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Japanese Pentecostals and Catholics both confess Jesus as the risen Lord, but they part first over authority. Catholics receive Scripture and Tradition as the pope and bishops interpret them; Pentecostals take the Bible alone. From that come most of their other differences: the sacraments, Communion, Mary and the saints, and a baptism in the Spirit shown by speaking in tongues.
Both can point to the same chapter of Acts. On the day of Pentecost the disciples “were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4), and Pentecostals, who take their name from that day, expect the same gift now. By the end of the chapter the three thousand baptized that morning “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). The Catechism of the Catholic Church borrows those very words for a Church that keeps the faith handed down from the apostles.
| Topic | Catholic | Pentecostal (Assemblies of God) |
|---|---|---|
| Final authority | Scripture and Tradition, interpreted by the pope and bishops | The Bible alone |
| Who leads | The pope and the bishops, as successors of Peter and the apostles | Ministers called by God and ordained; no pope |
| Salvation | By grace, received in faith and baptism | By grace through faith, with repentance |
| Water baptism | Infants and adults; it gives new birth | Believers, by immersion, as a public testimony |
| Sacraments | Seven | Two ordinances: baptism and the Lord’s Supper |
| Communion | Christ’s body and blood truly present | A symbol and a memorial of his death |
| The Holy Spirit | Given in baptism, poured out in confirmation | A further Spirit baptism after conversion |
| Speaking in tongues | A gift some receive, tested by the Church | The first sign of Spirit baptism |
| Healing | The sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick | Provided for in the Atonement |
| Mary and the saints | Honoured, and asked to pray for us | Mary honoured; no saint is invoked |
| Ordination | Men only | Women and men, at every level |
Where Pentecostals and Catholics differ
Each answer is quoted from the church’s own documents or from one of our articles.
Authority
Pentecostal
We understand authority to mean that everything the Bible affirms and teaches is true. As God’s disclosed will and purpose, it is determinative for belief and behavior.
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.
Salvation
Pentecostal
Salvation is received through repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, being justified by grace through faith, man becomes an heir of God, according to the hope of eternal life.
From Assemblies of God Statement of Fundamental Truths, truth 5, The Salvation of Man (Wayback copy)
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.
Baptism
Pentecostal
All who repent and believe on Christ as Saviour and Lord are to be baptized. Thus they declare to the world that they have died with Christ and that they also have been raised with Him to walk in newness of life.
Catholic
Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament.
Receiving the Spirit
Pentecostal
At conversion, the Spirit baptizes into Christ/the body of Christ; in a subsequent and distinct experience, Christ will baptize in the Holy Spirit.
From Assemblies of God position paper, Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Wayback copy)
Catholic
Confirmation perfects Baptismal grace; it is the sacrament which gives the Holy Spirit in order to root us more deeply in the divine filiation, incorporate us more firmly into Christ, strengthen our bond with the Church, associate us more closely with her mission, and help us bear witness to the Christian faith in words accompanied by deeds.
Communion
Pentecostal
The Lord's Supper, consisting of the elements –bread and the fruit of the vine– is the symbol expressing our sharing the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ
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."
Leadership
Pentecostal
The General Council of the Assemblies of God is a cooperative fellowship based upon mutual agreements voluntarily entered into by its membership, and shall be known as a fellowship of churches and credentialed ministers.
From Assemblies of God Constitution and Bylaws (2023), Article II, Nature
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."
Women ministers
Pentecostal
The Assemblies of God recognizes the spiritual gifting of women in all aspects and levels of church ministry as revealed in the Scriptures.
From Assemblies of God position paper, Women in Ministerial Leadership (Wayback copy)
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.
Speaking in tongues
Pentecostal
The baptism of believers in the Holy Spirit is witnessed by the initial physical sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit of God gives them utterance.
Catholic
There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit." Whatever their character – sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues – charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church.
Pentecostal churches are many, and where they differ among themselves the Assemblies of God, organized in 1914, gives the Pentecostal answer here. For 2026 the Center for the Study of Global Christianity counts about 1.28 billion Catholics and about 676 million Pentecostals and charismatics, a figure that takes in charismatics in every church, Catholics included, so the two numbers overlap.
To see what Pentecostals teach beside what Catholics teach on 55 questions, open our free tool, Compare Christian Denominations.
Who has the last word: the Bible alone, or the Church as well?
This is the difference beneath all the others. The Assemblies of God opens its statement of faith with one sentence: “The Bible is our all-sufficient rule for faith and practice.” The Scriptures, it goes on, “are verbally inspired of God and are the revelation of God to man, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct.” No council and no bishop stands beside them.
The Catholic Church loves the same Scriptures and reads them with the Tradition the apostles handed on. The Catechism says the Church “does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honoured with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence” (paragraph 82). The task of interpreting both belongs “to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome” (85), and Catholics trace that office to Jesus’ words to Peter: “upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). The next paragraph adds that this teaching office “is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant” (86).
Catholics and Pentecostals have met in an official dialogue since 1972. In its round from 1977 to 1982 the Catholic members were appointed by the Vatican, while some Pentecostal members were appointed by their churches and others simply came as members in good standing, so the Pentecostal views in that report are those of the people who took part. They put their concern plainly: they could not see how the Catholic Church can teach as matters of faith “doctrines such as the assumption of Mary which go beyond the letter of Scripture, and which Pentecostals believe to be unacceptable tradition.” Most of the differences below grow from this root.
How is a person saved, and what does baptism do?
Both answer with grace. The Assemblies of God teaches that “Salvation is received through repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ,” and that a person is “justified by grace through faith.” Baptism follows faith: “All who repent and believe on Christ as Savior and Lord are to be baptized,” by immersion, and in it “they declare to the world that they have died with Christ and that they also have been raised with Him to walk in newness of life.” The inward evidence of salvation, the statement says, “is the direct witness of the Spirit.”
For Catholics, baptism does more than declare. “Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith,” the Catechism says (1992), and so the Church baptizes infants: it “would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth” (1250). It also holds that “God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments” (1257).
Both churches read Peter’s first sermon as their own. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). Pentecostals hear the call to repent and believe; Catholics hear a sacrament that forgives and gives the Spirit. How Pentecostals compare with another church that baptizes only believers is the subject of Pentecostal vs Baptist.
Seven sacraments or two ordinances?
The Catholic Church counts seven: “Baptism, Confirmation (or Chrismation), the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony” (1210). The Assemblies of God keeps two ordinances, baptism in water and Holy Communion, because Scripture commands them.
The deepest gap is at the Lord’s table. Both churches repeat Jesus’ words, “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24). For Catholics the bread and wine become Christ himself: “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” (1374). For the Assemblies of God the bread and the fruit of the vine are “the symbol expressing our sharing the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ,” “a memorial of His suffering and death,” and a prophecy of his return, kept by all believers “till He come!”
Healing shows the same pattern. James told the sick to call the elders, to be anointed with oil, and promised that “the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up” (James 5:15). Catholics keep that command in a sacrament, the Anointing of the Sick, by which “the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord” (1499). The Assemblies of God teaches that “Divine healing is an integral part of the gospel. Deliverance from sickness is provided for in the Atonement, and is the privilege of all believers.”
What do Pentecostals mean by baptism in the Holy Spirit?
They mean a gift that comes after a person is saved. The Assemblies of God teaches that all believers “should ardently expect and earnestly seek the promise of the Father, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire,” that it brings “the enduement of power for life and service,” and that it “is distinct from and subsequent to the experience of the new birth.” Its sign is the one heard at Pentecost: “The baptism of believers in the Holy Spirit is witnessed by the initial physical sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit of God gives them utterance.”
Catholics place the outpouring of Pentecost in a sacrament. “The effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost,” the Catechism says (1302). Tongues, prophecy and healing are charisms, which “are to be accepted with gratitude” (800), and they are tested: “No charism is exempt from being referred and submitted to the Church’s shepherds” (801).
Paul’s question to the Corinthians sits between the two: “do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” (1 Corinthians 12:30). For Catholics, tongues belong among the charisms, “special graces” which, whatever their character, “are intended for the common good of the Church” (2003). The Assemblies of God answers that the tongues which mark Spirit baptism are “the same in essence as the gift of tongues” Paul describes, “but different in purpose and use.” So in the Catholic Church a believer may speak in tongues; in a Pentecostal church a believer is taught to expect to.
Why do Catholics ask Mary and the saints to pray, and Pentecostals not?
Every Christian can say with Mary, “from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:48), and the dialogue found that “Roman Catholics and classical Pentecostals concur in the special respect due to Mary as the mother of Jesus.” Both see her as “the outstanding example or model of faith, humility and virtue.”
Catholics go further. They ask Mary and the saints to pray for them, as we ask a friend to pray for us. The saints in heaven, the Catechism says, “do not cease to intercede with the Father for us” (956), and Mary “by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation” (969). It adds that her role “in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ” (970), the one Paul names: “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).
Pentecostals hold to that verse and stop there. In the dialogue’s words, “Pentecostals would not invoke the intercession of Mary or other saints in heaven because they do not consider it a valid biblical practice.” They also reject the Catholic teaching that Mary remained a virgin, was conceived without sin and was taken body and soul into heaven. Yet the report records something both sides affirmed: “Both pray to God the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.”
Who leads the church, and can women be ordained?
For Catholics, the pope “is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful” (882), and “Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination” (1577). Priests, bishops and the pope are men.
The Assemblies of God has no pope. It teaches that “A divinely called and scripturally ordained ministry has been provided by our Lord,” and it ordains women as well as men. Its 2025 position paper says that “since the birth of the Assemblies of God, women gifted by the Holy Spirit have served as pastors, missionaries, teachers, and evangelists,” and that the fellowship “recognizes the spiritual gifting of women in all aspects and levels of church ministry.” It grounds this in the prophecy of Joel that Peter quoted at Pentecost: “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17).
What is the Catholic Charismatic Renewal?
It is the Pentecostal experience lived inside the Catholic Church, and it is where the two traditions meet most closely. In 2017 Pope Francis gathered its members in Rome to mark fifty years since it began. He asked them “To share baptism in the Holy Spirit with everyone in the Church.” In 2018 the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life set up CHARIS, a single international service for the renewal, whose statutes name three tasks: “the spread of Baptism in the Holy Spirit, the unity of Christians and service to the poor.”
Catholic charismatics use the Pentecostal phrase and give it a Catholic meaning. For them baptism in the Spirit is a grace of the risen Lord, never a new sacrament. The renewal’s doctrinal commission calls it “an act of the risen Lord that cannot be planned, organized or predicted,” and warns that to say everyone prayed over has received it “would be like turning the praying over into a sacrament.” Those who pray with others for it are asked to explain “its relationship to sacramental baptism.” How charismatics differ from Pentecostals is told in Pentecostal vs Charismatic vs Evangelical.
Are Pentecostals Catholic?
No. Pentecostal churches are separate from the Catholic Church and have no bond with the pope; whether they count as Protestant is answered in Protestant vs Pentecostal. The movement grew from revivals at a Bible school in Topeka, Kansas, on January 1, 1901, and at a mission on Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906, and the Assemblies of God was organized in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in April 1914.
What do Oneness Pentecostals believe?
Not every Pentecostal church holds the Trinity. The Assemblies of God affirmed it in 1916, while the United Pentecostal Church International, which describes itself as “a Oneness Pentecostal organization,” confesses one God who “has revealed Himself as Father; through His Son, in redemption; and as the Holy Spirit, by emanation.” It also counts Spirit baptism, with tongues, as part of salvation itself: we obey the gospel, the UPCI teaches, “by repentance (death to sin), water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ (burial), and the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the initial sign of speaking in tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance (resurrection).”
Can a Catholic go to a Pentecostal church?
A Catholic may pray with Pentecostal friends, and the Catechism counts “prayer in common” among the things Christians need on the way to unity (821). But a visit does not take the place of Sunday Mass. The Catechism says: “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass,” and that this “is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite” (2180). A Pentecostal service, however warm, is not a Mass. Communion is the harder question. Church law says Catholics receive the sacraments “from Catholic ministers alone,” apart from narrow exceptions (canon 844), so a Catholic does not take the Lord’s Supper at a Pentecostal church, and a Pentecostal at Mass is asked not to receive. The Catechism still calls every baptized believer a brother or sister, saying that all “justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians” (818).
Do Catholics and Pentecostals talk to each other?
Yes. The International Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue, sponsored by the Vatican and, since 2022, by the Pentecostal World Fellowship, has published six reports and met in Rome in June 2026 to finish its seventh, on prayer and belief. Greeting its members at the Angelus on June 21, 2026, Pope Leo XIV said that “reflecting together on the principle lex orandi, lex credendi is particularly relevant nowadays.” The Latin phrase means that the way we pray shows what we believe.
The Catholic at the altar rail and the Pentecostal with hands raised are both asking the same Lord for the same Spirit. On the night before he died, Jesus asked it for all of us: “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21).
Related reading
- Pentecostal vs Charismatic vs Evangelical: How They Differ
- Pentecostal vs Baptist: How They Differ on the Holy Spirit and Tongues
- Protestant vs Pentecostal: Pentecostals Are Protestants Who Expect the Spirit’s Gifts Today
- Assemblies of God vs Pentecostal: The Assemblies of God Is a Pentecostal Church
- Evangelical vs Catholic: Born Again, Baptism and the Bible Compared
- Pentecostals and the Trinity: What Do They Believe?
- What Do Catholics Believe? God, the Mass, the Pope and Mary
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