Church of Rome

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Church of Rome is an expression with several uses.

• Within the lexicon of the Catholic Church, "Church of Rome" refers to the Holy See, the diocese of the city of Rome of which the Pope is the bishop, that is the Bishop of Rome.

• In post Protestant Reformation polemics, "Church of Rome" was sometimes used in negative way to refer to the entire Catholic Church in communion with Rome.

• Among the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, "Church of Rome" is often a reference to the entire Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, and is not considered to be a derogatory term.

Some Catholics may be offended by calling the entire Catholic Church the "Church of Rome" or the "Roman Catholic Church" as they see this as theologically impossible because Catholicism is a universal religion and there cannot be a universal "Roman" religion.