Vatican CityVatican City (ˈvætᵻkən), officially Vatican City State (Stato della Città del Vaticano; Status Civitatis Vaticanæ), is a landlocked independent country, city-state, microstate, and enclave within Rome, Italy. It became independent from Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, and it is a distinct territory under "full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction" of the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity under international law, which maintains the city state's temporal power and governance, diplomatic, and spiritual independence.
Mary, mother of JesusMary was a first-century Judean woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is a central figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches believe that Mary, as mother of Jesus, is the Mother of God. Other Protestant views on Mary vary, with some holding her to have considerably lesser status.
Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II (Ioannes Paulus II; Giovanni Paolo II; Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła 'karol-'józew-woj'tyła; 18 May 1920 - 2 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was later canonised as Pope Saint John Paul II. In his youth, Wojtyła dabbled in stage acting. He graduated with excellent grades from an all-boys high school in Wadowice, Poland, shortly before the start of World War II in 1938.
EasterEaster, also called Pascha (Aramaic, Greek, Latin) or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus Christ, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.
Original sin'Original sin' is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature with a proclivity to sinful conduct in need of regeneration. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden), in a line in Psalm 51:5 ("I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me"), and in Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 5:12-21 ("Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned").
Antisemitism in ChristianityAntisemitism in Christianity, a form of religious antisemitism, is the feeling of hostility which some Christian Churches, Christian groups, and ordinary Christians have toward the Jewish religion and the Jewish people. Antisemitic Christian rhetoric and the antipathy toward Jews which result from it both date back to the early years of Christianity and are derived from pagan anti-Jewish attitudes that were reinforced by the belief that Jews were responsible for the murder of Jesus of Nazareth.
Pope Benedict XVPope Benedict XV (Latin: Benedictus XV; Benedetto XV), born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa (ˈdʒaːkomo ˈpaːolo dʒoˈvanni batˈtista della ˈkjɛːza; 21 November 1854 - 22 January 1922), was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his death in January 1922. His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War I and its political, social, and humanitarian consequences in Europe. Between 1846 and 1903, the Catholic Church had experienced two of its longest pontificates in history up to that point.
MariologyMariology is the theological study of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mariology seeks to relate doctrine or dogma about Mary to other doctrines of the faith, such as those concerning Jesus and notions about redemption, intercession and grace. Christian Mariology aims to place the role of the historic Mary in the context of scripture, tradition and the teachings of the Church on Mary. In terms of social history, Mariology may be broadly defined as the study of devotion to and thinking about Mary throughout the history of Christianity.
Catholic liturgyIn the Catholic Church, liturgy is divine worship, the proclamation of the Gospel, and active charity. Catholic liturgies are broadly categorized as the Latin liturgical rites of the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic liturgies of the Eastern Catholic Churches. As explained in greater detail in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Liturgy is an "action" of the whole Christ (Christus totus).
ConcordatA concordat is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both, i.e. the recognition and privileges of the Catholic Church in a particular country and with secular matters that impact on church interests. According to P. W. Brown the use of the term "concordat" does not appear "until the pontificate of Pope Martin V (1413–1431) in a work by Nicholas de Cusa, entitled De Concordantia Catholica".
