Catholic Churches - The history of a religion
The Catholic Church is the largest body of Christians in the world. Based on the latest information available, it has about 1 billion members worldwide. The majority of Roman Catholic churches can be found in Europe, North America, and South America. While the number of the Catholic churches in Africa and Asia is steadily growing.
The Roman Catholic churches trace their beginnings to about 30 A.D. Roman Catholics believe that Jesus the Christ was crucified and rose from the dead. They believe Jesus sent and instructed His apostles to establish The Church.
The Pope serves as the head of the Roman Catholic Churches and oversees the church from Vatican City. Other bishops under the Pope oversee the local church around the world. Priests serve in the Catholic Churches, often called a parish that serves the congregation and trains its members according to the Holy Scriptures. They set the guidelines of marriage and daily life for the faithful to follow.
Throughout history, Catholic Churches have greatly influenced world events and became a vital power that influenced political events.
Monasteries were used mainly as seminaries to train men in the Christian faith. They produced missionaries that traveled to Africa, Asia, and the Americas, to establish new ones.
As Catholic Churches spread the Christian faith to various regions, it became difficult to maintain the same understanding among various people. Early Christianity suffered from disagreements concerning the divine nature of Jesus and the understanding of the Trinity. Centuries of these disagreements resulted in a crisis which caused two divisions of the church in 1054 to what came to be known as Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Centuries later, Catholicism further split with the Reformation in 16th-century Europe. The new terms were Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. All along the way, the papacy sought to strengthen its central governing authority.
For Catholics, the branches of the Church are now called the Latin Church and the Eastern Church. There are two separate codes of canon law, one for the Oriental, or Eastern Church in union with Rome and another for the Latin, or Western Church, better known as the Catholic Churches. Each of these entities recognizes the pope in Rome as the supreme authority governing them. St. John Paul being the Catholic Churches most beloved Pope in history.
Today, those in unity with Rome are rediscovering their common ancestry. While their practice in the West is fairly uniform, the East practices a complex pattern of governing and laws this is linked to both history and geography.