This is a glossary of terms used within the Catholic Church. Some terms used in everyday English have a different meaning in the context of the Catholic faith, including brother, confession, confirmation, exemption, faithful, father, ordinary, religious, sister, venerable, and vow.
A
B
C
- Canon law
- Cardinal
- Cardinal Vicar
- Catholicism - the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioural characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole.
- Catechism - a document containing an approved exposition of Church teachings
- Chancery, Apostolic — see: Apostolic Chancery (above)
- Chancery, Diocesan – see: Diocesan chancery (below)
- Chaplain of His Holiness
- Clergy, Regular – see: Regular clergy (below)
- Clergy, Secular – see: Secular clergy (below)
- Coadjutor bishop — an auxiliary bishop with the legal right of succession to the see of which he is coadjutor
- Code of Canon Law, 1917
- Code of Canon Law, 1983
- Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches
- College of Cardinals
- College of Consultors
- Communion - see: Eucharist (below) and Full communion (below)
- Communion rite
- Communion of Saints
- Conclave
- Confession – see: Sacrament of Penance (below)
- Confirmation
- Congregation, Religious
- Congregation (Roman Curia)
- Congregation, Sacred – see: Congregation (Roman Curia) (above)
- Consecrated life
- Consecrated life (Catholic Church)
- Consecrated life, Institute of – see: Institute of consecrated life (below)
- Corpus Juris Canonici
- Council, Pontifical – see: Pontifical Council (below)
- Counter-Reformation - the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War.
- Credence table
- Crosier
- Crucifix
- Curia, Moderator of the - see: Moderator of the Curia (below)
- Curia
- Curia, Roman - see: Roman Curia (below)
D
E
F
- Faithful — the collective members of the church incorporated into it through sacramental baptism.[2]
- Fall of Man — the willful transition of the first humans from a state of original holiness, in communion with God, to a state of guilt and perennial disobedience
- Family wage
- Father (cleric) — a traditional title of priests
- Father, God the — a name for the First Person of the Blessed Trinity
- Five Ways — see: Quinque Viæ (below)
- Font, Baptismal — see: Baptismal font (above)
- Font, Holy water — see: Holy water font (below)
- Friar
- Full communion
G
H
I
- Immaculate Conception — the dogma that Mary was conceived without original sin (not to be confused with the Incarnation of Christ)
- Incardination — see also: excardination (above)
- Incarnation — The Word of God taking on a human nature and becoming true man, Jesus Christ (not to be confused with the Immaculate Conception of Mary)
- Institute of consecrated life
- Institute, Religious — see: Religious institute (below)
- Institute, Secular — see: Secular institute (below)
J
L
M
N
O
- Officialis — see: Judicial vicar (above)
- Order, Religious — see: Religious order (below)
- Ordinariate, Military — see: Military ordinariate (above)
- Ordinariate, Personal — see: Personal ordinariate (below)
- Ordinary — see: Local ordinary (above)
P
Q
- Quinque Viæ — Aquinas' famous philosophical proofs for the existence of God found in his Summa Theologiæ
R
- Ratum sed non consummatum
- Reader
- Reconciliation – see: Sacrament of Penance (below)
- Rector (cathedral or seminary)
- Regular clergy
- Religious
- Religious brother – see: Brother (above)
- Religious congregation – see: Congregation, Religious (above)
- Religious institute (Catholic)
- Religious order
- Religious priest – see: Regular clergy (above)
- Rite to Being - The rite of being left alone to pray to Jesus Christ
- Religious sister – see: Sister (below)
- Right of Option - a way of obtaining a benefice or a title, by the choice of the new titulary
- Roman Catholic - The Roman rite of the Catholic Church.
- Roman Curia — "the complex of dicasteries and institutes that help the Roman Pontiff in the exercise of his supreme pastoral function for the good and service of the whole Church and of the particular Churches"[5]
- Roman Missal
S
T
V
U
- Universal Church - Title that refers to the Catholic Church. From Greek 'katholikos 'universal' from kata 'in respect of' + holos 'whole'.
W
- Wage, Family — see: Family wage (above)
- War, just — see: Just war (above)
- Ways, Five — see: Quinque Viæ(above)
- West Syriac Rite
See also
References
Works cited
- Code of Canon Law (CIC). Vatican Publishing House. 1983.