United States
Although French Catholics participated in the exploration and colonization of the Mississippi valley, among the 13 colonies of the emerging United States only Maryland, which had been settled in 1634 and established in 1649, included an appreciable number of Catholics before American independence.
Canada
The Roman Catholic Church entered Canada with some of the first French explorers and colonists and, despite the country’s eventual domination by the English, has remained the largest Canadian church.
Roman Catholicism in Africa and Asia
Although Catholicism had established itself in the Americas by the 18th century, it became a worldwide presence for the first time only in the 19th century. This expansion was the result of both Western imperialism in Africa and Asia and the rebirth of a missionary spirit in Christendom.
Missions in Africa
In the early church, Africa was one of the great centres of the faith and the home of some of its most influential figures, including Perpetua, Tertullian, Athanasius, and Augustine.
Missions in Asia
In Asia, Catholicism profited from Portuguese and Spanish adventures beginning in the 16th century. In that part of the world, however, the church faced unique challenges. Asians had not had contact, as Muslims had, with biblical views of history and destiny.
16th century
The break with the Roman papacy and the establishment of an independent Church of England came during the reign of Henry VIII (1509–47). When Pope Clement VII refused to approve the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the English Parliament, at Henry’s insistence, passed a series of…
missions and missionaries
The Roman Catholic Church, reformed and revitalized after the Council of Trent (1545–63), sent missionaries into the newly discovered and conquered territories of three Catholic empires: Spain, Portugal, and France. As a result, Christianity was established in Central and South America, in the Caribbean, and in…
Retrace the Beginnings of One of the Oldest Branches of Christianity
Mary Fairchild is a full-time Christian minister, writer, and editor of two Christian anthologies, including "Stories of Calvary."
Origins of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholicism itself maintains that the Roman Catholic Church was established by Christ when he gave direction to the Apostle Peter as the head of the church. This belief is based on Matthew 16:18, when Jesus Christ said to Peter:
The Early Christian Church
After the ascension of Jesus Christ, as the apostles began to spread the gospel and make disciples, they provided the beginning structure for the early Christian Church. It is difficult, if not impossible, to separate the initial stages of the Roman Catholic Church from that of the early Christian church.
Key Dates and Events in the History of Roman Catholicism
c. 33 to 100 CE: This period is known as the apostolic age, during which the early church was headed up by the 12 apostles of Jesus, who began missionary work to convert Jews to Christianity in various regions of the Mediterranean and Mideast.
The concept of Christendom
By the 10th century the religious and cultural community known as Christendom had come into being and was poised to enter a prolonged period of growth and expansion. Important progress had taken place well before this period, however.
A period of decadence
The advances made in church organization and in reformation of religious life could not be sustained in the post-Carolingian world. Indeed, the 10th century has traditionally been regarded as a period of decay and corruption within the church.
Church beginnings
According to Catholic tradition, the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ. The New Testament records Jesus' activities and teaching, his appointment of the twelve Apostles, and his instructions to them to continue his work.
Late antiquity
Emperor Constantine I established the rights of the Church in the year 315.
Middle Ages
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, trinitarian Christianity competed with Arian Christianity for the conversion of the barbarian tribes. The 496 conversion of Clovis I, pagan king of the Franks, saw the beginning of a steady rise of the faith in the West.
Renaissance and reforms
Through the late 15th and early 16th centuries, European missionaries and explorers spread Catholicism to the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Pope Alexander VI, in the papal bull Inter caetera, awarded colonial rights over most of the newly discovered lands to Spain and Portugal.
Baroque, Enlightenment and revolutions
The Council of Trent generated a revival of religious life and Marian devotions in the Catholic Church. During the Reformation, the Church had defended its Marian beliefs against Protestant views.
Industrial age
Before the council, in 1854 Pope Pius IX with the support of the overwhelming majority of Catholic Bishops, whom he had consulted between 1851 and 1853, proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
Post-Industrial age
The Catholic Church engaged in a comprehensive process of reform following the Second Vatican Council (1962–65). Intended as a continuation of Vatican I, under Pope John XXIII the council developed into an engine of modernisation.
