History Main / ChristianityIsCatholic

* Lent is frequently portrayed in both fiction and news media as being an exclusively Roman Catholic observance, when in fact it is common to all but the most non-liturgical Christian denominations, and Anglicans, Lutherans, and Methodists are frequently more observant of it than most Roman Catholics.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* The Series/CSIVerse as a whole is overwhelmingly Catholic. An exception is Stella of ''Series/{{CSINY}}'', who is apparently Orthodox -- she makes the Sign of the Cross top, down, right, left (Catholic is top, down, left, right). However, this was depicted as happening in a Catholic church, so it's probably just a mistake. Another exception is Gil, who is stated to be agnostic.
** Stella is Greek-American and is revealed in season 5 to have been born in Greece, so it's more likely an ingrained behavior than a mistake.

* ''Series/SWAT2017'': The cast's [[TokenReligiousTeammate one religious member]] is Deacon (as his nickname attests), a devout Christian who it turns out is a Catholic (Chris was also raised Catholic, though she no longer practices). Except for an [[SinisterMinister evil Protestant minister]] from one episode, that's about all Christian or indeed religious depictions so far.

* Averted in ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}''. Dissensions between British Protestantism and Vatican Catholicism is an important part of the plot (although it still gets plenty of FantasticCatholicism), and while some of the more zealous members of Iscariot Section XIII would ''hope'' to make this a fact [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide someday]], a major part of the friction between Hellsing and Iscariot is the fact that Christianity is NOT always Catholic due to Hellsing's Protestant roots.

%%*** Then there is the Catholic imagery in the fist [[Anime/SailorMoon anime]]'s S season.

%%* So is ''Literature/StrawberryPanic''.

* Sorta maybe avoided in or at least downplayed ''Manga/{{Trigun}}''. Wolfwood gets glossed as a 'priest' but doesn't act very ordained, and in the anime he carries a traveling confessional, but the one church that appears in the anime ([[spoiler:where Wolfwood dies]]) is much less Catholic than the one in the manga (where Vash hangs out at the start of 'Colorless Emotions'), which featured a ''very'' clerical-looking officiant and some bling.
** Wolfwood's mental monologue about becoming devils in order to have the power to protect those who ''don't'' doesn't fit too well into any Christian sect, and it's the closest thing to doctrine he ever really puts out. He is in the future, though. Things change.
*** Should be pointed out that in the manga, Wolfwood was never officially ordained in what is deemed proper in Catholicism. In fact, the religious organization forced him into the ranks of clergy and the organization itself acts so far off that no denomination irl (well, at least visibly mainstream) would fit the specific Church he's serving at all. They train initiated men to becoming powerful assassins and frequently order them on hit missions or to patrol and defend areas with criminals, etc. As the manga reveals, elements of the organization are working for knives and doing quite illegal stuff. So, in a sense, it's an aversion.
*** As for Wolfwood's beliefs, they actually did fit in with some Puritannical/Calvinist denominations and many real life Christian military orders -- not just Catholic ones such as the Knights Templar -- adopted a mentality similar to Wolfwood's monologue about becoming evil to protect the weak and innocent.
** Mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow is a Christian himself, so he should've known what he writes about. As with ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'', everything above is a pretty obvious ArtisticLicense plus RuleOfCool.
*** Not necessarily. Remember, Nightow is in Japan, a country out of touch with the Christian world and one whose only significant contact with Christianity was with Catholic priestly orders (who were expelled once persecution of Christians began). Before any other denomination could attempt to install a base, the Tokugawa shogunate closed Japan from Christian foreigners for good (except for the Dutch in Dejima in Nagasaki) and the remaining Christians went underground. Even to this day, Roman Catholicism is what Japanese people immediately picture when thinking Christianity. It's serious enough that even non-Catholic Christians in Japan often don't realize the differences between denominations, which is a heartache problem for Western religious leaders in the country. Also, Nightow himself is a Roman Catholic, so it would make sense he'd show Christianity as Catholesque. And as mentioned above, he mostly downplays the trope and even averts it with how Wolfwood not only has beliefs and lives a lifestyle against Catholic tenets, but is also part of a dubious organization that acts quite un-Christian.

* [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney films]] ''love'' this trope.

** [[JustifiedTrope Of course, since so many Disney films are adaptations of fairy tales that predate the Reformation, it's not as if there's much of a choice.]]

* In ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse'', the AntiChrist subplot is approached from a distinctly Catholic viewpoint, including a cameo by the Pope.
** Briarcliff, the insane asylum that's the main location of ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum'', is run by nuns.

** Booth is also an Irish name.

* Averted in ''Series/CallTheMidwife''. The nuns and priests are Anglicans.

* Averted on ''Series/{{Community}}'', where all of the main characters have clearly-identified non-Catholic beliefs: Annie is Jewish, Britta's hostile to the very IDEA of religion, Shirley is a rather in-your-face Baptist, Abed is Muslim (since movies don't count as a religion), Troy is a Jehovah's witness, Pierce is a "Reformed Neo-Buddhist", and Jeff professes agnosticism but essentially worships himself.
** However, at one point Troy postulates that everyone is in Purgatory. Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in Purgatory. Then again Troy is an idiot, it's likely he doesn't actually know the tenets of his own religion.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''. The Hill family belongs to a Methodist church. Justified, as Catholicism was historically rare in Texas among families who were not of Hispanic, Irish, or Polish descent.

* Interestingly enough, it happens within Catholicism ''itself,'' especially considering the fact that Catholics are pretty diverse in practices, "non-essential" beliefs and alignments. Catholics in America, for example, are distinct from Italian or Peruvian ones and that's not counting the various factions, such as the Conservatives, Liberals, Traditionalists, Sedevacantists, etc.
** The distinctions between conservatives and liberals are not necessarily the same as the diversity of practices and Rites. Long story short, one can be a Byzantine Rite Catholic or a Latin Rite Catholic and both be considered traditionalists that go to the same conventions, similarly you can be a Mexican Catholic with your own cultural baggage of approved/ok'd non-essential beliefs and practices and still go hang out with your Irish Catholic Buddy with his May Altar and St. Brigid's crosses and still both be considered Traditionalists. The Conservative/Liberal thing is largely referring to liturgical rigors, Nature of Christ and strictures or morality and how one views the Second Vatican Council and the Council of Trent respectively and thus is considered a lot more significant and controversial then the other differences between Catholics.

* Happens often with other religions:
** Paganism is also often thought to always be witchcraft and/or Wicca.
** As pointed out on the InformedJudaism page, there is a strange inverse of this, where people will assume anyone claiming or pegged to be Jewish must practice Judaism.
** Regarding UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}, it's almost always of the largest denomination, Sunni, who gets significant representation in history and media, though the second-largest, Shia, is starting to get recognized more and more due to the recent political climate. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as Sunnis are far more numerically dominant than any Christian sect (~80% of the total Muslim population), and since the Shia have almost never[[note]]And until recently, mostly by the now-minority Ismailis[[/note]] been able to set an equal political footing with the Sunnis (unlike Catholics vs Protestants), they had to essentially blend in, and history had never really set the two apart either (in the medieval era, the entire religion was ''never'' differentiated as something other than "Saracens" by the western world,[[note]]And often still isn't[[/note]] as shown in ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven''). It's only after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safavid_conversion_of_Iran_to_Shia_Islam the Shia conversion in the Safavid dynasty]] that the Shias have finally managed to get a footing; beforehand, they were an invisible minority. Even if someone recognizes that there's two branches, few are able to distinguish which branch is which, as the differences are primarily concerned with abstract concepts, anyhow.
*** There's also the fact that while small, Shia Islam has such a ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Islam_branches_and_schools.svg bazillion]]'' (note that the three of the branches in Sunni in the picture are outlined as "schools", which means that they are different only in certain laws) subbranches,[[note]]Though Jafris predominate everywhere except Yemen, even though Ismailis were historically larger.[[/note]] some of which have developed into separate religions like the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahá%27í_Faith Bahá'í Faith]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze Druze]][[note]]And according to many Muslims, Ahmadis[[/note]] (making its history quite similar to Protestantism, in fact...). Neither gets more than cursory mentions, and even those are mainly concerned with them being persecuted.
*** And this is before mentioning anything about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmadiyya Ahmadiyya]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibadi Ibadi]]. The former has been horrifically persecuted since their inception, while the latter is hard to understand ''even for Muslims themselves'' due to their preferred method of isolating themselves from others. [[note]]Also helped by the fact that nearly all of them live in Oman, which generally stays out of Middle Eastern headlines.[[/note]]

* Lent is frequently portrayed in both fiction and news media as being an exclusively Roman Catholic observence, when in fact it is common to all but the most non-liturgical Christian denominations, and Anglicans, Lutherans, and Methodists are frequently more observant of it than most Roman Catholics.[[/folder]]

* While in the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Ages]], references to religion in Creator/MarvelComics were studiously avoided, it became more popular to at least mention in passing many characters' religious affiliations from UsefulNotes/{{the Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}} onward, and occasionally this did involve making them Catholics.

* Given a token aversion in ''Literature/HighSchoolDXD'', as Irina is explicitly Protestant, contrasting two other Catholic characters, whereas otherwise Christianity is presented as one faction. WordOfGod has it that the author is aware of the differences between denominations, but since the series plays with AllMythsAreTrue, grouping the Christian church into one organization made things much easier to keep track of. Additionally, God, heaven, and angels from the bible are actually present in the series (and major characters in some cases), making many inconsistencies self-reconciling.

* ''Film/Constantine2005'' uses an entirely Catholic ruleset (or, better said, Catholicism as imagined by Hollywood) to determine who goes to Hell and who goes to Heaven. This is notable since [[Franchise/TheDCU the universe]] upon which the film is based has [[AllMythsAreTrue all gods existing together]].

Compare NunsNRosaries. See also ReligiousStereotype and ChurchOfSaintGenericus. A character who is AmbiguouslyChristian is ''almost'' always either a Catholic or a Protestant of TheFundamentalist variety.

* On ''Series/TheLastKingdom'', this trope happens, but it is justified because the show takes place in 9th century England, so at that time and place there were no other churches.

** One aversion takes place when a Baptist African-American pastor shows up for a meeting of religious leaders from Earth hosted by the station. However, he too is a bit stereotypical (he comes to the station with a complete gospel choir who feature prominently in the service he delivers.