Methodist vs Catholic: How John Wesley’s Heirs Differ From the Catholic Church

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Methodists are Protestants, not Catholics. Both are Christian churches that confess the Trinity, baptize infants and prize a holy life. They part on authority and the sacraments: Catholics have a pope, seven sacraments and transubstantiation, while Methodists have elected bishops, two sacraments and a real but spiritual presence of Christ at Communion.

John Wesley, the Anglican minister who began the Methodist movement, knew these differences well. In 1749, in Dublin, he wrote a Letter to a Roman Catholic that sets out his faith point by point, and he pleaded: “if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike.” Most of what divided them then divides them still. So does his plea.

Two Methodist churches matter most in the United States. The United Methodist Church (UMC) reports about 11.3 million members worldwide. The Global Methodist Church (GMC), a traditionalist body, launched on May 1, 2022, as about a quarter of US United Methodist congregations were leaving the UMC. Both keep the same Articles of Religion, so they agree on most points; where they part, you will find each named. Other Methodist churches include the African Methodist Episcopal (AME), AME Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) churches, which share full communion with the UMC, and the Methodist Church in Great Britain. The Catholic Church counted just over 1.422 billion baptized members in 2024.

Topic	Catholic	Methodist
Began	Traces itself to the apostles, with Peter as first pope	John Wesley’s revival inside the Church of England; American church organized 1784
Head	The pope, Bishop of Rome	No single head; conferences and bishops
Bishops	Appointed or confirmed by the pope	Elected by conferences: for life in the US (UMC), up to two six-year terms (GMC)
Authority	Scripture and Tradition, interpreted by the Magisterium	Scripture first, read with tradition, reason and experience
Sacraments	Seven	Two: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
Communion	Transubstantiation; for Catholics only, as a rule	A real but spiritual presence; open to all who love Christ; often grape juice
Salvation	Justification forgives and renews; grace through faith and the sacraments	Justified by faith; grace prevenient, justifying and sanctifying
Mary and the saints	Immaculate Conception, Assumption; saints asked to pray	Honored; no Marian dogmas; saints not invoked
After death	Heaven, hell and purgatory	Heaven and hell; no purgatory
Clergy	Men only; celibate in the Latin Church	Men and women; may marry
Marriage	A sacrament between a man and a woman	A rite, not a sacrament. UMC since 2024: includes two adults of the same sex. GMC: one man and one woman

Where Methodists and Catholics differ

Each answer is quoted from the church’s own documents or from one of our articles.

Authority

Methodist

While we acknowledge the primacy of Scripture in theological reflection, our attempts to grasp its meaning always involve tradition, experience, and reason. Like Scripture, these may become creative vehicles of the Holy Spirit as they function within the Church.

From Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2020/2024, Theological Guidelines: Scripture

Catholic

It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others.

From Catechism of the Catholic Church, 95

Salvation

Methodist

We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith, only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.

From Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church, Article IX

Catholic

Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy.

From Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1992

Communion

Methodist

The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith.

From Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church, Article XVIII

Catholic

In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained."

From Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1374

Sacraments

Methodist

There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord.

From Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church, Article XVI

Catholic

Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism, Confirmation (or Chrismation), the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony.

From Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1210

Leadership

Methodist

Clergy shall be appointed by the bishop, who is empowered to make and fix all appointments in the episcopal area of which the annual conference is a part.

From Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2020/2024, paragraph 425

Catholic

The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, "is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful."

From Catechism of the Catholic Church, 882

Women ministers

Methodist

Although women were ordained in the Methodist tradition as early as the late 1800s, it was the May 4, 1956 General Conference vote for full clergy rights that forever changed the face of ordained clergy. The United Methodist Church continues to declare its belief in the full equality of women and the importance of women in decision-making and leadership positions at all levels of the church.

From UMC.org, "Why does the UMC ordain women?" (Ask The UMC)

Catholic

Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.

From Pope John Paul II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994), 4

Purgatory

Methodist

The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon, worshiping, and adoration, as well of images as of relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to the Word of God.

From Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church, Article XIV (1784; the church reads it today through its resolution “With a View to Unity”)

Catholic

All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

From Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1030

Contraception

Methodist

We support the provision of comprehensive, age-appropriate education for sexual health, as well as access to consistent, effective, and affordable contraception.

From United Methodist Social Principles (2024), The Social Community: Reproductive Health and Abortion (umc.org)

Catholic

The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception).

From Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2399

See all 55 answers for these two churches

To see what Catholics teach beside what Methodists teach on 55 questions, open our free tool, Compare Christian Denominations.

No. Methodism is Protestant, and it came out of the Church of England rather than straight out of the Catholic Church. The movement began in England in the early 1700s under John Wesley and his brother Charles, and in 1736 both brothers went to the colony of Georgia as Church of England missionaries. That church’s own Articles of Religion had already declared, “The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England.” The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in the United States in 1784.

Methodists say “catholic” too. The UMC’s Confession of Faith calls the Church “one, holy, apostolic and catholic,” and the Global Methodist Church prints the Apostles’ Creed with “the holy catholic* church” and a footnote explaining the asterisk: “universal.” When a Methodist says the creed, he or she means the whole Church of Christ in every place and age, not the Catholic Church led by the pope.

Both are Christian. The Catholic bishops of the United States welcome other Christians, Methodists included, as “our fellow Christians,” and the Catholic Church accepts Methodist baptism. Are the two close? In some ways, yes. Both baptize infants, both have bishops, and since 2006 they have shared an agreed statement on how God justifies sinners. They remain apart on the pope, the number of sacraments, what happens to the bread and wine, Mary, the saints and purgatory.

Catholics ground the papacy in Jesus’ words to Peter: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the pope, as Peter’s successor, “has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church,” and it entrusts the authentic interpretation of Scripture and Tradition “to the living teaching office of the Church alone,” the bishops in communion with the pope.

Methodists have bishops but no pope, and their bishops answer to the church’s conferences. United Methodist bishops in the United States are elected by regional conferences “for life,” and each one appoints the pastors in his or her area every year. The GMC elects its bishops at its General Conference, for no more than two six-year terms.

For teaching, United Methodists speak of four sources, often called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. Scripture comes first among them: “For United Methodists, Scripture is considered the primary source and standard for Christian doctrine.” Even the Bibles differ a little. The Catholic Old Testament has 46 books, while the Methodist Articles list the 39 of the Protestant Old Testament.

The Catholic Church counts seven sacraments: “Baptism, Confirmation or Chrismation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.”

The Methodist Articles of Religion keep two: “There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord.” Methodists still confirm, marry and ordain, but they treat these as rites of the church rather than sacraments Christ commanded.

Baptism is a bridge between them. A Methodist who becomes a Catholic is not baptized again: canon law says those baptized in another Christian community “must not be baptized conditionally” unless there is a serious reason to doubt that the baptism was valid.

Catholics believe that at the consecration “there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood,” a change the Church calls transubstantiation. Christ is present “truly, really, and substantially,” body, blood, soul and divinity.

The Methodist Articles reject that explanation. “Transubstantiation, or the change of the substance of bread and wine in the Supper of our Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ,” they say, and the body of Christ “is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner.” The same article calls the bread “a partaking of the body of Christ,” close to Paul’s own question: “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). The UMC says it plainly: “Christ is really present here, and Christ’s presence really changes us.”

Two practical differences follow. Many Methodist churches use grape juice. Their predecessor churches, the UMC explains, were deeply involved in the temperance movement, and a Methodist, Thomas Welch, invented grape juice so Methodists would not need wine. And United Methodists invite everyone to the table: “Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin, and seek to be at peace with one another.”

Not as a rule, and here the division between them is plainest. The Catholic bishops of the United States say that members of churches not in full communion with the Catholic Church “are ordinarily not admitted to Holy Communion.” Canon law allows an exception in danger of death, or when the diocesan bishop or bishops’ conference judges that some other grave necessity requires it. Even then the person must be unable to reach a minister of their own church, must ask on their own, and must “manifest Catholic faith in respect to these sacraments.”

The rule runs the other way as well. Canon law directs Catholics to receive the sacraments from Catholic ministers, and in real necessity only from ministers of churches “in whose Churches these sacraments are valid.” The Second Vatican Council said of the Protestant churches, which it calls ecclesial communities, that “we believe they have not retained the proper reality of the eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Orders.” In the same breath it said that when they celebrate the Lord’s Supper, “they profess that it signifies life in communion with Christ and look forward to His coming in glory.”

So a Catholic visiting a Methodist church will be welcomed to the table by the Methodists, and the Catholic Church will ask that Catholic not to receive there.

Here the two churches have moved closer. The Methodist Articles say “that we are justified by faith, only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.” The Catechism teaches that “Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.”

In 1999 the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, which says together: “By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God.” On July 23, 2006, in Seoul, the World Methodist Council associated itself with the declaration, saying that the shared understanding of justification “corresponds to Methodist doctrine.” It holds that the differences that remain “are no longer the occasion for doctrinal condemnations.” On the heart of the matter, how God accepts a sinner, they can now speak together.

Holiness is a place where they meet. Methodists hope for Christian perfection, which Wesley described as a heart “habitually filled with the love of God and neighbor.” The official Catholic–Methodist dialogue named as their first common ground “the central place held in both traditions by the ideal of personal sanctification, growth in holiness through daily life in Christ.”

Catholics honor Mary with a devotion the Catechism calls “intrinsic to Christian worship,” and they take her own words in the Magnificat to heart: “For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). The Church teaches that Mary was “preserved immune from all stain of original sin” from her conception and that at the end of her life she “was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory.” This devotion, the Catechism adds, “differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word.” Catholics ask the saints to pray for them, believing that those in heaven “do not cease to intercede with the Father for us.”

The Methodist Articles reject that practice in blunt Reformation terms, listing purgatory, the worship of images and relics, “and also invocation of saints” as teaching “grounded upon no warrant of Scripture.” Methodists do honor the saints and speak of “the whole communion of saints, visible and invisible,” but they pray to God alone. Wesley himself affirmed Mary’s lifelong virginity. In the same Letter to a Roman Catholic he wrote that Christ was “born of the blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as before she brought him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin.”

The Articles of Religion that Wesley abridged for the American Methodists say less. They teach that the Son “took man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin,” and the UMC’s Confession of Faith says that he was “born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Methodists honor Mary as the virgin mother of Jesus, but they hold no doctrine about her beyond that and do not pray to her. Whether she remained a virgin after his birth, the Articles do not say; on that point Wesley spoke for himself.

On purgatory, the Catechism teaches that those who die “in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified” are sure of heaven but “undergo purification” first. Methodists believe in heaven and hell and reject purgatory.

The Catholic Church teaches: “Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination.” Priests of the Latin Church are normally celibate, while the Eastern Catholic Churches ordain married men as priests and deacons.

Methodist clergy may marry; the Articles say ministers may “marry at their own discretion.” Women have had full clergy rights since a vote of The Methodist Church’s General Conference on May 4, 1956, and the GMC also ordains “qualified men and women.” The two Methodist bodies part on sexuality. In 2024 the UMC dropped its ban on gay clergy and recognized marriage between “two adult persons of consenting age,” while the GMC keeps marriage “between one man and one woman,” as does the Catholic Church.

Yes. A Catholic–Methodist marriage “cannot be celebrated without the express permission of the competent authority,” meaning the local bishop. The Catholic partner promises to do everything possible so that the children “are baptized and brought up in the Catholic Church.” The wedding normally takes place before a Catholic priest or deacon and two witnesses. For grave reasons the bishop can dispense from that form and allow another public ceremony, such as a Methodist service.

The Methodist Articles still carry the polemics of the Reformation. The Church of England adopted its Articles in 1563, and Wesley abridged them for the American Methodists, whose 1784 Christmas Conference received his list. He kept the article calling purgatory and the invocation of saints “the Romish doctrine,” and both the UMC and GMC still print it. Yet the UMC’s Book of Resolutions also carries a “Resolution of Intent: With a View to Unity,” which speaks of “our heartiest offer of goodwill and Christian community to all our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters.” Wesley would have known both voices: the hard article he kept, and the love he asked for.

At Pope Paul VI’s invitation, a joint Catholic–Methodist commission was set up in 1967; it has published 11 reports, most recently God in Christ Reconciling in 2022. The Catholic Communion guidelines pray that the divisions between Christians will “finally disappear,” in keeping with Jesus’ prayer for his followers: “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you” (John 17:21).

• Protestant vs Catholic: how their beliefs and worship differ
• Methodist vs Baptist
• Anglican vs Methodist beliefs
• Catholics, Methodists and Baptists compared
• Calvinism vs Arminianism
• What Do Catholics Believe? God, the Mass, the Pope and Mary

More from this seriesDenominations ComparedSee all 117 articles