I know you think that you have provided me with some kind of gotcha-moment, but what you have actually done is to reveal your own ignorance on the matter. Note what I wrote:
What you then end up doing is to make my point for me. Because it is quite obvious that you are writing from the presumptions of
West Germanic languages (which include German, English, Scots, Dutch, Afrikaans, the Frisian languages, Low Saxon languages and, to some extent, Yiddish). And from these languages, you write from the presumption of English.
The problems with this is quite obvious. In West Germanic languages, it is common to capitalise nouns, and sometimes adjectives (in the case of, IIRC, English, Scots, and the Frisian languages). Examples of the latter are adjectives like
American or
Catholic. Note that this is not the case in German, where the equivalents of these are
amerikanisch and
katholisch.
Now, in Norwegian, which is a
North Germanic language, we do not have that kind of capitalisation, for neither adjectives nor nouns (unless the noun in question is a place or a name). We therefore say
Norge (Norway),
Bergen (a Norwegian city) and
John, but we also say
Jehovas vitner (Jehovah’s Witnesses, where
Jehova is capitalised, because it is a name),
Den norske kirke (the Church of Norway) and
Den romersk-katolske kirke (the Roman Catholic Church, or
Den katolske kirke as they use).
We see the same in Greek. In the Greek New Testament, if the word
God appears in the middle of a sentence, it is written
θεός, not
Θεός. And, most importantly, we also see this in Latin, where there originally was no lower-case/upper-case distinction, but where one started to use upper class in names and places, but not adjectives and nouns in general. (In some ancient documents, we see capitalisation, but that often reflects the writer, or copier’s native tongue.)
Consider, for example, the
Te igitur (the first prayer of the Roman Canon, following the
sanctus). In english, it says (from
this version, p.635):
To you therefore, most merciful Father, we make humble prayer and petition through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord: that you accept and bless + these gifts, these offerings, these holy and unblemished sacrifices, which we offer you firstly for your holy
catholic Church. Be pleased to grant her peace, to guard, unite and govern her throughout the whole world, together with your servant N. our Pope and N. our Bishop, and all those who, holding to the truth, hand on the catholic and apostolic faith.
Note that this English version faithfully preserves the capitalisation of the Latin text:
…in primis, quæ tibi offerimus pro Ecclesia tua sancta catholica… (“…which we offer you firstly for your holy
catholic Church”…). And note that
Catholic (or
catholic) IS an adjective, which is quite obvious in both German and Latin:
Die römisch-katholische Kirche and
Ecclesia catholica.
So yes, there might be some kind of difference between
Catholic and
catholic in English, but that distinction is purely one of style, not of meaning. And there is no such distinction is Norwegian or Latin, or even in German. And last time I checked, Latin, not English, was the official language of the Roman Catholic Church.
So no, you won’t come far with your argument.
