Is "Catholic" the exclusive identity of the Catholic Church?

[trinitybeliever]

Many Catholics and Non-Catholics believe that the identity of “Catholic” is not exclusive to the Catholic Church. Many feel the need to prequalify “Catholic” with words like Roman or Papel and others in order to properly identify which set of Doctrines one subscribes to.

Inside our Church many feel that there should be no qualifier, to be Catholic is all the identity any Catholic needs as it defines the beliefs put forward by the Catholic Church.

There is a belief that using the terms “Roman Catholic” or “Roman Catholic Church” marginalize the identity of the Church which brings into question the authority of The Catholic Church and therefore changes the nature of what it means to be Catholic.

“The Original Catholic Encyclopedia” article is linked here. oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Catholic

Do Catholics have a legitimate right to claim Catholicism as their identity exclusively?
Does it matter?

Please be kind.

 

[Rawb]

The fact is that if you say you are Catholic, you will be associated with the Catholic Church with Pope Benedict XVI as it’s Earthly Head.

Also, the term “Roman” is recognizing which Church you belong to. One might just as well be a Byzantine Catholic and still be Catholic. To say these “labels” separate us is to horribly misunderstand the history, spirituality, and wonderful true diversity of the Catholic Church.

Personally, I think that Catholics have an exclusive right to the title, as well as a right to the title “Christian” more than any other, but these are personal opinions of mine. Christianity is a Catholic religion.

 

[Cruikshank_s]

Yes, Catholics (i.e. those who belong to and follow the magisterium of the Holy Church of Christ with the Roman pontiff as its head) are the only group of faithful with the rightful claim to the word “Catholic”. No other Christian faith (besides maybe the Orthodox) hold and teach a truly universal Truth. I think the existence of those multitudes of christian faith communities each peddling their own emphasis of truth is as good an example as any testifying to this reality. They do not teach the universal Truth in its entirety, therefore they are not Catholic and have no legitimate claim to the term.

No, using identifying terms such as “Roman” do not question the authority of the universality of the Catholic Church. I, for example use the term Roman simply as an identifier to say that I am a member of the Latin rite. Eastern Catholics hold the same Truths as I do, they are by all means just as Catholic as I, they simply belong to a different rite. We are all Catholic who hold fast to the Gospel, plainly and bluntly the multitude of various christian faith communities around the world have submitted to their own will and not God’s. They loose their claim to “Catholic” because of it.

 

[brigid12]

Do Catholics have a legitimate right to claim Catholicism as their identity exclusively?
Does it matter?

Please be kind.

The Catholic Church (Roman and Eastern) is the original Catholic Church, as the writings of the early fathers (eg. St. Ignatius and St. Clement) show. They show that all of it was in union with the Bishop of Rome or Pope. Groups that then broke away from that union to go their own way can no longer call themselves Catholic, it would seem to me. They no longer have the assurance from Christ of the Keys of the Kingdom (Matt 16:19)