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

See Examples For:

Catholic Church

“Through such an admission man looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of,” reads the catechism of the Catholic Church.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

Some Catholic families turned to homeschooling after Vatican II, the 1960s council responsible for modernizing the Catholic Church, led to concerns that even local parochial schools were losing their conservative moral values.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Around 70,000 people were expected to attend, according to the Catholic Church in Vietnam, many arriving days early to watch the ceremony on big screens outside the church.

From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026

Although influential in certain conservative circles, it remains a minority group within the Roman Catholic Church and its roughly 1.3 billion faithful.

From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026

Big Schoolboy also belonged to the Catholic Church, as did most of the members of our family now, especially those of us who had been to mission schools.

From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac