Christianity & Catholic?

Question

Is the catholic religion part of christianity or is it two total different religions? Is catholic a denomination of christianity or something? I mean, they both believe in Jesus Christ, right?

Please clarify this..

ha! one says christianity is the largest religion another says catholic is..
so which is it?

ANOTHER QUESTION:
If Catholic is a denomination of Christianity why are they called "Catholics"? Why not "Christians".

Answer 1

Catholicism is original Christianity. The Catholic Church is not a denomination, it is THE one and only church that Jesus established on earth.

Denominations are all the churches that split away from the Catholic Church. Even though they believe in Jesus Christ, they have their own form of Christianity which differs from that of the earliest Christians.

edit: The thumbs down doesn't change history. Don't like it? Sorry!

God bless.

Answer 2

The proper term is Catholic Christian.

Most non-Catholic Christian denominations accept Catholics as Christians. A very few do not.

The World Council of Churches which brings together more than 340 churches, denominations and church fellowships in over 100 countries and territories throughout the world, representing some 550 million Christians accepts the 1.1 billion Catholics as Christians. http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/who/faq-e.html#07

A dictionary would say that a Christian is someone professing belief in Jesus as Christ or following the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.

Catholics would fit this definition.

In the Nicene creed, from 325 C.E., Catholics profess:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father.

Through Him all things were made.

For us and our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried.

On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are baptized as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

We truly are spiritually "born again," we just don't usually use those words.

For a complete description of what Catholics believe, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/index.htm

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

Catholicism is the true form of Christianity. It is the Church that Christ himself in-trusted to his Apostles with Peter being the head. The other Christian denominations are just off shoots from the Catholic Church. They share some of the same beliefs of the true Catholic Church but they lack the full understanding of the Gospel. There is One, Holy , Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Holy Roman Catholic Church. The Real thing

Answer 4

Yes, Catholics believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God and the he was crucified for our sins and ascended to Heaven. Therefore, Catholics are Christians.

However, you will probably get about a zillion different answers from Christians here. Christians like to claim that all other denominations are not "REAL" Christians.

Answer 5

The traditional Roman Catholic teaching is that theirs is the church which Jesus entrusted to Peter, and all the other denominations are more or less erring or have strayed away from the "mother" church, which is how they see themselves. The King of England took the Anglicans out of Rome's rule, and the Lutherans began as a reforming movement within the Catholic faith. The Orthodox Churches are the result of a split in the year 1054 when most of eastern Europe and the Middle East ceased to recognize the "primacy" of the Pope, also called the Bishop of Rome.

Answer 6

Christianity is the largest religion and Catholic is one of its denomination. Of course, christians or catholics in particular are believer of Jesus Christ.

Answer 7

Among the Christian churches, only 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.) Only the Catholic Church existed in the tenth century, in the fifth century, and in the first century, faithfully teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the apostles, omitting nothing.

Jesus’ Church is called catholic ("universal" in Greek) because it is his gift to all people. He told his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of "all nations" (Matt. 28:19–20). For 2,000 years the Catholic Church has carried out this mission, preaching the good news that Christ died for all men and that he wants all of us to be members of his universal family (Gal. 3:28). Nowadays the Catholic Church is found in every country of the world and is still sending out missionaries to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19). The Church Jesus established was known by its most common title, "the Catholic Church," at least as early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that title to describe the one Church Jesus founded. The title apparently was old in Ignatius’s time, which means it went all the way back to the time of the apostles.

http://www.catholic.com/library/Pillar.asp

Answer 8

The words Catholic & Orthodox mean universal & standard.
They divided into 2 major groups at the first millenium.
They teach what has been believed from the beginning.
They are the original major group of Christian Churches.
Each of them trace their origins back to the Apostles.
Christian denominations are a much later development.
They began after the Protestant Reformation in 16th century.

Answer 9

The Roman Apostolic Cotholic Church (legal name) is part of the Christianity religion. The other is called the Byzantine Orthodox Church. When the Roman Empire broke apart in two, the western side got the Catholic and the eastern side got the other. The catholic side has other sects as well. The rebellious western christians formed other sects like lutherans, prysbeterians, etc

Answer 10

I'm a Christian who belongs to the Catholic church. Catholicism is a denomination, just like the Baptist or Methodist or Episcopalian churches are Christian denominations.

And anyone who says that Catholics aren't "real" Christians is either ignorant (in the sense of not knowing something) or else filled with unholy hatred towards their brothers and sisters in Christ. St. John says that such hatred is equivalent to the sin of murder:

1 John 3:14-15 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.