Catholicism

[kuh-thol-uh-siz-uhm]

noun

1. the faith, system, and practice of the Catholic Church, especially the Roman Catholic Church.

2. (lowercase),  catholicity.

Catholicism

/ kəˈθɒlɪˌsɪzəm /

noun

1. short for Roman Catholicism

2. the beliefs, practices, etc, of any Catholic Church

Catholicism

1. The beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

Other Word Forms

• anti-Catholicism noun
• pro-Catholicism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of Catholicism¹

First recorded in 1600–10; Catholic + -ism

Example Sentences

Even Vance’s relatively recent conversion to Catholicism is tied up in this.

Read more on Salon

Under Document 19, five “official” religions—Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism—were permitted, but only through tightly controlled state associations.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Catholicism is the faith I was baptized in, the one I embraced as a teen and that’s the bedrock for my moral code of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

In the novel, Jake often questions his Catholicism but still enters churches when the weight of the world catches up with him.

Read more on Salon

His journey — from a nominal Protestant upbringing through atheism, to converting to Catholicism in 2019 — and frequent appeals to “Christian values” position him firmly with the GOP’s religious-right base.

Read more on Salon