The Catholic World View

The Catholic world view is the Christian faith as held by the Catholic Church in communion with the Bishop of Rome. Catholics confess one triune God, creation, sin, and salvation in Jesus Christ, received through Scripture and the Church's living Tradition.

Ultimate Reality

One eternal God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — created all things and holds them in being. God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, and remains present to his Church through the Holy Spirit.

The Human Condition

Humans are made in God's image, wounded by original sin inherited from humanity's first fall. We are inclined to sin and cannot heal ourselves, yet God's grace is offered to all, and free will can cooperate with it toward holiness.

Knowledge and Truth

God's revelation comes through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, handed on and interpreted by the Magisterium, the Church's teaching office. Faith and reason are partners, not rivals.

Right and Wrong

Moral truth flows from God's law, written into creation as natural law and spoken in Christ's teaching. The Church proposes the commandments, the virtues, and the works of mercy as the path of love. Conscience, formed by truth, must be followed.

Human Destiny

At death each person faces judgment; the Church teaches heaven, purgatory as final purification for the saved, and hell as real separation from God. At Christ's return the dead will rise, and God's kingdom will be complete in a renewed creation.

The Conversation

This site presents Catholic Christianity as one of the world views it studies, described here in Catholics' own terms. With all Christians we share the historic core, and we pray for the unity Jesus asked for (John 17:20). Where Catholics and other Christians differ — over authority, the sacraments, and the saints — we state each side fairly and keep talking.