Wikipedia:Proposed naming conventions (Catholic Church)

These naming conventions regarding the Catholic Church is a collection of guidelines on how to name Wikipedia articles about the Catholic Church, as well as associated people and entities. It is offered as a central point of reference. For articles' respective very text contents, please refer to Manual of Style/Catholic Church.

The guiding principles of naming articles relating to the Catholic Church are as follows, in order of relative priority:


 * 1) Follow all general Wikipedia policies, including the policies on Article titles (WP:Concise), WP:Neutral point of view, WP:No original research, and WP:Verifiability, as perceived through WP:Consensus
 * 2) Subject to WP:Consistency for convienience

The universal Catholic Church
Articles that apply to the Catholic Church in general should use the phrase "Catholic Church" or the adjective "Catholic". Such articles should be recognisable, natural, precise, concise, and consistent with other Catholic Church-related titles, and should reflect a neutral point of view. For example:
 * History of the Catholic Church
 * Catholic Church by country
 * Catholic theology
 * Catholic liturgy
 * Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites

Catholicism
Articles that apply specifically to Catholic things, but not necessarily the entire Catholic Church, should use the phrase "Catholic". In some cases where confusion might arise because of the presence of multiple particular churches sui iuris the phrase Roman Catholic may be used as a disambiguator for the Latin Church based on local consensus.

The term Catholic or its derivatives such as Catholicism are appropriate when referring to organisations, doctrines, and practices that have a historical connection to the Catholic Church and/or Catholicism. For example:
 * Catholic laity
 * Catholic charities
 * Catholic Worker Movement
 * Catholic Worker

The scope of the term Catholicism might differ from the term Catholic Church, in that Catholicism might be perceived as reflecting a broader spectra, including beyond that of the Catholic Church in an ecclesiological sense.

Particular churches sui iuris
Articles about Catholic particular churches sui iuris should use the full name. For example: However, one exception is:
 * Chaldean Catholic Church
 * Chaldean Catholics
 * Syriac Maronite Church
 * Maronites

Latin Church
There has been active discussions on the names of entities related to the Latin Church. There is currently not an overarching consensus as to whether or not Roman Catholic should be used in reference to distinguish entities particular to the Latin Church, such as dioceses.

National polities
Examples:
 * Catholic Church in the United Kingdom
 * Catholic Church in England and Wales
 * Catholic Church in Scotland
 * Catholic Church in Ireland
 * Catholic Church in the United States

Ecclesiastical provinces
Example:
 * Ecclesiastical Province of Freiburg

Episcopal conferences
As for episcopal conferences - often but not always equivalent to sovereign national territories - the WP:Consistency is as follows:
 * "Episcopal Conference of X", for instance:
 * Episcopal Conference of France
 * Episcopal Conference of Germany

Other alternatives have been refuted on the following grounds:
 * "Spanish Episcopal Conference": Because not all episcopal conferences follow one nation, and it would be inconvenient to name all of these as adjectives
 * "Bishops Conference", "Bishop's Conference", "Bishops' Conference": Too much inconsistency

Dioceses
Notably, for article names of Catholic dioceses, particularly those located in historically Catholic-minority, Christian regions, Roman Catholic is often used, though, consensus on its use seems unclear.

Individuals
Titles of articles relating to people should generally follow Naming conventions (people). However, it is a recurrent practice within the Catholic Church to sometimes indicate leading figures with a prefix, for example:
 * Pope Francis
 * Mother Theresa
 * Brother Alois

Exceptionately also sobriquets apply, such as Albertus Magnus.

Saints follow MOS:SAINTS.

As for most cases in ordained people commonly referred to by their Latin names, this use is generally discouraged, but rather their native name or its prevalent equivalent in English language is advocated.

Related subjects
Articles that pertains to both the Catholic Church and a given subject, typically follow the formula Catholic Church and X. For example:
 * Catholic Church and art
 * Catholic Church and science

Disambiguations
If necessary for disambiguation, articles that apply broadly to the whole Catholic Church should preferentially contain the ending in the Catholic Church. For example:
 * Bishop in the Catholic Church
 * Eucharist in the Catholic Church
 * Marriage in the Catholic Church

Redirects
However, disambiguation pages are also due:
 * Articles containing "Catholic", "Roman Catholic", "Catholicism", and similar phrases should redirect to pages pertaining to the Catholic Church.
 * Catholic Church (disambiguation)
 * Catholicism (disambiguation)
 * Catholic (disambiguation)

Categories
Top: Category:Catholic Church, with WP:Consistency generally applied also in subcategories, as indicated here inter alia.