Topic summary
Roman Catholic
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Catholic Church.
Name
While the "Roman Church" has been used to describe the pope's Diocese of Rome since the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages (6th–10th century), "Roman Catholic Church" has been applied to the whole church in the English language since the Protestant Reformation in the late 16th century. Further, some refer to the Latin Church as "Roman Catholic" in distinction from the Eastern Catholic churches. "Roman Catholic" has occasionally appeared in documents produced by the Holy See, and has been used by certain national episcopal conferences and local dioceses.