CatholicData

With over a billion members and 400,000 priests, the Catholic Church is one of the largest organizations in the world. And with a history reaching back over 2,000 years, it is also one of the oldest.

This site collects and curates information about people, places, regions, events, organizations, and literature of the Catholic Church (both Latin and Eastern Rites). As often as possible, we obtain information from official Church sources such as Vatican press releases and Diocesan announcements.

By gathering Catholic information into a comprehensive database, we hope to facilitate the study of the rich history of the Church, to foster the development of technical tools such as apps and visualizations, and to bring people to a deeper understanding of Catholicism.

One can measure the maturity of any dataset in terms of its breadth, depth, and accuracy. By breadth, we mean how comprehensive is the data; by depth, we mean how many possible data points are actually collected and available; and by accuracy, we mean how free is the data from factual errors and typos. This dataset currently includes:

• 1,250 bishops (all current bishops of the US, UK, and several other countries, plus a few others)
• 2,700 dioceses (all current geographic dioceses, but few titular ones)

Find further statistics here.

We plan to add the following further information:

• Historical dioceses, of which there are around 6,000
• Additional people, including
  • all Popes (266)
  • many saints (thousands)
  • all living bishops (an additional 4,300) and known deceased bishops (many thousands)
  • a small number of other notable Catholics
• Many notable Catholic places, including Basilicas (over 1,000), Cathedrals (over 3,000), and Abbeys/Priories (over 3,000)
• Papal encyclicals and church council documents
• Events, such as
  • Erection or supression of regions
  • Births, ordinations, retirements, and deaths of people
  • Construction, restoration, and closure of places
  • Founding and disbanding of organizations

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Below are available data endpoints and links to further documentation.

Regions

• regions.json, which contains all regions
• regions_ecclesiastical.json, which contains only ecclesiastical regions
• regions_ecclesiastical_current.json, which contains only current ecclesiastical regions
• Documentation

Places

• places.json, which contains all places
• Documentation

People

• people.json, which contains all people
• Documentation

Organizations

• organizations.json, which contains all organizations
• Documentation

Literature

• literature.json, which contains all literature
• Documentation