ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Timeline of the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is almost 2000 years old! It started with Jesus, who was a Jewish teacher and did amazing things to help people. People believed in his message and wanted to follow him. After Jesus died, his followers kept spreading his message and they started organizing into what became the Catholic Church.

The Church went through many changes and several leaders. In the early days, the Church had a lot of freedom, but in the year 313 some important things happened. The leader at the time, Emperor Constantine, declared that the Church should be made into a bigger organization and gave it more power. This was one of the first steps to making the Church the worldwide organization it is today!

The Church continued to grow, and in the year 1054, it split into two branches. One of those branches was the Roman Catholic Church, which is still the biggest branch today! Since then, the Church has become much more organized and successful, and it has spread around the world. It also changed a lot of things over the years, such as how it does Mass, how it does weddings, and how it handles different groups of people.

The Catholic Church is still going strong today and continues to be a major part of many people’s lives.