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With about 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2019, the Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the biggest Christian church and religious group. It has played a significant role in the history and development of Western civilization as the world’s oldest and biggest continually operating international institution.

Around the world, the church is divided into 24 distinct churches and about 3,500 dioceses and eparchies. The pope, who is also known as the Vicar of Jesus Christ and Successor of St. Peter, is the church’s main pastor and is tasked with the global Petrine ministry of unity and correction. The Holy See, the church’s administration, is based in Vatican City, a small enclave of Rome where the pope is the head of state.

The Nicene Creed encapsulates Catholicism’s basic principles. The Catholic Church maintains that it is the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church created by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission, that its bishops are Christ’s apostles’ heirs, and that the pope is the successor to Saint Peter, to whom Jesus Christ bestowed primacy.

It argues that it follows the original Christian religion, with the exception of infallibility, which has been passed down via holy tradition. The Latin Church, the twenty-three Eastern Catholic Churches, and institutes such mendicant orders, enclosed monastic orders, and third orders represent the church’s various doctrinal and spiritual emphases.

The Eucharist is the most important of the seven sacraments, and it is celebrated liturgically at the Mass. The church maintains that the sacrificial bread and wine become the flesh and blood of Christ after being consecrated by a priest. The Virgin Mary is honored in dogmas and devotions in the Catholic Church as Mother of God and Queen of Heaven.

Divine Mercy, sanctification by faith, and Gospel evangelization are among its teachings, as is Catholic social doctrine, which emphasizes volunteer support for the ill, destitute, and suffering via bodily and spiritual deeds of mercy. The Catholic Church is the world’s biggest non-government provider of education and health care, with hundreds of Catholic schools, hospitals, and orphanages across the world. Numerous philanthropic and humanitarian organizations are among the city’s various social services.

Western philosophy, culture, art, music, and science have all been impacted by the Catholic Church. Through missions, dispersion, and conversions, Catholics may be found all over the world. Due to secularisation in Europe and growing persecution in the Middle East, the majority have lived in the southern hemisphere during the twentieth century. Until the East–West Schism in 1054, the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church were in communion, despite disagreements about the pope’s authority.

The Church of the East, as well as the Oriental Orthodox churches, shared this communion before the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, and before the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451; all were split largely over disagreements in Christology. Protestantism split out during the Reformation in the 16th century. Since the late twentieth century, the Catholic Church has been chastised for its sexuality teachings, failure to ordain women, and treatment of clerical sexual abuse cases.