The Catholic Church also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity. The Catholic Church is among the oldest institutions in the world and has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilisation. It teaches that it is the one true church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles and that the Pope is the successor to Saint Peter. Catholic doctrine maintains that the Catholic Church is the original and true Church and is infallible when it dogmatically teaches a doctrine of faith or morals. Catholic worship is centred on the Eucharist, in which the Church teaches that the sacramental bread and wine are supernaturally transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ. The Church holds the Blessed Virgin Mary in special regard. Catholic beliefs concerning Mary include her Immaculate Conception and bodily Assumption at the end of her earthly life.
- The Catholic Church is an institution I am bound to hold divine — but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight.
- For the majority of English people there are only two religions, Roman Catholic, which is wrong, and the rest, which don't matter.
- How is one to explain that neither Hitler nor Himmler was ever excommunicated by the church? That Pius XII never thought it necessary, not to say indispensable, to condemn Auschwitz and Treblinka? That among the S.S. a large proportion were believers who remained faithful to their Christian ties to the end? That there were killers who went to confession between massacres? And that they all came from Christian families and had received a Christian education?
- Elie Wiesel, A Jew Today.
- How could so many reputable and responsible churchmen have lent their support, even if only passively, to the perpetration of such crimes as genocide? What fever seized so many millions of German Christians, both Evangelical [Lutheran] and Catholic, in those few short years of Nazi tyranny?
- J. S. Conway, Canadian historian raised these question in his book The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933-1945.
The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904)
- Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 77-79.
- The discussion which was made by Luther, Melancthon, and the other persons who preceded the Reformation, opened the eyes or the public; and they got rid of the delusions which had been spread by the Pope of Rome, and emancipated mankind from the spiritual tyranny they were under, and brought about the establishment of that religion which we now enjoy in this country.
- Lord Kenyon, Reeves' Case (1754), 26 How. St. Tr. 591.
- The popish religion is now unknown to the law of this country.
- Lord Kenyon, Du Barre v. Livette (1791), Peake's N. P. Cases, 79.
- Rokeby, J: I do not think but a Popish doctor may be a good doctor to a Protestant patient; but I do not think that a Popish governor can be a good governor for a Protestant subject.
Holt, C.J.: Aye, but a Popish censor is not so proper to supervise and inspect all the Protestant physicians.
- King against Dr. Burrel (1699), 5 Mod. 432.
- Englishmen have no greater enemies than the French and the Papists.
- Pollexfen, C.J., Case of Sir Richard Grahme and others (1691), 12 How. St. Tr. 741.