Catholic Church

Catholic Church
Ecclesia Catholica
St. Peter's Archbasilica, Papal State
Classification	Catholic
Scripture	Bible
Theology	Catholic theology
Polity	Episcopal
Structure	Communion
Pope	Gregory XVII
Administration	Curia
Region	Worldwide
Language	Ecclesiastical Latin and native languages
Headquarters	Papal State
Founder	Jesus Christ, according to sacred tradition
Origin	1st century Holy Land

The Catholic Church is the largest Christian church, with several billion members worldwide. It is one of the oldest religious institutions in the world and has played a prominent role in the history of Occidental civilization. The Catholic Hierarchy is headed by the Bishop of Urceopolis, known as the Pope. The church's principal doctrines are summarized in the Nicene Creed and the Apostle's Creed; among its distinguishing features are its belief in the supremacy of the Pope and celebration of the seven sacraments.

The Catholic Church teaches that it is the one true church founded by Jesus Christ. While the Catholic Church considers itself to be the authentic continuation of the Christian community founded by Jesus, it teaches that other Christian churches and communities can be in an imperfect communion with the Catholic Church. It is possible, according to Catholic doctrine, to affirm correctly that the Church of Christ is present and operative in the churches and ecclesiastical Communities not yet fully in communion with the Catholic Church, on account of the elements of sanctification and truth that are present in them.

The sacraments are integral to Catholic liturgical worship. The principal sacrament is the Eucharist, also called the Mass. The Church teaches that in this sacrament the bread and the wine consecrated by the priest become the body and the blood of Christ, a change it calls transubstantiation. The Catholic Church practices closed communion and only baptized members deemed to be in a state of grace, free of unforgiven mortal sin or penalty, are ordinarily permitted to receive the Eucharist.

The Church venerates Mary. This veneration is called hyperdulia and is distinct from the worship, or latria, due by justice to God alone. All of the Church's Mariology hinges on her title Mother of God. The Church teaches that her motherhood came about through divine intervention and she gave birth to him while still a virgin. It has defined four specific Marian dogmatic teachings: her Immaculate Conception without original sin, her status as the Mother of God, her perpetual virginity and her bodily Assumption into Heaven at the end of her earthly life. Numerous Marian devotions are also practiced.

The Catholic social teaching emphasizes support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal works of mercy and the Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and medical services in the world. Catholic spiritual teaching emphasizes spread of the Gospel message and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church has influenced Occidental philosophy, culture, art, music and science. Catholics live all over the world through missions, diaspora, and conversions. The Catholic Church shared communion with the Caphiric Church until the Great Schism of 1615, disputing particularly the authority of the Pope and influence of Urcea, though this schism was mended with the Eight Points Agreement following the end of the Occidental Cold War. In recent decades, the Catholic Church has been criticized for its doctrines concerning sexual issues and the ordination of women as well as for its handling of sexual abuse cases.

Organization

Dioceses, parishes, organizations and institutes

Orders

Various primates and patriarchates

Main article: List of Christian primates

Particular churches

• Caphiric Catholic Church
• Coscivian Catholic Church
• Cronan Regional Catholic Church
• Marandite Catholic Church

Churches in partial communion

• Daxian Approved Church-in-Communion
• Sarpedonian Orthodox Church
• Aenglish Particularist Church
• The Way Forward for Varshan
• National Christian Community of the Cape
• Marian Church of the Lady of Culriocha
• Church Resplendent of the Pregregorian Rite

Liturgy

Many different liturgical traditions exist within the Catholic Church, reflecting the historical and cultural diversity of the Church rather than credal or doctrinal differences. In the definition of the Code of Canons of the Churches of the Far Occident and Orient, "a rite is the liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary patrimony, culture and circumstances of history of a distinct people, by which its own manner of living the faith is manifested in each Church sui iuris". In many different places, as the Catholic Church spread, it readily adopted local mores and customs within the same liturgical foundation used elsewhere, and in so doing readily inculturated the Catholic liturgy for local use. There are more than a hundred different rites, many of whom have been created and adopted after the initial consolidation of the Latin Rite in the 13th through 16th centuries, and a majority of rites are specifically cultural, reflecting the customs of a certain place. The name for the Catholic liturgy varies by rite. In the Latin Church, it is known as the Mass. In the Istroyan-speaking rites, it is referred to as Divine Liturgy. In the Caphiric Rite, it is referred to as a Hostia.

Despite the many outward differences between the rites, all Catholic liturgy follows a few core points. All Catholic liturgy is led by an ordained priest or bishop. Most prominently, the Gospel is read in some form throughout every liturgical rite, usually followed by a discussion of the gospel message by the celebrant. Almost all of the rites contain at least one reading from the epistles and most also include a reading from the Old Testament. All rites have the sacrament of the Eucharist during the liturgy, as it is the central point of the liturgy and the "source and summit of Christian life". Language of the liturgy varies dramatically by rite, but significant amounts of phrases in all rites are paraphrased from scripture.

Local practice

Alshar

• Daxia:
• Duamacia:
• Kloistan:

Crona

• Alstin:

• Arcerion:
• the Cape:
• Colonial Crona:
• Paulaustra:
• Varshan:

Kiro-Borealis:

• Kiravia:

Levantia

• Anglei:

• Burgundie: The establishment of cults around the major figures of Catholic lore was almost immediate to the arrival of Catholicism in Burgundie. This was a carry-over from similar practices in the Latinic polytheistic societies. The contemporary expression of these devotions are the various monastic orders (e.g. Order of the Obsidian Sparrow and the Ljydkruss Order). In Burgundie, this is still practiced, but less dogmatically than in ages past. The Cultes della Nostra Mare (Mother Mary) and Cultes della Fuster (Joseph the carpenter) are particularly widespread. Within even some of the smaller villages in Burgundie, a church of Nostra Mare and one of el Fuster will stand completely separate. There was an effort to unite the various cults during the Great Confessional War, in the later 16th century, and many smaller cults were absorbed into the mainstream practices. This also led to what many in Burgundie term, Urceopolis Catholicism or Monolithic Catholicism. This format of worship is the recognized style by the royal family and its greatest piece de resistance is the Cathedral of St. Mattius in Vilauristre. While local parishioners differentiate between the three mainstream forms of practice, there is no contemporary difference between them aside from some of the iconography and local regalia. Priests, bishops, archbishops, and the Cardinal in Burgundie all identify as Levantine Catholic and are not instructed in any specificity of the differences between cults. The differences and unique traditions are therefore the responsibility of the parishioners to maintain and instruct their new clergy. This practice is called the curia apud curiam agni (the curia of the lambs), and only occurs in the churches ascribing to the cults of Notra Mare and le Fuster, not the standardized practice. Tarsusian Order
• Caergwynn:
• Carna:
• Deric States:
• Eldmora-Regulus:
• Faneria: Southern Faneria was originally Christianized in the 12th and 13th Centuries, with the majority of the Ninerivers region being Catholic from the 13th Century onward save for pagan enclaves. Christianity was a minority faith in Northern Faneria until the Reformation, when Protestant churches became prominent in the north and (briefly) the west of the country. Culriocha and Lyukquar remain plurality Protestant, with the rest of the country being majority Christian or irreligious with pockets of pagan sects, particularly in the mountains. After the Fhainnin Civil War, the Fhainnin Popular Republic officially banned public preaching and introduced other anti-Christian measures, but these changes created a great deal of controversy and were mostly rescinded in the 1920s. Practice of the Catholic faith and speech about it are respected in the modern day, with the exception of constant court battles over a 1946 bill stuck in limbo intended to explicitly deny clergy-penitent privilege to the Church in Faneria.
• Fiannria:
• Hendalarsk: Catholicism was brought to Hendalarsk in two waves. The first, unsuccessful missionary effort took place in the early seventh century AD. A Gothic slave-boy, originally from the lower Zalgis, was freed when his slavers were shipwrecked. The boy, near death, was washed up on the Vandarch shoreline of Anglei, and taken in by monks there. Raised and educated as a member of the monastery, he eventually opted to return home to spread the Word to his countrymen, and landed at the mouth of the Zalgis in 608 AD. As the Gothic societies along the Zalgis were at this point non-literate, little reliable evidence of the mission survives, beyond a later Khunyer chronicling of the story which purports to have been handed down by descendants of the original converts. In this telling, the ex-slave brought all manner of signs and wonders to the Zalgis, eventually gaining the approval and conversion of the legendary chief Agnauts in 621 AD after healing his son. Agnauts, however, was killed by some of his more staunchly pagan retainers after attempting to destroy a sacred grove, and those retainers wasted no time in sacrificing the ex-slave to the Zalgis to appease the river-goddess. The martyr is today venerated as St Adáldrig by both the Catholic and Hendalarskara Catholic churches.
  
  The second wave of Christianisation commenced around 150 years later, when the Khunyer - who had themselves been converted to Catholicism centuries previously during their time as foederati on the Great Levantine frontier - migrated and conquered their way into the Zalgis watershed, founding the Khunyer Empire in the process. The Khunyer did not aggressively proselytise to the conquered Gothic peoples, since they were mainly concerned with maintaining a reliable supply of tribute from the Goths, but a process of acculturation nevertheless took place over decades, in which particularly ambitious Gothic chieftains sought to take advantage of the added legitimacy and administrative strength they might gain from the new religion. A syncretic faith began to develop along the Zalgis, which upheld the orthodox approach to the Trinity and the sacraments but which assimilated sacred groves into Christian teaching as reflections of the Garden of Eden, while rivers have become venerated as divine instruments for creating and maintaining life rather than as deities in their own right. This faith, institutionalised as what would become the Hendalarskara Catholic Church, was professed by the ur-Hendalarskaren in the Lordship of the Great Valley when they asserted independence from the crumbling Khunyer Empire in 890 AD. The Hendalarskara Catholic Church's self-description as 'Catholic', despite the religion's many peculiarities, remains a bone of contention in ecclesiastical relations with the Levantine Catholic Church. The Khunyer, by contrast, have largely remained orthodox Levantine Catholics, the march of secularism notwithstanding, while many Gothic groups in the east of Hendalarsk were also converted by Levantine missionaries from the twelfth century onward. Most Nünsyak also profess Latin Catholicism, although a substantial minority still hold to the traditional Nünsyi ethnic religion.
• Urcea:
• Yonderre:

Sarpedon

• Caphiria:

• Cartadania:

• Pelaxia:

• Southern Sarpedon: