Bringing you the "Good News" of Jesus Christ and His Church While PROMOTING CATHOLIC Apologetic Support groups loyal to the Holy Father and Church's magisterium
Home About
AskACatholic.com
What's New? Resources The Church Family Life Mass and
Adoration
Ask A Catholic
Knowledge base
AskACatholic Disclaimer
Search the
AskACatholic Database
Donate and
Support our work
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
New Questions
Cool Catholic Videos
About Saints
Disciplines and Practices for distinct Church seasons
Purgatory and Indulgences
About the Holy Mass
About Mary
Searching and Confused
Contemplating becoming a Catholic or Coming home
Homosexual and Gender Issues
Life, Dating, and Family
No Salvation Outside the Church
Sacred Scripture
non-Catholic Cults
Justification and Salvation
The Pope and Papacy
The Sacraments
Relationships and Marriage situations
Specific people, organizations and events
Doctrine and Teachings
Specific Practices
Church Internals
back
Church History


A.D. wrote:

Hi, guys —

The Oxford World Christian Encyclopedia, which Catholics use to claim there are thousands of Protestant denominations also says this about Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic denominations. There are:

781 "Orthodox" denominations (i.e., Eastern Orthodoxy), predicting 887 by the year 2025.
242 "Roman Catholic" denominations for 2000, predicting 245 by the year 2025.

A Protestant sent me this.

  • Is it true that there are that many Catholic denominations?

A.D.

  { Is it true that there are that many Catholic denominations? }

Mike replied:

Hi, A.D. —

I can only speak for Christ's Church, the Catholic Church.

Before ascending into Heaven, Jesus only founded one Church and said to St. Peter
that the gates of Hell would not prevail against His Church with Peter and his successors
overseeing it.

If what you said is true, the Oxford World Christian Encyclopedia is wrong or you are misreading something.

There was one Church back in 33 A.D.; and there is one Church today.

The only thing 242 or 245 could possibly represent are religious orders within the one Church.
These are different ways of living out the Catholic Christian life in accord with today's one Catholic Church.

They are not denominations as the Catholic Church has no denominations.
We are the one Church that Jesus founded on St. Peter and His successors.

Hope this helps,

Mike

Eric replied:

A.D. —

There are many rites within the Catholic Church (ways of worshiping), and many churches sui iuris (according to the law) — such as:

  • the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
  • the Melkite Greek-Catholic Church
  • the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church
  • the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
  • the Chaldean Catholic Church
  • the Coptic Catholic Church, and
  • the Armenian Catholic Church

but we are all united under one head and believe in one common faith, and we, by no means, call our different rites or churches (sui iuris) "denominations".

We don't even call ourselves a denomination.

Eric

A.D. replied:

Thank you!

It helped a lot!

A.D.

Please report any and all typos or grammatical errors.
Suggestions for this web page and the web site can be sent to Mike Humphrey
© 2012 Panoramic Sites
The Early Church Fathers Church Fathers on the Primacy of Peter. The Early Church Fathers on the Catholic Church and the term Catholic. The Early Church Fathers on the importance of the Roman Catholic Church centered in Rome.