The Roman Catholic Church is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering its sacraments and exercising charity. The Roman Catholic Church is among the oldest institutions in the world and has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilization. It teaches that it is the one true church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles and that the Pope is the sole successor to Saint Peter.

The history of the Catholic Church begins with the teachings of Jesus Christ, who lived in the 1st century CE in the province of Judea of the Roman Empire. The contemporary Catholic Church says that it is the continuation of the early Christian community established by Jesus.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the Catholic Church became a powerful social and political institution and its influence spread throughout Europe.

THE POPE

The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The Catholic Church teaches that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church founded by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission,that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles, and that the pope is the successor to Saint Peter, upon whom primacy was conferred by Jesus Christ. It maintains that it practises the original Christian faith taught by the apostles, preserving the faith infallibly through scripture and sacred tradition as authentically interpreted through the magisterium of the church. The Latin Church, the twenty-three Eastern Catholic Churches, and institutes such as mendicant orders, enclosed monastic orders and third orders reflect a variety of theological and spiritual emphases in the church

Short History : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/th...

References more information :

CATHOLIC CULTURE

https://www.catholicculture.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church

Reverence : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=locW-9S00VU&t=41s

Also see Related Projects on the right side of this page.

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Famous converts

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Conversions to Catholicism among Fin de Siècle Writers: A Spiritual and Literary Genealogy

Résumé

During the last decade of the 19th century, a number of English writers converted to Roman Catholicism: the “Decadent” poets John Gray, Lionel Johnson and Ernest Dowson joined the Church in 1890 and 1891, while Oscar Wilde flirted with the Catholic faith during his college years at Oxford, and received the last sacraments on his deathbed in 1900. These writers all inherited from Walter Pater a taste for the splendours of religious rite. They were also influenced by their Pre-Raphaelite predecessors’ interest in the Catholic Middle Ages as well as by their emphasis on the aesthetic dimension of religious experience, and claimed their kinship with the art for art’s sake creed of French Parnassians and Symbolists (Gray, in particular, translated several of Verlaine’s Catholic poems). The Decadent converts were also marked by another major, but less obvious, imprint, that left by John Henry Newman. The Tractarian theologian’s religion may at first sight have little in common with the aesthetic religion of the fin de siècle poets, and yet his view of the act of faith as founded on the senses, the emotions and the imagination was certainly an element that they were keen to appropriate, and his focus on the human conscience as the centre of religious experience is implicitly present in the solitary and highly subjective piety that emerges in the works of Gray, Johnson and Dowson.

From Decadence to Catholicism

   1 In France, the late 19th century was also a period of conversions among writers, in particular Léon (...)

In the last decade of the 19th century, a significant number of English writers chose to become members of the Roman Catholic Church.

What is called the “Decadent” movement probably counts in its ranks more converts than any other school in the history of British literature. Among them (in the order of their conversions)

Frederick Rolfe (1860–1913), also known as “Baron Corvo,” who wrote novels, short stories and poems, and converted in 1886; the poets 

John Gray (1866–1934), who was received into the Church in 1890 and ordained into the priesthood in 1901,
Lionel Pigot Johnson–1902, converted in 1891), and

Ernest Dowson (1867–1900, converted in 1891);

Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie (1867–1906), who wrote novels under the pseudonym “John Oliver Hobbes” and converted in 1892; Wilde’s friend 

Robert Ross (1869–1918), an art critic and essay writer who converted in 1894; 

André Raffalovich (1864–1934), a friend of John Gray and Aubrey Beardsley, a minor poet and theoretician of homosexuality, who became a Catholic in  1896; the illustrator 

Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898, converted in 1897); 

Henry Harland (1861–1905), the literary editor of The Yellow Book, who converted in 1898; 

Oscar Wilde (1856–1900), who received the sacraments of the Church on his deathbed in 1900;

Katharine Bradley (1846–1914) and 

Edith Cooper (1862–1913), who wrote poetry under the shared pseudonym “Michael Field” and converted in 1907; and finally Wilde’s lover 

Lord Alfred Douglas (1870–1945, converted in 1911).

Reference : https://journals.openedition.org/cve/528

Of interest ?

Catholic in the Morning, Voodoo by Night: An Analysis of Marie Laveau's Syncretistic Practice of Roman Catholicism and Voodoo

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https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGpFgnTJtVSVdzVjTLlfDR...

CATHOLIC IN THE MORNING, VOODOO BY NIGHT : AN ANALYSIS OF MARIE LAVEAU’S

SYNCRETISTIC PRACTICE OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND VOODOO
By P.T. Dolan

“Petit á petit, l´oiseau fait son nid.
”

— 

Créole Proverb

Introduction

The sound of Voodoo drums echoed from Congo Square. A half-mile down Orleans Street directly opposite of St. Louis Cathedral, Congo Square served as a religious meeting place for many Congolese and other African peoples living in New Orleans in the 19th century. The Diaspora of slaves who had been dismembered from their tribal communities would meet to join in their traditional religious practices. Gathering on Sunday afternoons around six o’clock, they would sing and dance in traditional Voodoo style.

A particular story that reappears in nearly every biography of Marie Laveau describes her entering Congo Square surrounded by Voodoo followers. Passing through the crowded square, she was adorned as a Voodoo priestess. She wore gold earrings,  bracelets, a loose low-necked cotton dress, and hertignon  standing high and in seven  points. She slipped off her shoes and entered the already bustling circle of bystanders. A man who saw her there said, “She come walkin’ into Congo Square wit’ her head up in the air like a queen. Her skirts swished when she walked and everybody step back to let her pass. All the people – white and colored – start sayin’ that's she is the most powerful  ----

The Roman Catholic Church is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering its sacraments and exercising charity. The Roman Catholic Church is among the oldest institutions in the world and has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilization. It teaches that it is the one true church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles and that the Pope is the sole successor to Saint Peter.

See also

• Roman Catholic Saints
• Roman Catholic Popes
• Roman Catholic Antipopes
• Roman Catholic Cardinals
• Roman Catholic Bishop
• Clergé Catholique du Québec