Catholicism: Beliefs, Structure, History and Practices

The term catholic comes from the Greek and means there 'all-embracing, total, universal'. The Greek καθολικός derives (even today) from κατά katá 'from [...] down, over [...] towards'; ὅλος hólos 'whole, comprehensive'. In this sense it is already used by Aristotle or Polybios, but also by early Christian writers; Justin Martyr, for instance, speaks of the 'catholic resurrection'. This meaning has been preserved in the term Catholic Epistles for some New Testament books. The word compound "Catholic Church" was first used by Ignatius of Antioch around the year 110 to distinguish it from small groups.

Catholicism in Germany

Since the founding of the Reich in 1871, Catholics have been a minority in Germany, accounting for about one third of the population. This changed after 1945, when the predominantly Protestant areas of the German northeast were lost and the core areas of the Reformation in central Germany became part of the Soviet occupation zone. In the Federal Republic formed from the remaining West German states, Protestant and Catholic Christians each made up just under half of the population, with a slight Protestant surplus until the 1990s, whereby the politically active Catholic milieu, which was particularly strongly committed within the framework of the now consciously interdenominational CDU, was able to have a considerable effect even beyond its narrower borders.

In the Federal Republic from 1949 to 1989, the Roman Catholic milieu had a great socio-political influence until the 1970s. Not only Chancellors like Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, but also a critic like Heinrich Böll were particularly rooted in Rhenish Catholicism. Leaders such as Cardinals Joseph Frings, Julius Döpfner and Joseph Höffner were highly regarded, with Karl Lehmann still around. The German Bishops' Conference, now under its chairman Reinhard Marx, stands for a great public perception of the Roman Catholic Church. Despite the consequences of the state reunification (relatively strong increase of the statistical share of non-denominational Germans) one tries to continue to secure this influence. Nevertheless, one cannot speak of a per se clerical republic.

According to statistical data of the German Bishops' Conference the number of Catholics in Germany (in each case 1990 to 2007) has decreased from 28,252,000 to 25,461,000, the number of baptisms from 299,796 to 185,586, the number of marriages from 116,332 to 49,393 and the proportion of those attending religious services from 21.9 to 13.7 per cent.

Pope Benedict XVI's call on the occasion of the World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005 for the Church in Germany to become "missionary" could favour a new tendency rather contrasting with the cultural environment. However, the strong ecumenical orientation of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany continues at present. This ecumenical orientation is criticized by some theologians, since the Roman Catholic Church seems to give up its own identity by turning to Protestantism.

Catholicism in Austria

As a result of Josephinism, Austrian Catholicism had a pronounced closeness to the state during the Habsburg Monarchy. During Austrofascism from 1933 to 1938 Austria was considered by some conservative Catholics as a "model state". Moreover, Austrian bishops welcomed the 1938 Anschluss to the Greater German Reich much more benevolently than German bishops. Burdened by this historical situation, the episcopate took Vatican II as an opportunity to make its mark in a largely liberal way, but since about 1990 conservative tendencies have increased.

Catholicism in Switzerland

The situation of the Catholic Church in Switzerland is even more difficult to summarize, since the confessional and state-church legal characteristics of each individual canton must be taken into account. In some cantons, state authorities exercise indirect control over ecclesiastical affairs through their own bodies.

Relationship of the Catholic Church to politics and civil society

Pope Pius IX enforced the definition of papal infallibility in doctrinal matters in 1870. This "birth certificate" of the Roman claim in modern times brought about, outside of the actual theological problems, a clear assignment of the papacy to the "spiritual realm". The initially involuntary renunciation of papal-church-state politics inevitably also eliminated a major cause of the intransigence of Popes Leo XII to Gregory XVI. The papal internationalism thus simultaneously established brought great prestige to Pope Leo XIII, the founder of the newer Catholic social doctrine († 1903). In confrontation with the optimistic humanism of modernity, Pope Pius X struggled. (1903-1914) fought for greater religious efficacy of the Church in society. During World War I, moreover, Pope Benedict XV succeeded in consolidating Catholicism as non-partisan and supranational. Since then, the Roman Catholic Church has integrated the essential demands of the international peace movement (arbitration, disarmament) into its program.

The fall of many European monarchies in 1918 and the liberation of the non-Catholic state churches from political paternalism also opened up new possibilities for interconfessional dialogue, which, however, only found broad acceptance on the Roman Catholic side after the experiences of the Second World War.

But the programmatic self-correction by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), prepared by Popes Pius XI and Pius XII, carried out by Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, provoked internal crises just in the typically Roman Catholic milieus. In each of the Catholic-influenced countries the situation of the Church was not yet free from the burdens of the political conflicts. In Spain, the Church only gradually found a distance from the Franco regime. In Italy there is still dissent today as to whether the civiltà cattolica favours a more Christian democratic or a more traditional authority-based political stance. The situation is particularly serious in France, where national Catholicism was in opposition to the Republic, so that (especially before 1914 and after 1945) there were also exaggerations in the opposite direction. Recent ecclesiastical movements in these countries are often evaluated by liberal theology with political categories, without this corresponding to the spiritual concern of the renouveau catholique.

The focus of worldwide Catholicism has shifted since the 1980s to Latin America, Africa and gradually Asia. Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly turning to Christianity. But the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America, because of its long ties to the European Catholic tradition, faces particularly serious challenges. Here since the 1960s the attempt of a liberation theology was made, which was however fought by the church as a relapse into concepts favouring a political theology, but now to be seen under Marxist perspective.

In the Anglo-American cultural area, the Roman Catholic Church has been able to gradually gain acceptance since the 19th century, but is still to be seen as a denominational minority.

All in all, Catholicism at the beginning of the 21st century is only at the beginning of the task set to it by the Second Vatican Council to continue equally the religious tradition and at the same time to participate "at the height of the times" in the midst of the respective cultural environment. In his pontificate Pope John Paul II tried to personally locate the self-fulfilment of the church as universal church in a universal and interreligious horizon; with his journeys and teaching letters, the World Youth Days and canonizations he thereby gained great attention.

Catholicism explicitly no longer seeks direct special rights within the state systems. Thus Italy and the Holy See agreed in 1984 to renounce the Roman Catholic state religion.