"[2] The church is also known by members as the People of God, the Body of Christ, the "Temple of the Holy Spirit", among other names.
[2] According to Vatican II's Gaudium et spes, the "church has but one sole purpose–that the kingdom of God may come and the salvation of the human race may be accomplished.
"[8] It is also the largest non-government provider of education and health care in the world,[9] while the diplomatic status of the Holy See facilitates the access of its vast international network of charities.
[18][19] According to the CIA Factbook and the Pew Research Center, the five countries with the largest number of Catholics are, in decreasing order of Catholic population: The country where the membership of the church is the largest percentage of the population is Vatican City at 100%, followed by East Timor at 97%.
According to the Census of the 2023 Annuario Pontificio (Pontifical Yearbook), the number of baptized Catholics in the world was about 1.376 billion at the end of 2021.
This report states that the percentage of the population in Brazil of Catholic religion, over the age of 16 years, is just 57%,[21] in contrast to the 64.63% published by CIA and to the 68.6% of Pew Research Center.