why is the church called catholic?

Answer 1

We don't really know why they chose this adjective which means universal but it fits.

The Church has referred to itself as the “Catholic Church” at least since 107 AD, when the term appears in the Letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans:

"Wherever the bishop appear, there let the multitude be; even as wherever Christ Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church."

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-smyrnaeans-hoole.html

All of this was long before the Council of Nicea and the Nicene Creed from 325 A.D. which states, "We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

By "the church", I assume you mean the Catholic Church and in that context it means the universal church based on the teachings of Christ. In the beginning that was true. If you were a Christian, you were a Catholic. However, that all changed when it became such a man made religion, not particularly following the teachings of Christ as it remains today. I'm not sure of your age or educational level but I'm sure you have heard of a priest of that denomination who became disinchanted with the way the church had become so money driven with so much error in their doctrine. His name is Martin Luther, a German and he lived in the late 1400's. He posted a theses or letter on the church door outlining 95 points of error in the Catholic churches teaching and left the church. He soon married and that had been outlawed by the catholic churc for a couple of hundred years and that is why Protestant churches allow their priests or minister to marry. He believed that was allowable because even Jesus was married although the catholic church tries to cover that up even today. In the new church, you could no longer buy your way into heaven or the way of a relative as was the custom of the old church. Luther was the person to protest the old church rules and so all churches that followed are called protestant churches and the catholic church was no longer the universal church although they would like to think that they are. I was raised in that religion and was taught that only catholics can go to heaven but of course that is silly. Any religion that follows the teachings of Christ can lead members to heaven or you can do that w/o a church at all. Many members of the catholic church will go to heaven but just by being a member of that denomination does not give you a free ticket. so of course, many catholics will not necessarily get there. I hope this long answer has been of some help to you.

Answer 3

The word is a contraction of two words and it has two meanings. The first is all embracing, which is often unfortunately translated as universal. This is unfortunate because it loses much of the richness of the word. The Catholic Church is more internally diverse than Protestantism is diverse across the denominations, it is very difficult to be that diverse and remain whole.

The second meaning is "according to the whole," and it is this meaning that holds it together. DIversity is fine, as long as parts do not step across any lines of truth held by the whole across all time and place from the apostles onward. I cannot imagine an illiterate Catholic from the Sudan and a New York neurosurgeon who is Catholic could possibly share any aspect of a world view, but they can both be Catholics and break bread together. This is the sheer power of the Catholic Church not the incidental temporal power related to being the second largest group of people in the world (the largest being the Peoples Republic of China.) Protestants have at times tried to find ways around the issue of "catholic," and its meaning, such as professing a wholeness of the "invisible" church that is unknown to anyone but God, but that is an intellectual game and not a valid point.

Answer 4

Catholic means "worldwide", "universal", "all-embracing", though it seems only to be used in connection with the church these days.

Answer 5

as far as I know, there's christian church and catholic church. In europe there's even greek church, roman church, church of England......it's really complicated.

Answer 6

Catholic means all embracing. Somehow that concept has fallen by the wayside over the centuries.