Catholic and Roman Catholic?

Question

I am a Catholic, but I have been told because I am not Roman Catholic I am a Protestant or Anglican, I was baptised Catholic and the Pope is the leader

So please tell me what is the difference between Catholic and Roman Catholic?

How do I convince a person that I am just a Catholic not Roman Catholic?

orita2004, I am not a Protestant I am Catholic and the Pope is my leader you are the one that is wrong

orita2004 I should know what Religion I am I have been a Catholic as I have told you for 53 years and have attended Mass, been a Catholic Scripture teacher and have studied the Catholic faith and the Pope is our leader and we follow him

The Catholic Church or Roman Catholic Church is a Christian church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, currently Pope Benedict XVI. It traces its origins to the original Christian community founded by Jesus and spread by the Twelve Apostles, in particular Saint Peter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church

I was honest with you from the beginning but you was the one that dragged it on and no I will not name the Priest you already have

blondbosserman thank you

Answer 1

I don't know what she is going on about but I am a Catholic as well, maybe we belong to our own little elite group

Answer 2

I am a Roman Catholic. We often do not refer to ourselves as such. We mostly just call ourselves Catholic.

But we are the only Catholic Church which follows the leadership of the Pope and can trace it's roots to the Apostle Peter. The Anglican Church (also Catholic) split from the church years ago. They too claim Apostolic succession but truly can't because they have not stayed under the authority of the Church. The Anglican Church does not have the Pope as it's head, but apparently there are on going discussions to bring them back in. We can pray for that.

But ultimately, what you've been told here is correct. The Roman Catholic Church is the only one which officially considers Pope Benedict XVI to be the Vicar of Christ and the leader of our Church. Either you've never heard the term used or you are a Catholic, surrounded by Catholics, who believe that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ and holds the authority given to Peter by Christ. I'm sure there are some of those out there.

Answer 3

There really are only two forms of known Catholicism . Roman Catholic and a little know church called The Polish Catholic Church. I'm going to assume this person(s) really didn't know what they were talking about. If you're under the leadership of the Pope you are a Roman Catholic.

Answer 4

I'm not sure what you are saying here. If you follow the Pope and go to a Catholic church, you are a Roman Catholic. If you are Catholic and don't follow the Pope, the only other options are like Russian/ Eastern Orthodox.

Answer 5

Wikipedia has a nice entry on Catholic.

From my perspective, Catholic and Roman Catholic are interchangeable. Roman Catholic just means that the religion is Christian and is based in Rome. Note: Vatican City is surrounded by Rome.

Technically, Catholic means Christian, but in practice it is used for Roman Catholics.

If you don't want to people to think of you as Roman Catholic, just use the word Christian.

Answer 6

Well, that's kind of like the "Calvinist" versus "Hyper-Calvinist" deal. People have made a semantic adaptation that helps them communicate a complex concept in a single symbol. Sure, technically, [C]atholicism is broader than the Latin Rite, although you must confess that the Latin Rite is the one most familiar to modern Western societies. Why is that? Could it be the absolute crushing dominance of the Italian Home Office with respect to the lesser traditions? Might you cut a little slack for those of us taking the 50,000 foot view of the matter? If tomorrow, the adjectival use of "Roman" to delineate [C]atholicism's core nucleus of doctrine were simply stopped, it would take no time at all for a new adjective to replace it, as the linguistic need for such a device is real and inescapable. I think something like "Papal Catholicism" might be an adequate replacement. In any event, history has created the identity you seek to rehabilitate by remarketing under a more neutral brand name, and natural language will fill any vacuum left behind by artificial word games used to suppress the negative associations of the Roman label.

Answer 7

A Catholic is always a none Christian

Answer 8

You are a Roman chatholic if the christian pope is at the head of your sect.
.

Answer 9

Susan you know very well it is i that person you are referring to...why didnt you just name me?...i told you already what i believe...you are protestant....there is no such thing as just catholic as you denied explicitly to being roman catholic. Father K also claims to be just "catholic" many times over in public yet he is denies the authority of the Pope so in my view and he is protestant. now convince me by telling me of which catholic branch you belong to as you believe father K to be catholic too whereas i say otherwise. he is protestant even though he claims to be "catholic"

EDIT: if you would look at mara m's response ..you know very well susan that was all i'm asking...which branch of catholism?....but you REFUSED to answer me...i find you are being deliberately misleading

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AjrxZlt7djAqgyDTGeHPfjPty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071215013154AAF2wN2&show=7#profile-info-uqDMZ58Laa

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqBrQBpCRV.jcLc64thQGEA8.Bd.;_ylv=3?qid=20071215074111AAgeCsH

Susan ive deleted my rantings...I sincerely apologise for hurting your feelings but you are not being truthful

Answer 10

There are, I think 5 branches of Catholicism, when people question just explain what branch you are.