cahtolic or roman catholic?

Question

Is there a difference? and if so what is it?

Answer 1

There are 21 Rites in the Catholic Church. The Roman (aka Latin) Rite is the largest most influential. Most Catholics in the Western World hail from the Roman Rite, which is why the terms 'Catholic' and 'Roman Catholic' are often used interchangeably.

Answer 2

A Roman Catholic is in Communion with the Pope and the entire magisterium while a Catholic is not but usually in today's world most people interchange the words so if someone says they are Catholic they mean Roman Catholic and in most Churches in the United States even when it says Catholic on the outside it is meant as Roman Catholic.e are some who call themselves Catholic and go by the word catholic being the universal faith meaning but, if they do not hold to the primacy of the seat of Peter then they are not universal

Answer 3

In most contexts, there isn't a difference. While "Roman Catholic" is a more specific term, in common speech people will generally assume that group is who you're referring to when you simply say "Catholic", so you'll have to specify if you mean Byzantine Catholic, Greek Catholic, etc. As for religious differences, there aren't any significant ones. It's mostly cultural differences, so, for example, a Roman Catholic could go to a Greek Catholic church and, while some customs may differ, there would not be huge religious conflicts.

Answer 4

Roman Catholics are just one of many rites. In the west when someone says "I'm Catholic" they are most likely Roman Catholics. There is a sort of ignorance to the Eastern Rites of the Church (Byzantine, Ukrainian, etc). All of these rites are in communion with Rome and share the same beliefs, but are sort of 'adapted' to fit the culture of the area (traditional culture, not the present culture).

Like the celibacy rule is only for Roman Catholics, I believe. Some eastern rites allow their priests to get married.

I personally think its absolutely beautiful how there can be 'twists' of the Church, yet they believe the same things and have nearly the same practices. It shows how universal the Catholic Church can be in my opinion.

Answer 5

Simple, Catholic means Universal - the original world-wide church of Jesus and the Apostles.

Roman Catholic is, as the name suggests, the church adopted by Constantine as the official State religion of the Roman world and is the church that brought in all kinds of Pagan ideas and practices to make it agreeable to all the peoples of the vast Empire of Rome.

Answer 6

Roman is just one of many rites within the Catholic Church. See the link for more information.

Answer 7

Catholic means universal. So when you say Roman Catholic there is an idea that the mother church is in Rome, however this is not Biblical, seeing that the Church started in Jerusalem, and this is the home of the Original Church...God didn't tell us to move it's location, so how dare we do it...

Answer 8

There is a small difference; most catholics are roman catholics, but there are also chaldeans and eastern orthodox catholics. The difference is small; basically they don't follow the pope and their churches are far more ornate. Other than that it's pretty much the same.

Answer 9

Usually, "Catholic" and "Roman Catholic" are interchangeable.

"Catholic" comes from the Greek "katholikos," which means "universal. The prefix "Roman" just signifies that the Church is based in Rome.

Answer 10

There isn't really a difference... sometimes Roman Catholic refers to Catholics of the Latin rite... as opposed to the other Eastern rites.