Catholic

Catholic link
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Type	Religious
Adherents of the Catholic faith

See also Roman Catholic Church

The word Catholic comes from a Greek phrase καθόλου (katholou), meaning "on the whole", "according to the whole" or "in general". Common understanding today is that a Catholic is a person of the Catholic faith in the tradition of the the Roman Catholic Church.

History

During the medieval and modern times, additional distinctions arose regarding the use of the terms Western Catholic and Eastern Catholic. Before the East–West Schism of 1054, those terms had just the basic geographical meanings, since only one undivided Catholicity existed, uniting the Latin speaking Christians of West and the Greek speaking Christians of the East. After the Schism, terminology became much more complicated, resulting in the creation of parallel and conflicting terminological systems.