Glossary of the Catholic Church

A

• Abbess – the female head of a community of nuns
• Abbot – the male head of a community of monks
• Acolyte
• Actual grace
• Ad limina visits – visit by diocesan bishop to the Holy See, usually every five years
• Alexandrian Rite
• Altar
• Altar server
• Altarage – the revenue reserved for the chaplain in contradistinction to the income of the parish priest, it came to signify the fees received by a priest from the laity when discharging any function for them
• Ambo
• Ambry
• Amovibility
• Annulment – see: Declaration of Nullity
• Apostolic administrator
• Apostolic Chancery – a former office of the Roman Curia
• Apostolic life, Society of – see: Society of apostolic life
• Apostolic nuncio – see: Nuncio
• Apostolic prefect
• Apostolic succession
• Apostolic vicar
• Apse
• Archbishop – the bishop of an archdiocese, with limited jurisdiction over his suffragan sees; a titular and largely honorary designation granted to certain bishops, often Nuncios and other members of the Holy See diplomatic corps
• Archpriest – see: Vicar Forane
• '''Auxiliary bishop'''

  B

• Baptism
• Baptism of Jesus
• Baptismal font
• Beatification
• Bishop – an ordained minister who holds the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders and is responsible for teaching the Catholic faith, ruling the Church, and sanctifying her people
• Bishop emeritus – the title given to a retired bishop or archbishop
• Bishops' conference – see: Episcopal conference
• Blessed – see: Beatification
• Brother – a male lay member of a Catholic religious institute
• '''Byzantine Rite'''

  C

• Canon law
• Cardinal
• Cardinal Vicar
• Catholicism – the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioural characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole
• Catechism – a document containing an approved exposition of Church teachings
• Chancery, Apostolic – see: Apostolic Chancery
• Chancery, Diocesan – see: Diocesan chancery
• Chaplain of His Holiness
• Clergy, Regular – see: Regular clergy
• Clergy, Secular – see: Secular clergy
• Coadjutor bishop – an auxiliary bishop with the legal right of succession to the see of which he is coadjutor
• Code of Canon Law, 1917
• Code of Canon Law, 1983
• Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches
• College of Cardinals
• College of Consultors
• Communion – see: Eucharist and Full communion
• Communion rite
• Communion of Saints
• Conclave
• Confession – see: Sacrament of Penance
• Confirmation
• Congregation, Religious
• Congregation
• Congregation, Sacred – see: Congregation
• Consecrated life
• Consecrated life
• Consecrated life, Institute of – see: Institute of consecrated life
• Corpus Juris Canonici
• Council, Pontifical – see: Pontifical Council
• Counter-Reformation – the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War
• Credence table
• Crosier
• Crucifix
• Curia, Moderator of the – see: Moderator of the Curia
• Curia
• Curia, Roman – ''see: Roman Curia ''

  D

• Deacon
• Dean – see: Vicar forane
• Declaration of Nullity – a canonical judicial sentence declaring that the matrimonial covenant was invalid from the beginning due to impediments or defect of consent
• Definitor
• Diaconate – see: Deacon
• Dicastery
• Diocesan administrator
• Diocesan bishop
• Diocesan chancery
• Diocesan curia – see: "Curia "
• Divine Liturgy
• Diocesan priest
• Diocesan tribunal – see: Tribunal
• Discalceation
• Dulia – ''see also: Hyperdulia ''

  E

• East–West Schism – forcibly divided medieval Christianity's Eastern from its Western jurisdiction, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively
• Eastern Catholic Churches
• East Syriac Rite
• Ecclesiastical judge
• Eminence – see: His Eminence
• Encyclical
• Eparchy
• Episcopal conference
• Episcopal see
• Episcopal vicar
• Eucharist – a Christian sacrament, generally considered to be a commemoration of the Last Supper, in which Jesus Christ shared his Body and Blood with his disciples before his betrayal and crucifixion
• Exarch
• Excardination – see also: Incardination
• Excitator – the excitator in seminaries, monasteries and convents was the person charged with the job of awakening community members each morning
• Exclaustration
• Excommunication – a medicinal religious penalty that bars the person from reception of the sacraments, the rights of office, and other privileges in the Church
• Exemption
• Exorcism – the practice of expelling demons from a person, place, or thing which they are believed to possess or inhabit

  F

• Faithful – the collective members of the church incorporated into it through sacramental baptism
• Fall of Man – the willful transition of the first humans from a state of original holiness, in communion with God, to a state of guilt and perennial disobedience
• Family wage
• Father – a traditional title of priests
• Father, God the – a name for the First Person of the Blessed Trinity
• Five Ways – see: Quinque Viæ '
• Font, Baptismal – see: Baptismal font
• Font, Holy water – see: Holy water font
• Friar
• Full communion'''

  G

• '''Grace '''

  H

• Hierarchy
• His Eminence
• His Holiness
• Holy Communion – see: Eucharist
• Holy Orders
• Holy See – the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church
• Holy water font
• Holy water stoup – see: Home stoup
• Home stoup
• Honorary Prelate
• Horarium – the schedule of daily prayers for those living in a religious community or seminary See also Liturgy of the Hours
• Hyperdulia – veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary see also: dulia
• Hypostasis – in Jesus Christ, the union of two natures, divine and human, in the one divine person of the Son of God

  I

• Immaculate Conception – the dogma that Mary was conceived without original sin
• Incardination – see also: excardination
• Incarnation – the Word of God taking on a human nature and becoming true man, Jesus Christ
• Institute of consecrated life
• Institute, Religious – see: Religious institute
• Institute, Secular – ''see: Secular institute ''

  J

• Judicial vicar
• '''Just War doctrine'''

  L

• Laity
• Lapsed Catholic – a Catholic who has ceased practising the Catholic faith
• Latin Church
• Latin liturgical rites
• Law, canon – see: Canon law
• Lay communion – the status of a cleric who is in communion with the Church, but only with the standing of a lay person
• Lay ecclesial ministry
• Lectio Divina
• Lectionary
• Lector – see: Reader
• Limbo – an idea of speculative theology about the afterlife condition of those unbaptized who die in Original Sin rather than assigning them to the Hell of the damned. Limbo is not a formally defined doctrine of the Catholic Church
• Latria – worship and prayer owed to God alone
• Liturgy – public worship
• '''Local ordinary'''

  M

• Mass – the usual English-language name for the Eucharistic celebration in the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church
• Mariology – the theology concerned with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ
• Mediatrix – the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a mediator in the salvation process
• Metropolitan archbishop
• Military ordinariate
• Missal
• Missal, Roman – see: Roman Missal
• Mission sui juris
• Mitre
• Monk
• Monsignor
• Most Holy Trinity – ''see:Trinity ''

  N

• Narthex
• Nave
• Novitiate
• Nun – see also: Sister
• '''Nuncio'''

  O

• Officialis – see: Judicial vicar
• Order, Religious – see: Religious order
• Ordinariate, Military – see: Military ordinariate
• Ordinariate, Personal – see: Personal ordinariate
• Ordinary – ''see: Local ordinary ''