Look up Catholic Church in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Catholic Church refers to:

• The Roman Catholic Church, i.e. the Western and the 22 Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with the Bishop of Rome (the Pope)
• Those churches which, collectively, claim apostolic origins and historical Catholic traditions, but not necessarily in the Roman tradition, including the Orthodox churches
• Most broadly, the whole Christian Church in general (in English the uncapitalized form of "catholic" is often used in this sense, as in the Apostles' creed)

It is also used with special reference to:

In Eastern Christianity:

• The Orthodox Church
• Oriental Orthodoxy
• The Assyrian Church of the East
• The Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with the Holy See

In Western Christianity:

• The Roman Catholic Church
• The Old Catholic Church
• The Polish National Catholic Church
• The Mariavite Church (Poland)
• Independent Catholic Churches
• The Orthodox-Catholic Church of America (OCCA)
• The Anglican Communion
• Holy Catholic Church of Japan (Anglican)
• The Continuing Anglican movement

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