User:Zfish118/Wikipedia:Catholicism style guidelines

Welcome to Wikiproject Catholicism! This article is a partial listing of editing conventions commonly used in Catholic Church-related articles.

Catholic or Roman Catholic
This is a common subject of discussion. The current consensus is to use the simplest form that is unambiguous in a particular context. Use of Catholic or Roman Catholic should be consistent within a single article, and preferably among related articles. An article should not be converted from one naming convention to another without good reason.

Article and section names
In Wikipedia "Catholicism" as a main topic refers to the branch of Christianity that includes the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, and others. To avoid ambiguity, articles and section discussing the teachings or practices of the Roman Catholic Church should be titled use either the phrase "Catholic Church" or "Roman Catholicism". Using "Catholicism" without explicit disambiguation should be avoided. "Catholic" as an adjective may be used with caution in titles, provided there is context in first paragraph stating. When naming a new article, consider the "parent" articles that are likely to link to it, and strive for consistency. In the rare times that an article might need to renamed, try to find all related articles, and propose any modifications for the entire series at once. See: Requested move. Moves converting from one convention to other should be considered potentially controversial, should only be proposed with sound reasoning based. This essay is not alone justification for any particular page move.
 * Examples:
 * Roman Catholicism in Afghanistan
 * Catholic Church in the United States

Institutional
The main article is titled "Catholic Church" (after much discussion). Topics that address the whole organization will generally use "Catholic Church", or the adjective "Catholic". As a rough rule of thumb, top level divisions of the Catholic Church main article will use the full name or adjective in the title. Many of these articles would also qualify as "High" or "Top Importance" on the project's Assessment Scale. Examples:


 * Main article (Corresponding main section)
 * Hierarchy of the Catholic Church (Organisation)
 * Catholic Theology (Doctrine)
 * Sacraments of the Catholic Church (Sacraments)
 * Catholic liturgy (Liturgy)
 * History of the Catholic Church (History)

Because these topics are inseparably linked to the specific institution known as the Catholic Church, they use either a direct adjective or prepositional phrase to disambiguate. Note that for titles for high importance articles need not slavishly mimick the main article's table of contents or visa versa.

Standalone
Other topics are critical to understanding Roman Catholicism, but are independently notable. These topics often overlap other disciplines, such as Philosophy or Christianity in general. The subsections of the main Catholic Church article, again, provide a good examples.

The seven sacraments, for example, are generally shared by all "catholic" churches (such the Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, etc.). Several sacraments, however, have notable differences that are distinguishing features of the Catholic Church, such as the Eucharist (Catholic Church). The main "Eucharist" article discusses the beliefs of all branches of Christianity, so parenthetical is used to disambiguate the article discussing the Roman Catholic views. Because each sacrament is notable, they use parenthetical disambiguation, rather than prepositional phrases.

Similarly, the Papacy is a notable institution itself. However, the Roman Catholic Pope is by far the most prominent pop out there, no disambiguation is necessary.

Theological
Articles that discuss topics relating to church teachings should be named according to the same standards as top and high importance articles. Doctrines should be treated at proper noun phrases, such the Immaculate Conception, which is a dogma regarding Mary. Both are capitalized, and the term is not disambiguate, because the Roman Catholic understanding is the primary topic (Note that the article also discusses other denominations teachings, though primarily discussing Roman Catholic teaching).

The more obscure the topic to the average reader, the more likely the Roman Catholic understanding will be subsumed as a subsection of a more general article. For example: Justification_(theology). "Justification" is the main topic, "theology" is the parenthetical disambiguator, and "Catholic Church" the subsection. Should the topic of justification ever warrant a standalone article, "Catholic Church" would likely be used as the parenthetical disambiguator.

Topical
Some articles discuss Catholic teaching in application to outside disciplines. These will generally use a prepositional or adjectival link, as these are institutional practices.
 * Examples: