This is a glossary of terms used within the Catholic Church. Some terms used in everyday English have a different meaning in the context of the Catholic faith, including brother, confession, confirmation, exemption, faithful, father, ordinary, religious, sister, venerable, and vow.
A
Abbess — the female head of a community of nuns (abbey)
Abbot — the male head of a community of monks (monastery)
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 (altarist or altar-thane) 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 (below)
Apostolic administrator
Apostolic Chancery — a former office of the Roman Curia
Apostolic life, Society of — see: Society of apostolic life (below)
Apostolic nuncio — see: Nuncio (below)
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
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 (or Archbishop emeritus) — the title given to a retired bishop or archbishop
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
Consecrated life, Institute of – see: Institute of consecrated life (below)
Corpus Juris Canonici
Council, Pontifical – see: Pontifical Council (below)
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 (below)
Curia
Curia, Roman - see: Roman Curia (below)
D
Deacon
Dean — see: Vicar forane (below)
Declaration of Nullity — a canonical judicial sentence declaring that the matrimonial covenant was invalid from the beginning due to impediments or defect of consent
East–West Schism - forcibly divided medieval Christianity's Eastern (Greek) from its Western (Latin) 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 (below)
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 (cleric) — a traditional title of priests
Father, God the — a name for the First Person of the Blessed Trinity
Five Ways — see: Quinque Viæ (below)
Font, Baptismal — see: Baptismal font (above)
Font, Holy water — see: Holy water font (below)
Friar
Full communion
G
Grace (Christianity)
Grace (prayer)
H
Hierarchy
His Eminence
His Holiness
Holy Communion – see: Eucharist (above)
Holy Orders
Holy See – the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome (who is commonly known as the Pope), and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church
Holy water font (or stoup) (church)
Holy water stoup (home) – see: Home stoup (below)
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 (not to be confused with the Incarnation of Christ)
Incardination — see also: excardination (above)
Incarnation — The Word of God taking on a human nature and becoming true man, Jesus Christ (not to be confused with the Immaculate Conception of Mary)
Institute of consecrated life
Institute, Religious — see: Religious institute (below)
Institute, Secular — see: Secular institute (below)
J
Judicial vicar
Just War doctrine
Jesus
Jehovah’s Witnesses
L
Laity
Lapsed Catholic — a Catholic who has ceased practising the Catholic faith.
Latin Church
Latin liturgical rites
Law, canon — see: Canon law (above)
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 (below)
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 (below)
Mission sui juris
Mitre
Monk
Monsignor
Most Holy Trinity — see:Trinity (below)
N
Narthex
Nave
Novitiate
Nun — see also: Sister (below)
Nuncio
O
Officialis — see: Judicial vicar (above)
Order, Religious — see: Religious order (below)
Ordinariate, Military — see: Military ordinariate (above)
Ordinariate, Personal — see: Personal ordinariate (below)
Quinque Viæ — Aquinas' famous philosophical proofs for the existence of God found in his Summa Theologiæ
R
Ratum sed non consummatum
Reader
Reconciliation – see: Sacrament of Penance (below)
Rector (cathedral or seminary)
Regular clergy
Religious
Religious brother – see: Brother (above)
Religious congregation – see: Congregation, Religious (above)
Religious institute (Catholic)
Religious order
Religious priest – see: Regular clergy (above)
Rite to Being - The rite of being left alone to pray to Jesus Christ
Religious sister – see: Sister (below)
Right of Option - a way of obtaining a benefice or a title, by the choice of the new titulary
Roman Catholic - The Roman rite of the Catholic Church.
Roman Curia — "the complex of dicasteries and institutes that help the Roman Pontiff in the exercise of his supreme pastoral function for the good and service of the whole Church and of the particular Churches"
Roman Missal
S
Sacrament of Penance - commonly called Confession, Reconciliation or Penance, becoming free of sin by confession and repentance