Who (or What) is a Catholic (or a catholic)? - Part 5

The Good Shepherd - 5th Cent. - Italy

In early Christianity, the word Catholic (or catholic) became one of the Four Marks of the Church, as listed in the 381 revision of the Nicene Creed in Constantinople, "[We believe] in [1] one, [2] holy, [3] catholic, and [4] apostolic Church."  Though the word had been around before then, as I explained in Part 4, it now became very important to be identified as Catholic (or catholic), since the Council meant, besides associating Christianity in a universal, worldwide sense, also meant to convey that those who were not Catholic (or catholic) were heretics.  Ever since, almost all all Christian churches seek to identify themselves as Catholic (or catholic).

The Great Schism of 1054

So as I mentioned in Part 2, both the Orthodox Catholic Church (also known as the Eastern Orthodox Church) and Oriental Orthodox churches claim to be the Catholic Church, even though by general convention, since the schism in 1054, churches who remained in communion with the See of Rome tend to be called Catholic, and those in the Eastern churches tend to be called Orthodox (or Eastern Orthodox Church or the Orthodox Church), as well as those in Oriental Orthodox churches.

Church of England - St. John's

What I didn't mention there, and which is important for the English-speaking world, is that when the Church of England (the Anglican Church) split from Rome in 1534, it saw itself as the Catholic Church of England.  Therefore, it was not willing to concede the word Catholic to those who remained with Rome.  So in time, two solutions arose to this problem.  First, those who remained loyal to Rome became to be called "Roman Catholics," and the church they identified with began to be called the "Roman Catholic Church."  In time, even the Catholic Church in Rome at times in official documents identified itself as the Roman Catholic Church.  Second, a convention arose in English (not followed in other languages) whereby Catholic with a capital C was used to identify the Catholic Church (also known as the Roman Catholic Church) with those churches loyal to and in full communion with the See of Rome (23 churches - which I discussed in Part 3).  However, this is not a universal or uniform convention.


So in English, the word Catholic (or Catholic Church) can be used to mean all Christians worldwide (especially those who hold to orthodox beliefs).  It can also be used to refer to the Orthodox Catholic Church (also know as the Eastern Orthodox or simply Orthodox), or to the Oriental Orthodox churches, or even to the Anglican Church (the Church of England or the Catholic Church of England).  It can also refer to the Catholic Church - meaning the 23 churches in full communion with the See of Rome.  While some refer to the latter as the Roman Catholic Church (including the Catholic Church itself - meaning the 23 churches in full communion with the See of Rome), some find objection in this term, even if it might be helpful to avoid confusion.  So the best practice is to clarify what one wants to mean by using these terms.

In any case, most Christian around the world recite the Nicene Creed, asserting they are Catholic (or catholic), usually meaning they are part of the world-wide, universal Body of Christ.  An examination of various versions of the Nicene Creed, both Catholic and Protestant versions, shows they variously capitalize the word Catholic (or catholic), or not, and it basically means the same thing.  (The best practice is to clarify if you want to make a distinction.)

For me, the word Catholic (or catholic) points to a unity in the body of Christ, as Christ prayed for, "My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." (John 17:20-21 - NIV.)

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Who (or What) is an Evangelical? - Part 8

Some trace the roots of modern Evangelicalism, in part, to the work of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) and the community he founded at Herrenhut (in Saxony, Germany).  He established this community in a corner of his estate as a  refuge for Moravians (from Czech lands), Reformed (Protestants), and Catholics, seeking refuge from various persecutions.  He hoped to forge this group into a force to promote renewal in the Church.  He gave them the name "Herrenhut," which means "the Lord's watch," based on a passage from Isaiah (62:1 & 6-7).

However, for 3 years after its founding (in 1724), the factions in the community quarreled as much as the churches they came from, and the community almost dissolved.  In response, Zinzendorf established a round the clock prayer watch for revival of the Church - which wound up lasting for a hundred years.  The community wound up experiencing a "baptism of the Holy Spirit," which fused the community in unity.

Seal of Moravian Church

 Zinzendorf followed this by organizing small groups (cells - prayer bands) where lay people were encouraged to confess their sins to each other, give counsel to each other, and support each other in prayer, which helped to further unite the community.

Soon thereafter, Zinzendorf began to send out missionary teams from the community.  Some were sent out to take the gospel where it had never been heard.  Some even took the gospel to slaves, and became slaves themselves in order to spread the gospel.  However, he sent others to churches to spread the message of regeneration and renewal.  Some of these missionaries reached the Wesley brothers (John & Charles) and deeply impacted them.  The Wesley brothers influenced and participated in the Great Awakenings both in England and America where Christians from different denominations, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, united to spread the gospel among the lost, and to renew the faith among Christians, in ways that transformed  society.

The Herrenhut community eventually became the Moravian Church, whose motto is, "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty, and in all things love."

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Who (or What) is a Catholic (or a catholic)? - Part 4

In order to better understand the word Catholic (or catholic), it helps to understand the origin of the word (it's etymology).  It's a word that derives from the Latin, and earlier from the Greek, so be ready for some nitpicking language study in this post.

The English word (Catholic) eventually derives from the Latin word "catholicus," which means universal. That word derives from a Greek word, katholikos(καθολικός), which also means universal.  It's derived from two Greek phrases κατά meaning "about" and όλος meaning "whole."  When combined, these two phrases make up another phrase, καθόλου (katholou), meaning "on the whole", "according to the whole" or "in general."

The Greek word began to be used in the 2nd Century (100-199), by Christians to describe the universal scope of the Christian Church.  (It does not appear in the New Testament.)  The first time it appears is in a letter by St. Ignatius of Antioch in 107, by which he means the Church universal in contrast to the particular congregation in Smyrna.

By the latter part of the 2nd Century, the word (Catholic or catholic) took on the additional meaning of the Church grounded in orthodox beliefs in contrast to heretical beliefs.  So later St. Augustine (354-430) used the term Catholic to distinguish the true Church from heretical groups.

Thus many use the term Catholic (or catholic) to describe all the churches in Christianity (especially those that are orthodox in belief).  Other churches, like the Catholic Church (sometimes called the Roman Catholic Church), but others as well (as I mentioned in Part 2), tend to use it in a more exclusive sense to mean the churches in communion with them, in exclusion to other Christians and churches, which they tend to think of as "non-Catholic," or use other terms to describe them.  This is only a short introduction to a subject I will discuss this in more detail in my next post.

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Who (or What) is a Catholic (or a catholic)? - Part 3

Of course when most people hear the word - Catholic Church - they think of the Roman Catholic Church, which is also called the Catholic Church, the largest church in the world with 1.2 billion members worldwide.  So even though the word Catholic Church is used by many in connection with other churches (as I explained in Part 1 and Part 2), most people connect it with the Roman Catholic Church.

What many do not realize is that the Roman Catholic Church is actually made up of 23 churches, or rather 23 autonomous particular churches - what is called in Latin sui iuris churches (which literally means "of one's own right" or "of their own law" - basically self-governing).  They all espouse the same faith and beliefs.  They differ in traditions, disciplines, and Canon law (the law of the church), collectively known as a "Rite." They are all in full communion with the Pope in Rome, the Holy See.

The largest of these 23 churches is called the Latin Church, which has 1 billion members.  It is based on what is called the Latin Rite (also known as the Western Rite).  The Latin Rite itself contains the following Rites: the Roman Rite (which most Catholics observe - the most recent version after Vatican II is known as the Mass of Paul VI), the Ambrosian Rite (followed in and around Milan, Italy), the Aquileian Rite (now largely defunct - Northern Italy), Rite of Braga (Braga, Italy), Mozarabic Rite (Toledo and Salamanca, Spain).  There have been others, but they are now largely defunct.

The other 22 churches, which together have around 17 million members, are collectively known as the Eastern Catholic Churches.  Many of them were once associated with either the Eastern Orthodox Church or Oriental Orthodoxy.  I have listed these churches below, according to the overall liturgical Rite they follow, though each church has its own Rite.

Alexandrian Rite (St. Mark)

• Coptic Catholic Church (Egypt)
• Ethiopian Catholic Church (Ethiopia/Eritrea)

Antiochean Rite (St. James)

• Maronite Catholic Church (Lebanon)
• Syriac Catholic Church (Lebanon/Syria/Iraq/Egypt/Venezuala/Other Countries)
• Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (India)

Armenian Rite (St. Gregory)

• Armenian Catholic Church (Georgia/Ukraine)

East Syrian (Chaldean) Rite

• Chaldean Catholic Church  (Iraq/Iran/Turkey/Syria/Lebanon/Jordan/Israel/and other nations)  
• Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (India)

Byzantine (Constantinople) Rite

• Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church (Albania)
• Belarusian Greek Catholic Church (Belarus)
• Bulgurian Greek Catholic Church (Bulgaria)
• Byzantine Church of Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro (also known as the Croatian Greek Catholic Church) (Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro)
• Greek Byzantine Catholic Church (Greece - Constantinople)
• Hungarian Greek Catholic Church (Hungary)
• Italo-Albanian Catholic Church (Southern Italy - Sicily)
• Macedonia Greek Catholic Church (Macedonia)
• Melkite Greek Catholic Church (Egypt/Israel/Palestine/Jordan/other countries)
• Romanian Church United With Rome, Greek Catholic (Romania)
• Russian Greek Catholic Church (Russia)
• Rutheian Catholic Church (Carpathian Ruthenia/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
• Slovak Greek Catholic Church (Slovakia/Canada)
• Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (Ukraine) 

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