[pgyanke]

That's an interesting discrepancy in the numbers from that source. My information was third-hand (as in reported by another party on another website). Who's to say what the real numbers are? That's one of my difficulties with the Protestant view of the world... when Catholics disagree on a matter of faith, we take it to a higher authority (the Catechism, the Bible, the Magisterium) until we resolve the conflict. Protestants simply form a new denomination.

I take issue with their characterization of 242 Roman Catholic denominations. They could be talking about Dominicans, Franciscans, Coptics, Maronites, et al. Some of that is a separation of holy orders and others are a separation of tradition and purpose (such as the Maronites who preserve Christ's Words of Consecration in original Aramaic). There are really only 22 "churches" who have a separate tradition or liturgy who are in communion with Rome. According to dictionary.com, a denomination is "A large group of religious congregations united under a common faith and name and organized under a single administrative and legal hierarchy." That could possibly apply to those churches when viewed from different perspectives. However, they are all in communion with the Holy See in Rome and we are One Church.

That's not true of the Protestant side of the house...

[armydoc]

when Catholics disagree on a matter of faith, we take it to a higher authority (the Catechism, the Bible, the Magisterium) until we resolve the conflict. Protestants simply form a new denomination.

Actually, when Catholics disagree on a matter of faith, they, for the most part, feel comfortable warming the pews anyway and continue to call themselves Catholics. Surveys show that a majority of professing American Catholics disagree with one or more essential Catholic doctrines. In essence, there are millions of personal Catholic denominations within the Catholic Church. YOPIOC, if you will. Go ahead and tell me these people aren't really Catholics. Fine. But don't turn around and spout the "billion Catholics" line.