Do you see yourself as a Catholic first, or a Christian first?

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Both/And. I was baptized as a Catholic, which is the same as Christian. Becoming more of a follower of Christ took some time and maturation.
 
Do you see yourself as a human or as an embodied spirit first?

Do you see yourself as a husband or a spouse first?

🙂

I am a Christian, a follower of the Way, a Catholic, a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth…

(also…see “religion” up in the right corner on my posts…)
 
Ohana said:
Both/And. I was baptized as a Catholic, which is the same as Christian. Becoming more of a follower of Christ took some time and maturation.
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What would you tell someone who asked your religion?
 
We are Christians…have been since the first century.

First members of the Church were called “the disciples”…

Later called followers of “the way” …and it seems “Nazarenes”

then at Antioch we started being called Christians.

Later in the first century the Church started to be called “Catholic” (see St. Ignatius --again at Antioch --use around the year 100…but would seem to have been in use prior)

So in time Christians began to be also called Catholics.

And as various heresies arose in the first centuries…which claimed to be Christian …the word was used to differentiate Christians from the others was Catholic…

Of course we still called ourselves Christians…but also we used the term Catholic.

Now a days we have many sorts of Christians --who are indeed Christians and our brothers…though we are unhappily not yet in full communion.

Catholics are Christians who in full communion with the successor of Peter. We call ourselves Christians…Pope Benedict XVI when addressing the faithful does not usually say “Catholics this or that” but he calls them Christians…for that is what we are.

Other Christians have various degrees of communion with us (not speaking here of Holy Communion …but of “being in communion with”).

As one early Christian noted (375AD)

“If you want to know who I am,” he said, “Christian is my name, Catholic is my surname.”

St. Pacian
 
Jesus didn’t establish the “Catholic Church” or any church he established a Spiritual consciousness. The only organization is Spirit. The church, derived from a Greek word “the Lord’s house.” The individual’s consciousness is his “Lord’s house,” and assembled within it are groups or aggregations of ideas, groups of followers of Jesus. The spiritualized will carries the ideas to the different “churches” (thought centers) the word of Truth and builds them up into a knowledge of their perfection and divinity by training them in spiritual thinking. This is what the Catholic Church and other christian churches are as groups. To gather together in one body, their union being typified by the human body.

I know what your going to say Jesus established the church when he said “upon this rock I build my church.” He did not tell Peter that he was to be the head of a church,. He said, “I will build my church” (ecclesia, assembly, or called out ones). Jesus is the head of His assembly and its only organization is in Spirit. It is clear when Peter answered Jesus you are the Christ he was expressing his belief, faith and it was this that Jesus response was to. “The Holly Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things,and bring to your remembrance and all that I said unto you.” (John 14:26).

Too many times the Catholic church has been a stumbling block for maturing in ones faith. Too much time, worrying and trying to live by precepts, stunting ones spiritual growth. Didn’t Jesus come to show the Jewish Pharisees that they were crippling the people serving God because they were so bound up with the law there was little time to develop a relationship with the Father (Abba). Jesus came to show the way to the Jewish people not start a church. It confounds me when looking at the Catholic catechism which has added even more regulations, dogmas and laws under the belief they are helping the Christian to be “saved.” I could go on and on but I will stop here. I don’t expect any response from this forum to accept anything I have said. That’s okay.

God Loves us what ever way we come before him.

God Bless us all
 
Dragonslayer said:
Please note, this is not a question of the definition of a Catholic or a Christian, or whether a Catholic is a Christian. Given that many Christians have a hatred of the Catholic Church my question is how do you choose to describe yourself, Catholic or Christian, in light of this anti-Catholic sentiment amongst many Christians. Cheers.
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Sure it is, and it is a ludicrous, polemical question, to boot.
 
NewsTheMan said:
To be fully Christian is to be Catholic.
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I agree.
They are the same.

I am slowly changing from saying Christian to Catholic as I learn about my faith more and grow more in it and realize that being fully Christian is to be Catholic
 
This is why I got into a short debate with my Protestant friend the other day, when she said, “…Christians and Catholics…”

I interrupted her and said, “Catholics are Christians.”

She swore up and down that a lot of Catholics say they are not Christian; they are Catholics.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am a Catholic Christian and by acting like we are not Christian, we sow great confusion among non-Catholics.
 
@True Light: remember this:

Protestantism is the works of Martin Luther (Lord, be merciful with his soul) and the Danish Kings Christian I and II. Denial, confiscation of land and properties and altering with the traditions. (they did a lot of damage to Norway from 1396-1814, the danes - the protestants).

That is why you will see and hear these kinds of things being said. We are catholics and catholics are christians from the very beginning. The one follows the other.
 
Padraig1972 said:
@True Light: remember this:

Protestantism is the works of Martin Luther (Lord, be merciful with his soul) and the Danish Kings Christian I and II. Denial, confiscation of land and properties and altering with the traditions. (they did a lot of damage to Norway from 1396-1814, the danes - the protestants).

That is why you will see and hear these kinds of things being said. We are catholics and catholics are christians from the very beginning. The one follows the other.
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One follows another in whose mind? Like I said, you say that to a non-Catholic and they think you are not Christian.

Christians were dying in the lion pits before they were even called Catholics. We are both Catholic and Christian.
 
TrueLight said:
One follows another in whose mind? Like I said, you say that to a non-Catholic and they think you are not Christian.

Christians were dying in the lion pits before they were even called Catholics. We are both Catholic and Christian.
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Yes, it was what i tried (but failed) to say.
 
Padraig1972 said:
Yes, it was what i tried (but failed) to say.
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I’m sorry if I came across a little rough. I am just very surprised that that everyone does not see themselves as Christians first and foremost. The two are not interchangeable, as like it or not, there are other Christian people out there.
 
I see what you mean as catholic means universal at points at the church. We are christians, as the Lord asked us to be. I regard myself as universal and by that catholic, loyal to Roma and Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.
 
TrueLight said:
I’m sorry if I came across a little rough. I am just very surprised that that everyone does not see themselves as Christians first and foremost. The two are not interchangeable, as like it or not, there are other Christian people out there.
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No one here claimed that the two terms are interchangeable; they said that being Catholic is the fulness of being Christian.

The problem with the OP is that the question is framed in Protestant sectarian language. It is therefore a ludicrous question to ask a Catholic. It is like asking a man whom he loves more–his mother or his wife. The two are not mutually exclusive, nor does one outrank the other in a hierarchy. But that is what the question attempts to to do–establish a hierarchy, whereby Christian comes first and Catholic second. It is a “gotcha” question, designed to paint Catholics into a corner.

The corresponding term to Catholic is Protestant, but many Protestants of a contemporary evangelical background, don’t know this. They nothing little or nothing of history. Sometimes they came into their church-going selves in later years, so they have never studied the Reformation, etc. They are Protestant, but they don’t even know that they are, partially because evangelicals have distanced themselves from the mainline denominations, whom they see as too liberal. But their theology is entirely a synthesis of Protestant thinking. Consequently, they refer to themselves as Christians and us as Catholics.

Let’s say that Mr. Smith marries Miss Jones. She therefore becomes Mrs. Smith, but she will always be a member of the Jones family. Her family goes back for generations. The Smith children grow up and have children of their own, who themselves grow up. Mrs. Smith lives to see her grandchildren as adults, one of whom is a girl–she, coincidentally, marries a young man named Jones, who is a shirt-tail relative of Mrs. Smith’s family. After hearing of her husband’s family history, the new bride is very impressed, and when she visits her grandmother, tells her all about the Jones family. Her grandmother replies, “I know, dear! I have been a member of the Jones family for all of my life!” The girl forgets this because she was raised as a Smith and is not familiar with her own family’s history. But grandma, now being called Smith, did not stop being a Jones when she married a Smith.
 
Chatter163 said:
No one here claimed that the two terms are interchangeable; they said that being Catholic is the fulness of being Christian.

The problem with the OP is that the question is framed in Protestant sectarian language. It is therefore a ludicrous question to ask a Catholic. It is like asking a man whom he loves more–his mother or his wife. The two are not mutually exclusive, nor does one outrank the other in a hierarchy. But that is what the question attempts to to do–establish a hierarchy, whereby Christian comes first and Catholic second. It is a “gotcha” question, designed to paint Catholics into a corner.

The corresponding term to Catholic is Protestant, but many Protestants of a contemporary evangelical background, don’t know this. They nothing little or nothing of history. Sometimes they came into their church-going selves in later years, so they have never studied the Reformation, etc. They are Protestant, but they don’t even know that they are, partially because evangelicals have distanced themselves from the mainline denominations, whom they see as too liberal. But their theology is entirely a synthesis of Protestant thinking. Consequently, they refer to themselves as Christians and us as Catholics.

Let’s say that Mr. Smith marries Miss Jones. She therefore becomes Mrs. Smith, but she will always be a member of the Jones family. Her family goes back for generations. The Smith children grow up and have children of their own, who themselves grow up. Mrs. Smith lives to see her grandchildren as adults, one of whom is a girl–she, coincidentally, marries a young man named Jones, who is a shirt-tail relative of Mrs. Smith’s family. After hearing of her husband’s family history, the new bride is very impressed, and when she visits her grandmother, tells her all about the Jones family. Her grandmother replies, “I know, dear! I have been a member of the Jones family for all of my life!” The girl forgets this because she was raised as a Smith and is not familiar with her own family’s history. But grandma, now being called Smith, did not stop being a Jones when she married a Smith.
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In the OPs defense, the terms were introduced that way by the conversation, not to mention this thread, on which, there has also been a general misconception among the Catholic contributors that “Christian” means Protestant…😉
 
christosdavid said:
In the OPs defense, the terms were introduced that way on a previous thread, on which, there was a general misconception among the Catholic contributors that “Christian” meant Protestant…😉
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That in itself is interesting.
 
Chatter163 said:
No one here claimed that the two terms are interchangeable; they said that being Catholic is the fulness of being Christian.

Let’s say that Mr. Smith marries Miss Jones…
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I totally get and agree with your analogy, but what do you think of Catholics who actually say, “I’m not Christian; I’m Catholic”?
 
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