It is the largest destination in.

It is most widespread in Europe (Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary), Latin America and the USA. To one degree or another, Catholicism is widespread in almost all countries. globe. Word "Catholicism" comes from Latin - “universal, universal”. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the church remained the only centralized organization and force capable of stopping the onset of chaos. This led to the political rise of the church and its influence on the formation of the states of Western Europe.

Features of the doctrine of "Catholicism"

Catholicism has a number of features in its doctrine, cult and structure religious organization, which reflected the specific features of the development of Western Europe. The basis of the doctrine is the Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. All books included in the Latin translation of the Bible (Vulgate) are considered canonical. Only the clergy is given the right to interpret the text of the Bible. Sacred Tradition is formed by the decisions of the 21st Ecumenical Council (recognizes only the first seven), as well as the judgments of the popes on church and worldly issues. The clergy takes a vow of celibacy - celibacy, thereby it becomes, as it were, a participant in divine grace, which separates it from the laity, whom the church likened to a flock, and the clergy was assigned the role of shepherds. The Church helps the laity achieve salvation through the treasury of good deeds, i.e. the abundance of good deeds performed by Jesus Christ, the Mother of God and the saints. As Christ's vicar on earth, the pope manages this treasury of supererogatory affairs, distributing them among those who need them. This practice, called distribution indulgences, was subjected to fierce criticism from Orthodoxy and led to a split in Catholicism and the emergence of a new direction in Christianity -.

Catholicism follows the Nice-Constantinopolitan Creed, but creates its own understanding of a number of dogmas. On Toledo Cathedral in 589, an addition was made to the Creed about the procession of the Holy Spirit not only from God the Father, but also from God the Son (lat. filioque- and from the Son). Until now, this understanding has been the main obstacle to dialogue between the Orthodox and Catholic churches.

A feature of Catholicism is also the sublime veneration of the Mother of God - the Virgin Mary, the recognition of the dogmas about her immaculate conception and bodily ascension, according to which the Most Holy Theotokos was taken to heaven “with soul and body for heavenly glory.” In 1954, a special holiday dedicated to the “Queen of Heaven” was established.

Seven Sacraments of Catholicism

In addition to the doctrine of the existence of heaven and hell, common to Christianity, Catholicism recognizes the doctrine of purgatory as an intermediate place where the soul of a sinner is purified by going through severe trials.

Commitment sacraments- ritual actions accepted in Christianity, with the help of which special grace is transmitted to believers, differs in a number of features in Catholicism.

Catholics, like Orthodox Christians, recognize seven sacraments:

• baptism;
• communion (Eucharist);
• priesthood;
• repentance (confession);
• anointing (confirmation);
• marriage;
• consecration of oil (unction).

The sacrament of baptism is performed by pouring water, anointing or confirmation is performed when the child reaches seven or eight years of age, and in Orthodoxy - immediately after baptism. The sacrament of communion among Catholics is performed on unleavened bread, and among Orthodox Christians on leavened bread. Until recently, only the clergy received communion with wine and bread, and the laity only with bread. The sacrament of unction - the prayer service and anointing of a sick or dying person with a special oil - oil - is considered in Catholicism as a church blessing for the dying, and in Orthodoxy - as a way of healing an illness. Until recently, services in Catholicism were performed exclusively in Latin, which made it completely incomprehensible to believers. Only II Vatican Council(1962-1965) allowed service in national languages.

The veneration of saints, martyrs, and blessed ones is extremely developed in Catholicism, the ranks of which are constantly multiplying. The center of religious and ritual rituals is the temple, decorated with works of painting and sculpture on religious themes. Catholicism actively uses all means of aesthetic influence on the feelings of believers, both visual and musical.

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Catholicism in the life of Western Europe was dominated by the Roman Catholic Church until the 16th century. There are few dogmatic and liturgical differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy interprets the Trinity differently (believes that the Holy Spirit comes only from God the Father), does not recognize purgatory between heaven and hell, does not practice issuing indulgences, and administers communion with bread (and not unleavened, but leavened) and wine. But it always held on to these differences very tightly, especially after the final break with Catholicism in 1054.

Definition of Catholicism The term “Catholicism” (or “Catholicism”) is derived from the Greek adjective “katholicos” - “universal”. "Ecclesia catholica" means "universal (conciliar) Church." These are the words that are included in the original Nicene-Constantinople Creed: “I believe... in the Catholic Church...”.

Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church means universal, universal, claiming that she, and she alone, is the true and complete embodiment of Christianity. The Catholic Church, unlike the Orthodox Church, has a single head - the Pope. The head of the church is considered the vicar of Christ on earth and the successor of the Apostle Peter. The Pope performs a triple function: Bishop of Rome, Shepherd of the Universal Church and Head of the Vatican State. The current Pope John Paul II was elected in 1978. The Catholic Church, according to its teaching, carried within itself a “reserve of good deeds” and divine grace, which helped to achieve salvation and remove sins from the human soul. Catholicism has taken a leading place in many countries of Europe and America. With the blessing of the Roman Catholic Church, many were consigned to oblivion and condemned. cultural traditions“pagan” antiquity with its free-thinking

2. Russian Orthodox Church in Soviet times (1917-1991). Materials and documents on the history of relations between the state and the Church [text]: - Book. 1.-M.: Propylaea, 1995.- 228 p.

True, the church tradition, which cultivated Latin, contributed to the preservation of a significant part of the manuscript heritage of ancient culture. The teaching of Aristotle, revived with the help of the Arabs, significantly corrected by the church, even became (along with the Bible) a kind of supreme and almost the last word spiritual culture. However, much was irretrievably lost, and, above all, spiritual freedom. Catholic priests (who took a vow of celibacy and therefore were not bound in their activities by personal and family interests, who devoted themselves entirely to the service and interests of the church) jealously monitored the strict observance of church dogmas and rituals, mercilessly punished heretics, which included everyone who had any knowledge of -dared to deviate from official teaching. The best minds medieval Europe died at the stake of the “holy” Inquisition, and the church willingly sold indulgences of absolution for a lot of money to the rest, the intimidated and humbled “sinners.”

Roman Catholicism	Non-Roman Catholicism	Marginal Catholicism
Latin Rite Catholicism	Old Catholicism : Old Catholic Church Germany, Old Catholic Church Austria, Old Catholic Church Netherlands, Christian Catholic Church Switzerland, Polish national Catholic Church, Polish National Catholic Church of America	Apostolic Catholicism: Catholic Apostolic Church (Germany and England), New Apostolic Church (Germany, South Africa etc.)
Eastern Rite Catholicism : Greek Catholics(in particular, Ukrainian), Maronites, Syro-Catholics, Syro-Malabarians, Coptic Catholics, Ethiopian Catholics, Armenian Catholics, Chaldeans etc.	Conservative Catholicism: Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, Catholic American Orthodox Church, Mexican Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church, Catholic Apostolic Gallican Church, Old Romanesque Catholic Church France, Old Catholic Mariavite Church of Poland, African Legion of Mary ( Kenya), National Catholic Apostolic Church	Liberal Catholicism: Orthodox Catholic Church, Autocephalous Gallican Catholic Church, Apostolic Gnostic church (all 3 in France), Liberal Catholic Church USA
Reformed Catholicism: Philippine independent church, Czech Hussite Church
Anglo-Roman Catholicism (Anglo-Catholicism ) : Free Protestant Episcopal Church of Great Britain, Free Protestant Episcopal Church Nigeria, African Orthodox Church Zimbabwe, African Orthodox Church of South Africa
Catholic churches headed by independent bishops (“epissori vagantes”): Catholic Apostolic Orthodox Church of the East (Alouette-Pessac, Gironde, France), Mixed Independent Main Parish East-West (Beham Missionary Abbey, France)

Statistics and geography of Catholicism.

The innermost essence of the Catholic faith, of course, cannot be comprehended with the help of numbers, but they can at least give general idea about the activities of the Catholic Church. According to statistics, there are from 600 to 850 million Catholics in the world, which is about 15% of the planet. In Latin America, 90% of the population is Catholic, in Europe there are about 40%, in North America only 25%, in Africa 13%, and in Asia no more than 2.5%, with two thirds of them living in the Philippines. There are several large Catholic communities in the world, living and developing according to their own special laws. For example, the population of Latin American countries is growing rapidly. There are not enough priests, but the missionary activity of evangelization goes on continuously, and it is there that the Catholic Church becomes a truly people's “church for the poor.” On the contrary, in Western European, traditionally Christian countries, there are fewer and fewer Catholics, and the number is correspondingly decreasing. Catholic priests. The Catholic Church found itself in difficult conditions in the countries of Eastern Europe, which had long been under pressure from atheistic propaganda. However, since the beginning of the 90s, these countries have had the right to freely choose their religion. In Muslim countries, the few Catholics are treated differently depending on the level of religious tolerance in a given country. Today, the Catholic Church proclaims the need to seek solutions to the global problems of our time in the spirit of humanism, respect for life and the dignity of the human person.

Reformation and Catholicism in the first half of the 16th century.

The reformist social and religious movement, aimed at changing the very foundations of the structure of the church and associated with the worldview of the emerging bourgeoisie, led to the fact that large areas of Central, Western and Western Europe broke away from Catholicism. Northern Europe. The emerging anti-feudal movement was also directed against the Catholic Church. The leaders of the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland, Luther, John Calvin and Zwingli, accused the Catholic Church of distorting genuine Christianity, sharply opposed the dogma of papal infallibility, the practice of selling indulgences, the tinsel and pomp of Catholic worship, and finally, against exaggerating the role of the church as a mediator between man and God . The Reformation recognized Christ as the only mediator between people and God. Of course, the Reformation did not at all mean the death of Catholicism. Having resorted to the help of the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church managed to survive and until today its entire church hierarchy, headed by the Pope, is a serious force, the influence of which is felt in many parts of the world. However, the era of the Reformation dealt Catholicism and, in general, the omnipotence of the Christian Church such a blow from which it was no longer possible to recover. The times of the “Holy Inquisition” and total control over the thought and spiritual life of people by the church began to recede into the irrevocable past. Catholicism, following the Protestant Church, was forced to agree that God has a “divine” place, that is, a very specific place in the life and activities of people, the rest of their time and attention should be given to other matters that were not directly related to religion and did not depend on it interventions and assessments. This, naturally, did not mean that the role of the church was reduced to almost zero. And yet, the separation of the church from the state and from various spheres of people’s business activity, which was the result of the Reformation, played a huge role in the fate of Western Europe, in its successful development along the capitalist path.

1. Polikarpov, V.S. History of religions. Lectures and reader [text]: textbook / V.S. Polikarpov.- M.: 1997.- 164 p.

№ newspapers	Educational material
17	Lecture 1. Cultural and religious foundation as the most important feature of an ethnic group
18	Lecture 2. Catholicism is a cultural bridge between Europe and Latin America
19	Lecture 3. Protestantism is the core of Western civilization Test No. 1
20	Lecture 4. Orthodoxy is the unifying principle of the Eurasian world
21	Lecture 5. Arab-Muslim civilization
22	Lecture 6. The bizarre multicultural landscape of South, East and Southeast Asia Test No. 2
23	Lecture 7. Interethnic conflicts - global problem modernity
24	Lecture 8. The role of religion in the formation of the cultural treasury of world civilization Final work

Lecture 2

Catholicism - a cultural bridge
between Europe and Latin America

The term "Catholicism" comes from the Greek word Catholicos, which means “universal, worldwide.” This implies the worldwide, international status of the Roman Catholic Church. But she is not alone in these claims. The Orthodox Church also calls itself “catholic,” that is, “ecumenical,” “conciliar.” The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church (we will get to know this ancient Christian church later) is the Catholicos of all Armenians. However, the term “Catholic” was firmly assigned to the followers of the Roman Church. Why? Largely because this is the largest branch of Christianity, whose followers live on all continents of the world.

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As Table 1 shows, there are more than 1.1 billion Catholics in the world. The main center of Catholicism in the modern world is Latin America (about 500 million believers, a high proportion of the denominational composition of the population). How could this happen? After all, Rome, Italy, and Southern Europe have always been considered the core of the Catholic ethnocultural region.

The Roman Catholic Church considers itself the successor to the ancient Christian Church. Catholics believe that only they have preserved unchanged the spirit of Christianity inherent in the first centuries of its existence. According to legend, the first Christian Roman bishop (that is, the Pope) was the Apostle Peter - the beloved disciple of Christ and his most faithful follower, as the fathers of the Catholic Church characterize the apostle. Therefore, the main temple of all Catholics is the cathedral Saint Peter in Rome. Criticized by other Christian denominations for excessively exalting Peter, singling him out from the other apostles, Catholics appeal to the Gospel, where Peter is called “the rock on which Christ founded his church.” In favor of his exclusivity, they believe, is also evidenced by the fact that Peter, the only one of all the apostles, is repeatedly called by name in the Holy Scriptures, while the rest of the apostles are mentioned as a single group, and the frequent designation of Peter as the first of the apostles is also indicated.

The appearance of the Christian church in Rome dates back to 50 AD, but then Christianity in the world was united, and the emergence of Catholicism cannot be associated with this date. At the beginning of the 4th century, after a long struggle and many sacrifices, Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, but already in 395 the empire was divided into Western and Eastern. A schism, albeit not immediately, befell the Christian Church. In 1054, the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople subjected each other to an anathema (removed only in 1965), from that moment on, the Western and Eastern Christian churches are considered officially separated, Catholicism was finally separated from Orthodoxy, although in fact this happened centuries earlier. All saints canonized before the mid-11th century are recognized equally by both Catholics and Orthodox. For example, in Russia you can find churches consecrated in memory of Pope Clement I (lived at the end of the 1st century AD, known as the author of theological works). And, it would seem, the exclusively Orthodox Saints Cyril and Methodius, who preached the faith of Christ in the eastern lands, are equally revered by Catholics, because they lived in the 9th century.

In the 16th century The Roman Catholic Church suffered another split: as a result of the Reformation, Protestant churches emerged from it, which we will talk about in the next lecture. Since then, neither the teaching of the church nor its geography have changed significantly.

Table 1

Distribution of Catholics* by region of the world, 2005

	Population, million people	Number of Catholics million people	Proportion of Catholics in the population %
Europe and CIS	800	292	36,5
Asia	3850	114	3,0
Africa	906	138	15,2
North America	329	90	27,4
Latin America	559	480	85,9
Australia and Oceania	32	8	25,0
The world at large	6476	1122	17,3

*Including followers of Uniate churches.

How and when did Catholicism begin?

Catholicism is one of the branches of Christianity, therefore the basis of the teaching is faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, who came into the world to atone for the sins of man, crucified on the cross, ascended to heaven and is expected in the second coming. Catholics, like Orthodox Christians, recognize all seven Christian sacraments, but with some differences. Catholics recognize the books of the Old and New Testaments as sacred. However, they accept the Old Testament in a slightly different form than the Orthodox. The Roman Catholic Church, like the Orthodox Church, believes that the salvation of people can only be achieved through the mediation of the clergy, which is very clearly separated from the laity. Catholics, just like Orthodox Christians, venerate the Mother of God, angels, and saints. Just like the Orthodox, the cult of relics and sacred relics became widespread among them.

There are certainly fewer dogmatic differences between Catholics and Orthodox Christians than between Catholics and Protestants. However, these dogmas have existed for centuries and are an insurmountable obstacle to restoring the unity of the Christian Church (Table 2).

Table 2

Main dogmatic differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism

Catholicism	Orthodoxy
Recognition of Supremacy Popes and his infallibility in matters of faith	The primates of 15 Orthodox churches are independent of each other
The Holy Spirit comes not only from God the Father, but also from God the Son (Filioque)	The Holy Spirit comes only from God the Father
In views on the afterlife, along with heaven and hell, there is purgatory	There are only heaven and hell
Dogma of the supererogatory merits of Christ, the Mother of God and the saints	-
Confession more books of the Old Testament	A “small circle” of books of the Old Testament is recognized
The priesthood is required to observe a vow of celibacy	Celibacy is obligatory only for monks, and for priests who are not monks, on the contrary, marriage is obligatory
An important role is played by spiritual orders: Benedictines, Franciscans, Johannites, Templars, Dominicans, Jesuits, etc. (about 140 in total)	No orders
Dogma of the Immaculate Conception and Ascension to Heaven of the Virgin Mary (adopted in 1864)	The Mother of God has human nature and not freed from original sin. This does not prevent the emergence of a developed cult of the Mother of God in Orthodoxy
Baptism by pouring water	Baptism by immersion
During the service, believers sit, only occasionally kneeling	During the service, believers only stand
Communion of ordinary believers with unleavened bread (only priests receive communion with wine and bread)	Communion of the faithful with sour bread and wine
Confirmation of children some time after baptism (aged 7-12 years)	Confirmation of infants immediately after baptism
Crossing with five fingers	They are baptized with three fingers
Organ music is used in worship	The use of music is prohibited, only chants
The main language of worship is Latin	The service is held in the national or Church Slavonic language, the church language is based on Greek terms

The most important heresies of Catholics, from the point of view of the Orthodox, are the recognition of the supremacy and infallibility of the Pope, the procession of the Holy Spirit not only from God the Father, but also from God the Son (the Latin “filioque” - “and son” was added to the Catholic holy books) , the dogma of the supererogatory merits of Christ, the Mother of God and the saints. I would like to dwell on the latter in more detail, since the Orthodox regard this norm as the height of hypocrisy and immorality. Catholics believe that Christ, the Mother of God and the saints in their earthly lives atoned for much more sins than humanity had accumulated by that time. The Catholic Church has the right to dispose of the resulting treasury of good deeds at its own discretion. It is this dogma that explains the practice of issuing indulgences - papers confirming the atonement of sins and given to believers in exchange for certain gifts or funds given to the church.

The passion for “commerce” can also be seen in another Catholic dogma - the doctrine of purgatory, adopted at the Council of Florence in 1439. The Catholic Church is of the opinion that not every human soul can immediately go to heaven or hell according to its merits. Usually souls go through purgatory, where through severe trials they are freed from minor sins, in order to then go to heaven. The length of stay in purgatory depends on prayers and can be shortened if relatives of the deceased make offerings to the church.

Monasticism has received great development in Catholicism. Monks form communities - orders, of which more than a hundred are known throughout the history of the church. The most common orders have a specific specialization. For example, the Order of the Dominicans (according to the consonance of domini cani - “dogs of the Lord”), which received its name from St. Dominic, is the intellectual flower of the Catholic Church, the focus of book wisdom, it is he who is entrusted with polemics with other directions of Christianity on issues of theology and philosophy. The Franciscan Order (on behalf of St. Francis of Assisi) is called upon to provide assistance to the poor and disadvantaged. The Benedictine Order (the oldest of the Catholic orders, founded in the 4th century) “oversees” cultural issues. The widely known Jesuit order was founded in the 16th century. specifically to combat heresy and the Reformation by force.

The Catholic service is Mass. As a rule, it is held very magnificently, organ music is used. Catholic churches do not have an iconostasis separating the altar from the rest of the church; all sacraments of worship are performed in front of the believers, who during the service can sit on special benches (very often they have a special shelf for kneeling). Catholic churches are not decorated with frescoes, but sculpture is widely used, windows are painted with colored stained glass, and compositions of dolls are often made, telling about one or another Christian holiday (Christmas, baptism, etc.).

Representatives of a number of churches that have entered into unions with the Roman Catholic Church are also considered Catholics in the broad sense. Uniates recognize the primacy of the Pope, purgatory, the procession of the Holy Spirit and from God the Son, but at the same time they enjoy some canonical liberties - the marriage of priests, worship in their native language, and the preservation of the rites of the eastern branches of Christianity are allowed. The most numerous Uniate church is the Ukrainian Greek Catholic, created as a result of the Union of Brest-Litovsk in 1596. It has about 7 million believers living mainly in the west of Ukraine (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions). There are relatively small groups of believers who have entered into a union with the Roman Catholic Church and continue to perform the rites of the Armenian Apostolic, Ethiopian, Georgian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox and other Eastern churches. All of them are most often counted among Catholics.

Geography of the Roman Catholic Church

Catholics mainly live in two regions: Europe and Latin America. The border of Catholic Europe largely coincides with the northern limit of the Roman Empire in the era of its greatest territorial expansion. This is probably due to the greater rooting of Latin, Romance, and therefore Catholic culture in the south of Europe in the historical periods of the Middle Ages and Modern times. And even today, Catholic countries are perceived by many as the most faithful to traditions, the most patriarchal in Europe. This conservatism played a cruel joke on the southern Europeans: they failed to adapt to the new trade relations that had developed in the world in modern times, and lost the initiative to the Protestant countries of northern Europe - the Netherlands, Great Britain, and then the United States.

By that time, the Roman Catholic ethnocultural region had already acquired its modern shape. Along with the metropolis - Southern Europe - an entire continent appeared in its composition South America, colonized by the countries of the Iberian Peninsula - Spain and Portugal. The periphery of this world became Central America with Mexico and the largest islands of the West Indies (Cuba and Haiti), the main population of which also professes Catholicism. The Roman Catholic Church encourages fertility. This is due to both the ban on abortion, the recognition of the inadmissibility of same-sex marriage, a negative attitude towards divorce, and the promotion of large families. The age-sex pyramids of Catholic countries are often easily recognized by their pointed outlines and wide bases. The countries of Latin America, which relatively recently entered the stage of demographic transition, in the second half of the twentieth century. dramatically increased their population. Now almost 250 million Catholics live in just two countries of the New World - Brazil and Mexico (Table 3). This is only slightly less than the number of all European Catholics. The demographic center of gravity of the Roman Catholic world is rapidly shifting across the ocean to Latin America. It is obvious that in the very near future more and more political weight will gradually move there. So far, Latinos have little influence in the affairs of their church. But the interests of millions of believers cannot be ignored for long. It is no coincidence that when Benedict XVI was elected to the pontificate, a Latin American candidacy for the position of Pope was also seriously considered for the first time.

Table 3

The largest Catholic communities in the world

	Number of Catholics thousand people	Proportion of Catholics in the country's population, %
Brazil	145 446	79
Mexico	94 243	87
Philippines	69 630	81
USA	64 621	23
Italy	57 665	97
France	44 499	76
Colombia	38 406	86
Spain	37 165	88
Poland	35 010	94
Argentina	34 480	89
Congo (Kinshasa)	29 500	50
Peru	28 160	88
Germany	26 297	32
Venezuela	24 815	88
Nigeria	17 906	14
India	17 005	2
Canada	13 070	44
Ecuador	11 749	90
Uganda	11 219	42
Chile	11 021	72
Tanzania	10 465	27
Guatemala	10 304	77
Angola	10 302	50
Portugal	9 457	90

The modern power of the Catholic world is manifested not only in the demographic aspect, but also in the economic aspect, as evidenced by Table 4.

Table 4

Economic power of the Catholic world

Country	GDP at purchasing power parity, billion dollars, 2006
USA	13 130
China	10 170
Japan	4 218
India	4 156
Germany	2 630
United Kingdom	1 930
France	1 891
Italy	1 756
Russia	1 746
Brazil	1 655
South Korea	1 196
Canada	1 178
Mexico	1 149
Spain	1 109
Indonesia	948

Predominantly Catholic countries in terms of confessional composition are highlighted bold type, countries with a significant proportion of Catholics are marked italics.

According to the US CIA

The Philippines is undoubtedly part of the Catholic world. Centuries of Spanish colonization, and then half a century of US domination, have made this country the equivalent of a Latin American republic - populous, but relatively poor, politically unstable, with great military influence, dependent on Washington. Filipinos, like Latin Americans, migrate to the United States when possible, where they find their social niche relatively easily. The Philippines is the third most Catholic country in the world, and this cannot be ignored.

There is Catholicism in Russia too. The majority of Poles and Lithuanians living in Russia, some Germans, some Latvians, and a small part of Belarusians are Catholics. There are about 300 thousand followers of the Roman Catholic Church in the country, the largest communities are in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Irkutsk, Orenburg, and Kaliningrad.

Culture of the Catholic World

The most established and visible symbols of Catholic culture are, first of all, temple buildings. The Roman Catholic Church tried to assert its power, in particular, by means of visual propaganda - the creation of immortal works of architects. The power and influence of Rome is manifested in the Cathedral of St. Peter, and in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, and in the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Vienna, and in numerous temples of Spain, exceptional in their splendor, the most grandiose of which is the Sagrada Familia of the genius Gaudi in Barcelona, ​​and in the cathedral cathedrals of Latin American countries - silent witnesses, and sometimes active participants in the entire history of their states, and in Polish and Lithuanian churches, through which Rus' became acquainted with Western European architecture.

A Catholic church, as a rule, is magnificent in form, decor and interior. The general traditional scheme of its structure has not changed for centuries. Only in recent decades has postmodernism penetrated into this previously closed sphere. Now we can marvel at the cathedral of the Brazilian capital Brasilia (architect Oscar Niemeyer), reminiscent of an Indian hut made of glass and concrete. Many shocking projects of Catholic churches have been implemented in Poland. A modernist-looking Catholic church was also built in Russia, in the Irkutsk district of Studgorodok.

In cities of the Catholic ethnocultural region cathedral occupies a central place, in the rectangular grids of Latin American capitals planned from scratch, it has a position on the main square of the country. The most important Catholic church, the heart of the Church, is St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

In ancient times, on the site of St. Peter's Cathedral there was a circus, in the arena of which, during the time of Nero, Christians were martyred. In 326, Emperor Constantine built St. Peter's Basilica on this site. When it fell into disrepair, Pope Nicholas V began construction of the cathedral in 1452. The “construction of centuries” was completed only on November 18, 1626, on the 1300th anniversary of the first basilica. Construction required colossal funds, which were found by increasing church taxes from parishioners and increasing the sale of indulgences. Both the first and second circumstances contributed to the decline of the authority of the Roman Church and the development of the Reformation in northern Europe. Thus, St. Peter's Council simultaneously became both a triumph and a defeat for the ecclesiastical authority of Rome.

St. Peter's Cathedral was the largest Catholic cathedral (and indeed Christian temple) in the world until 1990, when Yamoussoukro, the capital of the African state of Cote d'Ivoire, built its own cathedral - an enlarged copy of the Roman one. Yamoussoucre's Notre-Dame de la Paix (Our Lady of Peace) Cathedral is part of an ambitious project to move the capital to the ancestral territory of Ivorian President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who ruled the country for decades. The vain Africans still surpassed the Europeans: the height of Our Lady of Peace is 158 m, St. Peter's Cathedral rises “only” 132 m. The Roman temple seats 70 thousand people; It is not yet clear how much its African clone can accommodate, because never since its creation has it been possible to gather so many worshipers there at the same time.

European painting, both the Romanesque period and the Renaissance, is inseparable from Catholicism. Michelangelo Buonarotti, Raphael Santi, Giotto, Donatello and many other famous masters worked on the decoration of Catholic churches. Classical music, especially Italian, French and Austrian, was born within the mainstream of Catholic culture. The organ, the only musical instrument permitted in the Catholic Church, entered the world musical culture along with the names of Bach and Handel. Using Catholic culture as a breeding ground, it was able to spread throughout the scientific community modern world Latin.

Southern nature - hot sun, warm sea, bright vegetation - have formed the special qualities of representatives of Catholic peoples: expansiveness, sociability, pride, self-confidence, the desire to live widely. Not only Catholic peoples have a hot character southern Europe, but also Catholic “northerners”. The tenacity and rebellious spirit of the Irish, unbroken by centuries of oppression by the British, are well known. Compared to their surroundings, the Lithuanians and Poles are quite expansive, rightfully proud of the fact that they had together one of the largest European states of all times - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Where is the boundary of Catholic culture? Now this is difficult to determine unambiguously. Churches and castles in England and Scandinavia were built back in the days when these territories recognized the supremacy of the Roman Church. The eastern border of the spread of Catholicism is marked by the cathedrals of Western Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. These marks also exist on Russian territory - in the Smolensk and Pskov regions. In the small town of Sebezh, located within the latter, the church, preserved from the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was recently reconsecrated into an Orthodox church, but at the same time completely retained its Catholic architectural form.

Religious pilgrimage

The main center of pilgrimage in the Catholic world is the Vatican. This is the smallest state in the world (with an area of ​​only 0.44 km 2 with a length of the external border of 2.6 km), located inside Rome, and has an influence on world politics that is incomparable with its size. Nominally, fewer than 800 people live in the Vatican, but in fact the authorities of this country can speak on behalf of more than a billion Catholics. The diplomatic influence of the Vatican is very great; the papal envoy, the nuncio, formally heads the embassy corps in Catholic countries.

According to the form of government, the Vatican is an absolute theocratic monarchy. The head of state - the Pope - is elected for life by secret ballot by a majority vote (two-thirds) of a conclave of cardinals (no more than 120 people, no one should be over 80 years old). The Pope has supreme legislative, executive and judicial powers. The central governing body of the Vatican is the Roman Curia, headed by the Pope. In April 2005, German Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger became Pope, the 265th in a row, under the name of Benedict XVI. The election of a German to the Holy See occurred for the first time in history. Before him, for 27 years, the Pope was the Pole Karol Wojtyla, who led the church under the name of John Paul II. Previously, only Italians became popes.

The predecessor of the Vatican was the Papal States, ruled by the popes, which lost its independence as a result of the unification of Italy into late XIX V. The Vatican was created according to the Lateran Agreement between the Holy See and the Government of Italy, concluded in 1929.

Outside its state borders, the Vatican, using its rights of extraterritoriality, owns early Christian basilicas of the 4th century, the Lateran Palace of the 16th century, the summer residence of the Pope in Castel Gandolfo (17th century) and some other buildings granted to the Vatican in Rome and its environs.

Sources of income for the Vatican: voluntary donations from believers and various church institutions, collections from taxes on the church, income from investments in various investment projects, foreign tourism, issue of postage signs, production and sale of souvenirs (coins, photographs of shrines, church utensils, etc.).

The official symbols of the Vatican are associated with Catholicism. The state flag is a square panel consisting of two equal vertical stripes - yellow and white. In the center of the white stripe are crossed gold and silver keys under the papal tiara. The keys symbolize the right of the first bishop of Rome, the Apostle Peter, to decide the fate of believers. The golden key is “permissive”, the silver one is “prohibiting”. Tiara is the headdress of the Pope, a symbol of his power.

Vatican shrines, including St. Peter's Basilica, are visited by 8 million pilgrims annually. The peak of pilgrimage arrivals occurs in Catholic Easter. In addition to Roman shrines, the most important centers of pilgrimage for Catholics are Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Czestochowa in Poland, Lourdes in France, Fatima in Portugal.

The Galician city of Santiago de Compostela is named after Saint James (Jacob, in Spanish Iago), and his remains are buried here in the cathedral. In 1478, the pilgrimage to Santiago by the Pope was equated in a spiritual sense with the pilgrimage to Rome. Upon arrival in the city, pilgrims present a special document at the cathedral - a “pilgrim’s passport”, introduced during the Middle Ages, with marks made at obligatory church points along the way. Only after this can they receive a “Compostela certificate” written in Latin. The pilgrim needs to give a sincere answer to the question of the church authorities about what intentions he set out on the journey, and if his thoughts do not correspond to piety, then he is given a different type of document.

Czestochowa is the main center of religious pilgrimage in Poland. Believers come to the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, also called the Black Madonna. Every year, about 4 million people go to venerate the holy image, mostly Poles and residents of Eastern Europe.

The city of Lourdes in southwestern France annually receives 5-6 million pilgrims who want to touch the miracle. Among them are 70–100 thousand sick people hoping for healing. In 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to the residents of Lourdes 18 times. She pointed out a place in the grotto where it was necessary to dig up the ground, and from there a spring of healing water began to flow. The Grotto of Massabielle became a center of worship, the Catholic Church recognized Lourdes as a holy place and created a system for recording and verifying miracles that had happened. The second largest underground church in the world with a capacity of 30 thousand worshipers was built in Lourdes.

Portuguese Fatima is a relatively young place of pilgrimage. This village became known to the entire Catholic world in 1917, when the Mother of God appeared to three children tending sheep and told them revelations about the future. The Roman Catholic Church has not yet disclosed the details of these revelations. A large temple was built in Fatima, elevated to the rank of a cathedral by the Vatican. Hundreds of thousands of people visit Fatima every year.

Like all Christians, Catholics attach great spiritual importance to pilgrimages to the Holy Land and visiting places associated with the earthly life of Jesus Christ (Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Lake Tiberias).

Questions and tasks

1. Why is the Roman Catholic Church considered universal?

2. How did the natural environment influence the culture of the Roman Catholic ethnocultural region?

3. On the map diagram “The number of Catholics by country of the world,” draw the border of the Roman Catholic ethnocultural region. Which countries with significant Catholic communities (more than 1 million people) are outside its borders? What is this connected with?

4. Why do you think Catholic countries missed out on world leadership by handing it over to Protestant countries?

5. What is the role of Catholic countries in the global division of labor? In the production of what types of products do they take leading positions?

Internet links

www.vatican.va - the official website of the Vatican;

www.catholic-hierarchy.org - current information about the structure of the Catholic Church (cathedras, priests, history of the church, number of believers by country and dioceses);

www.religio.ru - news of the world of religions;

http://ruscatholic.ru - Catholic Church in Russia.

Catholics or Catholicism are the largest part of adherents of one of the directions of Christianity, now there are about 1 billion 230 million people, and the Vatican is the largest religious and ideological center of Catholicism. It is believed that historical schism from the east Christian Church occurred in 1054. Liturgical rites in the Catholic Church are divided into the Latin rite, Western rites and Eastern liturgical rites.

Catholicism is primarily widespread in countries such as Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Ireland, Malta where Catholics represent the majority of the population of these countries. In the Western Hemisphere, Catholics are in the majority in the United States, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, and all countries of South and Central America. In Asia, Catholic majority societies can be found in the Philippines and East Timor. In Australia and New Zealand they are also the majority. It is worth noting the Catholicism of the Byzantine rite or Greek Catholicism, which is widespread in Eastern Europe.

For tourists from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus on a trip to the West, the question arises: how does the Catholic Church differ from the Orthodox Church or from Protestantism?

For example, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have different understandings of the unity of the Church, so for the Orthodox it is enough to share one faith and sacraments, while Catholics also see the need for a single head of the Church - the Pope. The Orthodox claim that the Universal Church is “embodied” in each local Church, headed by a bishop. Catholics add that this local Church must have communion with the local Roman Catholic Church in order to belong to the Universal Church. The Orthodox Church confesses the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father, and the Catholic Church confesses in the Creed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Orthodox Church allows the possibility of divorce between husband and wife, unlike the Catholic Church. IN Orthodox Church there is no purgatory or state of souls after death destined for heaven but not yet ready for it, unlike Catholicism. Catholics firmly believe in Immaculate Conception Virgin Mary, Orthodox believe that she was born with original sin. In the Catholic Church the head is the Pope; for the Orthodox Church there is no Pope.

Nevertheless, despite these differences and many others, including differences between liturgical practice, Catholics and Orthodox believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, which unites them despite past prejudices and errors.

Over the past decades, there has been a weakening of the influence of the Catholic Church on the lives of ordinary people, this is especially noticeable in Latin American countries, for example, here in 1995 there were 80% of Catholics, but already in 2014 their number fell to 67%, due to a feeling of loss contact between the clergy and the problems of the people and opened the way for the spread of evangelism.

In Europe, Catholicism is weakened by the currently fashionable tolerance, the dominance of migrants, and Islamic culture, which can lead to the loss of European identity. This will not affect us tourists, the great cathedrals, representing an exotic Gothic style, will still be safe and sound, and converted churches into bookstores are still better than abandoned and forgotten churches.

Religion in the Vatican

The Vatican is the world center of Catholicism, under whose leadership secular and church organizations function in many countries.

Probably 100% of the population of the Vatican is Catholic, all of them are subjects of the Holy See, there are 61 cardinals and 346 clergy, about a hundred Swiss Guards who guard the Vatican and are an integral part of numerous ceremonies, 150 papal gendarmes and about the same number of civilians and families especially close to the church. During the day, in addition to tourists, three thousand Italians work here, who leave the state at night.