Catholic or Roman Catholic?

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What is the official name of the Church, “The Catholic Church” or “The Roman Catholic Church”?
 
Both are right, but you gotta be careful because there are some protestant churches who call themselves: “Universal Church (Catholic means Universal)”, and there is “Catholic” in their nomination.

Either way the best is The Roman Catholic Church, but don’t worry about the name just come and join us ;D
 
I also think that it is worth just noting that someone could say they attend Catholic Church, but it could be an Eastern Rite Church (i.e. Byzantine). The Roman Catholic Church (Latin Rite) is the largest and generally what people mean as a default when they say Catholic Church.
 
Actually it is just the Catholic Church. Roman Catholic or The Roman Catholic Church refers to the Roman, or Latin, rite Catholic Church (also called the Western Catholic Church) who fall under the guidance of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. There are Eastern rite Catholics, like the Maronite and Byzantine to name a couple, who are in communion with Rome, but are not necessarily under the same guidance as those under the Roman rite.
 
There is no official name for the church that Christ founded. “Catholic Church” comes close, but “Roman Catholic Church” is also appropriate for emphasizing the unity of this church with the vicar of Christ, the Roman Pope.

“Roman Catholic” however has some historical baggage to be aware of. In English, it at one time evolved to mean the “Roman branch” of the Catholic Church, as opposed to the “Anglican branch”. The Vatican has rejected this interpretation, as we believe Anglican’s to be a Protestant denomination. In today’s language, it is used mostly to distinguish Roman Catholic parishes, from other churches such as the Polish National Catholic Church, or Orthodox Catholic Churches and other communities which use the descriptor “Catholic”.
 
Catholic Church. Roman Catholic generally refers to the Roman church aka the non-Eastern Catholic Churches or just the Church in Rome.
 
Call me a Roman Catholic, call me Catholic…

call me anything you want, just don’t call me late for heaven!😃
 
JM3 said:
The proper title for the Church in Rome is the Latin Church.
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“Roman Catholic” can apply to both Eastern and Latin Catholic, because it emphasizes unity with the Roman Bishop. I’ve often read Eastern Catholics are sometimes uncomfortable with this, but have no first hand knowledge of that.
 
my friend Fred is a Catholic, so sometimes I like To think of myself as a “Fred Catholic”. and why just Roman Cathoic? why not can’t there be a French Catholic??

and I also had this Egyptian roommate who claims that Anubis could kick Jesus’s A S S. can I get some of your opinions on this??
 
runningdude said:
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“Roman Catholic” can apply to both Eastern and Latin Catholic, because it emphasizes unity with the Roman Bishop. I’ve often read Eastern Catholics are sometimes uncomfortable with this, but have no first hand knowledge of that.
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No, Eastern Catholics are not Roman Catholic, and we are uncomfortable with being labeled as such. We do not need to be incorrectly labeled as Roman Catholic in order for our union with the Pope of Rome to be acknowledged.
 
To refer to all 23 autonomous Churches together, official Church documents often use the term “Catholic Church” or, less frequently, the term “Roman Catholic Church”. The usage that makes the term “Roman Catholic” mean members of the Latin Rite or Western Church to the exclusion of those who belong to the Eastern Catholic Churches does not appear in any recent document of the Holy See, and popes have used the term “Roman Catholic Church” on various occasions throughout the 20th century to mean instead the whole Church without exclusion of any part.
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Roman Catholic (term)
 
Zenkai said:
What is the official name of the Church, “The Catholic Church” or “The Roman Catholic Church”?
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The proper title of the Church is just that “The Church.” There is but one true church of God. It needs no catchy name because it is the only church.

To that end, the Church is marked by four signs: it is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. We differentiate the one true church from other Christian “churches” by saying the Catholic Church, basically noting one of the signs of the Church… but you will also hear apologists and ministers refer to the church has Holy Church, or Apostolic Church. It’s more rare, but I’ve even heard the church called the One Church before as well. Saying the Catholic Church, however, remains the most simple and effective way for someone to note that they are speaking specifically of God’s Church.

The term Roman Catholic Church is even more specific. In adding the term “Roman”, what is being referred to is the latin rite of the Church. Admittedly, the Latin Rite is by far the largest rite of the church… but it does NOT make up the whole of the Church. To wit: all “Roman Catholics” are part of the Church, but not all members of the church are “Roman Catholics”. Often there is confusion, and protestants or even some catholics will refer to the Church as “the Roman Catholic Church” while referring to ALL Catholics… but accurately speaking the term only applies to latin rite members of the Church.
 
The (Roman) Catholic Church refers to Herself as the “Catholic Church.” No Pope or Ecumenical Council has EVER used the phrase, “Roman Catholic Church.”

This wording is the main reason that Vatican-2 is controversial. The Council taught that
This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him…
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The Latin phrase for the term “subsists in” is Subsistit in, a phrase so significant that it has its own article in Wikipedia. Previous Church documents had used the word “is” (est) in place of “subsists in.” Theologians continue to debate the doctrinal significance of this single sentence fragment. Did the Council Fathers mean to teach that the (Roman) Catholic Church was not the ONLY “Catholic Church?”

If so, then the (Roman) Catholic Church must someday accept some more-specific name (such as “Roman Catholic”). But that day has not (yet) come. In the language of this day, the (Roman) Catholic Church calls Herself the “Catholic Church,” and other Churches who have valid claim to the term “catholic” typically refer to themselves as “Orthodox.” Only protestants commonly use the term “Roman Catholic.”
 
DavidFilmer said:
If so, then the (Roman) Catholic Church must someday accept some more-specific name (such as “Roman Catholic”). But that day has not (yet) come. In the language of this day, the (Roman) Catholic Church calls Herself the “Catholic Church,” and other Churches who have valid claim to the term “catholic” typically refer to themselves as “Orthodox.” Only protestants commonly use the term “Roman Catholic.”
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Certainly the Church already refers to herself as Roman Catholic. Particularly Roman Rite organizations proudly use the term. Do me a favor. Think of any random diocese or parish. Go to their website, or pick up a copy of their bulletin, and read the title. I guarantee that if you try just a few, you will find the very common formula St. Jimbob’s Roman Catholic Parish, or The Roman Catholic Diocese of Somewhere, USA. This is very standard usage.

It is incorrect to say that there are zero Church documents which use the term. Please do a search; you will find several: Ex Quo, Rappresentanti in Terra, Magnae Nobis, and Humani Generis.

So I am afraid that what you fear has already happened. There is nothing new under the sun: As Constantine has pointed out, Christians are always happy to accept for themselves names which start out as derogatory slurs. It is clear that the Roman Catholic Church has embraced her Roman-ness, as it is not at all inaccurate, and even useful if we continue to use it in a way that distinguishes the Roman Rite of the Latin Church from the Eastern Catholic Churches. At any rate, Roman Catholic is here to stay, so let’s shake off our misgivings about this name and embrace it wholeheartedly.
 
RyanBlack said:
No, Eastern Catholics are not Roman Catholic, and we are uncomfortable with being labeled as such. We do not need to be incorrectly labeled as Roman Catholic in order for our union with the Pope of Rome to be acknowledged.
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I understand that it can cause umcomfort, as I already pointed out. Unfortunately it doesn’t change one of the formal meanings of “Roman Catholic”. I personally avoid the term whenever possible, but can’t deny its actual meaning.
 
runningdude said:
I understand that it can cause umcomfort, as I already pointed out. Unfortunately it doesn’t change one of the formal meanings of “Roman Catholic”. I personally avoid the term whenever possible, but can’t deny its actual meaning.
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You keep saying that if you’d like, but I’m not a Roman Catholic, and neither are members of any of the 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with the Bishop of Rome. We are Ruthenian Catholics, Ukrainian Catholics, Melkite Catholics, Coptic Catholics, Chaldean Catholics, Maronite Catholics, etc. Our liturgical traditions are not those of the Church of Rome, and our bishops are not members of the hierarchy of the Church of Rome. Furthermore, to insist on calling us Roman Catholics implies that the norm or standard for what is and is not Catholic is that which is Roman, and that simply is not the case. Please, let’s stay away from the mentality that Eastern Catholics are “Roman Catholics of the Byzantine Rite”, or “Roman Catholics of the Maronite Rite”, and so on. Such a mentality is best left in the past, because it has been so harmful to Eastern Catholics.

Those who are Roman Catholics are those who are members of the sui iuris Catholic Church whose head is the Bishop of Rome, who is also the visible head of the Church on Earth. However, “Roman” is not somehow determinative for or an essential element of the whole Church, or even the office of the papacy (being the successor of Peter, not being Roman, is what is essential to the papacy). If that were the case, then that means that the Church was lacking something determinative or essential between the time she was established by Christ and the time St. Peter established the Christian community at Rome as an actual Church.
 
jere610 said:
I also think that it is worth just noting that someone could say they attend Catholic Church, but it could be an Eastern Rite Church (i.e. Byzantine). The Roman Catholic Church (Latin Rite) is the largest and generally what people mean as a default when they say Catholic Church.
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Just personally, I say "The Catholic Church, (meant to include all my Eastern Rite brothers and sisters), and then I go on to describe myself, personally, as being of the Latin Rite. I don’t think I even refer to Rome. “Roman” Catholic seems exclusive. But others are correct here. The term Roman Catholic is ubiquitous, and has come into common parlance to mean the Catholic Church, Latin Rite. We should refer to our whole Church body in our title. East and West, unless just describing our own personal rite within the Church. That title then, should be the Catholic Church, yes?
 
This was treated recently in another thread, but the errors are common, so I’ll repeat here:

I am a Roman Rite Catholic of the Latin Church, those are the actual official titles of the Rite and Church to which I belong. The “Latin Rite” is kind of shorthand, slang for Roman Rite. But officially, Latin Rite does not exist.
 
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