The Catholic Church: Do you know what Catholic means?

Question

I read a lot of questions about the Catholic Church. Here’s a little information: The word “Catholic” is not a name or a denomination, although in modern society it usually refers to us “Catholics”, or “Roman Catholics” if you like. It comes from the Greek word katolikos, a combination of kato & holos, meaning “pertaining to” “the whole”. The Bible speaks of individual churches in Corinth or Rome, but also speaks of THE Church – the Body of Christ. It is in this sense that the Church is Catholic - "Whole". The Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were established during the Reformation, which began in 1517. (Most of today’s Protestant churches are actually offshoots of the original Protestant offshoots.) That’s the short of it all. Comments anyone?

I suggest you read this booklet: http://www.catholic.com/library/Pillar.asp

Yes, Catholic is generally defined as "Universal", but that is not very accurate. The definition I gave above goes to the greek word itslf, and is a bit more accurate.

Answer 1

Mim, I'm not aware of the pope ever saying that God only loves certain people. Please provide your documented source so that I can read it for myself. Otherwise, stick to topics on which you have some knowledge.

Answer 2

Close,but not quite. The exception is the Eastern Orthodox Church,which is the Pauline church,founded by the disciple Paul. We have no reason to believe it was founded earlier or later than the Petrian church,or the Church of Peter,now known as the Roman Catholic Church. They both originate directly with Christ's personal ministry. Nor is the Orthodox Church an "offshoot"; the original Universal Church was officially bipartite in structure,the Church of Rome being the Church of the West and the Church of Constantinople being the Church of the East. They were always administered separately and independently,if only for practical reasons. The Roman Church had from the beginning asserted primacy of the basis of scripture ("Upon this rock,Peter,I build my church"),but this interpretation - particularly as applied to administrative authority - was not universally accepted. The Roman Church did not force the issue until the 11th century,at which time the bipartite structure was formally dissolved and the dualistic Church became officially separated into two bodies,breaking Christianity in two. It is still a matter of debate whether the claim of primacy has the scriptural validity still assigned to it by the Roman church. At the very least,the Pauline Church remains intact,although the center of power has shifted from Constantinopal to the Russian Orthodox Church as the obvious de facto centerpiece. You cannot realistically justify the idea that the Eastern Church represents a breakaway faction when both were founded almost simultaneously and functioned as coequals for a thousand years. Personally, I think the Roman Church acted unwisely in forcing the issue,since the ensuing schism greatly weakened Christianity in the east,paving the way for Muslim aggression and expansion.
As to the Protestant sects,they are - with the exception of the Lutheran Church - dying branches,the majority being offshoots of the Church of England which In England has failed to sustain Christianity,while in the U.S. never-ending schismaticism has led to wholesale balkanization and the lamentable emergence of fundamentalism,the ultimate do-it-yourself-kit version of Christianity. It must also be said that although the Lutheran Chuch has remained sturdy and continues to thrive in the U.S.,it failed utterly to uphold Christianity in Scandinavia and the Low Countries.
Having said that,the fact remains that 75% of all Christians are Catholic; Christian unity is intrinsically desirable; adminstrative mergings are unlikely to the point of being inconceivable; and the conclusion to be reached therefore is that Christians must act as individuals to restore Christian unity, and this can be achieved by one means only: converting to Catholicism. It is that or remain an unwitting accomplice to the old adversarial principle of divide and conquer.

Answer 3

Universal or whole or pure Church. So, that could very much include all people from all Churches who are born of God.

Holy means Saint. So? All the Saints. The Saints in heaven & in earth.

The Church divisions is because of the false doctrines that sometimes sneaks in the Churches, or because someone left for false doctrines. The devil is responsible for the denominational division.

Last night, listening to Kim Clement; religious is evacuating & Jesus is invading. Also, a man was prophecied over who will invade & overtake the pediphile problem & that problem will evacuate. And there will be a cleansing revival in the Catholic Church. Jesus is doing a big work today.

There are Christians in all Churches founded on the Rock; Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.


You can get this prophecy at http://www.kimclement.com when he prophecied at the 'Secrets' thing last night.

Answer 4

I am a Lutheran (the first protestant religion founded in Germany by Martin Luther) and if you look in the Apostles Creed you will find the word catholic, with a lower case "c" it refers to the whole church body throughout the world. An upper case "C" refers to the Roman Catholic Church.

Answer 5

Catholic in pinpoint terms is Catholicism. Catholicism is the root religion of an image of a "Heavenly Father". Traces of it were first recognized during the Byzantine Empire according to History. The Catholic Bible refers it's roots as Word's that God speaks....in accordance to speaking to you.

Christianity in itself is a reformation of the Catholic church. The Catholic Church had existed before the time of Jesus Christ of Nazereth as well. Christianity is called Christian because because of Christ. When a label of Christianity was first understood all it was is a belief in a Holy Trinity of God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit/Ghost. Minding you that this is before the church had written the bible it is easy to understand that the catholic church were the creators of the bible in various forms. If they created the Holy Bible then therefore Christians must of adopted it? Personally I would disagree because if you look at it in this way Christian and Catholic for how they were truly meant to be are the same thing.

Catholic is now more labeled as it is because of the belief of praying to mother mary which most Christians do not believe in as well as other things such as confession to the priest.

You get my drift?

Answer 6

I was under the understanding that it meant "universal",
but what does the Scripture say? It states " anyone who
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God...." 1 John 5:1.
Most churches like RCC and Orthodox are liturgical services.
I believe we are to 2 Pt. 3:18, and that's why we have been
given Pastor-Teachers. Jesus Christ paid for all sin in John 19:30 as He cried out it is finished. We live under grace and
truth through Jesus Christ not under the law and the 10 commandments. RCC is always claiming to be the one true
church and the Bible dogmatically states call no man Father or Papa, which is Pope. It's anti-Biblical. I left that system of
man-made rules 25 years ago. Amen.

Answer 7

Catholic means universal.

When you say, "The Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church.", that includes the Roman Catholic Church being an off shoot from the original church founded by Jesus.

What existed since the time of Jesus is the universal church not the Roman Church.

The Roman Catholic Church became corrupt and a mixture of Christianity and Paganism. The Reformers have tried to get away from that Apostacy and the Paganism.

The Bible tells us that the Disciples were first called "Christians" in Antioch. So why do Roman Catholics of today not refer to themselves today as "Christians"?

The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from Rome in 1054 AD, so by then they had seen the corruption in Rome.

Of course they would say that in 1054 Rome broke away from them. They would say the Roman Catholic Church was therefore founded in the years 1054.

After all what does the word "Orthodox" mean?

Its means "Original".

Pastor Art

Answer 8

Yes, "Catholic" means "universal". It refers to the fact, stated by Himself, that Jesus Christ intended ONE Church throughout the world and throughout time, teaching ONE set of doctrinal truths, without denominational conflict and contradiction.

Answer 9

Here's my comments:

"His Church also teaches just one set of doctrines, which must be the same as those taught by the apostles (Jude 3). This is the unity of belief to which Scripture calls us (Phil. 1:27, 2:2).

Although some Catholics dissent from officially-taught doctrines, the Church’s official teachers—the pope and the bishops united with him—have never changed any doctrine. Over the centuries, as doctrines are examined more fully, the Church comes to understand them more deeply (John 16:12–13), but it never understands them to mean the opposite of what they once meant. "

Shall we go through all the practices of Catholicism that were not taught by the apostles? The Catholic church's own words condemn itself here.

Never changed any doctrine. Wow, that's funny. Let's take just one here:

1Ti 3:1 This [is] a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

How many bishops in the Catholic church are married? How many bishops actually teach?

"The Church Jesus founded is apostolic because he appointed the apostles to be the first leaders of the Church, and their successors were to be its future leaders. The apostles were the first bishops, and, since the first century, there has been an unbroken line of Catholic bishops faithfully handing on what the apostles taught the first Christians in Scripture and oral Tradition (2 Tim. 2:2).

These beliefs include the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the forgiveness of sins through a priest, baptismal regeneration, the existence of purgatory, Mary’s special role, and much more —even the doctrine of apostolic succession itself."

Where in scripture does it talk about successors of the apostles? Where does it say they were bishops? The only two bishops mentioned in scripture are Timothy and Titus, not the apostles.

One of the requirements for the selection of apostles in scripture was that he was a witness of the resurrection of Christ:

Act 1:21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,

Act 1:22 Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.

How could anyone be a successor of the apostles without fulfilling this crucial requirement?

The "church" in scripture is not an organization, it's a collection of people.

God never appointed a pope to sit between the church and himself. The only person mentioned in scripture who has that role is Christ:

1Ti 2:5 For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

If you want people to believe that Catholicism is the church mentioned in scripture you'll need to do better.

Answer 10

If you were to read the writings of Paul, you would discover that there was a church that was taken over by an apostate who in turn took over that congregation in that area.

In the beginning, there were churches all over the known world (centered on the Mediterranean) and each was autonomous. As time went on, the church at Rome began consolidating power and control over the other areas as best they could, claiming this "supremacy"; that all were answerable to the bishop of Rome.

This went over like the proverbial lead balloon.

What you describe is typical cult mentality theology.

The servant of Candace who returned to Ethiopia after being baptized by Philip -- he went where there was no "church." He WAS the church in Ethiopia until such time there were other members much later. And he died LONG before there was the establishment of any centrality controlled by the bishop of Rome.

According to what the Catholic church teaches now, the Ethiopian could not be saved, seeing he was not under the Roman envelope of Catholicism. Neither could anyone else who was "Christian" prior to the establishment of a church at Rome-- it being established rather late in the program.

So get a grip. There were Christians before there was even a church at Rome, that later evolved into what we now know as the Catholic church.

.

Answer 11

This comment thinly masked as a question is border line satanic. I love the Catholic church and was raised Catholic.
The universal church and Kingdom Of GOD is made up of those who follow Jesus through the Holy Spirit. My reference for this statement would be the Bible. The black and red print. Not between the lines. Before you condemn millions of Christ followers to damnation I would suggest you read the bible or at least Matthew. GOOD Lord this is scary.