Catholic Church: overview, structure, history, beliefs, and global presence

The Roman Catholic Church traditionally refers to the foundation by Jesus Christ himself, especially to the so-called "rock word" to the apostle Peter (Mt 16,18-19 EU). Whether historically an actual act of founding the church by Jesus Christ can actually be assumed is disputed even among Roman Catholic theologians. In today's ecclesiology, a combination of pre-Easter roots (Jesus' eschatological gathering of God's people), an Easter impulse (the church as a community of those who follow the risen Jesus Christ) and a Pentecostal gift of the Spirit (the church as a community in which the Holy Spirit is present) is usually regarded as the origin of the church.

Around the years 30 to 33 one therefore assumes the emergence of the first congregations, that is, the early church. The Roman Catholic Church considers itself to be in uninterrupted continuity with this original church and also claims the direct foundation by Jesus Christ. It sees this connection institutionally, insofar as the Christian community of Rome is traditionally seen as the foundation of the Apostle Peter, and the Pope as Bishop of Rome is the direct successor of Peter.

The self-understanding as standing in an uninterrupted tradition with the early church is not a Roman Catholic peculiarity; other Christian denominations also refer to this tradition. To what extent this self-understanding is justified or not was for a long time the subject of polemical controversies among the denominations and is today an essential point of the ecumenical dialogue.

In the early church there were originally several models of church leadership: leadership by a circle of elders (presbyteral constitution, Jerusalem), care by itinerant preachers (Syria) and functional church leadership (Pauline churches). Congregational leadership was the responsibility of bishops (from Greek ἐπίσκοπος "guardian, overseer") from about 80 CE, though it was initially a collective body; the monepiscopate did not take hold until the second century. The tripartite system we know today, with the bishop at the top, the priests and the deacons as his supporters, was formed from the end of the first century to the second.

The area of a bishop in the West is called a bishopric or diocese (from the Greek διοίκησις, "administration"), the Church adopting the terms for territorial divisions introduced in the Roman Empire by Diocletian.

In the first three centuries formed the ecclesiastical provinces. An ecclesiastical province comprises several dioceses, and its head is called a metropolitan. The seat of a metropolitan is the metropolis (from Greek Μητρόπολις "mother city"). Today, metropolitans of the Roman Catholic Church usually hold the rank of archbishop and preside over an archdiocese as metropolitan archbishop. They preside over regional bishops' conferences (e.g. the Freising Bishops' Conference) and have wider powers also over the suffragan bishoprics subordinate to the archbishopric.

By 451 AD, the five "major" Metropolitans of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem had become Patriarchs. The dispute between Rome and Constantinople led to the Western Church eventually separating from the Eastern (Orthodox) Church in the Great Eastern Schism.

The Patriarchate of Rome (or: of the Occident, the Western Church) was the only Western one of the five original Old Church Patriarchates. The rest form the early church Orthodox patriarchates. Within the Latin Church, there are currently four patriarchs. Three of them preside over dioceses with a patriarchal see, and one presides as archbishop over an archdiocese (see Roman Catholic patriarchates in detail).

From the patriarchs of the Latin Rite (except Jerusalem) are to be distinguished the patriarchs of the churches of the Eastern Rites united with Rome, who as heads of their churches of their own right (sui iuris) possess powers going beyond the rights of honor (own jurisdiction). The Grand Archbishops as heads of some uniate churches have the same position as the Patriarchs - except for the primacy of honour.

Some Eastern dioceses have reconciled (united) with Rome in the course of history, mostly under the influence of secular rulers, such as in Transylvania and Ukraine. With the exception of the Syrian Maronite and the Italo-Albanian churches, all uniate churches can be attributed to an Orthodox or Oriental church of origin, from which they split off with subordination to the Pope. As a result of these historical developments, there are now several bishops in some places, for example an Orthodox bishop, a bishop of the church united with Rome and a Latin bishop. As a rule, the united churches have retained the rite of their churches of origin and are designated accordingly. For example, churches whose Byzantine rite goes back to the Greek culture of the ancient Eastern Roman Empire are called "Greek Catholic."