Old Catholic church summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Old Catholic church.

Old Catholic church, Any of a group of Western Catholic churches that separated from Rome after the First Vatican Council promulgated the doctrine of papal infallibility (1869–70). Old Catholic churches in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, and elsewhere joined together in 1889 to form the Union of Utrecht. The Old Catholics accept the Bible, the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds, and the seven sacraments. Their chief authority in church government is the conference of bishops. They have long used the vernacular in public worship; confession to a priest is not obligatory, and in some Old Catholic churches the celibacy of the clergy is optional.

Christianity Summary

Christianity, major religion stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century ce. It has become the largest of the world’s religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. It has a constituency of

church Summary

Church, in Christian doctrine, the Christian religious community as a whole, or a body or organization of Christian believers. The Greek word ekklēsia, which came to mean church, was originally applied in the Classical period to an official assembly of citizens. In the Septuagint (Greek)