Catholic Terms and Definitions

The priestly remission of sins in the sacrament of Penance by the authority of Christ and His Church.

Also linked as: absolve, absolved

The sincere turning from sin toward a changed life, including practical steps to avoid the fault and its occasions.

Also linked as: amend, amended

A false claimant to the papal office who presents himself as pope without possessing the authority of the true Roman Pontiff.

Also linked as: antipopes

The total repudiation of the Christian faith after it has been received and professed.

Also linked as: apostate

One of the four marks of the Church: her continuity with the Apostles in doctrine, mission, and lawful authority.

The lawful power received from God to teach, govern, judge, and bind; in the Church, authority is ministerial and exists to guard truth, worship, and the salvation of souls.

Also linked as: authority, authorities

Speech, thought, or conduct that dishonors God, Our Lord, Our Lady, the saints, or sacred things by contempt, mockery, hatred, or profane irreverence.

Also linked as: blasphemies, blasphemous

The true Church considered in her purity, fidelity, and union with Christ the Bridegroom; she receives and guards His truth and cannot make peace with error as though it were charity.

Also linked as: the Bride, Bride of Christ

Injuring another's good name by false accusation or knowingly spreading what is untrue.

Also linked as: calumnies, slander, slandered, slanderous

The hill of Christ's Crucifixion, also called Golgotha, where the redemptive sacrifice of the Cross was offered and where Marian and ecclesial fidelity are revealed with special clarity.

The supernatural virtue by which God is loved above all things for His own sake, and neighbor is loved in God.

The visible and divine society founded by Jesus Christ to teach, govern, sanctify, and save souls through true doctrine, lawful authority, and sacramental worship.

Also linked as: the Church

The judgment of practical reason by which a person recognizes what ought to be done or avoided before God.

Also linked as: consciences

A willful despising of what should be honored or loved; toward persons it treats a soul as beneath charity, and toward holy things it attacks reverence.

Also linked as: contemptuous, contemptuously

Sorrow for sin together with hatred of it and a firm purpose of amendment.

An imitation of Catholic reality that preserves names, appearances, sentiments, or structures while contradicting the doctrine, worship, authority, or holiness of the true Church.

Also linked as: the Counterfeit, counterfeit church, counterfeit religion

Disordered desire for another's goods, state, position, or advantages, contrary to gratitude, justice, and trust in God.

Also linked as: covet, coveted, coveting

Freedom from disordered clinging to created things so that the soul may love God and use His gifts rightly.

Also linked as: detached

Unjustly harming another's reputation by revealing real faults or sins without a proportionate reason.

Also linked as: detract, detracting

Falsehood opposed to revealed truth; in matters of faith, worship, morals, or salvation, doctrinal error is not harmless when received, taught, loved, or excused.

Also linked as: doctrinal errors

A truth revealed by God and proposed by the Church as binding for belief.

Also linked as: dogmatic

The branch of theology that studies the Church: her nature, marks, authority, mission, worship, and relation to Christ.

Also linked as: ecclesiology, ecclesioogy

A condition in which the true Church's visibility is obscured by occupation, confusion, false appearances, persecution, or widespread apostasy, without the Church ceasing to exist or losing her marks.

Also linked as: eclipse of the Church, eclipsed

In its modern false form, the attempt to create Christian unity by minimizing, suspending, or relativizing Catholic doctrine.

Sadness at another's good as though it lessened oneself, often leading to resentment, rivalry, detraction, or secret delight in another's fall.

Also linked as: envious, jealousy, jealous

A spirituality or body of teaching claiming hidden knowledge, secret techniques, or inner enlightenment apart from God's public revelation and the Church's authority.

Also linked as: esoteric

The counterfeit unity that treats doctrinal contradiction, false worship, or religious mixture as though they could be reconciled with Catholic charity.

Also linked as: false ecumenism

A counterfeit compassion that refuses to name sin, error, judgment, repentance, or danger, leaving souls comfortable where true mercy would call them out.

Also linked as: false mercy

The misuse of obedience to make souls cooperate with error, silence truth, accept contradiction, or obey men against God.

Also linked as: false obedience

A counterfeit peace purchased by silence, compromise, or refusal to warn; it calms the surface while leaving souls exposed to danger.

Also linked as: false peace

The virtue that strengthens the soul to do good and endure evil steadily, especially when duty is difficult or costly.

Light-minded attachment to trifles, amusement, or attention in a way that weakens seriousness about God, duty, or the soul.

Also linked as: frivolous

Disordered desire for food, drink, or bodily satisfaction that weakens reason and self-command.

Also linked as: gluttonous

Idle or curious talk about others that feeds appetite for private matters and often leads to detraction, rash judgment, or injury to charity.

Also linked as: gossiped, gossiping

A style of Catholic architecture and art marked by verticality, light, order, and symbolic richness, often used to lift the soul toward heavenly worship and the holy city.

Also linked as: gothic, gothic style, gothis

A supernatural gift from God that heals, elevates, and enables the soul to know, love, and obey Him.

The obstinate denial or doubt of a truth that must be believed with divine and Catholic faith.

Also linked as: heretical, heretic, heretics

A shepherd in name who does not guard the flock when danger comes; he prefers comfort, approval, or institutional safety to warning souls against wolves and error.

Also linked as: hirelings

The sinful fear of human opinion that leads a soul to hide, soften, or betray duty toward God.

Also linked as: human respect

The virtue by which a soul knows the truth about itself before God and refuses pride, vanity, and self-exaltation.

Also linked as: humble

A failure to guard the fitting reserve of body, dress, speech, behavior, or attention according to purity and charity.

Also linked as: immodest, immodestly

A violation of chastity in thought, desire, look, word, action, or deliberate occasion.

Also linked as: impure, impurely

The property by which the true Church cannot lose her essential constitution, truth, or divine mission.

The error that doctrinal truth is not necessary or that different religions may be treated as spiritually equivalent.

The divine protection by which the Church, under the conditions established by Christ, cannot teach error in faith or morals.

A failure to give fitting honor to God, sacred persons, sacred places, sacred things, or holy duties.

Also linked as: irreverent, irreverently, irrevelent

The lawful power to govern, judge, and bind within the Church.

The virtue by which one gives to God and neighbor what is due.

Also linked as: justly, unjust, unjustly

The passage from the state of sin to the state of grace, by which the soul is cleansed, made just before God, and given sanctifying grace.

Also linked as: justification, justify, justified

Lawful according to the Church's rule or discipline, even when distinct from the question of validity.

Disordered desire for venereal pleasure apart from the order of chastity, marriage, and God's law.

Also linked as: lustful

The Church's divinely instituted teaching office, exercised by lawful shepherds in fidelity to revelation.

The objective signs by which the true Church is known: one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic.

Also linked as: four marks, four marks of the Church

The attempt to combine Christianity with non-Christian beliefs, rites, or spiritual systems as though contradictory religions could be harmonized into one acceptable path.

Also linked as: syncretism

The synthesis of heresies that subjects dogma, worship, and authority to modern consciousness, experience, and change.

The virtue that guards fitting reserve in dress, speech, bearing, and conduct so that the person is not displayed or used contrary to purity and dignity.

Also linked as: modest, modestly

A grave sin committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent, destroying charity in the soul.

The postconciliar rite of Mass introduced after Vatican II and set against the traditional Roman rite.

The virtue by which a soul submits rightly to God and to lawful authority under God.

Also linked as: obey, obeyed, obeying

A failure to do a good act or fulfill a duty that one was obliged and able to do.

Also linked as: omissions

The all-powerful might of God, by which He can do all that is consistent with His divine nature and wisdom; His greatest works often appear under humility, hiddenness, and grace rather than worldly display.

Also linked as: omnipotence, omnipotent

Religion as visibly structured in doctrine, worship, authority, and communal life; Christ founded not a private spirituality but a visible Church.

False religion that worships creatures, false gods, natural powers, or man-made rites instead of the one true God revealed in Jesus Christ.

Also linked as: pagan, pagans

The virtue by which a soul bears suffering, delay, contradiction, or trial without surrendering charity or duty.

Also linked as: patient, patiently

Both the sacrament of reconciliation and the acts of repentance imposed or undertaken for the remission of sin.

Disordered self-exaltation by which the soul resists its dependence on God and seeks its own excellence apart from truth.

Also linked as: proud

The principle that the individual self remains the final judge of doctrine, worship, and authority, rather than submitting to what God has revealed through His Church.

A self-directed spirituality detached from the visible Church, sacramental worship, and lawful authority; contrary to what Christ established.

The virtue that judges rightly what should be done here and now, choosing fitting means to a good end.

Also linked as: prudent, prudently

Cleanness of heart, intention, imagination, speech, and body according to chastity and the love of God.

Also linked as: pure

Judging another's guilt, motives, or interior state without sufficient evidence or rightful authority.

Also linked as: rash judgment, rashly judge, judging rashly, judged rashly

The act of identifying the true Church, true doctrine, true worship, or a true shepherd by the marks and principles God has given, rather than by comfort, habit, or outward popularity.

Interior quiet and gathered attention before God, opposed to dissipation, distraction, and restless scattering of the soul.

Also linked as: recollected

A Catholic who refused conformity to an imposed false religious order, especially English Catholics who remained faithful under penal laws after the Protestant revolt.

Also linked as: recusants, reclusant, reclusants

The faithful portion who persevere in true doctrine, worship, and obedience when many fall away; Catholics who remain under the true marks of the Church in a time of eclipse and apostasy.

Also linked as: remnant

The duty to repair, as far as possible, unjust harm done to another's goods, reputation, rights, or peace.

Also linked as: restore, restored

An outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.

Also linked as: sacraments, sacramental

The profanation or irreverent treatment of a sacred person, place, thing, rite, or sacrament.

Also linked as: sacrileges, sacrilegious, sacrilrge

Words, actions, omissions, or example that lead another soul toward sin or weaken him in virtue and faith.

Also linked as: scandalize, scandalized, scandalous

The rupture of ecclesial unity by refusal of due subordination or communion within the Church.

A troubled fear of sin where there is not sufficient reason, often leading the soul to anxiety, repeated confession, or distrust of sound counsel.

Also linked as: scruples, scrupulous

The false principle that personal and public life should be organized without submission to God's revealed truth, often presenting itself as neutral while functioning as a rival religion.

Also linked as: secular

Spiritual laziness or sadness before the good God asks, making the soul negligent in prayer, duty, or conversion.

Also linked as: slothful

The virtue that moderates the desire for pleasures, especially bodily pleasures, according to reason and God's law.

Also linked as: temperate

An attraction, suggestion, or pressure toward sin, whether from the world, the flesh, or the devil.

Also linked as: temptations, tempted

The transmission of revealed truth handed down from the Apostles in the life, worship, and teaching of the Church.

Also linked as: Sacred Tradition

The reality of God as above, beyond, and not limited to the created order, while still truly present and acting within it.

Also linked as: transcendent

The change of the whole substance of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Mass.

The Church founded by Christ, knowable by her marks, doctrine, worship, sacraments, authority, and holiness, even when her visibility is obscured by crisis.

Also linked as: the true Church

Belonging to the whole rather than to one part only; in Catholic usage it often points to the Church's catholicity, meaning fullness of truth, worship, and mission for all nations under one faith.

Also linked as: universality

The unlawful seizure or exercise of an office, mission, or authority not truly received.

Also linked as: usurper, usurpers

Having the reality and effect intended; in sacramental theology, truly conferring what the sacrament signifies.

Also linked as: validity, invalid, invalidity

A lesser sin that wounds charity but does not destroy it as mortal sin does.

A stable evil habit or disordered tendency that inclines the soul toward sin.

Also linked as: vices

A stable good habit by which the soul is disposed to act rightly according to reason enlightened by faith and grace.

Also linked as: virtues

The property by which the Church Christ founded can be known as a real society by her marks, doctrine, worship, sacraments, and authority, though her visibility may be obscured in times of crisis.

Also linked as: visible Church

Apocalyptic and polemical language for counterfeit religion in adulterous commerce with false worship, false doctrine, worldly power, and peace purchased by betrayal.

Also linked as: the whore, whore of Babylon

A false shepherd or teacher who appears harmless, pious, or authoritative while leading souls away from truth, true worship, repentance, or the safety of the flock.

Also linked as: wolves, wolf in sheep's clothing, wolves in sheep's clothing

Charitable works by which Catholics aid the bodily and spiritual needs of their neighbor for the love of God.

Also linked as: work of mercy, works of mercy

Attachment to the spirit, honors, pleasures, judgments, and habits of the world in a way that weakens fidelity to God.

Also linked as: worldly