[Persevero]

“That must be why there are something like 23000 different brands of Evangelical Protestantism. “

True, but there is a wide variety in Roman Catholicism, too.

You have the gay group, whose name escapes me, and the Latin Rite, Catholics Pro-Choice, and you could cite the various Jesuits/Franciscans/etc., all the different orders. You may say they are all under one authority (the Pope or the Holy See); but Protestants would say the same, they are under the authority of Jesus and the Bible.

Of course liberal Protestants, those who deny Christ, would not claim to be under the authority of anything. Then again, neither would liberal Catholics.

I was just reading here on FR five minutes ago about ecclias in - Holland? - groups of Roman Catholics doing their own thing because of a priest shortage.

[Pyro7480]

True, but there is a wide variety in Roman Catholicism, too.

You have the gay group, whose name escapes me, and the Latin Rite, Catholics Pro-Choice, and you could cite the various Jesuits/Franciscans/etc., all the different orders. You may say they are all under one authority (the Pope or the Holy See); but Protestants would say the same, they are under the authority of Jesus and the Bible.

Not exactly- the gay and pro-choice groups are dissident at the minimal, to the point of de facto schismatic in some cases. Jesuits/Franciscans and all the other religious orders have different charisms or missions, but they all believe in the same faith.

[Cronos]

Sigh, Latin Rite, Maronite Rite, Syro-Malabar Rite etc. are not separate Churches with separate theology. The theology and dogma are the same, that of Christ's as taught by His Apostles and passed down through His Church, the One Holy Apostolic Catholic Church. These are Autonomous ("sui iuris") particular Churches, aggregations of local particular Churches that share a specific liturgical, theological and canonical tradition. The largest such autonomous particular Church is the Latin Rite. The others are referred to collectively as the Eastern Catholic Churches. The larger Eastern Catholic Churches are headed by a bishop who has the title and rank of patriarch or major archbishop.

All acknowledge the bishop of Rome as the primus inter pares and all share the same dogma and theology. Disciplines may differ (for example, in the Eastern Catholic Churchs, you may have married men becoming priests (but not priests getting married)), however dogma is the same.

Secondly, Jesuits, Franciscans, Benedictans, Dominicans, Mother Teresa's Roses etc. are all orders of priests or nuns or monks. These are groups of Catholic religious or laity who chose to follow a particular discipline -- for example, Carthusians wish to glorify and pray to God living as hermits, cut off from the world, Mother Teresa's nuns are to go directly into the world, the Jesuit religious are to work directly with the people and follow a military discipline etc., however, they all follow the common Catholic basic dogma. If they don't, then they are chucked out, like the Mariavite Church.

Thirdly, the politico-groups you refer to such as politicos are just that -- political groups, no different than "Democrats for Romney" or "Republicans for Romney" or "Chinese Juggling belly-dancers with blonde hair choosing to dance the tango with Irish kathak dancers" --> these are not Churches or a Church dogma. They are purely individual initiative groups.