Why does the Roman church insist that they only are Catholics?

Question

Catholic means universial. The unversial church (or catholic) is comprised of all those who worship Christ as their Savior. Those who follow one bishop who claims primacy are no more 'catholic' than the rest of Christains (and I dare say a lot LESS 'catholic').

Answer 1

They are following the hallowed religious ritual of denouncing and ridiculing all other faith systems. Find me a church that doesn't.

Answer 2

You confuse Catholic and catholic, which are two separate words.

Too, you forget that protestantism separated itself from the Church of Rome, and thereby separated themselves from Catholicism. A State could not separated itself from the United States and still claim to be United with the other states, could it?

Try as you like, Protestantism is not Catholic. Once Luther separated himself, the Protestant church was separate from the Roman Church. Too, the Cathlic church recognizes the true church universal as being that church which retains apostolic succession, It is not simply a matter of following Christ which maintains the church, but the authority that was given to the apostles, and passed down through the ages by the valid succession of that authority, to which most other churches cannot make claim. If Christ actually conferred any authority, and if the apostles continued that, then the only authority to continue that practice would come from those who have been duly given that authority in the first place; those who can show succession.

Answer 3

In the earliest writings of Christianity there was only one christian church. And it was called Catholic. It was universal because it was the only church started by Christ. The first split came around 1010 A.D. and the new church was called orthodox and of course later in the 1500's the Protestant Reformation occurred and some split from the original christian church. That is why the Roman Catholic Church considers itself to be the only true Catholic Church. It is the first, the original, the one started by Jesus through Peter (the rock on which Christ church was built. That is not to say that other Christians are any less "Christian" because they are not Catholic.

Answer 4

Jesus Christ founded one Church for all mankind, and commanded that it make disciples of ALL peoples. That is why the Church He personally founded was calling itself the Catholic Church by the end of the First Century. Those who rebelled against Christ's Church many centuries later, and set up unauthorized manmade churches of their own may still sincerely try to follow Christ in some watered-down manner, but they have rejected such large and essential portions of what Christ gave His own Church thay they are no longer part of the original Christian Church which alone is the universal Church. On the contrary, their very existence is a direct violation of the stated will of God, "that they all may be ONE". Universality first requires unity. You cannot have a universal Church with thousands of conflicting, contradicting beliefs. The fullness of truth resides exactly where Christ placed it - in the one united Church He founded, the Holy Catholic Church. The will of God will not be restored until those who have violated His will repent and come home to the universal Church He founded for them.

Answer 5

Many Protestants in the early days of their organizations rejected the use of the word Catholic because even they associated the word with the One Universal Papal Communion. Luther changed "Catholic" in the creed to"Christian".

Protestant and Orthodox Churches tend to be national entities-if even that large in jurisdiction since many go no higher in accountability than the local congregation. The canonical Orthodox have been unable ,it seems, even to get together in a great Pan Orthodox Synod- and that is those that are supposed to be in full communion with each other.

The Anglicans and Lutherans and most other larger Protestant groups have problems getting any authorative international gathering-just look at Lambeth and the reactions to it.

Catholic ,from Greek Kata ton Holon,"according to the whole", means not only geographically universal,which Roman Catholicism seems to be the only world-wide Christian organization that actually is,but doctrinally integral and doctrinally universal in its authority.

All the doctrines are connected.
One can't be Catholic and "smorgasbord" or pick and choose'(where the word heresy comes from in Greek) in matters of faith-doctrine or moral-doctrine.

See the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 830-856

Answer 6

It means that it is the universal church for all men. All mankind is challenged to follow . Not all do. Some are too proud, some believe they know better, some do not know better. The church's view is that all mankind is Catholic. The problem rises when some of the faithful refuse to acknowledge that fact.

Answer 7

The Roman Catholic church is trying to preserve their religion as it always should be, but people change and when traditions don't, there are bound to be clashes in ideology.

Answer 8

They are as bad as any religion ... slicing up the population into parts and then attempting to gather in more than their share of sheep.

Avoid religions, folks... they're in the business of selling guilt and fear.

[][][] r u randy? [][][]
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Answer 9

Semantics, pal, that's all it is.