ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, the name of that community of Christians who profess the same faith, partake of the same sacraments and sacrifice, and are united under one head, the Pope or Bishop of Rome and successor of St. Peter, and under the bishops subject to him. Its essential parts are the Pope, bishops, pastors—so far as they are priests—and laity. The distinctive char acteristic of the Roman Church is the supremacy of the papacy. Its doctrines, like those of the rest of Christendom, are chiefly found in the articles of the Nicene Creed. After the Council of Trent Pope Pius IV. added to the formal profession of faith the articles on tran substantiation, invocation of saints, and others which chiefly distinguish the Ro man from other Christian communities. The Immaculate Conception of the Vir gin Mary and papal infallibility were defined as articles of faith in 1854 and 1870 respectively. One great and cen tral object of faith and worship is the Mass, which is the mystical sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, instituted by Himself at the Last Supper, and is essentially the same as the Sacrifice of the Cross. Scripture and tradition are appealed to in support of this and other doctrines, as the Seven Sacraments, the honor due to the Blessed Virgin, Purgat tory, Invocation of Angels and Saints, etc. There is a great distinction be tween what is of doctrine and what of discipline; the former belonging to the deposit of faith taught by Christ and the Apostles, which is invariable, while the latter, founded on the decisions and canons of councils and the decrees of Popes, is the Church's external policy as to government, and may vary accord ing to times and circumstances.
The Sacred College of Cardinal.—The College of Cardinals-70 in number, af ter the 70 disciples--is the supreme council or senate of the Church and the adviser of the sovereign pontiff, and at the death of a Pope its members elect his successor (see POPE). They are also the chief members of the Sacred Congre gations, or permanent ecclesiastical com missions (about 20 in number), to which much of the business of .the Holy See is intrusted. Among the best known of these congregations are the Propaganda, the Index, the Inquisition or Holy Of fice, and the Congregation of Rites. The number of cardinals is hardly ever com plete. In 1919 there were 14 patriarchal sees; 8 belonging to the Latin Rite and 6 Oriental. Archbishops, Latin Rite, 178; Oriental, 19. Bishops, 874, Latin Rite, 49 Oriental. There were 300 titu lar Bishops as coadjutors or engaged in mission work. Sacred congregations pre sided over by the Pope or cardinals for adjusting the spiritual and temporal affairs of the world, 13.
The leading prelate in the hierarchy, apostolic delegate and personal represen tative of the Pope at Washington in 1920, was his Excellency Archbishop John Bonzano. There were 14 archbish ops (among them two cardinals at Bal timore and Boston) ; 96 bishops and 21, 019 priests. There were 10,608 churches with resident priests and 5,573 mission churches. The Catholic population of the United States was 17,735,553, and including Alaska and insular possessions over 26,000,000. In the World War 762 secular and 264 priests of all orders were engaged in religious work.