Official church
As official churches represented are from church officials and full-time executives churches called that pose a public institution.
In the German-speaking world, the term is used colloquially primarily to refer to the Roman Catholic Church , the Protestant Church and the Old Catholic Church . Organizational units of these churches, e.g. B. the dioceses and the archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church, have achieved the status of a corporation under public law under Article 140 of the Basic Law .
This has, among other things means that a priest or pastor with the official seal , with whom he Church documents attest , can as a notary may act for the final certification of the authenticity of a copy.
For other religious communities that are also corporations under public law, however, the designation as an official church is not common, for example in the case of the New Apostolic Church or the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches .