What is the difference between a basilica a cathedral an oratory and a church?

Answer 1

In the Roman Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation for an important church building. A basilica is designated by the pope to buildings that carry special spiritual, historical, and architectural significance. Once a basilica -- always a basilica. A basilica may or may not also be the cathedral of the diocese. This is the highest permanent designation for a church building. The word basilica derives from a style of church based on the old roman basilicas which were houses of Law.

A cathedral is a church which holds a bishop's throne (called cathedra). It means it is the central church of his diocese. A cathedral may or may not be a basilica. It is the home church for the bishop or archbishop of a Catholic diocese. A cathedral may not always be a cathedral, depending on the decisions of the bishop. Hierarchally, the cathedral is the most important church of a diocese. A church is a building in which the public sacrifice of the Mass takes place. An oratory is more like a chapel, which is a place where people celebrate private Masses. An oratory is a structure other than a parish church, set aside by Church authority for prayer and the celebration of Mass. Examples would be chapels in airports and colleges where all of the functions of a parish aren't required. Private chapels are permitted in Catholicism, but if Church authority had not sanctioned their particular creation, they are chapels, not oratories. All of these are churches in that they have a consecrated altar and are used for celebrating the Sacraments.

Answer 2

A church is any gathering of Christian people wherever they meet - e.g. in a home, or a building designed for that purpose. So any gathering or place of Christian worship can be thought of as a church. In some denominations churches are called 'chapels', but they are still, basically, churches - places where Christians meet together. A cathedral is a special church holding the 'cathedra' - the bishop's throne. Similarly, a basilica is a special church usually designed to hold the remains or relics of a particular person - usually a saint, eirther currently or at some time in the past. Thus, St Peter's Basilica in Rome is not only a church (as it is a place of worship) and is not only a cathedral (as it houses the cathedra of the Bishop of Rome - the Pope) , but it is a basilica too as it also houses the tomb of St Peter himself. Similarly, in Northern France, the basilica of St Theresa of Lisieux is a church, and a basilica (as it houses some of her bones) but it is not classed as a cathedral as the Bishop of Lisieux's throne is situated in Lisieux Cathedral a mile or so away.

Answer 3

A cathedral is the chief church of a diocese in which the bishop has his throne.

Basilica has both an architectural sense and a canonical sense. In the canonical sense, the term usually refers to major buildings. Major basilicas include St. Peter's, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul-without-the-Walls... one of the features of major basilicas is that they have a "holy door". The pope can declare a particular church as a basilica.

"Chapel" is a very broad term, and can apply to anything from a section of a much larger church or cathedral, to small buildings. The word itself is associated with the idea of relics, since it is drawn from the idea that St. Martin divided his cape (chapelle) in half and left half with a beggar.

"Church" is a word that covers pretty much everything given above... generally any building set aside "in perpetuity for the public exercise of Divine worship."

As a general term, Oratory signifies a place of prayer, but technically it means a structure other than a parish church, set aside by ecclesiasticalauthority for prayer and the celebration of Mass. Oratories seem to have originated from the chapels erected over the tombs of the early martyrswhere the faithful resorted to pray, and also from the necessity of having a place of worship for the people in country districts when churchesproper were restricted to cathedral cities. We also find early mention of private oratories for the celebration of Mass by bishops, and later oforatories attached to convents and to the residences of nobles. In the Eastern Church, where the parochial organization is neither so complete nor so rigid as in the West, private oratories were so numerous as to constitute an abuse.