Check.Church

Roman Catholicism

Catholic · 1054 · Latin West; worldwide

The Latin communion centered on Rome after 1054, from which the medieval dissent movements were expelled and the Reformation fan later separated. Religious orders and rites are annotations, not branches.

Roman Catholicism was formed in 1054, the outcome of a longer process. Roman Catholicism continues today. Roman Catholicism's institutional line runs back to the post-apostolic church. No body on this tree is the assembly of Acts 2; where a body claims that, the claim appears in the claimed-lineage layer.

Between the post-apostolic church and Roman Catholicism stand 1 division along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.

At a glance

Formed
In 1054, the outcome of a longer process
Family
Catholic
Region
Latin West; worldwide
Key figures
Leo IX, Humbert of Silva Candida, Paul VI (1965)
Cause tags
Doctrine, Governance, Politics, Geography
Also known as
Catholic Church; Latin Church

What it separated from

Bodies organized out of it or separated from it: Waldensians, Lollards, Unitas Fratrum, Lutheran, Reformed, Church of England, Chaldean Catholic Church.

On the tree

Roman Catholicism and its institutional line back to the post-apostolic churchAD 33today10042443145110541173138214571517151915341552The post-apostolic church (The spine)The post-apostolicchurchThe spineChurch of the East (Church of the East)Church of the EastChurch of the EastThe conciliar church (The spine)The conciliar churchThe spineThe Chalcedonian church (The spine)The Chalcedonian churchThe spineOriental Orthodoxy (Oriental Orthodox)Oriental OrthodoxyOriental OrthodoxEastern Orthodoxy (Eastern Orthodox)Eastern OrthodoxyEastern OrthodoxRoman Catholicism (Catholic)Roman CatholicismCatholicWaldensians (Pre-Reformation dissent)WaldensiansPre-Reformation dissentLollards (Pre-Reformation dissent)LollardsPre-Reformation dissentUnitas Fratrum (Pre-Reformation dissent)Unitas FratrumPre-Reformation dissentLutheran (Lutheran)LutheranLutheranReformed (Reformed and Presbyterian)ReformedReformed and PresbyterianChurch of England (Anglican)Church of EnglandAnglicanChaldean Catholic Church (Church of the East)Chaldean Catholic ChurchChurch of the East

Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2.

The event

The Great Schism, 1054

July 16: Humbert's bull against Patriarch Cerularius laid on the altar of Hagia Sophia; July 20: a Constantinopolitan synod excommunicates the legates. Censures were personal in scope; the full breach hardened over centuries, sealed by the sack of Constantinople in 1204.

The other body from this event: Eastern Orthodoxy.

  • 1965: Joint Catholic–Orthodox Declaration, Dec 7, 1965 (Paul VI / Athenagoras I), removed the 1054 excommunications from memory; the schism itself continues.

Adherents

About 1,272,775,000 adherents (research-center estimate, as of 2025).

World Christian Database figures run higher than other cross-national series; see the methodology page.

Source: CSGC/WCD 2025; the Vatican's Annuario Pontificio reports 1.39B baptized (2022; 1.422B by 2024)

Claimed lineage

What this tradition says about its own origin · apostolic see

Christ constituted Peter the rock and keeper of the keys (Matt 16:18–19); Peter was the first bishop of Rome; the papacy is an unbroken apostolic succession, and the Church of Christ 'subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the Successor of Peter.'

Its own sources: Matthew 16:13–19; Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 8 ('subsistit in'); Annuario Pontificio papal list.

The documented record: The doctrine's development and the exegesis of Matt 16 are themselves fields of long dispute; Orthodox and Protestant counter-readings are stated on the linked both-sides explainer.

Sources

Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-10.