Catholic Church" redirects here. For other uses, see Catholic Church (disambiguation).
The Roman Catholic Church, most often called the Catholic Church, is the Christian Church in full communion with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, who is currently Pope Benedict XVI. It traces its origins to the original, undivided Christian community founded by Jesus, with its traditions first established by the Twelve Apostles and maintained through unbroken Apostolic Succession.
The Catholic Church is not only the largest Christian Church, but also the largest organized body of any world religion.[1] According to the Statistical Yearbook of the Church, the Church's worldwide recorded membership at the end of 2004 was 1,098,366,000, or approximately 1 in 6 of the world's population.[2] According to canon law, members are those who have been baptized in, or have been received into, the Catholic Church on making a profession of faith, provided they have not formally renounced membership.
While the Holy See of Rome is seen as central, the Catholic Church is a worldwide organization made up of one Western or Latin-Rite and 22 Eastern Rite particular Churches. The Church is divided into jurisdictional areas, usually on a territorial basis. The standard territorial unit is called, in the Latin Rite, a diocese, and in the Eastern Rites, an eparchy, each of which is headed by a bishop. At the end of 2004, the total number of all these jurisdictional areas or sees was 2755.[3]
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