Talk:Roman Catholicism

"Roman Catholicism is a very old and traditional religion." -- We have to be careful with this. Many people assume that RC is a pretty traditionalist religion, when in fact, there have been some fairly major doctrinal changes over the years (eg, Papal infallability is only a few hundred years old, if memory serves, and opposition to abortion only originated in the 1800', again AFAIK). We have to be careful to treat these matters adequately.

"major root of Christianity" -- This could be misleading. Catholics see themselves as Christians, not a root of Christianity.

This article needs to be merged into the Roman Catholic Church article.

The church (as an institution) and faith (as a type of religious belief) are not necessarily synonymous.--TBC 23:59, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Cleanup needed

I think this needs cleanup:

• Papal infailibility goes back to the 1 Vatican Council (1870): Council odcuments were Dei Filius (Changes in Doctrine) and [Pastor Aeternus] (Infailblility of the pope; following thaz, the Old Catholic Church (and probably some others split)
• It is only meaningul to speak of the Roman Catholic church following the Great Schism (in the 12th century)
• We should perhaps elaborate more on the differences to other christian groups (mainly the Eastern Orthodox, but also Lutherans/Protestants/Reformed); note that the Lutheran/Calvinist ("Reformed") churches split from this one;Metnion Jan Hus and John Wyclif as well; Hus was burned at the stake in 1415; both were predecessors of the reformation (There still is a Hussite Church IIRC); MAin points are the celebration of mass / the bible in a language the peole could understand (rather than Latin), and the trade in indulgences; we should mention the Counter-reformation too (COuncil of Trent; Ignacio de Loyola, Jesuits)--Eptalon (talk) 08:08, 30 July 2008. (UTC)