147 Fun Facts About Catholic Church

Which colour are the robes and hats worn by Catholic cardinals?

Red, strictly scarlet, is said to show a cardinal's readiness to shed his blood for the faith; the pope still places a scarlet biretta on each new cardinal's head.

How many sacraments are recognized in the Catholic Church?

Seven: the list was fixed in the 12th century by the theologian Peter Lombard, whose textbook, the Sentences, became the standard, and Church councils later confirmed it.

Catholics count Peter as the first pope because Jesus promised to build his church on what?

This rock is a pun: Jesus renamed the fisherman Simon 'Peter', from the Greek for rock, and promised him the keys of the kingdom, which is why crossed keys are his emblem.

Which council, meeting on and off from 1545 to 1563, shaped the Catholic answer to the Protestant Reformation?

The Council of Trent took 18 years to finish its work; among its most lasting reforms, it ordered seminaries to be set up so that future priests would be properly trained.

Whom did Pope John Paul II formally declare the patron of ecology in 1979?

Francis of Assisi, said to have preached to the birds, wrote the 'Canticle of the Creatures', whose refrain 'Laudato si'' gave the 2015 environmental encyclical its title.

A bishop leads which unit of the Catholic Church, made up of many parishes?

A diocese takes its name from the Roman Empire, where the word meant a block of provinces under an imperial governor; the Church borrowed it for a bishop's territory.

The term 'Eucharist' comes from a Greek word meaning what?

Thanksgiving: the Greek eucharistia echoes the Last Supper accounts, in which Jesus 'gave thanks' before breaking the bread.

Which liturgical season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving lasts 40 days in preparation for Easter?

Lent's 40 days of fasting echo Jesus's 40 days in the desert and the fasts of Moses and Elijah; in the Roman Rite it begins 46 days before Easter and ends as the Paschal Triduum opens.

Often confused with the virgin birth, the Immaculate Conception concerns whose conception, free of original sin?

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is its subject; Franciscans championed the idea and Dominicans resisted it for centuries before the question was settled in 1854, when it was defined as dogma.

Who, with six companions, founded the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits?

Ignatius of Loyola was a Basque soldier until a cannonball broke his leg at Pamplona in 1521; reading saints' lives while he recovered turned him to religion, and he gathered the first Jesuits in Paris.

What is a Church tribunal's declaration that a marriage was never validly contracted called?

An annulment declares that a valid marriage never came about, where a divorce ends one; despite a common fear, children of an annulled marriage are still counted legitimate.

In what decade did the Second Vatican Council conclude?

The Second Vatican Council, commonly known as Vatican II, met from 1962 to 1965.

The Hanukkah story comes from which books, kept in Catholic Bibles but left out of most Protestant ones?

Maccabees tells of the revolt behind Hanukkah; its two books are among seven that Jewish and Protestant canons leave out, which is why Catholic Old Testaments have 46 books to Protestants' 39.

Catholics give dulia to the saints and latria to God alone; what does latria mean?

Adoration: the word idolatry joins the Greek for 'image' to latreia, 'worship'; the Second Council of Nicaea drew the line in 787 when it restored icons, saying images may be venerated but adoration belongs to God alone.

Which country was the birthplace of Pope John Paul II?

Poland: born Karol Wojtyła in Wadowice, he worked in a quarry and a chemical plant under Nazi occupation while training in secret for the priesthood, and in 1978 became the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

Excluding Saint Peter, who had the longest verifiable reign as head of the Catholic Church?

Pius IX reigned for more than 31 years, from 1846 to 1878; hailed at first as a liberal who freed political prisoners, he ended as the self-styled 'prisoner in the Vatican' after Italy took Rome.

Which three rites are grouped together as the Catholic Church's sacraments of initiation?

Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist: Eastern Catholic churches give all three to infants in a single ceremony, while the Western Church usually spreads them across childhood.

What does the Church call the final purification of souls who die in God's grace?

Purgatory was pictured by Dante as a mountain of seven terraces; the sale of indulgences that promised to shorten souls' time there helped to spark the Protestant Reformation.

The Sacrament of Confirmation is said to perfect the grace received in which other sacrament?

Baptism and Confirmation began as a single ceremony; they drifted apart in the West because Confirmation was reserved to the bishop, who could not be present at every infant's christening.

Three of an Advent wreath's four candles are violet; what colour is the fourth, lit on the third Sunday?

Rose marks Gaudete Sunday, named for its opening word, 'Rejoice': the lighter candle signals a pause for joy in the middle of Advent's penitential violet.

The ashes used on Ash Wednesday are made by burning what?

Palm branches from last Palm Sunday are burned for the ashes, so the greenery that hailed Jesus as king returns as a sign of mortality: 'Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.'

In which devotion do worshippers walk between fourteen scenes of Jesus's final journey to Calvary?

Stations of the Cross grew up as a pilgrimage in miniature: Franciscans spread the practice so that people who could never travel to the Holy Land could follow the route in their own church.

Palm Sunday remembers Jesus riding into which city?

Jerusalem: the Gospels have Jesus ride in on a donkey while crowds spread their cloaks on the road, an arrival Matthew presents as fulfilling Zechariah's prophecy of a humble king.

Which astronomer did the Roman Inquisition sentence in 1633 for defending heliocentrism?

Galileo Galilei was tried by the Roman Inquisition in 1633 for defending Copernican heliocentrism in his Dialogue; he was made to abjure and spent his remaining years under house arrest at Arcetri near Florence.

Where is the holy water font usually found in a Catholic church?

Holy water fonts, or stoups, stand at the entrance of a church so people can dip their fingers and make the sign of the cross as they walk in, recalling their baptism.

Catholics traditionally pray to which saint for help in finding lost things?

Anthony of Padua is said to have prayed for the return of a treasured book of psalms that had been carried off, and got it back; Jude is the patron of lost causes, Christopher of travellers.

What is Vatican City famous for being, among all the countries in the world?

The smallest country in the world, Vatican City lies wholly inside Rome; it was created only in 1929, when a treaty with Italy ended a 59-year dispute over the popes' lost territory.

Which artist painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, where new popes are chosen?

Michelangelo, who saw himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, took the job reluctantly and spent four years, from 1508 to 1512, covering the ceiling.

The Catholic feast of the Archangels on 29 September honours Michael, Gabriel and which third archangel?

Raphael, who guides young Tobias in the Book of Tobit, joined the feast only in 1969; before that the day belonged to Michael, which is why it is still called Michaelmas.

Pope Francis, elected in 2013, was the first pope from which part of the world?

South America: born Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Francis joked on the night of his election that the cardinals had gone to the ends of the earth to find Rome a bishop.

Pope Leo XIV, elected in 2025, was born in which American city?

Chicago-born Robert Prevost spent some twenty years in Peru as a missionary and bishop, and took Peruvian citizenship, before his election in 2025.

A rosary is a string of beads used to keep count while saying which prayer ten times in a row?

The Hail Mary is said ten times in each 'decade'; the full traditional rosary's 150 echoed the 150 Psalms that monks recited, giving people who could not read a psalter of their own.

In US parishes, Catholic children usually make their First Communion in which school grade, at the 'age of reason'?

Second grade, around age seven: until Pius X's 1910 decree Quam singulari made the 'age of reason' the mark, children in many places waited until ten, twelve or even fourteen.

What colour of smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney announces that a pope has been chosen?

White smoke rises when the ballots of a successful vote are burned; because crowds so often mistook grey puffs, chemicals are now added to make the colour unmistakable.

What do Catholic cardinals lose when they reach the age of 80?

Their vote in a conclave goes at 80 under a rule Paul VI set in 1970; they keep their rank and, on paper, could still be elected pope themselves.

Which church, not St Peter's, is the pope's cathedral as Bishop of Rome?

The Archbasilica of St John Lateran stands beside the palace where popes lived for about a thousand years before moving to the Vatican; an inscription on its walls calls it mother and head of all churches.

What is the name of the Vatican's own daily newspaper?

L'Osservatore Romano, 'The Roman Observer', was founded in 1861, the year Italy was unified, and began as a polemical defender of the pope's rule over the Papal States.

The Vulgate, largely the work of St Jerome, translated the Bible into which language?

Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to revise the older Latin gospels, and the resulting late-4th-century version became the Vulgate.

What Latin term names the interval between a pope's death or resignation and his successor's election?

'Sede vacante' means 'the seat being vacant'; while it lasts, the heads of nearly all Vatican departments lose their posts and the camerlengo looks after day-to-day affairs until a pope is elected.

The phrase 'mea culpa' comes from which prayer said near the start of Mass?

The Confiteor ('I confess') has worshippers strike their breast at the words 'through my fault', in the original 'mea culpa', which is how the phrase entered everyday speech as an admission of blame.

In Western churches, which day marks the start of Lent?

Ash Wednesday's eve became Mardi Gras, 'Fat Tuesday': a last chance to use up the rich foods in the house and celebrate before the weeks of fasting began.

Which corps, established in 1506 under Pope Julius II, protects the pope and the Apostolic Palace?

The Swiss Guard lost 147 of its 189 men defending Clement VII during the Sack of Rome on 6 May 1527, which is why new recruits still take their oath on that date.

Which 13th-century friar wrote the Summa Theologiae, a vast summary of Catholic theology?

Thomas Aquinas never finished it: after an experience at Mass in December 1273 he stopped writing, reportedly saying that all he had written seemed like straw, and he died a few months later.

Papal infallibility was defined as dogma in 1870 at which gathering?

The First Vatican Council defined papal infallibility on 18 July 1870 in the constitution Pastor aeternus; the council broke up soon after when Italian troops took Rome in September 1870.

Which title for Mary did the Council of Ephesus affirm in 431?

The Council of Ephesus in 431 affirmed Mary's title Theotokos ('God-bearer'), rejecting Nestorius's preference for Christotokos, because the child she bore is the divine Word made flesh.

Which bishop, writing letters on his way to martyrdom in Rome, made the earliest known use of 'the catholic church'?

Ignatius of Antioch wrote the phrase to the Christians of Smyrna; in his letter to Rome he begged the Christians there not to save him, asking to be 'the wheat of God', ground by the teeth of wild beasts.

Before a 1059 decree gave the choice to the cardinals, which monarch had often simply named the new pope?

The Holy Roman Emperor had often named popes himself; Nicholas II's decree In nomine Domini set out to free elections from both the emperor and Rome's feuding factions.

As of 2025, the Holy See was the only European state with diplomatic ties to which government?

Taiwan: the Holy See has recognised the Republic of China since 1942, and after the Communist government broke off relations in 1951 its embassy to China carried on from Taipei.

The East–West Schism is dated to 1054, when a papal legate laid a bull of excommunication on which church's altar?

Hagia Sophia was the great cathedral of the Byzantine capital, where the legates left their bull on 16 July 1054; the pope who had sent them, Leo IX, had died three months earlier.

In which modern country is Avignon, where the popes resided from 1309 to 1376?

France today, but not then: Clement VI bought Avignon outright from the Queen of Naples in 1348, and it stayed papal territory until Revolutionary France annexed it in 1791.

The Council of Constance condemned which reformer to be burned at the stake in 1415, despite a promise of safe conduct?

Jan Hus travelled to Constance under a royal safe conduct and was burned there on 6 July 1415; his Bohemian followers then beat back five crusades in the Hussite Wars.

Which Italian leader signed the 1929 Lateran Treaty recognising the Holy See's own state?

Benito Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty for Italy on 11 February 1929, with Cardinal Gasparri for the Holy See; Italy recognised Vatican City and paid compensation for the lost Papal States.

Gregory XII, the last pope to resign before Benedict XVI in 2013, stepped down in 1415 to help end what?

The Western Schism had split the Church between rival lines of popes for nearly forty years; Gregory XII, the Roman claimant, agreed to abdicate so that one pope everyone accepted could be elected.

Which pope promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992?

John Paul II promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church on 11 October 1992 with the constitution Fidei depositum; its drafting commission was chaired by the cardinal who later became Benedict XVI.

What name is given to the Catholic Church's own legal system, codified in 1917 and again in 1983?

Canon law had never been gathered into a single code before 1917; until then church lawyers worked from a sprawling medieval collection of decrees that had been in use for over 750 years.

Paul VI's 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae reaffirmed Church teaching against what?

Artificial contraception stayed forbidden: in Humanae vitae Paul VI set aside the majority report of the papal birth-control commission, which had proposed allowing it.

Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum addressed the condition of which group?

The working class was its subject: Rerum novarum backed workers' right to form unions and earn a living wage while rejecting both socialism and unchecked capitalism, founding modern Catholic social teaching.

Which Roman emperor convened the First Council of Nicaea in 325?

Constantine I had ended the persecution of Christians only a dozen years earlier; he summoned the bishops and opened the council in person, and it produced the first form of the Nicene Creed.

Which pope's 1582 calendar reform skipped ten days, so that Thursday 4 October was followed by Friday 15 October?

Gregory XIII dropped the ten days to pull the calendar back in line with the seasons; Protestant Britain and its colonies held out until 1752, by which time they had to skip eleven.

Leo X's 1520 bull Exsurge Domine threatened which reformer with excommunication?

Martin Luther refused to recant and on 10 December 1520 publicly burned a copy of Exsurge Domine at Wittenberg's Elster Gate; Leo X excommunicated him in January 1521 with Decet Romanum Pontificem.

Mother Teresa, canonised in 2016, founded which religious congregation in Calcutta in 1950?

Missionaries of Charity grew from what she called a 'call within a call', felt on a train to Darjeeling in 1946; she left the Loreto sisters, her order for two decades, to live among the poorest.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is said to have appeared to Juan Diego in 1531 in which land?

Mexico: on Tepeyac hill, now part of Mexico City, Juan Diego is said to have gathered roses in December and opened his cloak before the bishop, revealing the image still kept in the basilica there.

In which French town did 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous report visions of 'a Lady' at a grotto in 1858?

Lourdes was a small Pyrenean town when Bernadette, a miller's daughter, reported her visions; the spring revealed in the grotto during them supplies the water pilgrims still collect.

The Fátima apparitions, reported by shepherd children, took place in which country?

Portugal: three shepherd children reported six apparitions near Fátima in 1917; at the last, on 13 October, a crowd of tens of thousands gathered and many said they saw the sun dance in the sky.

Who founded Opus Dei in Madrid in 1928?

Josemaría Escrivá, a young Spanish priest, built Opus Dei ('Work of God') on the idea that lay people can seek holiness through their ordinary jobs and everyday life.

Which pope defined the Assumption of Mary as dogma in 1950?

Pius XII first wrote to every Catholic bishop in 1946 asking whether the Assumption should be defined; the answer was almost unanimously yes, and he proclaimed the dogma on 1 November 1950.

The gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca, who shot John Paul II in St Peter's Square in 1981, came from which country?

Turkey had already jailed Ağca for murdering a newspaper editor, but he escaped; in 1983 John Paul II visited him in his Italian prison cell.

Which Borgia pope's 1493 bull Inter caetera divided the New World between Spain and Portugal?

Alexander VI drew his line 100 leagues west of the Atlantic islands; a year later Spain and Portugal moved it to 370 leagues at Tordesillas, which left the easternmost Americas on Portugal's side.

Nicholas Breakspear, elected Pope Adrian IV in 1154, remains the only pope born in which country?

England: born near St Albans, Breakspear left as a boy to study abroad, rose to cardinal and reorganised the Church in Scandinavia as papal legate before his election.

Before his election in 1294 and resignation five months later, Pope Celestine V had lived for decades as what?

A hermit in the mountains of central Italy, he was chosen to break a deadlock of more than two years among the cardinals; after he resigned, his successor kept him confined until his death.

The pallium worn by archbishops is woven from wool of lambs raised by which monks?

It symbolises the lamb carried on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd in early Christian art.

Paul VI was the last pope to wear which piece of papal regalia, which he gave up in 1964?

The tiara, a triple crown, was laid on the altar of St Peter's by Paul VI in 1964 to be sold for charity; American Catholics bought it, and it is now kept at the national shrine in Washington.

Which tool did the camerlengo traditionally use to destroy a dead pope's Fisherman's Ring?

A hammer was the traditional tool, used so that the ring could never again seal a document; when Benedict XVI resigned in 2013 his ring was instead scored with a chisel, a deep cross cut into its face.

Which inventor set up Vatican Radio in 1931?

Guglielmo Marconi spoke first at the microphone himself, introducing Pius XI, who then gave the first radio message ever broadcast by a pope.

Which feast, often called the birthday of the Church, falls fifty days after Easter?

Pentecost takes its name from the Greek for 'fiftieth'; it marks the Holy Spirit descending on the apostles, on the day of the Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot.

Jubilees have been held since 1300; which normally sealed door of St Peter's Basilica is opened only during one?

The Holy Door stays sealed with mortar between Jubilees; the first Holy Year came in 1300, when crowds of pilgrims converged on Rome expecting a great pardon and Boniface VIII proclaimed one.

Who was among the first two women named Doctors of the Church, in 1970?

Teresa of Ávila, a Carmelite nun who founded a stricter branch of her order against fierce opposition, was named in 1970 alongside Catherine of Siena; no woman had held the title before.

Which term, used by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, names the change of bread and wine into Christ's body and blood?

Transubstantiation holds that the substance changes while the appearances of bread and wine remain; the same council also ordered every Catholic to confess at least once a year.

Paul VI and which Orthodox patriarch nullified the 11th-century mutual excommunications?

The gesture of goodwill did not restore communion; the two churches remain formally divided.

Which country has the largest number of Catholics?

Brazil has more than 100 million Catholics, the most of any country, yet their share of its population has been falling for decades, to about 57% in the 2022 census, as evangelical churches have grown.

Bramante began the new St Peter's in 1506; which sculptor-architect ringed its square with colonnades 150 years later?

Bernini designed the square's curving colonnades, four columns deep, which are often described as the motherly arms of the Church reaching out to embrace the crowd.

Which lakeside town near Rome holds the popes' traditional summer residence?

Castel Gandolfo, on Lake Albano in the Alban Hills near Rome, has been the papal summer residence since Urban VIII in the 1620s; Francis opened its palace as a museum in 2016 and Leo XIV resumed summer stays in 2025.

Whom did Pope Leo III crown emperor in Rome on Christmas Day 800?

Charlemagne had rescued Leo III the year before, after rivals attacked the pope in the street and tried to tear out his eyes and tongue; the crowning revived the title of emperor in the West.

Pope Pius VII travelled to Paris in 1804 for the coronation of which ruler?

Napoleon crowned himself and then Josephine while the pope looked on; five years later he annexed the Papal States and held Pius VII prisoner until 1814.

What was Benedict XVI's birth name?

Joseph Ratzinger, a Bavarian policeman's son, was drafted into a German anti-aircraft unit as a teenager and deserted in 1945; he later spent more than two decades as John Paul II's chief guardian of doctrine.

Vatican II's Nostra aetate grew out of a draft statement on the Church's relations with whom?

Jews were the subject of Cardinal Bea's original draft; the final 1965 text says Christ's death cannot be charged against all Jews, then or now, and also speaks of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.

Which English monarch did Pope Paul III excommunicate in 1538?

Henry VIII had already broken with Rome; what finally moved Paul III to act in December 1538 was the king's destruction of Thomas Becket's shrine at Canterbury.

The Dominicans, approved by Honorius III in 1216, are formally known as the Order of what?

Preachers: Dominic founded the order to answer heresy by argument and sent his friars to the new universities to study, which is why members sign 'OP' after their names.

At which monastery, founded around 529, did Benedict of Nursia write his Rule?

Monte Cassino has been destroyed and rebuilt more than once since Benedict's day: sacked by Lombards and by Saracens in the early Middle Ages, it was flattened by Allied bombs in 1944.

In which 20th-century year did the Church have three different popes?

In 1978 Paul VI died in August, his successor John Paul I died after only 33 days in September, and John Paul II was elected in October.

Corpus Christi falls on the Thursday after which feast, kept on the first Sunday after Pentecost?

Trinity Sunday is followed four days later by Corpus Christi, a feast that grew out of the visions of Juliana of Liège, a Belgian nun, and was extended to the whole Church by Urban IV in 1264.

The Institute for the Works of Religion is commonly known as what?

The Vatican Bank became notorious in 1982, when the Milan bank Banco Ambrosiano, with which it had close ties, collapsed and its chairman, Roberto Calvi, was found hanging beneath a London bridge.

Which phrase does the senior cardinal deacon proclaim from the balcony of St Peter's once a conclave has succeeded?

Habemus papam, 'we have a pope', comes only after a candidate wins two-thirds of the votes, a bar set in 1179 to prevent the split elections that had produced rival popes.

During the papal election at Viterbo that dragged on until 1271, what did impatient townspeople remove from the cardinals' palace?

The roof came off after the cardinals had already been locked in and put on bread and water; the pope they finally chose made such lock-ins the rule, hence 'conclave', literally 'with a key'.

The Vatican Museums trace their origin to which sculpture, discovered in 1506?

Laocoön and His Sons was dug up in a Roman vineyard in 1506; Julius II sent his artists to inspect it, bought it and put it on show in the Belvedere, the seed of the Vatican Museums.

An apostolic nuncio holds a diplomatic rank equal to which office?

Ambassador is the nuncio's rank, with one perk: in many countries he is automatically dean of the diplomatic corps, taking precedence over envoys who have served there far longer.

The papal blessing Urbi et Orbi is addressed 'to the city and to the' what?

World: the blessing is normally kept for Christmas, Easter and a new pope's first appearance, but in March 2020 Francis gave an extraordinary one to pray for an end to the pandemic.

Which Catholic social teaching principle shares its name with the trade union born in Gdańsk's shipyard in 1980?

Solidarity, in Church teaching, is a firm and persevering commitment to the common good, not vague compassion. The union of that name helped end communist rule in its homeland.

Which American journalist and convert co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement during the Great Depression?

Dorothy Day edited the Catholic Worker newspaper from 1933 until her death in 1980. The movement pairs direct aid for the poor and homeless with nonviolent action on their behalf.

Which Archbishop of San Salvador, a critic of state torture, was shot dead while celebrating Mass in 1980?

Óscar Romero was shot at the altar of a hospital chapel, a day after preaching that the army should stop carrying out the government's repression. He was declared a saint in 2018.

Which 2015 encyclical on the environment takes its title from a medieval saint's Canticle of the Sun?

Laudato si' means 'Praise be to you', a phrase from a 13th-century hymn praising God for creation. The encyclical is subtitled 'on care for our common home'.

Which lay Catholic charity did 20-year-old Frédéric Ozanam help found in 1833 to serve the slums of Paris?

Society of St Vincent de Paul volunteers visit homes, prisons and hospitals. The charity is named after a 17th-century priest known for serving the poor, not after its founder.

Which principle of Catholic social teaching says issues belong at the most local level able to resolve them?

Subsidiarity entered papal teaching through the 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo anno. The European Union later made it a general principle of its own law.

Which pope wrote the encyclical Pacem in terris, issued just months after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962?

John XXIII was the first pope to address an encyclical to all people of good will, not only to Catholics. He issued it on 11 April 1963 and died less than two months later.

Which confederation of Catholic relief agencies has as its oldest member a charity founded in Freiburg in 1897?

Caritas Internationalis takes its name from a word for charity. Its first member, Caritas Germany, was founded by Lorenz Werthmann, and the confederation spans over 200 countries and territories.

Which economic theory, championed by G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, wants productive property widely owned?

Distributism holds that laissez-faire capitalism and state socialism both concentrate ownership among too few people. It was built on the papal social encyclicals of 1891 and 1931.

Which Second Vatican Council document, on the Church in modern society, was the longest the council published?

Gaudium et spes, meaning 'joys and hopes', was not drafted in advance but arose from the council floor. It was the last constitution the council approved.

Which gesture do worshippers at Mass exchange after the Lord's Prayer, shortly before going up to receive Communion?

The sign of peace takes whatever form local custom treats as a respectful greeting, so it may be a handshake, a bow between strangers or a hug between relatives.

Which Hebrew acclamation, sung to greet the Gospel at Mass, is dropped throughout the forty days before Easter?

Alleluia comes from Hebrew words meaning 'praise Yah', a short form of God's name. In the penitential season a plainer acclamation of praise takes its place.

Which of the two main parts of the Mass contains the Scripture readings, the homily and the Creed?

Liturgy of the Word reaches its high point in the Gospel, proclaimed by a deacon or priest. The other main part centres on the altar and the consecration of bread and wine.

At which point of the Mass are the bread and wine carried to the altar, often while a collection is taken?

The offertory often has members of the congregation carry the gifts forward in procession while a chant is sung. The priest's own part is officially called the Preparation of the Gifts.

In the Order of Mass, what is sung or recited between the first and second Scripture readings?

The Responsorial Psalm is a whole psalm or a sizeable part of one, sung or recited in answer to the first reading. Usually a cantor takes the verses and the people repeat a short response.

Which short litany, begun after the penitential act, is the only part of the Roman Rite Mass said in Greek?

Kyrie eleison means 'Lord, have mercy', a plea made to Jesus in Matthew's Gospel. Worshippers may say it in their own language instead.

Which set of petitions for the Church, civil authorities and those in need comes straight after the Creed at Mass?

Prayer of the Faithful, also called the Universal Prayer, has a deacon, a member of the congregation or the priest announce each intention. The people answer with a short invocation.

The name 'Mass' probably comes from 'Ite, missa est', the formula a deacon or priest speaks at which moment?

The dismissal sends the people out, and 'missa' in the formula is a late form of the word for a sending away. In time the service's closing phrase gave its name to the whole rite.

Which short prayer, said by the priest alone, brings the Introductory Rites of the Mass to a close?

The collect was mislabelled the 'Opening Prayer' in the 1973 English missal, although it ends the introductory rites instead of opening them. Its wording changes with the day.

Which part of the Eucharistic Prayer has the priest ask the Holy Spirit to come upon the bread and wine?

Epiclesis comes from a Greek term for 'calling upon'. Eastern churches have long seen this invocation as the climax of the consecration.

Which popular term covers the confession, anointing and final Communion given together to a Catholic near death?

Last rites follow a set order: confession first, then the anointing, then Communion. Strictly, the Church keeps the term for that final Communion and the prayers for the dying.

Which category of sin, involving grave matter, full knowledge and deliberate consent, must a Catholic confess?

Mortal sins must all be confessed for the sacrament to be valid, and knowingly hiding one makes the whole confession invalid. Lesser, venial sins may be confessed but need not be.

In Reconciliation, what is the priest's formal act of forgiving sins, given after the act of contrition, called?

Absolution can be granted only by an ordained priest. Church teaching treats it as a judicial act, not a mere announcement that sins are forgiven.

What name is given to a priest's absolute duty never to reveal what a penitent tells him in Reconciliation?

The seal of confession also binds anyone who overhears, such as an interpreter. A priest who breaks it is automatically excommunicated.

Which Italian Capuchin friar, famed as a confessor at San Giovanni Rotondo, was said to bear the stigmata?

Padre Pio is said to have received the marks in 1918 while hearing confessions. In the 1920s the Vatican barred him for a time from hearing them or saying Mass in public.

By what older name was the Anointing of the Sick generally known before the Second Vatican Council?

Extreme Unction means 'final anointing', a name that arose once the rite was given mostly to the dying. The council preferred the present name because the sacrament is not only for those at the point of death.

In the Roman Rite's Anointing of the Sick, the priest anoints the forehead and which other part of the body?

The hands are anointed after the forehead, usually with the oil traced in the form of a cross. The practice was fixed by a papal document of 1972.

Which short New Testament letter, placed after Hebrews, tells elders to pray over the sick and anoint them with oil?

James gives the instruction in chapter 5, promising that the prayer of faith will save the sick person. The Church treats the passage as the chief biblical basis for the sacrament.

What name, from a term for provisions for a journey, is given to Holy Communion brought to a dying person?

Viaticum is meant as food to sustain a dying person for the journey to the next life. It can be given as consecrated wine alone if the person cannot swallow solid food.

What do theologians call imperfect sorrow for sin, prompted by fear of hell instead of love of God?

Attrition is contrasted with perfect contrition, which springs from love of God alone. The Church teaches that a person can feel both at the same moment.

What do many Confirmation candidates in some regions choose for themselves before the bishop anoints them?

A saint's name is adopted as a Confirmation name in many places. The custom echoes the new names that monks and nuns take when they make their religious profession.

What is the name for the adult who accompanies a Confirmation candidate, ideally one of the candidate's own godparents?

A sponsor gives the candidate spiritual help. The Catechism suggests asking a godparent in order to stress how closely the sacrament is tied to the candidate's christening.

The sacrament of Confirmation, given by anointing with oil, takes its name from a verb with which meaning?

To strengthen, or to make firm, is the sense of the ancient verb behind the name. Old French used the same verb for anointing a king.

Which perfumed oil, a blend of olive oil and balsam blessed in Holy Week, is used to anoint at Confirmation?

Chrism is consecrated by the bishop for his whole diocese at a special Mass, usually on the morning of Holy Thursday. The same oil is used at ordinations.

Which of these is among the gifts of the Holy Spirit that Catholics receive more fully at Confirmation?

Fortitude is listed with wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. The Hebrew text names only six qualities, and the early Greek translation supplied piety.

Which martial title, in use since the 300s, describes a Catholic who has received Confirmation?

Soldier of Christ imagery is played down when it goes with the old idea of Confirmation as a sacrament of maturity. The Catechism warns against confusing adult faith with adult age.

Which gesture by the bishop, a reminder to be brave, was dropped from the Confirmation rite in 1971?

A tap on the cheek came to be read as a slap, like the ceremonial blow of a medieval dubbing. It began as a friendly touch that went with the bishop's greeting.

In Eastern Catholic Churches, at what stage of life is the sacrament of Confirmation normally given?

In infancy is the Eastern norm: the parish priest anoints a baby in the same ceremony that makes the child a Christian, so that even infants can go on to receive Communion.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit linked with Confirmation come from a passage by which Old Testament prophet?

Isaiah lists the qualities while describing a future ruler on whom the Spirit of the Lord will rest. Early Christian writers commented on the passage at length.

Which New Testament book, cited by the Catechism for Confirmation, has two of the Twelve pray over converts in Samaria?

Acts of the Apostles says the Samaritans already believed but had not yet received the Holy Spirit. The Catechism treats the scene as the scriptural basis for a separate sacrament.

Which teenage heroine, burned for heresy at Rouen in 1431, was declared a saint almost five centuries later?

Joan of Arc was about nineteen when she died. A Church court overturned the verdict in 1456, citing deceit and procedural errors, and she was canonised in 1920.

Which Archbishop of Canterbury was killed in his own cathedral in 1170 by armed followers of King Henry II?

Thomas Becket had clashed with the king over the rights and privileges of the Church. His killers left their weapons under a tree and hid their armour under cloaks before going in to confront him.

Which military order of warrior monks did Pope Clement V disband in 1312 under pressure from King Philip IV?

Knights Templar members had been arrested across Philip's kingdom in a single dawn sweep in 1307. Many were tortured into false confessions and burned at the stake.

Which invader did Pope Leo I meet in 452 and persuade to turn back from his march through Italy?

Attila the Hun withdrew after the meeting, though scholars debate how far the pope's own authority decided it. Leo was one of three envoys the emperor sent to negotiate.

Which pope's speech at the Council of Clermont in 1095 was the call to arms that led to the First Crusade?

Urban II died in 1099, two weeks after the crusade reached its goal but before the news arrived in Italy. His speech answered a Byzantine emperor's appeal for help against the Turks.

Which chancellor led Prussia's Kulturkampf, an 1870s struggle with the Catholic Church over schools and appointments?

Otto von Bismarck fought the Church from 1871 to 1878 over who controlled education and the appointment of clergy. A series of peace laws wound the struggle down, and the pope declared it over in 1887.

At which Italian castle did Emperor Henry IV wait three days in a blizzard in 1077 to win a pope's pardon?

Canossa gave many European languages a phrase for unwilling penance: to 'go to Canossa'. Henry wore a hair shirt and is said to have walked barefoot.

Which Frankish king's gift of conquered Lombard lands to the pope in 756 founded the Papal States?

Pepin the Short had been crowned with papal backing in place of a powerless Merovingian figurehead. His gift let popes rule central Italy until the Italian kingdom annexed Rome in 1870.

Which Roman emperor's Edict of Thessalonica in 380 made Nicene Christianity the state church of the empire?

Theodosius I addressed the edict to the people of Constantinople, where he wanted to set up his residence. It was the first known secular law to open by defining Christian orthodoxy.

Which pope's corpse was dug up and propped on a throne to stand trial at the so-called Cadaver Synod?

Formosus had been dead about nine months, so a deacon was appointed to answer for him. He was found guilty, and his body ended up in the Tiber.