Ignatius of Antioch: "Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church"

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This has been in my sigline since I’ve been here. It reaffirms my faith everyday. God Bless.
 
Here’s something else you might be interested in:

St. Victorinus (c.270AD): “In the whole world Paul taught that all the churches are arranged by sevens, that they are called seven, and that the Catholic Church is one. And first of all, indeed, that he himself also might maintain the type of seven churches, he did not exceed that number. But he wrote to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians; afterwards he wrote to individual persons, so as not to exceed the number of seven churches… Therefore in these seven churches, of one Catholic Church are believers, because it is one in seven by the quality of faith and election.” (Commentary on the Apocalypse, 1, 16)
 
Luke65 said:
Here’s something else you might be interested in:

St. Victorinus (c.270AD): “In the whole world Paul taught that all the churches are arranged by sevens, that they are called seven, and that the Catholic Church is one. And first of all, indeed, that he himself also might maintain the type of seven churches, he did not exceed that number. But he wrote to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians; afterwards he wrote to individual persons, so as not to exceed the number of seven churches… Therefore in these seven churches, of one Catholic Church are believers, because it is one in seven by the quality of faith and election.” (Commentary on the Apocalypse, 1, 16)
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I couldn’t understand that :o
 
🙂 It means that if Jesus if there, the Church is there, since the Church is of Jesus. The Church is the body of Jesus.
 
TristanCross said:
I couldn’t understand that :o
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Well, you see that St. Victorinus is attributing the name “Catholic Church” to St. Paul himself. And do you know that the number 7 is symbolic for complete? So Paul wrote to 7 churches, as St. John did in Revelation, to signify the whole Church. Is that what you were missing?
 
Yes, very good quote. St. Ignatius is also an early testament to the changing of worship for Christians to Sunday rather than the sabbath. He is one of my favorite saints.
 
That’s a wonderful quote, never heard that before! Have to use it when I start my RCIA meetings.
 
I’m trying to find the thread about the name Catholic and where it came from. I should’ve saved it as a Favorite. 😦

Anyway, I’ll ask my question here in response to Ignatius’ quote. When and by what logic did people start equating the phrase “Catholic Church” (from the Greek in Acts 9:31) with the Roman Catholic Church?
 
I’m actually reading a book comparing Orthodox and Catholic beliefs (His Broken Body by Cleenewerck), though it’s written by an Orthodox Christian. His thesis on that quote is that it emphasizes that the church is fully manifested locally, and that there doesn’t need to be an emphasis on being part of a “worldwide” church, since the “church” is a local phenomenon, with the bishop as the sign of the fullness of the Church. “The Church” is the network of these local churches.

Frankly, I don’t see much difference between the Catholic and Orthodox views on this. 🤷
 
WASP said:
I’m trying to find the thread about the name Catholic and where it came from. I should’ve saved it as a Favorite. 😦

Anyway, I’ll ask my question here in response to Ignatius’ quote. When and by what logic did people start equating the phrase “Catholic Church” (from the Greek in Acts 9:31) with the Roman Catholic Church?
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When? Since the beginning of Christianity. If you’re one of those kinds of Protestants, you add the adjective Roman to make the Church appear that it is not the true Church.
In the Council of Trent, all the documents call the Church the ‘Catholic Church’ because that is its proper name, and the Church knew that Protestant leaders of that time period were attacking the Church. Since the Church Fathers refer to the ‘Catholic Church’, any kind of name change would help their cause.
 
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