Toward a Classification System of Religious Groups ... - Prolades.com

A2.100 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH - RCC (First century AD; Vatican City, a
sovereign state in Italy)
Overview: administratively, the RCC is organized into "diocese" (under
the authority of a bishop = bishopric), and the largest and most
important are designated "archdiocese" (under the authority of an
archbishop = archbishopric); diocese are grouped into provinces, regions
and conferences; since the 1950s USA bishops have been organized into
the National Catholic Conference in the U.S., and in Latin America into
CELAM (Conferencia Episcopal Latinoamericana, 1955); the RCC is the
largest Christian body in the world with churches in nearly every
country:
http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm
http://kentaurus.com/domine/catholic.htm
A2.200 RELIGIOUS ORDERS
Overview: institutes of men and women of pontifical right; various
ordered communities formed by priests, nuns and lay brothers and
sisters carry out the work of the Church in many countries of the world;
whereas in Protestantism dissent and reform often produce new
"denominations," within Roman Catholicism these creative energies are
often channeled into new religious movements within the Church of
Rome; such religious orders often show all the characteristics of
sectarian bodies including distinctive liturgy, theology, dress, and social
zeal but tend to remain loyal to the officials of their religious order and to
the Bishop of Rome; there are hundreds of religious orders within the
RCC; "secular" (or diocesan) priests serve in the diocese and are assigned
to local parishes, but "religious" priests normally carry out their
assignments directly through the officials of their religious orders, as do
nuns and lay brothers and sisters; for more information, see:
http://www.shc.edu/theolibrary/orders.htm
A2.300 AUTONOMOUS ORTHODOX CHURCHES IN COMMUNION WITH THE
VATICAN – THE HOLY SEE
Overview: the autonomous Eastern Orthodox Churches that are in
communion with the Vatican are under the jurisdiction of the Pope
through the Congregation for Oriental Churches (created in 1862), one of
the offices of the Roman Curia. The ecclesiastical life of the non-Latin
rite churches is governed by the Canonical Code of the Eastern Churches
that was pronounced by Pope John Paul II on 18 October 1990 and
became law on 1 October 1991. According to the Oriental Code, the
Eastern Orthodox Churches in communion with the Vatican are
organized under four categories: (1) Patriarchal (Armenian, Chaldean,
Coptic, Maronite, Melchite and Syrian; (2) Major Archepiscopal
(Ukrainian and Syro-Malabarian); (3) Metropolitan sui iuris (Ethiopian,
Romanian, American Ruthenian and Syro-Malankara); and (4) Other sui
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