Mostly true you can use it but you would be inaccurate
Which is exactly the point of disagreement. Begging a question does not make it true. I have asked PRmerger to give me an argument, but she has just casually dismissed it by trying to be funny.
Until I get an actual
argument that
shows that Christians in communion with the Roman Pontiff have ‘exclusive rights’ to use the description ‘Catholic’ (with a capital C, of themselves and their Church) and not merely the claim that they do, I will continue to exercise my right to use it.
If PRmerger doesn’t want to give an argument, then I am free to ignore her posts. As the old Latin saying goes:
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.
And ironically enough, the CCC, which PRmerger has pointed towards as ‘evidence,’ nowhere states that the term ‘Catholic’ – with or without a capital C – is reserved for those in communion with the Roman Pontiff. The most relevant place, in fact, say the exact opposite (
paragraphs 811-870). Here catholicity is defined in a twofold way (830-831). First, the CCC defines catholicity as the presence of Christ in the Church, citing
the Epistle of St. Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans: “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church.” To understand what he means, you must see it in its full context:
See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.
Now, Christ is present in the Church wherever there is a validly consecrated Bishop, which is also what you see in
Lumen gentium 21, which states that the Church is where the people gather around their bishop: “In the bishops, therefore, for whom priests are assistants, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Supreme High Priest, is present in the midst of those who believe.”
Second, the CCC defines catholicity as being “sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race,” citing
Matthew 28:19 and
Lumen gentium 13.
That is what
catholicity means, according to the CCC. Now, the first part – a Church having validly consecrated Bishops – is not resverved for the churches in communion with the Roman Pontiff, as it includes the Orthodox Bishops, for instance. A Roman Catholic might try to argue that only the Catholics in communion with the Roman Pontiff is rightly “sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race,” but then they need to actually produce an
argument that
conclusively shows that.