Roman Catholic Church

罗马天主教会

The Roman Catholic Church is the world’s largest Christian denomination, representing around half of all Christians with 1.1 billion followers. The Church traditionally believes that Jesus of Nazareth entrusted the authority of his young church to his apostle Simon Peter (ca. 1 BC – 67 CE), who would become the first Bishop of Rome, an office now known as the Papacy. The spiritual primacy of the Bishop of Rome as Pope over all other bishops is the central issue that distinguishes Catholicism from other Christian belief systems. The Catholic veneration of Mary, mother of Jesus, includes beliefs in her Perpetual Virginity, her Immaculate Conception (that she was born without the stain of original sin), and her bodily Assumption into heaven. The Catholic understanding of the afterlife holds that individuals are sentenced to heaven, purgatory, or hell after death. The Church stresses the importance of caring for the less fortunate through good works in attaining salvation.