Why do Catholics identify with being Catholic before being Christian?

Question

I would love to hear from a catholic on this. I grew up very catholic (I am now a born again Christian) but all growing up, I always heard "oh that jim smith, hes a good catholic." or "you need to go to ccd to be a good catholic" etc. Why do they identify more with the title of catholic than Christian. Thanks in advance for your answers.

Decepticon: you never fail to be an **hole yourself ;)

Religious affiliation aside, I stand by my post

Answer 1

Christ said you must be born again to be saved. However, I do not think that precludes people who identify with catholicism. I believe Catholics identifying with their religion versus their relationship with Christ might have something to do with their view of needing a priest as a mediator. However, I'm not catholic myself and I've never been able to figure the logic behind a lot of their beliefs (such as catholics alone will go to heaven). Afterall Jesus wasn't catholic, he was Jewish and he said "I am the way, the truth, and the light- no man cometh to the Father but by me". I'd like to see how Catholics answer this question myself.

Answer 2

Catholic = Christian. It's implicit in the name. I have also heard folks say "I'm a Baptist" (for example), rather than saying "I'm a born-again Christian who goes to a Baptist church". Same thing, really. Sometimes the specific distinctions are necessary for clarity, sometimes not.

Most of the time, I identify myself as simply Catholic. Few people have difficulty understanding that I am Christian, as well. For those who do, or when I wish to make it crystal-clear, I tell them that I am a born-again, Bible-believing Christian, a Catholic.

Answer 3

I was a born again Christian, now I am a Catholic!

I wonder if we met in crossing paths!

I think that some make to big of a deal about this. Catholic is Christian when people ask my Baptist friends what faith they are they answer "Baptist" I answer Catholic, or Catholic Christian.

We are not at odds with each other, or at least we should not be.

Peace and God Bless You!

Answer 4

Well, considering that the Catholic Church is the original Christian Church, established by Christ himself, I use the terms Catholic and Christian interchangeably.

When I call myself a Catholic, it expresses that I am a Christian, yet not affiliated with any of the man-made protestant denominations.

God bless.

Answer 5

Maybe they are trying to answer the question as fully as possible.

If someone asked me what I believed about God I could truthfully say that I was:
+ A Theist
+ A Monotheist
+ A worshiper of the God of Abraham
+ A worshiper of the God of Moses
+ A worshiper of the God of Israel
+ A Christian
+ A Trinitarian

But telling someone that I am a Catholic says all of the above and more.

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

I can't speak for the rest of my fellow Catholics, but in my case, it's because I'm very happy to belong to this faith. I'm a Catholic convert who loves her Church, the beauty of the Mass, and the nearness of Christ in the Eucharist.

I've been attacked for my beliefs by those who claim to be Christians but who show very little of His love and compassion to those that they don't agree with. All that's accomplished is to make me love the Catholic faith even more than I did before.

So if I identify myself as Catholic, it's not because I don't consider myself to be a Christian -- far from it. It's because this is one Catholic Christian who is proud to be a member of Christ's Church on earth.

Answer 7

All Catholics are Christian, but not all Christians are Catholics. There's a big difference between denominations.

Answer 8

Good plan: Oppose Catholics for his or her specific ideals and practices, however now not for comedian booklet caricatures of Catholicism. Case in factor: The Conversion Center of Havertown, Pennsylvania, issued "10 Reasons Why I Am Not a Roman Catholic." These incorporated: "one million. The papacy is a hoax. Peter not ever claimed to be pope. He was once not ever in Rome." It is right that Peter would now not have used the time period "pope" to explain himself, in view that the name was once now not conferred at the bishops of Rome throughout the earliest years of the Church. (Neither does the Bible declare to be "the Bible.") one million Peter five:thirteen means that Peter went to Rome. Early Christian writers comparable to Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Lactantius all say Peter went to Rome, presided over the Church there, and was once martyred throughout the Emperor Nero’s persecution. Archaeological excavations carried out from 1939 to 1968 have found that Peter's bones lay underneath the top altar of St. Peter’s Basilica. "two. Maryolatry is a hoax." Ironically, that is actual. " Maryolatry" method the worship of Mary. The Catholic Church forbids Mariolatry due to the fact it forbids us to worship someone rather than God himself: "Idolatry is composed in divinizing what isn't God. Man commits idolatry every time he honors and reveres a creature in location of God." (CCC 2113, cf. 2110–2112, 2114). There is an international of change among honor and adoration. "three. Purgatory is a hoax. It is a cash-making scheme." If so, it can be the least effective scheme ever devised. It is certainly long-established to provide a clergyman a small stipend for celebrating a memorial Mass. This is a biblical train, in view that Paul writes in I Tim five:17-18: The elders who direct the affairs of the church good are helpful of double honor, particularly the ones whose paintings is preaching and educating. For the Scripture says, "Do now not muzzle the ox even as it's treading out the grain," and "The employee merits his wages." "nine. I am an American citizen and refuse to be the area of a deluded Italian prince." Since the final 2 popes had been Polish and German, the pamphlet would possibly want an replace. Since the Pope is an respectable of a kingdom now not of this international, Catholics aren't his "topics" in political concerns. In truth, we're all topics of a Jewish chippie from old Palestine. Cheers, Bruce

Answer 9

Because Catholic means Universal .... which means Universal Christian?

Answer 10

I'm Catholic and I never see it as picking one title over the other. I have a friend who's baptist and the first thing she says when asked about her religion she says, "I'm baptist." Not Christian.

Oh and to give Zwench some insite cause she seems to be confused...Catholics don't believe they are the only ones who go to heaven. We have no say on who goes and who doesn't.

Answer 11

I'm Catholic.

I converted to Catholicism 16 years ago. Being raised Protestant, I knew I was Christian. Converting to Catholicism. I KNOW I am Christian.

Thus, all who are true Christians are in fact born again, whether they describe themselves as such or not.

The Roman Catholic Church associates "being born again" with baptism. It holds that "Baptism is ... the sacrament by which we are born again of water and the Holy Ghost." This is also a belief held by Eastern Christianity, Anglicanism, and Lutheranism, among other Christian traditions.





Christ “established here on earth” only one Church and instituted it as a “visible and spiritual community”, that from its beginning and throughout the centuries has always existed and will always exist, and in which alone are found all the elements that Christ himself instituted.
“This one Church of Christ, which we confess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic .
This Church, constituted and organised in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him”.