Catholic Terms and Definitions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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

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

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.

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

An outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.

Also linked as: sacraments, sacramental

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

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

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.

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.