Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole. In one understanding of the word "Catholic", it refers to the doctrine and practice of the church in communion with the See of Rome. More broadly, it may refer to many churches that claim continuity with the Catholic Church as it was before separation into Greek or Eastern and Latin or Western. Churches that make this claim of continuity include the Roman Catholic, the Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Old Catholic churches and the churches of the Anglican Communion. The claim of continuity may be based on Apostolic Succession, especially in conjunction with adherence to the Nicene Creed. Some interpret Catholicism as adherence to the traditional beliefs that Protestant Reformers denied, as with the Oxford Movement.

Catholicism is distinguished from other forms of Christianity in its particular understanding and commitment to tradition, the sacraments, the mediation between God, and communion. Catholicism can include a monastic life, religious orders, a religious appreciation of the arts, a communal understanding of sin and redemption, missionary activity, and, in the Roman Catholic Church, papacy.