The Catholic Church: Roman and Global

The headquarters of the Catholic Church are located in Rome, Italy. However there are Catholics just about everywhere in the world. The Church is both Roman and global.

            Christianity is imbedded in Rome; saints and martyrs taught and were killed in the city, it was home to the first Christian emperor, elaborate churches were constructed on almost every street, and pilgrims have flocked to the city for centuries now. For many years the mass was said in Latin, the language of the Romans. However some of these things happened in other nations eventually and churches were built all throughout Europe, so why is it called “Roman Catholic”? I think part of the answer to this is that Rome was the center of one of the largest and longest running empires in history. Even in its period of decline it was still a treasure. Also, in the initial stages of Christianity Rome was a large pagan city; a good (but maybe dangerous) place for a lot of people to hear about Christ. In The Smiles of Rome one of the passages referred to Rome as being not only the center of the empire, but of the entire world. Of course this is not exactly true, but to many at the time it was. Therefore, it makes sense that the Church would eventually find solid ground there.

            The Catholic Church is also global; after all the word “catholic” means universal. Christianity did not begin in Rome, but rather in the Middle East, where the historical Jesus lived and taught. Jerusalem saw Christ crucified and also risen and from there the apostles and other disciples of Jesus dispersed to share this faith, which at the time was seen as the fulfillment of the Jewish faith and not a completely separate religion. When Christianity was finally legal in the Roman Empire it was able to spread more freely and people did not have to fear the possibility of death. The Church also gained wealth, property, and power. In The Italians by Barzini he attested to the power that the Church held. He wrote about the Church as being another state of Italy and said, “it was also an immense spiritual empire, holding sway in every Catholic country, distributing slices of the American continent as if it were its own property, drawing incalculable strength from the loyalty of Catholic princes and the faith of the Catholic multitudes”. After many years of gaining power and influence the Church was able to spread out to other parts of the world, not just Europe.

            Christ also left his apostles with a mission; to go to the entire world and preach about him, and that is what they and their followers did. Saint Peter travelled to Rome from the Middle East to reach the people there, and as a result of his efforts he was martyred on the site where Saint Peter's Basilica now stands. Later, Catholic missionaries made efforts to convert native people in the Americas once the New World was located by Europeans and settled. So the Church did not just stay in Rome, but rather spread to far away places.

            The Church is also global in that the doctrines, the beliefs, and the mass are all the same, no matter where one goes. The mass, although now done in different languages, still follows the same pattern as it would in the United States, Italy, or South America. It is still possible to understand what is going on in any mass, even the readings are the same. This global church can be a refuge for a traveller, a place that is familiar among sites that are alien. In this way one is not too far from home.