7 Little-Known Facts About Roman Catholicism

While the belief system recognized as Christianity was in place by the first century, scholars disagree on the exact date of the Roman Catholic Church's formation. In the first centuries after Christ, there were many varieties of Christian belief. The term Catholic was used to identify the one most closely associated with the Apostles. Many scholars point to the Great Schism in 1054, when Eastern and Western branches of the Church formalized their separation—the first large-scale division within Christendom—as a defining moment for both Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The Catholic and Orthodox churches split over several issues, some theological and some institutional, though they continue to have in common more than they divide over.