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Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church
Virgin Mary flag
Roman Catholic Church in Poland
Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land

Roman Catholic Church

image by Dieter Linder, 7 June 1997

The flag of the Roman Catholics is well known to you. It is lengthwise divided by white and yellow. The centrally ruled Roman Catholic hoists this flag all over the world, the last time to be seen during the Pope's visit in Poland. Dieter Linder, 7 June 1997

Virgin Mary flag

image located by Patrick Devers

This flag is usually flown outside Catholic churches. It has the same dimensions as the Vatican flag except it is blue and white. In the white portion there is a capital M with a Cross over it and these are surrounded by 12 stars. The M, Cross and stars are the same shade of blue as the other half of the flag. The image here shows the symbol on a medal.
Patrick Devers, 3 September 2005

The Virgin Mary blue and white flag (without anything else) is used with the Vatican colours in Lourdes. I also saw it in Orléans during the festival of Joan of Arc.
Pascal Vagnat, 8 September 2005
[See flag in Roman Catholic Church in Poland, below]

Roman Catholic Church in Poland

image by Jarig Bakker, 1 February 2001

The Marian flag - a bicolour of white over blue, the colours associated with Mary in the Polish usage. I remember when I was in Poland as a child in 1974, I acquired a Polish flag, a yellow/white flag and a white/blue flag.
Robert M J Czernkowski, 21 May 1999

At the turn of the last century, Polish immigrants in the US set up the "Polish National Catholic Church" - this church is a member of the group of churches known as "Old Catholic". The church has a website. From the US, the PNCC spread up to Canada and back to Poland - both before WWII and afterward, resulting in two separate groups there. I've been told that in Poland it is referred to as the "National Church", but in doing a bit of web searching this morning I found that one of the groups in Poland is using the name "Polish Catholic Church".
Michael Roth, 1 February 2001

The PNCC does not seem to have its own flag.
Jarig Bakker, 1 February 2001

Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land

The flag for the Roman Catholic Church's Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, flying outside the Custody's US headquarters, the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, DC. It is white with a red Jerusalem cross (a cross potent with a crusil in each angle). This design is attributed as the arms of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (but in yellow on white), and is used for the Papal Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The Franciscan friars working for the Custody wear the Jerusalem cross embroidered in red on the left breast of their brown robes. The symbolism is variously attributed to the five crosses representing the five wounds of Christ or to the message of the Gospel (the large cross) being carried to the four corners of the earth.
Joe McMillan, 27 April 2000