Little known facts about the Catholic church

August 20, 3:08 PMHouston Roman Catholic ExaminerVanessa Barnes

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        Early Church Fathers or 'Doctors of the Church'

Have you ever wondered what you didn't know about the Catholic Church?

Listed here a few items I thought interesting.

1. In Catholicism, the title 'Doctor of the Church' is given to a saint from whose writings the Church is held to have derived great advantage and to whom "eminent learning" and "great sanctity" have been attributed by a proclamation of a pope or of an ecumenical council.  This honor is given rarely, only posthumously, and only after canonization.  No ecumenical council has yet exercised the perogative of proclaiming a 'Doctor of the Church'.

Until 1970, no woman had been named a Doctor of the Church, but since then three additions to the list have been women: Saints Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena and Theresa of Lisieux.

2. Ashes used on Ash Wednesday are blessed palms from the previous year which have been burned.

3. There is a Archdiocese for the Military Services which has no physical boundaries or location.  Headquartered in Washington DC, the Archdiocese serves Catholics in the military on land, in the air and at sea.  The chaplains are not confined to the chapel.  They go wherever their people are - in the desert, on the aircraft carrier, under the sea in a submarine, in the barracks on base, on a fire-fighting line, in the VA hospital, and in the halls of the Pentagon.  The chaplains serve over 1.4 million Catholics.

                      St. Teresa of Lisieux

4. The word 'Catholic' comes from the word "Katholicos" a Greek word meaning universal.  St. Ignatius was appointed Bishop of Antioch by St. Peter, the Bishop of Rome.  It is in his writings that we find the word Catholic used for the first time.

5. The very first printed Bible was produced under the auspices of the Catholic Church - printed by the Catholic inventor of the printing press, Johannes Gutenberg.

The first Bible with modern day chapters and numbered verses was produced by the Catholic Church - the work of Stephen Langton, Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury.

                                   St. Katharine Drexel

6. St. Katharine Drexel of Philadelphia, canonized a Saint in the Roman Catholic Church in October 2000, and her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious community dedicated to the education of  African Americans and Native Americans, established Xavier University in Louisiana, the only historically Black and Catholic University in the United States.

Today, Xavier is one of only six schools chosen to participate in the National Science Foundation's Model Institutions for Excellence in Science, Engineering and Mathmatics program.

The College of Pharmacy, one of only two pharmacy schools in Louisiana, is among the nation's top three producers of African American Doctor of Pharmacy degree recipients.