The Roman Catholic Church

Look at the flow diagram at the beginning of the section. The Roman Catholic church thinks of itself as the "original" church started by the apostles (the 12 disciples of Jesus).

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church is the Pope. The Pope is the bishop of Rome hence the Roman part of the name. The word 'catholic' means worldwide and all the churches oft he world that are in union with the the Pope are Roman Catholic churches, about half of the Christians in the world are Roman Catholics (RC). The Roman Catholic church is concentrated in Western Europe, South America, the Philippines and parts of Africa. Roman Catholics believe that Jesus made Peter (one of the disciples) the leader of the church after his death, and that Peter took charge of the church in Rome (which was the capitol of the Roman empire and thus the most powerful and important city of that time) and thus the bishops of Rome are Peters successors. The Pope lives in the Vatican. The Catholic church has a very distinct structure:

Key beliefs

• Roman Catholics (RC) believe that they are part of the universal church, or body of believers in Christ,
• That the RC church is a direct decendant of the church founded by Jesus and the apostles,
• The servants of the church should be celibate and chaste and only men can be priests,
• The central act of worship is the Eucharist or Holy Communion,
• Only priests can perform the Eucharist or Holy Communion,
• The church should be an example to all other people and do God's work,
• There are seven sacraments or holy acts these are the Eucharist, Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, Penance (confession of sins), Ordination, Anointing of the sick.

See also the Roman Catholic section of the site.