15 Interesting Facts About The Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church is an ancient religious institution boasting about 1.287 billion Catholics in 2015 worldwide (according to the 2017 Annuario Pontifico, Pontifical Yearbook). As such, it is the largest Christian ecclesiastical body in the world. Because of this alone, it is important to have some facts regarding the Roman Catholic Church.

1. The Catholic Church’s Vatican has diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world.

2. Pope John Paul II travelled about 3 times the world’s distance to the moon. He traveled to more than 129 different countries, putting in more than 750,000 miles.

3. With a population of more than a billion faithful the Catholic Church is the largest single denomination in Christianity.

4. Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian Pope in over 400 years.

5. The oldest institution in the Western world is the Catholic Church which traces its history back almost 2,000 years.

 6. The Pope does not reside in Italy but in the Vatican City which is a county within Italy.

7. Brazil has more Catholics than Italy, France, and Poland combined. It has close to 127 million or 11.7% of the world’s Catholic population.

 8. The incense used in the Catholic Church symbolizes prayers rising to heaven. It is also used to bless and purify.

9. The Big Bang Theory was proposed by a Catholic priest, Monsignor Georges Lemaitre.

10. Catholics believe that anyone can baptize in an emergency situation like accidents. Any person, Catholic or not, can pour the water and say the words. The only caveat is to follow the wish of the person you are baptizing.

11. The first Pope to step down was Pontian, who headed the Catholic Church from A.D. 230-235. He was sentenced to hard labour in a mine. He Pope stepped down voluntarily in order to prevent a power vacuum in the Church.

12. A few months after Pope Formosus (815-896) died, his dead body was exhumed, dressed in Papal robes, put on trial, and judged to be unworthy of the papacy. His papal edicts were overruled and deemed unworthy. The fingers he used to perform the sacraments were cut off and his body tossed into the Tiber River.

13. The Sedlec Ossuary (Church of Bones) is a small Catholic Chapel in the Czech Republic. It uses 40,000-70,000 human skeletons as decorations.

14. Unlike some American Protestant or Evangelical denominations, the Catholic Church does not reject the theory of Evolution.

15. John F. Kennedy was the only Catholic president in American history.