Talk:Catholic Church

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Good articleCatholic Church has been listed as one of the Philosophy and religion good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
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April 4, 2015Good article nomineeListed
March 1, 2024Good article reassessmentKept
On this day... A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on March 27, 2007.
Current status: Good article

This article should be called Roman Catholic as the term 'catholic' is not unique to the Roman Church.[edit]

The Church of England claims to be not some ‘Protestant sect’ but part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of God. So it is Catholic, but not Roman. This makes the identification of the Roman Catholic Church with the simple term 'Catholic' unsound. Urselius (talk) 09:01, 14 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Urselius: The Church of England claims to be 'catholic' (little c). This article is about the Catholic (big C) Church. We've had this argument many many times before. The term 'catholic' is not unique to the Catholic Church, but the term 'Catholic' universally refers to the Catholic Church. -- RockstoneSend me a message! 12:32, 14 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I concur, hence my request was put forth. Jpkenney2187 (talk) 16:56, 4 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
We should ideally have a link at the top here to the many lengthy talk discussions over the years. I think both titles have been used at times. Fyi Urselius, the Orthodox churches also describe themselves as Catholic, but in normal speech we all know what "Catholic Church" means. Johnbod (talk) 13:10, 14 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Similarly, the Catholic Church also describes itself as orthodox. -- RockstoneSend me a message! 13:41, 14 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
As mentioned by Johnbod and Rockstone, this has been hashed out before. The article was named "Roman Catholic Church" for many years before I was an editor but it was changed as, with only marginal exception, "Catholic Church" is the shortest and most widely used common name. Topics regarding catholicity have their own articles, which helps ensures those coming to Wikipedia see this encyclopedia isn't taking a side on what the universal church is. ~ Pbritti (talk) 15:29, 14 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
We would have to decide if the Eastern Catholic Churches are part of the "Roman Catholic Church". —Lights and freedom (talk ~ contribs) 23:24, 22 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The reason it uses this name is that the term "catholic" is a colloquial term for the Roman Catholic Church. You wouldn't say that you are in a Catholic Church if you're Episcopalian, for example, even though that term would technically apply. UnbearableIsBad (talk) 22:50, 29 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Catholic Church and Roman Catholic Church are not synonymous. The Catholic Church includes the 24 rites mentioned in the introduction, one of which is the Roman, or Latin, rite (plus other churches that use the term "catholic"). As Lights and freedom points out, if the intention is for this article to be about the Roman Catholic Church, then it should be made clear that the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches are not part of the Roman Catholic Church. For reference, see https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-is-the-difference-between-the-roman-catholic-and-the-catholic-religion. Heepwah1959 (talk) 18:27, 17 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Heepwah1959: According to many reliable sources, the term "Roman Catholic Church" is a synonym for both the Latin Church and the Catholic Church as a whole. While I find it a misnomer–I'm a Catholic in communion with Rome, but I'm certainly not from Rome–"Roman Catholic" is such a common alternative name for the Church as a whole that we have to include it as an alternative name. It is also worth noting that the term "Roman Catholic" is also occasionally explicitly applied to Eastern Catholics. Yes, it's unbearably goofy, but it's accepted within certain academic conventions (and appears in a couple of Melkite liturgical books I own). ~ Pbritti (talk) 19:37, 17 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Despite what the reliable sources say, there is a difference. Granted, 98% of Catholics are Roman Catholics, it is still worth differentiating. Perhaps editing the Eastern Catholics information to redirect to their page would add clarity. And, for the sake of other ecclessial communities that use the term "catholic", perhaps dividing the article into headings accordingly. My two cents worth and not the hill I am willing to die on. As a professional catechist in the Roman rite, I do what I can to provide thorough information.Heepwah1959 (talk) 19:54, 17 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I know this might be a bit pedantic, but the terms Roman Rite and Roman Catholic do not line up. The Roman rite is the major subset of the Latin Rite. Nobody would say that to be a Roman Catholic one has to practice the Roman Rite because that would imply that the Milanese Catholics or ordinariate Catholics are not "Roman Catholic". Latin Catholic would be the more appropriate term to use for all Westerners. This has precedence as in the East those who practiced the Latin rite were often called "Latins". see:Massacre of the Latins
While "Roman Catholic" has most often been used to describe Latins (mostly because your average person does not know the Eastern Catholics exist) I have seen it used to describe anyone in communion with the See of Rome, to include easterners.. The term is an exonym that is sometimes casually used by the church itself, but usually applied by those outside communion. I am all for culling the term from anything except quotations and having a seperate page dedicated to the term itself as an exonym explaining all this silly nuance. Magjozs (talk) 13:54, 6 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Although the biggest Catholic denomination is Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholicism and Catholicism cannot be terms that are used interchangeably. Many sources talk about them in this way because it is the most practiced form of Catholicism. Other forms are mentioned in this article as well; it should be taken out. Merkurïïï (talk) 19:03, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Believe it or not, this question has come up before. See the three "requested move" discussions linked at the top of the page, and many tens of thousands of words in the archives. Johnbod (talk) 14:13, 6 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

GA Reassessment[edit]

Catholic Church[edit]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.


Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · WatchWatch article reassessment pageMost recent review
Result: No consensus. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 00:27, 1 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Several uncited sections, including almost the entire first section of the History section. History focuses disproportionately on 20th and 21st century. Z1720 (talk) 17:27, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Disagree that the history weighting is a significant problem. Might require a minor rebalancing—-I’m not sure why John Paul II has his own section while other popes do not (aside from Francis, but the case for having a section on the current pope is strong)—-but that’s a modest edit, not a reason to delist. The several uncited paragraphs in the History section (which look to be the only significantly uncited section to me) do need fixed, but I note that History of the Catholic Church has a pretty well-cited early history section, so that shouldn’t be a hard fix. Reassessment seems a pretty big overreaction for these problems—-it’s pretty firmly WP:JUSTDOIT territory. El Sandifer (talk) 20:25, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep on grounds offered. The first part of the History section appears to be a lede-style summary of the subsections afterward (a la WP:LEADCITE), with the relevant citations in the respective subsections. If truly desired, go and move the relevant citations back up, but this is a style that isn't unreasonable. As for focus - the Catholic Church is a topic where multi-volume books have been written on it, there is no one perfect amount to cover on each time period. I will say that random readers are probably more interested in the recent history aspect, so it wouldn't shock me if the 2424 article on the Catholic Church disproportionately focuses on the 24th century. SnowFire (talk) 21:56, 12 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delist 1) if the unsourced content in the history section is a sourced elsewhere in the article, it is redundant and needs to be removed per GACR#3b 2) obvious recentism in the history section. The Catholic Church has a really long history so the twentieth and twenty first centuries need to be covered in similar amount of detail as other historical epochs, and summary style needs to be used. Note that I did not look at the rest of the article (t · c) buidhe 17:41, 13 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep There is no obvious "recentism" in the history section. The 20th century section does not appear disproportionately long compared to the rest of the section. I also see no uncited sections. Note that my comments pertain to this most recent revision. –Zfish118talk 18:58, 26 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Note that Zfish118's comment follows my examination and removal of the offending parts. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 03:04, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Excellent work in trimming the history section! –Zfish118talk 03:30, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Carneval in Britain[edit]

In the otherwise admirable article on carnival, it is stated that Carnival is a tradition in Roman Catholic and Anglican countries. In fact in Britain apart from a few small local festivals, mostly held in the summer, the only large celebrations are of Caribbean origin, such as the Notting Hill Carnival in London, which only dates back to the 1950s. Mikrolysa 24 (talk) 09:30, 12 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Official URL is unnecessarily long.[edit]

The official URL for the Catholic Church is too long. If you search www.vatican.va it will simply redirect to https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html. But since the official URL is linked to the wikidata item it automatically displays the longer link which is unnecessary. It would be better if the article showed "vatican.va" as the official website instead of the longer link. EXANXC (talk) 03:33, 1 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What if the article is fully protected?[edit]

Only admins would edit Catholic Church? But it would be unclear. 130.105.50.149 (talk) 21:04, 12 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The article is not fully protected, but rather semi-protected. Other editors are able to edit this page, but you have to be a registered account that is both more than four days old and has at least four edits to English Wikipedia. If you wish to edit this article without registering or signing in, you may request an edit on this talk page using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. ~ Pbritti (talk) 22:07, 12 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]