Roman Catholic Church is the largest body of Christians in the world. It has about 1 1/3 billion members. Roman Catholics are concentrated most heavily in Europe, North America, and South America. However, the percentage of the Catholic population in both Africa and Asia is growing.
The Roman Catholic Church traces its beginnings to about A.D. 30, when Jesus Christ instructed the apostles, his followers, to spread his teaching about the Kingdom of God. Roman Catholics believe that Jesus rose from the dead after being crucified and sent the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles.
Roman Catholics believe that Jesus Christ founded the church to carry to all people the salvation he brought to the world. They also believe that, with God’s assistance, the church has faithfully preserved the teachings of Jesus. According to Catholic teaching, the Holy Spirit continues to guide the church.
The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, serves as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He governs the church from Vatican City, a tiny independent country within the city of Rome. Throughout the world, other bishops lead local churches.
The Roman Catholic Church has been an important force in world history. During much of the Middle Ages (about the 400’s through the 1400’s), the church had great political power in Western Europe. Its universities and monasteries were centers of learning, and they preserved much of the heritage of the Greek and Roman cultures. During the 1500’s and 1600’s, Catholic missionaries traveled to Africa, Asia, and the Americas, preaching the gospel and spreading European culture.
Throughout its history, the Catholic faith has inspired many great works of architecture, art, literature, and music. These works include French medieval Gothic cathedrals, the Italian artist Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Vatican, the Italian writer Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy, and the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem.
Roman Catholic beliefs
For Catholics, religious faith means belief in God’s revelation. This revelation is the knowledge of God, revealed to humanity through nature and historical figures, particularly Jesus Christ. A Catholic’s faith in God is expressed in certain teachings. These teachings, based on the Bible, are found in declarations of church councils and popes and in short statements of faith called creeds. The oldest and most authoritative of these creeds are the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. Catholics recite the Nicene Creed at their central act of worship, called the Eucharist or Mass. 
The creeds summarize Catholic beliefs concerning (1) the Trinity and creation; (2) sin, the Incarnation, and salvation; (3) the nature of the church; and (4) life after death. These core doctrines, in turn, form the basis of Catholic morality—that is, guidelines for how Catholics should live their lives.
The Trinity and creation.
Catholics believe there is only one God. But this one God exists as a union of three Persons—the Father; the Son, who is Christ; and the Holy Spirit. These three Persons form the Trinity. Each Person is distinct and is truly God. Yet there is only one God, who has no beginning or end, is beyond time and space, and is perfect and unchanging. Catholics believe that the universe owes its beginning to God, who created everything freely, from love. They believe that the world and humanity could not survive without God’s continuing care.
Sin, the Incarnation, and salvation.
The Catholic Church teaches that humanity was created not only by God but also for God. Its destiny is to share God’s life forever, in union with God and one another. God intended humanity to achieve this destiny by lovingly obeying his will. But original sin interfered with God’s plan for humanity. The Book of Genesis in the Bible describes Adam, the first human being, as sinning by an act of disobedience to God. The church teaches that Adam’s sin affects every person born in the world.
Catholics believe that God sent his Son, the second Person of the Trinity, to save humanity from all sin—the original sin people inherit as well as the sins they themselves commit during their lifetime by deliberately turning from God. Without ceasing to be God, the Son of God became man. He was born to the Virgin Mary. Catholics especially commemorate this Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ at Christmas.
Catholics believe that Jesus saved humanity through his life and death and by rising from the dead and entering heaven. While on Earth, Jesus taught that salvation would be given to all who truly turn to God and live justly in God’s sight.
The nature of the church.
Salvation was not complete when Jesus left Earth. Salvation must be brought to each new generation. Jesus therefore commissioned his apostles to gather all human beings into a church. Catholics describe this church as the people of God, united with God and one another through Jesus Christ. They believe that the Holy Spirit guides and strengthens the church on the way to salvation. They also consider the church to be a missionary people with the function of drawing everyone into a communion of love.
Life after death.
According to Catholic doctrine, life does not end with the death of the body. Instead, the soul leaves the body and enters heaven, purgatory, or hell. On the final Judgment Day, when this world has ended, all souls will be reunited with their bodies.
Heaven is the eternal communion of those who have reached their destiny. They see God as he is and love him and one another with complete joy. Purgatory is a temporary state for souls who die in God’s love but must be purified of all unholiness. The Roman Catholic Church defines hell as the absence of God, which results in complete despair. It is the punishment people bring on themselves who have abandoned God and refused communion with him.
Catholic morality
—how Catholics should behave—can be largely summarized as follows: The church teaches Catholics to love God with their whole heart and to love their fellow human beings as they love themselves. The church asks Catholics to do this in imitation of Jesus, who offered himself for the world’s salvation. The Roman Catholic Church believes that all people must follow their conscience. But a Catholic’s conscience is formed not only by personal opinion of what is right and wrong. It is especially formed by the Bible, church teaching, and the faith and worship of the Christian community.
Worship
The acts of worship that Catholics perform together are called the liturgy. The central act of liturgy is the Eucharist or Mass. The Eucharist and certain other important liturgical acts make up the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church. The sacraments are (1) baptism, (2) confirmation, (3) Eucharist, (4) penance, (5) holy orders, (6) marriage, and (7) anointing of the sick.
Baptism
is the liturgical celebration in which a child or adult is cleansed of sin and begins a new life with God. Water poured in the name of the Trinity over the head of the person being baptized is a sign of the person’s cleansing from sin. Because water is necessary to life, the baptismal water also is a sign of new spiritual life. Thus, baptism marks the beginning of a Catholic’s oneness with Jesus Christ and entry into the church.
Confirmation
enables baptized people to grow to spiritual adulthood. A bishop, and in some cases, a priest, puts holy oil, called chrism, on the forehead of the people being confirmed. The chrism signifies that these people have been strengthened by the Holy Spirit so that they may live up to their faith.
The Eucharist or Mass
is the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Catholics believe the Mass makes present Christ’s sacrifice of himself. The Mass has two main parts. The first part, the liturgy of the word, consists of prayers, hymns, readings from the Bible, a homily (sermon), and the recitation of the Nicene Creed. The second part is the liturgy of the Eucharist. During this part, according to Catholic teaching, the priest, acting in Jesus’s name and by the power of the Holy Spirit, transforms bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood. The congregation is then invited to receive Christ himself in Holy Communion.
Catholics believe that during the Mass, Jesus is truly present, sins are forgiven, and God’s Spirit is given. The members of the congregation are closely united with one another, the whole church, and their fellow human beings. Church law requires that Catholics participate in the Mass on Saturday evenings or Sundays and on holy days of obligation, such as Christmas. They must receive Holy Communion at least once a year, at Easter time.
Penance,
also called reconciliation or confession, is the sacrament in which Catholics confess their sins to a priest, express their sincere sorrow for having sinned, and promise to avoid sin in the future. The priest forgives the sinner in God’s name. The effect of penance is to bring the Roman Catholic back to God and the Christian community. Catholics must confess their sins at least once a year if the sins are serious. However, the church urges believers to receive penance as well as the Eucharist more often.
Holy orders
is the sacrament in which men are made deacons, priests, or bishops. These men become ministers of God’s word and sacraments, and spiritual leaders of the community.
Marriage
is the sacrament in which a man and woman promise themselves to each other for life. This sacrament helps them be faithful to the duties of marriage and family life.
Anointing of the sick
is the sacrament given to people who are dangerously ill or very old. The priest anoints these people with oil, a sign of healing. The priest prays that they will receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, so they may be freed from sin, comforted and strengthened in soul and body, and restored to health.
Church organization
Roman Catholics are members of a local parish, led by a priest called a pastor. The parishes in an area form a diocese, a territorial district headed by a bishop. The pope appoints bishops, and they are responsible to him. Bishops in turn appoint and oversee pastors.
The pope
is the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the highest member of its clergy (ordained ministers). There are three orders (ranks) within the clergy—deacons, priests, and bishops. The organization of the clergy by rank is the church’s hierarchy. Each order—from deacons up through the pope, who is the bishop of Rome—has more responsibilities and wider powers of ministry and governance than the one below it.
Catholics believe the pope is Jesus Christ’s representative on Earth and a successor of Saint Peter, who is regarded as the first pope. They believe that the pope is infallible (free from error) when he formally defines matters of faith and morals. The pope is aided in governing the church by cardinals and the Roman Curia.
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Cardinals are bishops chosen by the pope to be his main advisers. As a group, they form the College of Cardinals. They hold the highest rank below the pope, and they have the responsibility of electing a new pope after a reigning pope dies or resigns.
The Roman Curia is the pope’s administrative arm. It consists of the Secretariat of State and a number of other departments called congregations, tribunals, councils, and offices. Cardinals and archbishops (highest-ranking bishops) head the various departments of the Curia.
The Secretariat of State assists the pope most directly in governing the church and in communicating with the rest of the Curia. The congregations do most of the Curia’s administrative work. Tribunals have judicial powers. For example, the tribunal called the Roman Rota serves as a court to settle disputes about the validity of marriages. The councils deal with matters of Christian unity and handle relations with non-Christians. The offices are responsible for such functions as drafting papal documents and gathering church statistics.
Bishop and diocese.
Bishops are considered successors to Jesus’s apostles. A bishop appoints the pastors of the parishes in his diocese, and the pastors are responsible to him. He also supervises the many church-supported agencies that serve local needs in the diocese, including schools, hospitals, and newspapers.
The bishops of the church, together with the pope as their head, form the college of bishops and share authority over the church. They are responsible for teaching and guiding the church as a whole. For example, when the bishops met at Vatican Council II (1962-1965), they issued statements that had great impact on Catholic life and practice.
Pastor and parish.
A territorial parish includes all Catholic residents in a given area. A national parish primarily serves an ethnic group whose members may live in several territorial parishes. The pastor of a parish is its spiritual leader. Pastors of large parishes are assisted by other priests, by deacons, and, increasingly, by the laity or lay people—people who are not ordained.
The role of lay people is to live according to the principles of their faith. They are united with the clergy in worship and prayer, and they are called to exemplify the vision and values of the gospel at all times. Lay people participate in such church governing bodies as parish councils and parish school boards. At Mass, they act as readers, reading aloud designated passages from the Bible, and they help distribute Holy Communion.
Religious institutes
are societies of Catholic men or women who live according to a set of regulations called a rule. Members of the institute are called religious. They take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Some of the men are also ordained. Well-known Catholic institutes for men include the Jesuits, the Franciscans, and the Dominicans. Institutes for women include the Sisters of Charity, the Ursulines, and the Benedictines. These institutes are governed directly by their own appointed or elected leaders.
The early church
The first 300 years.
Catholics trace the beginnings of their church to Palestine, where Jesus preached, healed others, and was crucified. There, according to the Bible, after Jesus rose from the dead, he told the apostles to preach the gospel to all peoples. In Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles on what Catholics call the feast of Pentecost.
The first Christians were Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah, the savior expected by the Jews. The early church gradually separated itself from Judaism, the religion of the Jews, and achieved its own identity. But the church accepted the Jewish Scriptures as the record of God’s dealings with his chosen people.
Saint Paul became the most important person to carry the gospel to the gentiles (non-Jews). He regarded himself as a divinely appointed apostle to the gentiles. Paul founded many churches and exercised authority over them through visits and letters. He also represented their interests with the mother church in Jerusalem. After Paul’s death, about A.D. 67, the number of gentile churches continued to expand rapidly. By the 100’s, the center of Christianity had passed from Jerusalem to Christian communities in the cities of Antioch in Syria, Alexandria in Egypt, and especially Rome.
In its early years, the church grew steadily in spite of persecution by the Romans, whose empire covered most of Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa. The Romans believed loyalty to the emperor involved honoring the gods of the state and often the emperor himself. They regarded Christians who refused to give such honor as traitors and atheists. The Christian ideal became the martyr—a person who suffered persecution and even death rather than abandon Christianity. Although the church suffered widespread persecution, many of these attacks were local and brief. The church thus had time to grow and develop a distinct structure.
While the church faced persecution from outside, many movements threatened to divide it from within. Some of these movements taught what the church declared to be heresies—that is, teachings opposed to basic Christian beliefs. The most serious heresy during the church’s first 200 years was Gnosticism. It was a religious philosophy that had many followers throughout the Roman Empire. It held that Jesus was a spiritual being who only appeared to be human. Thus, he did not actually suffer and die. The struggle against Gnosticism was a difficult and important battle in church history.
The earliest Christians relied on the apostles, led by Saint Peter, as their authority in settling questions of doctrine and government. After the death of the apostles, the church faced the problem of where to turn for authority in such matters. In the 100’s, two developments helped solve the problem. First, the church gradually recognized the books of the New Testament as sources of authority in doctrine. Second, the basic orders of Christian ministry—bishops, presbyters (later called priests), and deacons—became more clearly defined.
The recognition of Christianity.
Constantine the Great was the first Roman emperor to become a Christian. In 313, Constantine and Licinius, the emperor of Rome’s eastern provinces, granted freedom of worship and equal rights to all religious groups in the empire. By the late 300’s, Christianity had become the favored religion of the empire.
The recognition of Christianity had some unfortunate effects on the church. For the first time, the church attracted many people who lacked the dedication of the early Christians. Emperors intruded into the internal affairs of the church. In the mid-300’s, for example, the Roman Emperor Constantius II tried to force the Eastern heresy known as Arianism on the West. Arianism is named for Arius, a priest in Egypt who claimed that Jesus was not truly God.
But on the whole, the empire’s recognition of Christianity benefited the church. The church was able to influence civil laws. It also expanded its work among the poor and began missionary work outside the empire.
Bishops from throughout the Christian world met several times to resolve major theological disputes in the early church. These meetings are called general or ecumenical councils. The first council, Nicaea I, met in 325 and condemned the teachings of Arius. The creed of the council, which Catholics pray at Mass, affirms that Jesus Christ is truly God, “one in being with the Father.” In 451, the Council of Chalcedon denounced Monophysitism, which denied Christ’s human nature. The council completed the teaching of Nicaea by declaring that Jesus is truly man.
Some of the most distinguished literature in church history was produced between 325 and 451. The most notable writers of this period included the historian Eusebius; the bishops and theologians Saint Ambrose, Saint Athanasius, and Saint Augustine << AW guh `steen` or aw GUHS tihn >> ; the preacher Saint John Chrysostom; the poet Prudentius; and the Biblical scholar Saint Jerome. Their writings had a great influence on church thought in later centuries.
Monasticism began to develop in the 300’s. This way of life, in which a person withdraws from worldly affairs to be completely devoted to prayer and the service of God, played an important part in church history. As persecution ceased and Christianity prospered, the monk replaced the martyr as the Christian ideal. The two basic models for monastic life were the Egyptians Saint Anthony and Saint Pachomius. Anthony lived the solitary life of a hermit. Pachomius organized monastic communities governed by a rule.
Pope Saint Leo I, who reigned from 440 to 461, was perhaps the greatest early pope. Leo persuaded the Huns and the Vandals, two Germanic tribes, to halt their attacks on Italy. By the time Leo began his reign, the huge Roman Empire had been split into Eastern and Western empires. Leo emphasized that popes were successors to Saint Peter and so had primacy (supreme authority) as head of the universal church.
Conflict with the East.
Before the 400’s, a single Christian church existed. But it consisted of several nationalities. Each nationality expressed the Christian faith in its own language and liturgy and, at times, its own theology. Gradually, cultural, geographic, political, and religious differences led to the development of several separate churches in the East Roman Empire. Beginning in the 400’s, the Eastern churches began to drift away from the authority of Rome and the church in the West.
Several events helped widen the gulf between Western and Eastern Christianity. One event was the condemnation by the Council of Ephesus in 431 of the teachings of Nestorius, the patriarch (bishop) of Constantinople. Nestorius asserted that Mary was the mother of Jesus but not the mother of God. In reaction to the council’s condemnation, the East Syrian Church separated itself from the Western Church. The gulf widened after the Council of Chalcedon condemned Monophysitism. After this condemnation, the Armenian Church, the Coptic Church of Egypt, the Ethiopian Church, and the Syrian Jacobite Church all broke away from those churches that accepted the teaching of the Council of Chalcedon.
Growth of the church in Europe
The early Middle Ages.
In A.D. 476, Germanic forces led by the general Odoacer deposed the last emperor of the West Roman Empire. Many historians use this date to mark the end of the Roman Empire in the West and the start of the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, the influence and power of the church reached their peak.
The collapse of the West Roman Empire meant that no one power had political control in the West. Instead, all of Western Europe except Ireland came to be ruled by kings, who were either Arians or non-Christians. Beginning with the reign of Pope Gregory the Great in 590, the church set out to create a Christian world in the West. Its chief instruments were the papacy and monasticism.
The papacy gradually replaced the empire as the center of authority in Western Europe. Ireland had been converted to Christianity in the 400’s, mainly through the efforts of Saint Patrick. Sometime between 496 and 508, the king of the Franks, Clovis I, was converted. His conversion brought Gaul into the church and checked the spread of the Arian heresy there. Gaul was a huge region now occupied by Belgium, France, and part of western Germany. From the 500’s to the 700’s, the papacy directed the conversion of other peoples of the West. These peoples included the Visigoths in Spain, the Anglo-Saxons in England, and the Croats in central Europe.
Meanwhile, the growth of monasticism played a large part in the increasing influence of the church. Monasticism created centers of Christian society, renewed the spiritual life of religious communities, and helped transform Western culture into a Christian civilization. In the early 500’s, Saint Benedict of Nursia founded Benedictine monasticism. The Benedictine rule was both moderate and humane in setting forth how its followers should live. These qualities influenced the rule of many later orders.
In the early 700’s, Muslims, who followed the religion of Islam, conquered Spain. Also in the 700’s, Viking raiders from northern Europe began to attack England and other Christian countries. The conquest of Spain and the Viking attacks greatly disrupted Western European economic, political, and social life. In the midst of these disruptions, the church stood out as the major force for unifying and civilizing the West.
Charlemagne,
the greatest king of the Franks, became one of the most important people in European as well as church history. During his reign, he laid a foundation for the organized, civilized society that was later built in Western Europe. This foundation resulted from the ideals that Charlemagne pursued—orderly government, religious reform, and the expansion of the Christian world through conquest and missionary activity.
Charlemagne involved himself deeply in church affairs and became protector of the popes. In 800, Pope Leo III crowned him emperor of the Romans, restoring the idea of empire in the West. Charlemagne’s empire formed the basis of what became the Holy Roman Empire in 962. The Holy Roman Empire lasted until 1806. It consisted largely of German and Italian states ruled by German emperors.
Cluniac reform
was the name given to a vast reform movement within the church. It began in the 900’s and lasted about 200 years. It was centered in the Benedictine abbey of Cluny, France. The movement introduced significant changes in the way monasteries were governed and monks lived. It also helped correct abuses within the church, such as simony (buying or selling sacred things or church offices). The Cistercian order—founded in 1098 in Citeaux, France—also became a leading force for church renewal, particularly under the leadership of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
Split with the East.
Since the 400’s, the Eastern churches had continued to drift away from the church in the West. Then, in the 800’s, Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, had a serious dispute with the papacy. A major issue in the dispute was the pope’s claim to authority over Eastern Christians. In the 1000’s, a conflict also developed between Rome and the patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius. Part of this conflict arose from claims by each church that the other was interfering in its affairs. Serious schisms (splits) emerged from these disagreements. The disagreements led to a formal division in 1054 between the Eastern churches that employed the Byzantine rite and the Western Church that followed the Latin rite and acknowledged the primacy of the bishop of Rome. However, some Eastern churches eventually reunited with the Roman Catholic Church, forming what are now called the Eastern Catholic Churches.
Innocent III,
elected pope in 1198, became one of the most powerful popes of the Middle Ages. He influenced the political affairs of much of Europe. Innocent called one of the most important church councils of the period, the Fourth Lateran Council, which met in 1215. The council enacted 70 decrees (official decisions) regulating church affairs. Innocent also encouraged the founding of the Dominican and Franciscan religious orders. Saint Dominic and Saint Francis of Assisi established these mendicant (begging) orders. The members sought to live a life of poverty in community as they preached the gospel.
Innocent’s reign led to the establishment of the religious court known as the Inquisition. The Inquisition was set up in 1231 to investigate and combat heresy. But the inquisitors often misused their power, and they had some suspects tortured or even put to death.
Scholasticism.
In the 1100’s, the system of thought called medieval scholasticism began to develop. It reached its peak in the 1200’s. Its scholars, called scholastics, tried to better understand Christian doctrine by the use of reason. The writings on logic by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle had an early influence on scholasticism. The scholastics put various doctrines and their explanations into systematic order. They also tried to resolve conflicting views in Christian theology.
The leading scholastics included Saint Albertus Magnus of Germany, Roger Bacon of England, Saint Bonaventure of Italy, and especially Saint Thomas Aquinas of Italy. The center of scholasticism was the University of Paris, where Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas taught.
Boniface VIII
became pope in 1294. He tried to unify the Christian world more closely under the papacy. Boniface insisted that kings of individual nations were subject to the Holy Roman emperor and that the emperor’s power, in turn, came from the pope. In 1302, Boniface issued a bull (papal decree) called Unam sanctam. The bull declared that, for salvation, every human being must be subject to the pope. The bull angered the French king, Philip IV, who said Boniface was trying to claim authority over the French king and the French people.
The Avignon papacy.
In 1309, Pope Clement V moved from Rome to Avignon, in what is now France. The popes did not return to Rome until 1377. One reason that the popes lived in Avignon was that they wished to avoid the civil wars that were disrupting Italy in the 1300’s. Also, the popes came to be increasingly influenced by the powerful French kings. During the Avignon period, papal reform efforts continued, and the church sent missionaries to Asia and encouraged the expansion of universities. But hostility against a French-dominated papacy began to grow outside of France.
The Great Schism.
From 1378 to 1417, a controversy called the Great Schism deeply divided the church. During this time, candidates from Avignon and Rome both claimed to be the rightful pope. In 1409, the Council of Pisa tried to resolve the dispute but instead created a third claim to the office. Each of the three men demanded obedience from the Christian faithful, which caused much confusion and doubt.
In 1417, bishops and other high-ranking clergymen meeting at the Council of Constance finally ended the Great Schism by electing a fourth man, Martin V, as the single rightful pope. But the controversy had caused damage within the church. For example, reform efforts had been slowed. A conflict also had developed over the idea that a general council of bishops had greater authority than the pope.
The close of the Middle Ages.
From the 1300’s through the 1500’s, medieval Europe gradually gave way to modern Europe. During these 300 years, the Middle Ages overlapped a period called the Renaissance. This was a time of great cultural and intellectual activity, when ideas and customs that had been accepted for hundreds of years were questioned or swept away. The Renaissance began in Italy in the 1300’s and spread throughout Western Europe in the 1400’s and 1500’s.
The Renaissance emphasized the great dignity of humanity and the beauty of life on earth and had both good and bad effects on Catholicism. Popes supported Renaissance artists and scholars, but the papacy also suffered a moral decline. The church sponsored important historical scholarship, but the popes often became involved in Italian politics. Reform efforts within the church diminished.
Meanwhile, during the 1400’s, a revival of deep religious feeling occurred among clergy and the laity. Many Catholics expressed this feeling in emotional devotions (pious practices) to the sufferings and death of Jesus. During this time, however, piety was being divorced from its roots in theology, and theology was hardening into conflicting schools of thought and losing much of its vitality.
The Council of Florence, which began in 1438, reunited the Western Church with some Eastern churches. However, the reunification lasted only a few years. In 1453, Muslims captured Constantinople and ruled over most Eastern Christians until the 1800’s.
The Reformation.
Medieval Christian civilization ended with the Reformation, a religious revolution that gave birth to Protestantism in the 1500’s. As a result of the Reformation, Europe became divided between Roman Catholic and Protestant countries and communities.
By the early 1500’s, the conditions in the church that led to the Reformation were apparent. The papacy was dominated by temporal concerns. The Roman Curia often was corrupt. Many bishops lived like princes and neglected the faithful. A great number of clergymen were uneducated and ignored their pastoral duties. Members of religious orders had become worldly. Fear and superstition were common among the laity. The liturgy no longer held much meaning or inspiration for the people, and theology had generally become dry and unrelated to real life.
Some councils, popes, saints, scholars, and movements among the people had indeed attempted to reform the church during the late Middle Ages. However, the church remained largely unreformed.
In 1517, Martin Luther, a member of the Augustinian order, issued his famous Ninety-Five Theses in Wittenberg, Germany. The theses were statements attacking the church’s doctrine of indulgences and the abuses that arose in granting indulgences. An indulgence is a release from part or all of temporal punishment due for sin, provided that the sin has already been forgiven. The church’s doctrine on indulgences was neither understood nor practiced properly. Many preachers sold indulgences. Many people bought them from the church, hoping the indulgences would hasten the release of a dead person’s soul from purgatory. Luther’s attack on indulgences began the Reformation.
By the late 1500’s, the Reformation had divided Western Europe into Protestant and Roman Catholic lands. Catholicism was reduced primarily to the Mediterranean countries, as well as to Hungary, Poland, and small areas within the Holy Roman Empire. But while the Roman Catholic Church lost much ground in Europe to Protestantism, it achieved enormous success in other parts of the world. Beginning in the 1500’s, Catholic missionaries converted many people in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
The Counter Reformation,
also known as the Catholic Reformation, was a reform movement within Catholicism that increased in intensity as the church reacted to the Protestant Reformation. It took place during the 1500’s and 1600’s.
Beginning in the 1520’s, such reform popes as Adrian VI, Paul III, and especially Paul IV concentrated on correcting abuses in the Roman Curia and hierarchy. By the end of the reign of Saint Pius V in 1572, the papacy had clearly committed itself to church reform.
A leading force in the Counter Reformation was the Society of Jesus, commonly called the Jesuits. Saint Ignatius Loyola founded the Jesuits in 1534, and Paul III confirmed the order in 1540. Loyola did not found the Jesuits specifically to counteract Protestantism. But the order proved well equipped for the task. The Jesuits were flexible, practical, and completely at the pope’s service. They revived Catholicism both intellectually and spiritually. To a large extent, the Jesuits helped halt the advance of Protestantism, even regaining vast areas that had come under Protestant influence in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, and eastern and central Europe.
Perhaps the greatest single force in renewing Catholic life and worship was the Council of Trent (1545-1563). The council issued decrees on the Mass and other areas of doctrine and discipline that eliminated much confusion within the church. Its decrees on such topics as the training of priests and the granting of indulgences reformed church life wherever they were put into effect.
The Counter Reformation drew strength from the spiritual renewal led by Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross. It found artistic expression in the baroque churches and monasteries built during this period and in the polyphonic music composed for religious services by the Italian composer Giovanni Palestrina and the English composer William Byrd. Baroque architecture is characterized by curved forms and lavish ornamentation. Polyphonic music has two or more voice parts with independent melodies that harmonize.
A number of religious and political wars broke out during the Counter Reformation. Between 1562 and 1598, the Catholic majority in France and French Protestants called Huguenots fought eight civil wars called the Wars of Religion. The Thirty Years’ War destroyed much of Germany. It began as a civil war between Protestants and Catholics in the German states but eventually involved most European countries. The Peace of Westphalia, which ended the war in 1648, declared that the people of each state must follow the religion of their ruler. This principle greatly weakened the Holy Roman Empire. It also ended the medieval idea of a Christian commonwealth of nations harmoniously directed by the supreme authority of pope and emperor.
Catholic revival in France.
Perhaps the most outstanding example of church renewal in the 1600’s occurred in France. Several people especially helped to create this renewal. Saint Francis de Sales, bishop of Geneva, inspired many Christians by his uniting of humanism and piety. Saint Vincent de Paul devoted his life to serving the poor. He founded the Vincentians, an order of missionary priests to country districts in France. Saint Louise de Marillac worked with Vincent de Paul in assisting the needy. She was one of many women who helped restore a sense of charity and deep religious feeling to both convent and Catholic family life.
During the 1600’s, several French clergymen founded religious institutes that helped inspire a new emphasis on spirituality in the priesthood. Cardinal Pierre de Berulle established the French Oratory in 1611. Jean Jacques Olier founded the Company of Saint Sulpice in 1642, and Saint John Eudes established the Congregation of Jesus and Mary in 1643.
Gallicanism.
The period from the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648 to the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789-1799) has been called the Revolt of the Catholic Kings. The period was marked by quarrels between church and state, especially over Gallicanism—the view that the authority of national churches should be increased at the expense of papal authority.
Gallicanism developed in France, and the dispute over it became most critical there. King Louis XIV and Pope Innocent XI quarreled over Louis’s attempts to increase his influence in French religious affairs. The quarrel led many French clergymen to adopt doctrines that the papacy would not accept. For example, some French clergymen believed that a general church council was superior to the pope. Although the controversy died down in the 1690’s, the French clergy remained anti-Roman for many years.
Gallicanism, with its emphasis on nationalism, became popular in every European country ruled by a Catholic monarch. During the late 1700’s, the Holy Roman emperor, Joseph II, tried to separate the Catholic Church in Austria from Rome. Joseph considered the church a department of state whose task was to promote morality. He controlled all levels of the clergy and even interfered with the liturgy. Rulers in Naples, Sardinia, Spain, and Venice followed Joseph’s example.
Jansenism.
While the church faced challenges from Catholic rulers, it also was disrupted from within by theological disputes. The most serious dispute was over a religious movement known as Jansenism. Jansenism arose in France in the mid-1600’s. It was based on the writings of Cornelius Jansen, bishop of Ypres, Belgium. Jansen developed doctrines on divine grace that played down human freedom and denied that Jesus Christ died for all humanity. The church attacked some Jansenist doctrines as heresy.
The movement tore Catholic France apart. It divided many French bishops from Rome and even attracted the attention of Kings Louis XIV and Louis XV. The Catholic philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal became a leading spokesman for Jansenism and a fierce critic of the Jesuits, who spoke against it. Three popes condemned Jansenism—Innocent X in 1653, Alexander VII in 1656, and Clement XI in 1713. But their condemnation only fueled the controversy.
Jansenism finally began to lose influence in the 1730’s. But its harsh theology and its understanding of human nature as thoroughly corrupted by sin and subject to divine punishment still influence some Catholics today.
The Enlightenment
was a period during which philosophers emphasized the use of reason as the one sure method of learning truth. The Enlightenment lasted from the late 1600’s to the late 1700’s. During this time, many people attacked organized religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular. They claimed that the church favored obedience to authority over individual freedom and that it sacrificed reason to tradition. They also believed that the Catholic clergy’s obedience to Rome violated national sovereignty. The leaders of the period included such French intellectuals as Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Voltaire.
Suppression of the Jesuits.
During the middle and late 1700’s, several nations banned the Jesuit Order from their country and colonies. Portugal banned the Jesuits in 1759, France in 1764, and Spain in 1767. In 1773, pressure from Catholic rulers helped force Pope Clement XIV to suppress the Jesuits in all countries.
The Jesuits were banned for several reasons. Some Catholic rulers and churchmen were jealous of the order’s influence. Some accused the Jesuits of accumulating too much power and wealth. Gallicans opposed the order’s total obedience to the pope, and Jansenists objected to the order’s emphasis on human freedom.
The suppression of the Jesuits was never completely effective. For example, the order survived in Russia through the friendship of Empress Catherine the Great. Pope Pius VII lifted the ban in 1814. But the suppression caused a severe setback in Catholic education and missionary activity.
The decline of church influence.
The forces of democracy and nationalism swept across Europe from the start of the French Revolution through the 1800’s. These forces often were accompanied by fierce opposition to the Roman Catholic Church because the church was viewed as a supporter of the traditional order.
The church suffered enormous losses as a result of the French Revolution. For example, many of the great abbeys of Europe disappeared, and with them the influence of the monastic orders as centers of scholarship and spiritual renewal. Catholic influence over public life was severely lessened, often by civil laws. Catholic universities yielded to state-sponsored education. Theology came to be studied mostly in seminaries rather than in universities, and it became increasingly separated from modern thought and problems.
In many countries, the church suffered from a shortage of priests. This was especially true in France. During the French Revolution, the church lost half its clergy. Many priests were executed or died in prison. Others left the church.
The papacy had governed certain territories called the Papal States, which were gradually absorbed by Italy. By 1870, the papacy had lost the last of the land that once made up the Papal States. The pope’s territory was reduced to Vatican City. Although that seemed at the time to be a loss, it freed the papacy from political pressures and concerns.
Although the church suffered setbacks and hostility during the 1800’s, Catholic life itself experienced renewal. The restoration of the Jesuit Order in 1814 enabled it to play a large role in that renewal. New religious orders of women became active in education in Belgium, France, and Germany. In Germany, the Congress of Mainz founded the Catholic Union in 1848. The union was an association of Catholics dedicated to promoting the ideals of their religion in social life.
Vatican Council I.
In 1846, Pius IX became pope. He ruled until 1878—the longest reign in papal history. Pius’s reign reached a high point when he summoned Vatican Council I (1869-1870). The council defined as Catholic doctrine the pope’s primacy over the whole church. It also declared him to be infallible—that is, incapable of error when, as supreme pastor of the church, he formally defines matters of faith and morals. This power rarely is called upon.
Leo XIII.
A new age of church history began after Leo XIII became pope in 1878. Leo tried to convince the governments of his time that they and the church could live in harmony. He faced especially strong antichurch feeling in Germany, France, and Italy. He succeeded in easing the German government’s restrictions against the church, but he failed in France and Italy. In fact, the French government passed new antichurch laws in 1880, including laws that expelled religious orders from France and banned religious education in the schools.
Leo sought to make the church more active in confronting issues and problems of the modern world. He began a new policy of maintaining contact between the papacy and everyday Catholic life. He established this contact through letters to the Catholic world, called encyclicals. The encyclicals dealt with such subjects as philosophy and Bible studies, theology and church law, and the relations between the state and the working class. Leo’s most important statement on social questions was the 1891 encyclical called Rerum Novarum (Of New Things), which upheld the rights of labor.
Pius X.
The papacy of Saint Pius X, which lasted from 1903 to 1914, featured the most impressive reform activity since the Council of Trent in the 1500’s. Reforms were made in such areas as liturgy, the reception of Holy Communion, seminary education, and church law.
However, Pius vigorously opposed Modernism, a movement that began in the late 1800’s among Catholic intellectuals in several European countries. Modernists desired to bring Catholic thought into what they felt was a closer relation to the knowledge and outlook of the time. A number of church leaders believed that Modernism challenged important Catholic teachings. Some other Catholics believed that the Modernists raised valid issues. Pius formally condemned Modernism, but such Modernist issues as Biblical scholarship continued to be discussed as late as the the 1960’s at Vatican Council II.
During the 1920’s and 1930’s, the church made concordats (agreements) with many nations to guarantee its freedom and its spiritual authority over Catholics in the countries involved. During this period, the church also updated its worldwide missionary activities. Meanwhile, many clergy and laity made significant contributions to learning and scholarship, especially in the areas of Bible and church history.
Facing opposition.
Throughout most of the 1900’s, the church faced hostility from European dictatorships. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, dictatorships in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union often opposed the church. After World War II (1939-1945), the church faced persecution in the Communist countries of Eastern Europe. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, Pope Pius XII worked to preserve the religious freedom of Catholics living under dictatorships. Pius’s encyclicals on the liturgy and other topics prepared the way for the reforms of Vatican Council II.
Vatican Council II.
Pope John XXIII succeeded Pius in 1958. John called Vatican Council II, which met from 1962 to 1965. The council marked a turning point in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. The council issued 16 documents that tried to give a deeper understanding of the church and its doctrines and help the church serve the needs of the modern world. These documents led to a number of reforms. These major reforms included celebration of the liturgy in the language of the people rather than in Latin, a renewed emphasis on the importance of Bible reading and study, and an encouragement of active participation of the laity in the life of the church. The council also involved the church more fully in the ecumenical movement to unite all Christians.
Paul VI,
who succeeded John XXIII in 1963, guided the council to its completion. He led the church through the turmoil of the late 1960’s, when much in society as well as the church was undergoing radical change.
Paul disheartened liberals by reaffirming the church’s traditional teaching on sexual morality in his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life). But he also promoted the council’s liturgical reforms and spoke out strongly on behalf of social justice, especially for developing nations. He directed a reform of the Roman Curia, made the College of Cardinals a more international body, and increased the number of bishops from developing countries. Paul also traveled widely. He visited the United States as well as countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
John Paul II
was elected pope in 1978. A native of Poland, he became the first non-Italian pope since the Renaissance. Many people believe he played an important part in bringing about the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
In 1983, John Paul issued a new code of church law that incorporated the reforms of Vatican Council II into the institutional life of the church. For example, the code called for an active role for lay people in parish and diocesan advisory bodies. In 1992, John Paul announced the publication of a new Catechism of the Catholic Church, a comprehensive statement of Catholic doctrine, liturgical practice, and morality. It is intended primarily for bishops for use in religious education.
John Paul traveled throughout the world, and he wrote extensively. He addressed issues of social justice in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus (Hundredth Year), written on the hundredth anniversary of Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum. He discussed principles of Catholic morality in Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth, 1993) and Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life, 1995). John Paul wished to prepare the church for the task of a new evangelization—preaching the gospel to a world he considered to be often aimless and adrift. He encouraged ecumenical dialogue with the Eastern Orthodox Churches and furthered understanding and respect between Catholics and Jews. John Paul died in 2005, ending the longest papal reign in more than 100 years.
Growth of the church outside Europe
Before the 1500’s, the Roman Catholic Church had spread to only a few areas outside Europe. But during the 1500’s, due to the activities of Catholic missionaries, the church began to take root throughout the world.
In Africa
in the 1500’s, the most successful Catholic missions were those in the Portuguese colonies of Angola, the Congo, and Mozambique. Missionaries had begun accompanying Portuguese explorers to Africa by the late 1400’s. The missions in Africa eventually declined, however, particularly because of a lack of priests. By the beginning of the 1800’s, Christianity had almost completely died out on the continent. In the mid-1800’s, many European countries started colonizing Africa, and missionary activity began again. The church eventually spread throughout the continent. Today, Africa has the fastest growing Catholic population in the world.
In Asia,
Catholic missionaries were sent to every country that European colonial interests discovered in the 1500’s. They were most successful where Spanish control was strong. In the Philippines, missionaries first arrived in 1564. By the 1800’s, the majority of the Philippine population had become Catholic.
Missionaries who reached Japan in 1549 established a Roman Catholic community in Kyushu. Japanese rulers later turned away from Western influence, and in 1614 Japanese Catholics were persecuted and killed for their faith. It was not until 1873 that religious freedom was granted once more. A small group of secret Christians survived in spite of the persecution, and the church has many members in southern Japan.
In India, Catholic missionaries, especially the Jesuit Saint Francis Xavier, established churches in Goa and surrounding areas during the early 1500’s. Goa was then a Portuguese colony. Today, the largest Indian Roman Catholic communities are in the southwestern states of Goa and Kerala.
In Latin America.
Soon after Christopher Columbus arrived in the Western Hemisphere in 1492, Spain and Portugal claimed nearly all of Latin America. Catholic missionaries accompanied Spanish and Portuguese explorers and colonists and converted most Latin American Indians.
Many natives of Latin America accepted Christianity only under pressure from colonial rulers and, in fact, still retained their old religious beliefs. As a result, the church tried to strengthen the faith of the converts. For example, it helped establish universities in Lima, Peru; Mexico City; and elsewhere. The church also recruited clergy from among Latin Americans. But the number of native-born priests proved inadequate for church needs. Catholicism in Latin America thus remained almost totally dependent on the church in Europe.
In the 1800’s, the church in Latin America declined after many colonies gained their independence from Spain and Portugal. The church had had close ties with the colonial powers, and many clergymen had opposed the independence movements. As a result, many Latin Americans became hostile toward the church, and it lost much influence in Latin American life.
In Latin America today, there is a renewal of Catholicism, mainly because bishops and priests have become involved in social problems. Following a movement called liberation theology, they have established local Christian groups, called base communities, for prayer, reflection, and social action. However, Protestantism has won many people away from Catholicism, and anticlerical feeling remains strong in many countries.
In Canada.
Canada became a flourishing territory for Catholic missionaries beginning with French colonial rule in 1534. In 1763, Canada became a British colony. Until 1774, Britain (now the United Kingdom) restricted the religious freedom of French Canadians, who were Catholics. In 1774, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act, which restored religious liberties to French Canadians.
Today, the Roman Catholic Church is the country’s largest single body of Christians. The church plays a particularly influential role in the province of Quebec, where most of the people are Catholics.
In the United States.
Spanish missions covered an immense territory from Florida to northern California. The missions of New France extended from the Great Lakes in the north, through the Mississippi Valley, and south to Louisiana. In the 13 English colonies, along the Atlantic coast, Maryland had the largest concentration of Catholics.
The mainstream of Catholic life emerged from the minority Catholics of the English colonies rather than from the state-favored Catholics of the French and Spanish colonies. Occasionally, the governments of the English colonies passed anti-Catholic legislation. But generally they followed a policy of religious freedom. This freedom and the growing separation of church and state helped make the Catholic Church acceptable to non-Catholics. In 1789, Catholic priests in the United States elected John Carroll as the country’s first bishop. Carroll established the diocese of Baltimore and the first Catholic college in the United States—Georgetown College (now Georgetown University).
During the 1800’s,
waves of immigration shaped the nature of the church in the United States. From 1790 to the mid-1860’s, more than 2 million Catholics arrived, mainly from Germany and Ireland. From 1870 to 1900, over 3 million more Catholics came, most of them from Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Poland. By 1900, Irish Americans had become the most powerful force in the church in the United States.
Some native-born Americans subjected many Catholic immigrants to a form of prejudice called nativism. They questioned the patriotism, morals, and religion of the immigrants. Nativism sometimes led to violence, such as the burning of the Ursuline convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1834. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Catholics on both sides showed such loyalty and courage that they won increased acceptance in the North and the South.
From 1865 to 1900, several conflicts developed within the church in the United States. Many Catholics believed that Catholic children should be educated in state-supported public schools. But other Catholics believed Catholic children should attend schools operated by the church. Some Catholics supported the Knights of Labor, an early labor organization. Others attacked the organization, partly because they claimed its social programs were too extreme. Conflicts sometimes broke out among the various nationalities of Catholic immigrants, especially between German Catholics and Irish Catholics.
In 1887, bishops of the United States established the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. They founded the school as the official national Roman Catholic university in the United States.
During the late 1800’s, some European Catholic leaders accused American Catholics of a tendency toward nationalism. The Europeans labeled this tendency Americanism and saw in it an attempt to dilute the church’s doctrines to make them fit modern culture. American Catholics denied the charges. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII condemned the views of Americanism without naming anyone as holding its principles.
During the 1900’s,
the church in the United States grew strong. American bishops coordinated their various activities through national meetings and, after Vatican II, established the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (now part of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops). An increasing number of American missionaries went to other lands. Catholic education, from the elementary to the university level, spread throughout the country. The study of liturgy and theology made great strides. Catholics became a powerful political factor, especially in such large cities as Boston, Chicago, and New York City. The election in 1960 of John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, as president symbolized the final assimilation of the church into American society.
Today,
concerns of the church in the United States include financial problems and a growing shortage of priests. As membership in the church has declined and donations decreased, parishes and parish schools have been forced to close or merge. Because of the shortage of men entering the priesthood, some Catholics argue that priests should be allowed to marry and that women should be eligible to become priests. Others insist such changes would be contrary to the church’s tradition.
Recent church history
Benedict XVI succeeded John Paul II as pope in 2005. Benedict, a theologian, maintained many of John Paul’s practices and held firmly to tradition.
In 2009, the Roman Catholic Church issued the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. This decree made it easier for Anglicans to convert to Catholicism, while retaining many of their Anglican traditions. At the time of the decree, the Anglican denomination had experienced serious internal conflicts about same-sex unions and the ordination of women and gay people.
Benedict XVI resigned as pope in 2013, citing his advanced age. He was the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, succeeded Benedict as Pope Francis. He became the first Latin American pope. As pope, Francis continued to support traditional church doctrine. However, he promoted the idea of a warmer, more welcoming church. In 2016, Francis became the first pope to meet with a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Christian church split in 1054 over differences and developed into the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. 
In the early 2000’s, charges and convictions of sexual misconduct committed by clergy members shook the church. In some cases, senior church officials had failed to discipline or remove the offenders, or had helped to conceal abuse. Catholic authorities took steps to address past wrongs and prevent further abuses. For example, in 2015, Pope Francis set up a Vatican tribunal to judge church leaders accused of overlooking or concealing sexual abuse. And in 2019, he issued new laws requiring Vatican and church officials, clerics, and religious (monks and nuns) to report accusations and cover-ups of abuse by the clergy.
In 2023, the Vatican formally rejected the “doctrine of discovery,” a legal and political concept used by colonizing nations to justify taking over Indigenous (native) peoples’ lands. This concept had a basis in several bulls (papal decrees) from the 1400’s.
