Part of a series on
Christianity
Christians hold Jesus to be Christ
Jesus · Christ Virgin birth Crucifixion Resurrection Easter Jesus in Christianity
Bible / Foundations Old Testament New Testament Gospel Books Canon (Christian canons) Apocrypha Apostles Church Creeds Kingdom New Covenant
Theology Apologetics Baptism Christology Father Son Holy Spirit History of theology Salvation Trinity Ten Commandments
History and traditions Timeline Mary Peter Paul Fathers Early Constantine the Great Ecumenical councils Missions East–West Schism Crusades Protestant Reformation
General topics Art Criticism Ecumenism Liturgical year Liturgy Music Other religions Prayer Sermon Symbolism
Denominations Western Christianity Adventist Anabaptist Anglican Baptist Calvinism Evangelicalism Holiness Independent Catholic Lutheran Methodist Old Catholic Protestant Pentecostal Roman Catholic Eastern Christianity Eastern Orthodox Eastern Catholic Oriental Orthodox (Miaphysite) Assyrian Nontrinitarianism Jehovah's Witness Latter Day Saint Unitarian Christadelphian Oneness Pentecostal
Christianity portal
v t e

Part of a series on
Universalism
General concepts
Universalism Universal reconciliation Apocatastasis
Groups
Christian Universalism Catholicism ("universalism") Unitarian Universalism Trinitarian Universalism
v t e

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.^[1][2]

For many the term usually refers to Christians and churches, western and eastern, in full communion with the Holy See, known alternatively as the Catholic Church or as the Roman Catholic Church.^[3] However, many others use the term to refer to other 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 Protestantism, which tends to look solely to the Bible as interpreted on the principles of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation as its ultimate standard.^[4] It was thus used by the Oxford Movement.^[5]

According to Richard McBrien, 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.^[1] According to Orthodox leaders like Bishop Kallistos Ware, the Orthodox Church has these things as well, though the primacy of the See of Rome is only honorific, showing non-jurisdictional respect for the Bishop of Rome as the "first among equals" and "Patriarch of the West".^[6] Catholicism, according to McBrien's paradigm, includes a monastic life, religious institutes, a religious appreciation of the arts, a communal understanding of sin and redemption, and missionary activity.^[7]

[edit] History of the term Catholic

The earliest recorded evidence of the use of the term Catholic Church is the Letter to the Smyrnaeans that Ignatius of Antioch wrote in about 107 to Christians in Smyrna. Exhorting Christians to remain closely united with their bishop, he wrote: "Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."^[8][9] Numerous other early writers including Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315–386), Augustine of Hippo (354–430) and others further developed the use of the term "catholic" in relation to Christianity.

Divergent interpretations[link]

Many individual Christians and Christian denominations consider themselves "catholic" on the basis, in particular, of Apostolic Succession. They fall into five groups:

1. The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, considers full communion with the Bishop of Rome an essential element of Catholicism. Its constituent particular Churches (Western and Eastern) have distinct and separate jurisdictions, while still being "in union with Rome."^[10]
2. Those, like the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, that claim unbroken Apostolic Succession from the early Church and identify themselves as the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox, but not the Oriental, see themselves (along with the See of Rome) as part of a patriarchal first-millennium structure that developed in the East into the theory of the five patriarchal sees, but not in the West, which preferred the theory of the three Petrine sees of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch.^{[11][12][13][14]} The title, "Patriarch of the West", was rarely used by the popes until the 16th and 17th centuries, and was included in the Annuario Pontificio from 1863 to 2005, being dropped in the following year as never very clear, and having become over history "obsolete and practically unusable".^[13][14]
3. Those, like the Old Catholic, Anglican, and some Lutheran and other denominations, that claim unbroken Apostolic Succession from the early Church, and see themselves as a constituent part of the Church.
4. Those who claim to be spiritual descendants of the Apostles but have no discernible institutional descent from the historic Church, and normally do not refer to themselves as catholic.
5. Those who have acknowledged a break in Apostolic Succession, but have restored it in order to be in full communion with bodies that have maintained the practice. Examples in this category include the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada vis-à-vis their Anglican and Old Catholic counterparts.

For some confessions listed under category 3, the self-affirmation refers to the belief in the ultimate unity of the universal church under one God and one Saviour, rather than in one visibly unified institution (as with category 1, above). In this usage, "catholic" is sometimes written with a lower-case "c". The Western Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, stating "I believe in ... one holy catholic ... church", are recited in worship services. Among some denominations in category 3, "Christian" is substituted for "catholic" in order to denote the doctrine that the Christian Church is, at least ideally, undivided.^{[15][16][not in citation given][17]}

Catholic Church use[link]

The Catholic Church considers Protestant and Anglican Christians who are not in communion with the See of Rome to be "non-Catholics". It does not consider their churches to be genuine churches and so uses the term "ecclesial communities" to refer to them. It considers a "valid episcopate" and Eucharist as necessary prerequsites for being a church. Because the Roman Catholic Church does not consider these church bodies to have valid episcopal orders capable of celebrating a valid Eucharist, it does not classify them as churches "in the proper sense".^[18][19][20] Those churches not in communion with the Holy See which consider themselves to be "Catholic" define the word as meaning an adherence to the ancient Catholic beliefs and practices, absent any more recent addition of a requirement for union with the Holy See.

Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches[link]

The Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches together form the "Catholic Church",^[21] or "Roman Catholic Church",^[22] the world's largest single religious body and the largest Christian church, comprising over half of all Christians (1.1 billion Christians of 2.1 billion) and nearly one-sixth of the world's population.^{[23][24][25][26]} Richard McBrien would put the proportion even higher, extending it to those who are in communion with the Bishop of Rome only in "degrees".^[27] It comprises 23 component "particular churches" (also called "rites" in the Second Vatican Council's Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches),^[28] all of which acknowledge a primacy of jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome^[29] and are in full communion with the Holy See and each other.

These particular churches or component parts are the Latin Rite or Western Church (which uses a number of different liturgical rites, of which the Roman Rite is the best known) and 22 Eastern Catholic Churches. Of the latter particular churches, 14 use the Byzantine liturgical rite.^[30] Within the Church as a whole, each "particular Church", whether Eastern or Western, is of equal dignity.^[31] Finally, in its official documents, the Church, though made up of several particular Churches, "continues to refer to itself as the 'Catholic Church'"^[32] or, less frequently but consistently, as the 'Roman Catholic Church', owing to its essential^[22] link with the Bishop of Rome.^[33]

McBrien, in his book Catholicism, disagrees with the Church's usage of referring to itself as "Roman Catholic", saying: "But is 'Catholic' synonymous with 'Roman Catholic'? And is it accurate to refer to the Roman Catholic Church as simply the 'Roman Church'? The answer to both questions is no. The adjective 'Roman' applies more properly to the diocese, or see, of Rome than to the worldwide Communion of Catholic Churches that is in union with the Bishop of Rome. Indeed, it strikes some Catholics as contradictory to call the Church 'Catholic' and 'Roman' at one and the same time. Eastern-rite Catholics, of whom there are more than twenty million, also find the adjective 'Roman' objectionable. In addition to the Latin, or Roman, tradition, there are seven non-Latin, non-Roman ecclesial traditions: Armenian, Byzantine, Coptic, Ethiopian, East Syrian (Chaldean), West Syrian, and Maronite. Each to the Churches with these non-Latin traditions is as Catholic as the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, not all Catholics are Roman Catholic." Thus "to be Catholic—whether Roman or non-Roman—in the ecclesiological sense is to be in full communion with the Bishop of Rome and as such to be an integral part of the Catholic Communion of Churches."^[34]

In spite of McBrien's affirmation that, on an official level, what he calls the "Communion of Catholic Churches" always refers to itself as "The Catholic Church",^[35] the term "Roman Catholic Church" is in fact, as seen above, used by Popes and departments of the Holy See. The Latin-Rite Archdiocese of Detroit lists eight Eastern (Catholic) Churches, each with its own bishop, as having one or more parishes in what is also the territory of the Latin archdiocese, yet each is designated as being in "full communion with the Roman Church."^[36] -->

Other traditions[link]

Within Western Christianity, the churches of the Anglican Communion, Continuing Anglicanism, the Old Catholics, the Liberal Catholic Church, the Apostolic Catholic Church (ACC), the Aglipayans (Philippine Independent Church), the African Orthodox Church, the Polish National Catholic Church of America, and many Independent Catholic Churches, which emerged directly or indirectly from and have beliefs and practices largely similar to Latin Rite Catholicism, regard themselves as "Catholic" without full communion with the Bishop of Rome, whose claimed status and authority they generally reject. The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, a division of the People's Republic of China's Religious Affairs Bureau exercising state supervision over mainland China's Catholics, holds a similar position, while attempting, as with Buddhism and Protestantism, to indoctrinate and mobilize for Communist Party objectives.^[37]

Anglicanism[link]

Introductory works on Anglicanism, such as The Study of Anglicanism, typically refer to the character of the Anglican tradition as "Catholic and Reformed",^[38] which is in keeping with the understanding of Anglicanism articulated in the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 and in the works of the earliest standard Anglican divines such as Richard Hooker and Lancelot Andrewes. Yet different strains in Anglicanism, dating back to the English Reformation, have emphasized either the Reformed, Catholic, or "Reformed Catholic" nature of the tradition.

Anglican theology and ecclesiology has thus come to be typically expressed in three distinct, yet sometimes overlapping manifestations: Anglo-Catholicism (often called "high church"), Evangelicalism (often called "low church"), and Latitudinarianism ("broad church"), whose beliefs and practices fall somewhere between the two. Though all elements within the Anglican Communion recite the same creeds, Evangelical Anglicans generally regard the word catholic in the ideal sense given above. In contrast, Anglo-Catholics regard the communion as a component of the whole Catholic Church, in spiritual and historical union with the Roman Catholic, Old Catholic and several Eastern churches. Broad Church Anglicans tend to maintain a mediating view, or consider the matter one of adiaphora. These Anglicans, for example, have agreed in the Porvoo Agreement to interchangeable ministries and full eucharistic communion with Lutherans.^[39][40]

The Catholic nature or strain of the Anglican tradition is expressed doctrinally, ecumenically (chiefly through organisations such as the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission), ecclesiologically (through its episcopal governance and maintenance of the historical episcopate), and in liturgy and piety. Anglicans (except neo-evangelicals) maintain belief in the Seven Sacraments. Many Anglo-Catholics practice Marian devotion, recite the rosary and the angelus, practice Eucharistic adoration, and seek the intercession of saints. In terms of liturgy, most Anglicans use candles on the altar and many churches use incense and sanctus bells in the Eucharist, which is often referred to by the Latin-derived word "Mass" used in the first prayer book and in the American Prayer Book of 1979. In numerous churches the Eucharist is celebrated facing the altar (often with a tabernacle) by a priest assisted by a deacon and subdeacon. Anglicans believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. However different Eucharistic rites or orders contain different, if not necessarily contradictory, understandings of salvation. For this reason, no single strain or manifestation of Anglicanism can speak for the whole, even in ecumenical statements (as issued, for example, by the Anglican - Roman Catholic International Commission).^[41][42][43]

The growth of Anglo-Catholicism is strongly associated with the Oxford Movement of the 19th century. Two of its leading lights, John Henry Newman and Henry Edward Manning, both priests, ended up joining the Roman Catholic Church, becoming cardinals. Others, like John Keble, Edward Bouverie Pusey, and Charles Gore became influential figures in Anglicanism. The current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is a patron of the Anglican organisation, Affirming Catholicism, a more liberal movement within Catholic Anglicanism. Conservative Catholic groups also exist within the tradition, such as Forward in Faith. There are about 80 million Anglicans in the Anglican Communion, comprising 3.6% of global Christianity.^[44]

Protestantism[link]

There are Catholic groups among the traditional Protestant churches. For example, the 20th century "High Church Lutheranism" movement developed an Evangelical Catholicity, combining justification by faith with Catholic doctrine on sacraments, in some cases also restoring lacking Apostolic Succession, especially in Germany. Certain Lutheran churches, incluiding the Church of Sweden and several small American churches of recent origin — such as the Lutheran Orthodox Church and the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church- consider themselves to be Catholic.

In Reformed churches there is a Scoto-Catholic grouping within the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Such groups point to their churches' continuing adherence to the "Catholic" doctrine of the early Church Councils. The Articles Declaratory of the Constitution of the Church of Scotland of 1921 defines that church legally as "part of the Holy Catholic or Universal Church".^[38]

Brief organizational history of the Church[link]

Ancient statue of Saint Peter in the Basilica dedicated to him in the Vatican.

According to the theory of Pentarchy, the early Catholic Church came to be organised under the three patriarchs of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch, to which later were added the patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem. The Bishop of Rome was at that time recognized as first among them, as is stated, for instance, in canon 3 of the First Council of Constantinople (381)—many interpret "first" as meaning here first among equals—and doctrinal or procedural disputes were often referred to Rome, as when, on appeal by St Athanasius against the decision of the Council of Tyre (335), Pope Julius I, who spoke of such appeals as customary, annulled the action of that council and restored Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra to their sees.^[45] The Bishop of Rome was also considered to have the right to convene ecumenical councils. When the Imperial capital moved to Constantinople, Rome's influence was sometimes challenged. Nonetheless, Rome claimed special authority because of its connection to Saint Peter^[46][47] and Saint Paul, who, all agreed, were martyred and buried in Rome, and because the Bishop of Rome saw himself as the successor of Saint Peter.

The 431 Council of Ephesus, the Third Ecumenical Council, was chiefly concerned with Nestorianism, which emphasised the distinction between the humanity and divinity of Jesus and taught that, in giving birth to Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary could not be spoken of as giving birth to God. This Council rejected Nestorianism and affirmed that, as humanity and divinity are inseparable in the one person of Jesus Christ, his mother, the Virgin Mary, is thus Theotokos, God-bearer, Mother of God. The first great rupture in the Church followed this Council. Those who refused to accept the Council's ruling were largely Persian and are represented today by the Assyrian Church of the East and related Churches, which, however, do not now hold a "Nestorian" theology. They are often called Ancient Oriental Churches.

The next major break was after the Council of Chalcedon (451). This Council repudiated Eutychian Monophysitism which stated that the divine nature completely subsumed the human nature in Christ. This Council declared that Christ, though one person, exhibited two natures "without confusion, without change, without division, without separation" and thus is both fully God and fully human. The Alexandrian Church rejected the terms adopted by this Council, and the Christian Churches that follow the tradition of non-acceptance of the Council—they are not Monophysite in doctrine—are referred to as Pre-Chalcedonian or Oriental Orthodox Churches.

The next great rift within Christianity was in the 11th century. Longstanding doctrinal disputes, as well as conflicts between methods of Church government, and the evolution of separate rites and practices, precipitated a split in 1054 that divided the Church, this time between a "West" and an "East". England, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Poland, Bohemia, Slovakia, Scandinavia, the Baltic countries, and Western Europe in general were in the Western camp, and Greece, Romania, Russia and many other Slavic lands, Anatolia, and the Christians in Syria and Egypt who accepted the Council of Chalcedon made up the Eastern camp. This division between the Western Church and the Eastern Church is called the East-West Schism.

The fourth major division in the Church occurred in the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation, after which many parts of the Western Church either entirely rejected the teachings and structure of the Western Church at that time and became known as "Reformed" or "Protestant", or else repudiated papal authority and the teaching office in the Western Church for the authority of a civil ruler in religious matters (e.g., in Anglicanism and parts of the Lutheran Church).

A much less extensive rupture occurred when, after the Roman Catholic Church's First Vatican Council, in which it officially proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility, small clusters of Catholics in the Netherlands and in German-speaking countries formed the Old-Catholic (Altkatholische) Church.

Distinctive beliefs and practices[link]

Due to the divergent interpretations of the word "Catholicism", any listing of beliefs and practices that distinguish Catholicism from other forms of Christianity must be preceded by an indication of the sense employed. If Catholicism is understood as the Roman Catholic Church understands it, identification of beliefs is relatively easy, though preferred expressions of the beliefs vary, especially between the Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches of Greek tradition, and the other Eastern Catholic Churches. Liturgical and canonical practices vary between all these particular Churches constituting the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches (or, as Richard McBrien calls them, the "Communion of Catholic Churches").^[48]

In the understanding of another Church that identifies Catholicism with itself, such as the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, clear identification of certain beliefs may sometimes be more difficult, because of the lack of a central authority like that of the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches. On the other hand, practices are more uniform, as indicated, for instance, in the single liturgical rite employed, in various languages, within the Eastern Orthodox Church, in contrast to the variety of liturgical rites in the Roman Catholic Church. In all these cases the beliefs and practices of Catholicism would be identical with the beliefs and practices of the Church in question.

If Catholicism is extended to cover all who consider themselves spiritual descendants of the Apostles, a search for beliefs and practices that distinguish it from other forms of Christianity would be meaningless.

If Catholicism is understood in the sense given to the word by those who use it to distinguish their position from a Calvinistic or Puritan form of Protestantism it is then meaningful to attempt to draw up a list of common characteristic beliefs and practices of Catholicism. In this interpretation, evidently shared neither by the churches of the first millennium, nor by those that claim merely spiritual descent, Catholicism could include the Roman Catholic Church, the various Churches of Eastern Christianity, the Old Catholic Church, Anglicanism, and at least some of the "independent Catholic Churches" and, again in this interpretation, the beliefs and practices of Catholicism include:

• Direct and continuous organizational descent from the original church founded by Jesus^{[Matthew 16:18]}, who, according to tradition, designated the Apostle Peter as its first leader.^[49]
• Belief that Jesus Christ is Divine, a doctrine officially clarified in the First Council of Nicea and expressed in the Nicene Creed.
• Transubstantiation, the belief that the elements in the Eucharist become really, truly, the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ at consecration, resulting in the Real Presence of Christ, and that, because Christ himself is present in the sacrament, he is to be honoured in it with the worship known as Eucharistic adoration.^[50]
• Possession of the "threefold ordained ministry" of Bishops, Priests and Deacons.
• All ministers are ordained by, and subject to, Bishops, who pass down sacramental authority by the "laying-on of hands", having themselves been ordained in a direct line of succession from the Apostles (see Apostolic Succession).
• Belief that the Church is the vessel and deposit of the fullness of the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles from which the Scriptures were formed. This teaching is preserved in both written scripture and in unwritten tradition, neither being independent of the other.
• A belief in the necessity and efficacy of sacraments.
• The use of sacred images, candles, vestments and music, and often incense and water, in worship.
• Veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus as the Blessed Virgin Mary or Theotokos (i.e., "God-bearer" or "Mother of God"), and veneration of the saints.
• A distinction between adoration (latria) for God, and veneration (dulia) for saints. The term hyperdulia is used for a special veneration accorded to the Virgin Mary among the saints.
• The use of prayer for the dead.
• The acceptance of canonizations.
• Requests to the departed saints for intercessory prayers.

Sacraments or sacred mysteries[link]

Churches in the Catholic tradition administer seven sacraments or "sacred mysteries": Baptism, Confirmation or Chrismation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. In some Catholic churches this number is regarded as a convention only.

In Catholicism, a sacrament is considered to be an efficacious visible sign of God's invisible grace. While the word mystery is used not only of these rites, but also with other meanings with reference to revelations of and about God and to God's mystical interaction with creation, the word sacrament (Latin: a solemn pledge), the usual term in the West, refers specifically to these rites.

• Baptism - the first sacrament of Christian initiation, the basis for all the other sacraments. Churches in the Catholic tradition consider baptism conferred in most Christian denominations "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (cf. Matthew 28:19) to be valid, since the effect is produced through the sacrament, independently of the faith of the minister, though not of the minister's intention. This is not necessarily the case in other churches. As stated in the Nicene Creed, Baptism is "for the forgiveness of sins", not only personal sins, but also of original sin, which it remits even in infants who have committed no actual sins. Expressed positively, forgiveness of sins means bestowal of the sanctifying grace by which the baptized person shares the life of God. The initiate "puts on Christ" (Galatians 3:27), and is "buried with him in baptism ... also raised with him through faith in the working of God" (Colossians 2:12).

• Confirmation or Chrismation - the second sacrament of Christian initiation, the means by which the gift of the Holy Spirit conferred in baptism is "strengthened and deepened" (see, for example, Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1303) by a sealing. In the Western tradition it is usually a separate rite from baptism, bestowed, following a period of education called catechesis, on those who have at least reached the age of discretion (about 7)^[51] and sometimes postponed until an age when the person is considered capable of making a mature independent profession of faith. It is considered to be of a nature distinct from the anointing with chrism (also called myrrh) that is usually part of the rite of baptism and that is not seen as a separate sacrament. In the Eastern tradition it is usually conferred in conjunction with baptism, as its completion, but is sometimes administered separately to converts or those who return to Orthodoxy. Some theologies consider this to be the outward sign of the inner "Baptism of the Holy Spirit", the special gifts (or charismata) of which may remain latent or become manifest over time according to God's will. Its "originating" minister is a validly consecrated bishop; if a priest (a "presbyter") confers the sacrament (as is permitted in some Catholic churches) the link with the higher order is indicated by the use of chrism blessed by a bishop. (In an Eastern Orthodox Church, this is customarily, although not necessarily, done by the primate of the local autocephalous church.)

• Eucharist - the sacrament (the third of Christian initiation) by which the faithful receive their ultimate "daily bread", or "bread for the journey", by partaking of and in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and being participants in Christ's one eternal sacrifice. The bread and wine used in the rite are, according to Catholic faith, in the mystical action of the Holy Spirit, transformed to be Christ's Body and Blood—his Real Presence. This transformation is interpreted by some as transubstantiation or metousiosis, by others as consubstantiation or Sacramental Union.

• Penance (also called Confession and Reconciliation) - the first of the two sacraments of healing. It is also called the sacrament of conversion, of forgiveness, and of absolution. It is the sacrament of spiritual healing of a baptized person from the distancing from God involved in actual sins committed. It involves the penitent's contrition for sin (without which the rite does not have its effect), confession (which in highly exceptional circumstances can take the form of a corporate general confession) to a minister who has the faculty to exercise the power to absolve the penitent,^[52] and absolution by the minister. In some traditions (such as the Roman Catholic), the rite involves a fourth element – satisfaction – which is defined as signs of repentance imposed by the minister. In early Christian centuries, the fourth element was quite onerous and generally preceded absolution, but now it usually involves a simple task (in some traditions called a "penance") for the penitent to perform, to make some reparation and as a medicinal means of strengthening against further sinning.

• Anointing of the Sick (or Unction) - the second sacrament of healing. In it those who are suffering an illness are anointed by a priest with oil consecrated by a bishop specifically for that purpose. In past centuries, when such a restrictive interpretation was customary, the sacrament came to be known as "Extreme Unction", i.e. "Final Anointing", as it still is among traditionalist Catholics. It was then conferred only as one of the "Last Rites". The other "Last Rites" are Penance (if the dying person is physically unable to confess, at least absolution, conditional on the existence of contrition, is given), and the Eucharist, which, when administered to the dying, is known as "Viaticum", a word whose original meaning in Latin was "provision for a journey".

• Holy Orders - the sacrament which integrates someone into the Holy Orders of bishops, priests (presbyters), and deacons, the threefold order of "administrators of the mysteries of God" (1 Corinthians 4:1), giving the person the mission to teach, sanctify, and govern. Only a bishop may administer this sacrament, as only a bishop holds the fullness of the Apostolic Ministry. Ordination as a bishop makes one a member of the body that has succeeded to that of the Apostles. Ordination as a priest configures a person to Christ the Head of the Church and the one essential Priest, empowering that person, as the bishops' assistant and vicar, to preside at the celebration of divine worship, and in particular to confect the sacrament of the Eucharist, acting "in persona Christi" (in the person of Christ). Ordination as a deacon configures the person to Christ the Servant of All, placing the deacon at the service of the Church, especially in the fields of the ministry of the Word, service in divine worship, pastoral guidance and charity. Deacons may later be further ordained to the priesthood, but only if they do not have a wife. In some traditions (such as those of the Roman Catholic Church), while married men may be ordained, ordained men may not marry. In others (such as the Anglican), clerical marriage is permitted, as is the ordination of women.^[53] Moreover, some sectors of Anglicanism "in isolation of the whole" have approved the ordination of openly active homosexuals to the priesthood and episcopacy, in spite of the support that Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, voiced for the Anglican Church's teaching on homosexuality, which he said the Church "could not change simply because of a shift in society's attitude", noting also that those churches blessing same-sex unions and consecrating openingly gay bishops would not be able "to take part as a whole in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue." Thus in ecumenical matters, only if the Roman Catholic as well as Orthodox churches come to an understanding with first tier or primary bishops of the Anglican Communion can those churches (representing 95% of global Catholicism) implement an agreement with second tier or secondary Anglican bishops and their respective Anglican communities.^{[54][55][56][57]}

• Holy Matrimony (or Marriage) - is the sacrament of joining a man and a woman (according to the churches' doctrines) for mutual help and love (the unitive purpose), consecrating them for their particular mission of building up the Church and the world, and providing grace for accomplishing that mission. Western tradition sees the sacrament as conferred by the canonically expressed mutual consent of the partners in marriage; Eastern and some recent Western theologians not in communion with the see of Rome view the blessing by a priest as constituting the sacramental action.

See also[link]

Catholicism portal

• Four Marks of the Church
• Religious Orders
• Anglican Catholic Church
• Anglican Church in North America
• Arianism
• Evangelical Catholic
• Global Anglican Future Conference
• Neo-Lutheranism
• Porvoo Agreement
• Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus
• Traditionalist Catholic
• Criticism of the Catholic Church
• Anti-Catholicism

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam by Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Basic Books, 0465006345, 2006).
• Catechism of the Catholic Church English translation (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000). ISBN 1-57455-110-8
• H. W. Crocker III, Triumph—The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church: A 2,000-Year History (Prima Publishing, 2001). ISBN 0-7615-2924-1
• Leo J. Trese, The Faith Explained Third Edition (Fides/Claretian, 2001). ISBN 1-889334-29-4
• Eamon Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes (Yale Nota Bene, 2002). ISBN 0-300-09165-6
• K. O. Johnson, Why Do Catholics Do That? (Ballantine, 1994). ISBN 0-345-39726-6
• Ludwig von Pastor, History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages; Drawn from the Secret Archives of the Vatican and other original sources, 40 vols. St. Louis, B.Herder 1898
• Basic Catechism Seventh Revised Edition (Pauline Books & Media, 1999). ISBN 0-8198-0623-4
• Peter Lynch, The Church's Story: A History of Pastoral Care and Vision (Pauline Books & Media, 2005). ISBN 0-8198-1575-6
• Robert B. Ekelund Jr. and Robert D. Tollison, Economic Origins of Roman Christianity (University Of Chicago Press, 2011)
• Robert Kugelmann, Psychology and Catholicism: Contested Boundaries (Cambridge University Press, 2011)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Catholicism

• Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
• A library of public domain Catholic writings

v t e Catholic Church Organizations, papacy, teachings and liturgical traditions History Jesus Twelve Apostles Early Christianity History of the Papacy Ecumenical Councils Missions Great Schism of East Crusades Great Schism of West Protestant Reformation Counter-Reformation Catholic Church by country Hierarchy Pope Cardinals Patriarchs Major Archbishops Primates Metropolitans Archbishops Diocesan Bishops Theology Body and Soul Divine Grace Dogma One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church Original sin Salvation Sermon on the Mount The Ten Commandments Trinity Worship Sacraments Anointing of the Sick Baptism Confirmation Eucharist Holy Orders Matrimony Penance Mariology Roman Catholic Mariology Assumption History of Mariology Immaculate Conception Mariology of the popes Mariology of the saints Mother of God Perpetual Virginity Veneration Doctors of the Church Albertus Magnus Ambrose Anselm of Canterbury Anthony of Padua Thomas Aquinas Athanasius of Alexandria Augustine of Hippo Basil of Caesarea Bede Robert Bellarmine Bernard of Clairvaux Bonaventure Petrus Canisius Catherine of Siena Peter Chrysologus John Chrysostom Cyril of Alexandria Cyril of Jerusalem Peter Damian Ephrem the Syrian Francis de Sales Gregory of Nazianzus Gregory the Great Hilary of Poitiers Isidore of Seville Jerome John of Damascus John of the Cross Lawrence of Brindisi Leo the Great Alphonsus Maria de Liguori Teresa of Ávila Thérèse of Lisieux Pope Benedict XVI Conclave Theology Works Dominus Iesus Sacramentum Caritatis Deus Caritas Est Summorum Pontificum Spe Salvi Caritas in Veritate Preceding popes Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul I Pope Paul VI Pope John XXIII Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XI Pope Benedict XV Pope Pius X Pope Leo XIII Pope Pius IX Religious institutes and similar Assumptionists Augustinians Benedictines Capuchin Order Carmelites Carthusians Congregations of Holy Cross Dominican Order Franciscan orders Jesuits Oratory of Saint Philip Neri Vatican II Definition of the Church Dei Verbum Gaudium et Spes Lumen Gentium Nostra Aetate Sacrosanctum Concilium Particular Churches and liturgical rites Alexandrian Coptic Ethiopic Antiochian Maronite Syriac Syro-Malankara Armenian Armenian Byzantine Albanian Belarusian Bulgarian Croatian Greek Hungarian Italo-Albanian Macedonian Melkite Romanian Russian Ruthenian Slovak Ukrainian East Syrian Chaldean Syro-Malabar Latin Roman Anglican Use Sarum Ambrosian Mozarabic Catholicism portal Pope portal

Stephen Fry
Fry in Happy Birthday to GNU (2008)
Born	Stephen John Fry (1957-08-24) 24 August 1957 (age 54) Hampstead, London, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Queens' College, Cambridge
Occupation	Actor, comedian, author, journalist, broadcaster, film director
Years active	1981–present
Influenced by	Oscar Wilde, P. G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Douglas Adams, Rowan Atkinson, Christopher Hitchens
Title	President of Mind (2011–present)[1] Honorary Kentucky Colonel[2][3] Patron of the Lip Theatre Company Patron of the Norwich Playhouse theatre Vice President of the Noël Coward Society Honorary fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge Honorary fellow of Cardiff University Honorary president of the Cambridge University Quiz Society Rector of the University of Dundee (1992–1998)
Religion	None (atheist)
Partner	Daniel Cohen (1995–2010)
Parents	Alan John Fry Marianne Eve Fry (née Newman)
Signature
Website
www.stephenfry.com

Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English^[4][5] actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter, film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club.^[6]

After a troubled childhood and adolescence, during which he was expelled from a number of schools and eventually spent three months in prison for credit card fraud, he was able to secure a place at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he studied English Literature.

He first came to public attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also included Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Tony Slattery. With Hugh Laurie, as the comedy double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie, and took the role of Jeeves (with Laurie playing Wooster) in Jeeves and Wooster.

As an actor, Fry played the lead in the film Wilde, was Melchett in the BBC television series Blackadder, starred as the title character Peter Kingdom in the ITV series Kingdom, has a recurring guest role as Dr. Gordon Wyatt on the Fox crime series Bones and appeared as rogue TV host Gordon Deitrich in the dystopian thriller V For Vendetta. He has also written and presented several documentary series including the 2008 television series Stephen Fry in America, which saw him travelling across all 50 US states. Since 2003 he has been the host of the quiz show QI.

As well as his work in television, Fry has contributed columns and articles for newspapers and magazines, and has written four novels and two volumes of autobiography, Moab Is My Washpot and The Fry Chronicles. He also appears frequently on BBC Radio 4, starring in the comedy series Absolute Power, being a frequent guest on panel games such as Just a Minute, and acting as chairman for I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, where he was one of a trio of hosts who succeeded the late Humphrey Lyttelton. Fry is also known in the UK for his audiobook recordings, particularly as reader for all seven Harry Potter novels.

Early life[link]

Fry, upper right, rehearsing a student production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Norfolk College of Arts and Technology, 1975

Fry was born in Hampstead, London, on 24 August 1957, the son of Marianne Eve Fry (née Newman) and Alan John Fry, who was an English physicist and inventor.^[7][8] His maternal grandparents, Martin and Rosa Neumann,^[8] were Hungarian Jewish immigrants from Šurany, which is now in Slovakia.^[8][9][10] His mother's aunt and cousins died in Auschwitz.^[8] Fry grew up in the village of Booton near Reepham, Norfolk, having moved from Chesham, Buckinghamshire at an early age.^[11]

Fry briefly attended Cawston Primary School, Cawston, Norfolk^[12] before going on to Stouts Hill Preparatory School at the age of seven, and then to Uppingham School, Rutland, where he joined Fircroft house and was described as a "near-asthmatic genius".^[13] He was expelled from Uppingham when he was 15, and subsequently from the Paston School.

At 17, after leaving Norfolk College of Arts and Technology, Fry absconded with a credit card stolen from a family friend, was arrested in Swindon, and as a result spent three months in Pucklechurch Prison on remand.^[14]

Following his release he resumed his education at City College Norwich, promising administrators that he would study rigorously to sit the Cambridge entrance exams. He scored well enough to gain a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, Fry joined the Cambridge Footlights, appeared on University Challenge, and gained a degree in English literature.^[15] It was at the Footlights that Fry met his future comedy collaborator Hugh Laurie.

Career[link]

Television[link]

Comedy[link]

Fry signing autographs at the Apple Store, Regent Street, London on 3 February 2009

Fry's career in television began with the 1982 broadcasting of The Cellar Tapes, the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue which was written by Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Tony Slattery. The revue caught the attention of Granada Television, who, keen to replicate the success of the BBC's Not the Nine O'Clock News, hired Fry, Laurie and Thompson to star alongside Ben Elton in There's Nothing to Worry About!. A second series, re-titled Alfresco, was broadcast in 1983 and a third in 1984; it established Fry and Laurie's reputation as a comedy double act. In 1983, the BBC offered them their own show, which became The Crystal Cube, a mixture of science fiction and mockumentary that was axed after the first episode. Undeterred, Fry and Laurie appeared in an episode of The Young Ones in 1984, and Fry in Ben Elton's 1985 series, Happy Families. In 1986 and 1987 Fry and Laurie also performed sketches on the LWT/Channel 4 show Saturday Live.

Forgiving Fry and Laurie for The Crystal Cube, the BBC commissioned a sketch show in 1986 that was to become A Bit of Fry & Laurie. The programme ran for 26 episodes spanning four series between 1986 and 1995, and was very successful. During this time Fry starred in Blackadder II as Lord Melchett, made a guest appearance in Blackadder the Third as the Duke of Wellington, then returned to a starring role in Blackadder Goes Forth as General Melchett. In the 1988 television special Blackadder's Christmas Carol he played the roles of Lord Melchett and Lord Frondo.

Between 1990 and 1993, Fry starred as Jeeves (alongside Hugh Laurie's Bertie Wooster) in Jeeves and Wooster, 23 hour-long adaptations of P.G. Wodehouse's novels and short stories.

Towards the end of 2003, Fry starred alongside John Bird in the television adaptation of Absolute Power, previously a radio series on BBC Radio 4.

In 2010 Fry took part in a Christmas series of Short Films called 'Little Crackers'. Fry's short is based on a story from his childhood at school.^[16] He appeared as the Christian God in 2011's Holy Flying Circus.

Drama[link]

Fry has appeared in a number of BBC adaptations of plays and books, including a 1992 adaptation of the Simon Gray play The Common Pursuit (Fry had previously appeared in the West End stage production); a 1998 Malcolm Bradbury adaptation of the Mark Tavener novel, In the Red, with Fry taking the part of the Controller of BBC Radio 2; and in 2000 Fry took the role of Professor Bellgrove in the BBC serial Gormenghast which were adapted from the first two novels of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series. In 2011, Fry portrayed Professor Mildeye in the BBC adaption of Mary Norton's 1952 novel The Borrowers.

Fry narrates the English language version of the Spanish children's animated series Pocoyo.^[17]

From 2007 to 2009, Fry played the lead role in (and was executive producer for) the legal drama Kingdom, which ran for three series on ITV1.^[18] He has also taken up a recurring guest role as psychiatrist Dr. Gordon Wyatt in the popular American drama Bones.

In 2010, having learned some Irish for the role,^[19] he filmed a cameo role in Ros na Rún, an Irish language soap opera broadcast in Ireland, Scotland and the United States.^[20][21][22]

Documentaries and other factual programmes[link]

Fry made his first foray into documentary-making with the Emmy Award-winning The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive in 2006; also in 2006, he appeared in the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing his maternal family tree to investigate his Jewish ancestry.^[23] Fry narrated The Story of Light Entertainment, which was shown from July–September 2006.^[24][25] In 2007 he presented a documentary on the subject of HIV and AIDS, HIV and Me.^[26]

On 7 May 2008, Fry gave a speech as part of a series of BBC lectures on the future of public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom,^[27] which he later recorded for a podcast.^[28]

His six-part travel series Stephen Fry in America began on BBC One in October 2008 and saw him travel to each of the 50 US states;^[29] in the same year he narrated the nature documentaries Spectacled Bears: Shadow of the Forest for the BBC Natural World series.^[30]

In the 2009 television series Last Chance to See, Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine sought out endangered species, some of which had been featured in Douglas Adams' and Carwardine's 1990 book and radio series of the same name^[31] Also in 2009, Fry briefly hosted CBBC series Horrible Histories, an educational TV show for school children.

In August 2011 Stephen Fry's 100 Greatest Gadgets was shown on Channel 4 as one of the 100 Greatest strand.^[32] His choice for the greatest gadget was the cigarette lighter which he described as "fire with a flick of the fingers".^[32]

In September 2011 Fry's Planet Word, a five-part documentary about language, aired on BBC HD and BBC Two.^[33][34]

[edit] QI

In 2003, Fry began hosting QI (Quite Interesting), a British comedy panel game television quiz show. QI was created and co-produced by John Lloyd, and features permanent panellist Alan Davies. QI has the highest viewing figures for any show on BBC Four and UKTV G2 (now Dave).^[35][36] In 2006, Fry won the Rose d'Or award for "Best Game Show Host" for his work on the series.^[37]

Film[link]

Having made his film debut in the 1985 film The Good Father, Fry had a brief appearance in A Fish Called Wanda (in which he is knocked out by Kevin Kline, who is posing as an airport security man) and then appeared in the lead role for Kenneth Branagh's Peter's Friends in 1992. In the 1994 romantic comedy film I.Q., he played the role of James Moreland.^[38] Portraying Oscar Wilde (of whom he had been a fan since the age of 13) in the 1997 film Wilde, he fulfilled to critical acclaim a role that he has said he was "born to play". It also earned him a nomination for Best Actor – Drama in the 1998 Golden Globe Award. A year later, Fry starred in David Yates' small independent film The Tichborne Claimant, and in 2001 he played the detective in Robert Altman's period costume drama, Gosford Park. In the same year he also appeared in the Dutch film The Discovery of Heaven, directed by Jeroen Krabbé and based on the novel by Harry Mulisch.

In 2003, Fry made his directorial debut with Bright Young Things, adapted by himself from Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies. In 2001, he began hosting the BAFTA Film Awards, a role from which he stepped down in 2006.^[39] Later that same year, he wrote the English libretto and dialogue for Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of The Magic Flute.

Fry continues to make regular film appearances, notably in treatments of literary cult classics. He portrayed Maurice Woodruff in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, served as narrator in the 2005 film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and in 2005 he appeared in both A Cock and Bull Story, based on Tristram Shandy, and as a non-conforming TV Presenter who challenges the fascist state in V for Vendetta.^[40][41] In 2006, he played the role of gadget-master Smithers in Stormbreaker, and in 2007 he appeared as himself hosting a quiz in St Trinian's. In 2007, Fry wrote a script for a remake of The Dam Busters for director Peter Jackson.^[42]

Fry in "Happy Birthday to GNU (2008)"

Fry was offered a role in Valkyrie but was unable to participate.^[43] Fry starred in the Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland, as the voice of The Cheshire Cat.^[44] He played Mycroft Holmes in the sequel to Sherlock Holmes directed by Guy Ritchie.^[45] In 2010, Fry provided the voice of Socrates the Lion in the environmental animated film Animals United. He will portray the Master of Lake-town in the 2012 film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.^[46]

Feature filmography[link]

• 1985: The Good Father – Creighton
• 1988: A Fish Called Wanda – Hutchison
• 1992: Peter's Friends – Peter
• 1994: I.Q. – James Moreland
• 1997: Wilde – Oscar Wilde
• 1998: The Tichborne Claimant – Hawkins
• 1999: Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? – Dr.Peter Robinson
• 2001: Gosford Park – Inspector Thompson
• 2001: The Discovery of Heaven – Onno
• 2002: Thunderpants – Sir Antony Silk (Judge)
• 2003: Bright Young Things – Director
• 2004: The Life and Death of Peter Sellers – Maurice Woodruff
• 2005: V for Vendetta – Deitrich
• 2005: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – The Narrator (Voice)
• 2006: The Magic Flute – Writer
• 2006: Stormbreaker – Smithers
• 2007: St. Trinian's – Himself
• 2007: Eichmann – Minister Tormer
• 2009: House of Boys – Dr Marsh
• 2010: Alice in Wonderland – Cheshire Cat (Voice)
• 2010: Animals United – Socrates the Lion (Voice)
• 2011: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – Mycroft Holmes
• 2012: The Hobbit: There and Back Again – Master of Lake-town

Radio[link]

Fry came to the attention of radio listeners with the 1986 creation of his alter-ego, Donald Trefusis, whose "wireless essays" were broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 programme Loose Ends. In the 1980s he starred as David Lander in four series of the BBC Radio 4 show Delve Special, written by Tony Sarchet, which became the six part Channel 4 series This is David Lander in 1988. In 1988, Fry wrote and presented a six-part comedy series entitled Saturday Night Fry; frequent radio appearances have ensued (notably on panel games Just a Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue). In 2000, he began starring as Charles Prentiss in the Radio 4 comedy Absolute Power, reprising the role for three further series on radio and two on television. In 2002, Fry voiced Winnie-the-Pooh and was one of the narrators of A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. He presented a 20-part, two-hour series, The Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music, a "witty guide" to the genre over the past 1,000 years, on Classic FM.