the same as the Vatican City State. ├ö├ç┬¬ (It) is the universal government of the Catholic Church and operates from the Vatican City State.”[5] This agrees exactly with the expression used by the website of the United States Department of State, in giving information on both the Holy See and the Vatican City State: it too says that the Holy See “operates from the Vatican City State”

Diocese of Rome

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Holy Roman Church” redirects here. For other uses, see Holy Roman Church (disambiguation). The Diocese of Rome (Latin: DiÔö╝├┤cesis Urbis or DiÔö╝├┤cesis Romana, Italian: Diocesi di Roma) is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Rome, Italy.[1] The bishop of Rome is the Pope, who is the Supreme Pontiff and leader of the Catholic Church. Established in the 1st century, its current bishop is Pope Benedict XVI, who acceded after the death of Pope John Paul II, in April 2005.

Bishop

Further information: Pope

The bishop of the Diocese of Rome has, first of all, the simple title of Bishop of Rome because all his other titles descend from this position which points to him as the successor of Saint Peter, thus the see is the Chair of Peter. From this he has a plethora of titles:

Origins

Further information: History of the Papacy

The best evidence available for the origins of the Roman church is Saint Paul‘s Epistle to the Romans. This indicates that the church was established probably by the early 40s. Saint Peter became associated with this church sometime between the year 58 and the early 60s.

Says one source:

The final years of the first century and the early years of the second constitute the “postapostolic” period, as reflected in the extrabiblical writings of Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch. By now the church at Rome was exercising a pastoral care that extended beyond its own community, having replaced Jerusalem as the practical center of the growing universal Church. Appeals were made to Peter and Paul, with whom the Roman church was most closely identified.[3]

Diocese

The Papal Cathedra, the throne of the Pope in the Archibasilica Lateranensis.

Further information: Holy See

The territory of the diocese extends all over the Vatican City State and the city of Rome, capital of the Italian Republic. The two parts of the diocese are then administrated by two vicars general of the Pope:

The diocese covers a territory of 881 square kilometers[6] containing 341 parishes, 337 of which are active. There are 336 for the city of Rome[7] and one, St. Anne’s Parish, for Vatican City.[8] The diocese has 238 cardinal clerics, a vicegerent of archepiscopal rank (vacant), six auxiliary bishops at present and an additional 1187 “Roman” clerics.[9] In 2004, they pastored an estimated 2,454,000 faithful, who made up 88% of the population of the territory.

In the case of Rome, the city has grown beyond the boundaries of the diocese. Notable parts of Rome belong to the dioceses of Ostia and Porto-Santa Rufina. Ostia is administered together with the Vicariate of the City and thus included in the statistics given above, while Porto is indeed administered by its own residential bishop.

Suburbicarian sees

Six of the dioceses of the Roman Province have the title of suburbicarians, from the Latin sub urbe, with the significance of “subject to the city [of Rome]”. Each suburbicarian diocese has a Cardinal Bishop at its head.

Diocese of Ostia

There remains the titular Suburicarian See of Ostia, which is held by the Cardinal Bishop elected to be the Dean of the College of Cardinals, in addition to his previous Suburicarian See. The Diocese of Ostia was merged with the Diocese of Rome in 1914, and is now administered by the Vicar General for Rome.

Suffragan sees

Otherwise there are other dioceses connected with the Metropolitan of Rome. They are churches directly subjected to the Holy See:

……The Roman Catholic Church portrays itself as the one legitimate heir to New Testament Christianity, and the Pope as the successor to Peter, the first bishop of Rome. While those details are debatable, there is no question that Roman church history reaches back to ancient times. The apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Romans about AD 55, and addressed a church body that existed prior to his first visit there (but he made no mention of Peter, though he greeted others by name). Despite repeated persecutions by the government, a vibrant Christian community existed in Rome after apostolic times. Those early Roman Christians were just like their brethren in other parts of the world-simple followers of Jesus Christ. ……Things changed drastically when the Roman Emperor Constantine professed a conversion to Christianity in AD 312. He began to make changes which ultimately led to the formation of the Roman Catholic Church. He issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which granted freedom of worship throughout the empire. When doctrinal disputes arose, Constantine presided over the first ecumenical church council at Nicaea in AD 325, even though he held no official authority in the churches. By the time of his death, Christianity was the favored, if not the official, religion of the Roman Empire. The term "Roman Catholic" was defined by Emperor Theodosius on February 27, 380 in the Theodosian Code. In that document, he referred to those who hold to the "religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter" as "Roman Catholic Christians," and gave them the official sanction of the empire.……The fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Catholic Church are really two branches of the same story, as the power was transferred from one entity to the other. From the time of Constantine (AD 312) until the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, the emperors of Rome claimed a certain amount of authority within the church, even though it was disputed by many church leaders. During those formative years, there were many disputes over authority, structure, and doctrine. The emperors sought to increase their authority by granting privileges to various bishops, resulting in disputes about primacy within the churches. At the same time, some of the bishops sought to increase their authority and prestige by accusing others of false doctrine and seeking state support of their positions. Many of those disputes resulted in very sinful behavior, which are a disgrace to the name of Christ.……Just like today, some of those who lived in the leading cities tended to exalt themselves above their contemporaries in the rural areas. The third century saw the rise of an ecclesiastical hierarchy patterned after the Roman government. The bishop of a city was over the presbyters, or priests, of the local congregations, controlling the ministry of the churches, and the Bishop of Rome began to establish himself as supreme over all. Though some historians tell these details as the history of "the church," there were many church leaders in those days which neither stooped to those levels nor acknowledged any ecclesiastical hierarchy. The vast majority of churches in the first four centuries derived their authority and doctrine from the Bible, and traced their lineage directly back to the apostles, not to the church of Rome. In the New Testament, the terms "elder," "pastor," and "bishop" are used interchangeably for the spiritual leaders of any church (see 1 Peter 5:1-3 where the Greek root words are translated "elders," "feed," and "oversight"). By the time Gregory became pope in AD 590, the empire was in a shambles, and he assumed imperial powers along with his ecclesiastical authority. From that time on, the church and state were fully intertwined as the Holy Roman Empire, with the pope exercising authority over kings and emperors. ……What are the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church that distinguish it from other Christian churches? Whole books have been written on this subject, but a sampling of the doctrines will be outlined here.

…These doctrines don’t date back all the way to Constantine, except for perhaps in seed form, but were slowly adopted over many years as various popes issued decrees. In many cases, the doctrines are not even based on Scripture, but on a document of the church. Most Roman Catholics consider themselves to be Christians and are unaware of the differences between their beliefs and the Bible. Sadly, the Roman Catholic Church has fostered that ignorance by discouraging the personal study of the Bible and making the people reliant on the priests for their understanding of the Bible.