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Followers of the Roman Catholic Church, which was founded by Jesus Christ, hold the Old and New Testaments as sacred texts. Catholics and all Christians believe that Jesus was the messiah, the Son of God. With 1.1 billion followers at the end of 2004, the Roman Catholic Church remains the single largest organized body of religion in the world. The most dense populations of Roman Catholics live in Central and South America, with additional presence in western Europe. Currently led by Pope Benedict XVI, the Roman Catholic Church has a centralized body in the sovereign city-state of the Vatican City, located in Rome. Within the Roman Catholic Church, the priesthood is restricted solely to men -- a condition which was recently reaffirmed in "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis," a paper released by the Pope Benedict XVI. Seen here, Cardinal James Hickey greets nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa. After almost 70 years as an Albanian Catholic nun, Mother Teresa died at 87 having created a charity that currently employs over one million people worldwide. While many consider her to be a Christian saint, she never had access to the Catholic priesthood. The basis of this arrangement dates back to the decision of Jesus to call on men alone as his disciples.
Credit: AP/William Philpott
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