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Roman Catholicism is structurally united under the Pope and the bishops who recognize the authority of the Papacy. However, it is far from theologically unified. Checking intra-Catholic fights here on FR and elsewhere provides more than ample evidence of that disunity. Issues such as the validity of the Tridentine Mass vs. the so-called Novus Ordo Mass, the doctrine of "outside the church there is no salvation," the degree to which church leaders should be involved in political matters, especially when those leaders hold leftist positions, the use of Latin vs. vernacular languages, the continued celibacy of the priesthood, the role of women and lay persons in liturgical worship, and the dispensation of Communion to persons who are not Roman Catholics are but a few of the issues that divide people who recognize the Pope as the visible head of the church.

OTOH, the absence of structural unity among Protestants does not necessarily imply significant theological differences. For example, the Presbyterian Church in America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, both conservative Reformed denominations, are in agreement as to a strict adherence to the Westminster Standards. Smaller conservative Reformed denominations, such as the United Reformed Church are in substantial doctrinal agreement with the conservative Presbyterian bodies, even if their doctrinal statements draw from Continental, rather than British, confessions of faith. Reformed and Calvinistic Baptists may disagree with their Presbyterian brethren on the administration of baptism and church governance, but would agree on issues of Biblical interpretation in most other areas. The theological differences between the Calvinistic Baptist Albert Mohler and the conservative Presbyterian R.C. Sproul are smaller than those between the the leaders of the Society of St. Pius X and the Pope Benedict XVI, both of whom are considered part of Roman Catholicism's conservative wing.

Roman Catholicism does have structural unity, but in terms of theological disputation, it is as fractured as are the churches that are in the tradition of the Reformation.

Roman Catholicism does have structural unity, but in terms of theological disputation, it is as fractured as are the churches that are in the tradition of the Reformation.

I shouldn't laugh, but I can't help it. These intra-Catholic fights on FR seldom rise to the same level as the intra-non-Catholic fights. In fact, I think I see a lot more unity among the Catholic posters.

You say we are just as fractured as those in the Reformation? Hardly.

Mainline Protestant churches no longer dominate NCC Yearbook’s list of top 25 U.S. religious bodies

Three of the largest 25 churches in the U.S. are Pentecostal and six are African American, the yearbook reports.

The list includes the rapidly growing Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Church in America, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and – largest of all – the Roman Catholic Church.

Take a look a that list and that doesn't even mention every splinter group that is out there among non-Catholics.

Good post. Actually if we apply the same rules to counting Catholic denominations that is used in counting Protestant denominations (you know, where there are 28,000 or 30,000, or sometimes 40,000 Protestant denominations depending on which Catholic posts the number) we get twenty-one Protestant denominations and sixteen Roman Catholic denominations.