Catholic Church

American  

noun

Roman Catholic Church.

1. a visible society of baptized Christians professing the same faith under the authority of the invisible head (Christ) and the authority of the visible head (the pope and the bishops in communion with him).

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Catholic Church British  

noun

1. short for Roman Catholic Church

2. any of several Churches claiming to have maintained continuity with the ancient and undivided Church

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Catholic Church Cultural  

1. A common abbreviation for the name of the Roman Catholic Church.

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Etymology

Origin of Catholic Church

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50

Example Sentences

As Chesnut noted, UFOs-as-demons is actually an evangelical idea from the 1950s and ’60s, and not something the Catholic Church has ever meddled in.

From Slate • Jun. 8, 2026

Sanchez's government and the Catholic Church in Spain signed an agreement in March to compensate victims after years of complaints that religious leaders had failed to tackle the issue adequately.

From BBC • Jun. 6, 2026

The pope could keep moving the anti-AI needle, as the head of the Catholic Church often can shift public opinion.

From Barron's • May 26, 2026

Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez responded that Cuba was willing to work with the Catholic Church, and was ready to hear the U.S. offer, of which it had no details as of yet.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026

A priest I once heard in a white middle-class parish defended the reformed liturgy by saying that it had become necessary to ‘de-Europeanize’ the Roman Catholic Church.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez