Is the term "Roman Catholic Church" offensive?

[Bbigam]

I think it’s generally just silly for people to take offense too much. I like your point here; the term “Roman Catholic” may be inaccurate and may have been started as a slur, and maybe some people today still mean it as a slur. But most people don’t mean it as a slur so there’s no reason to take offense, just to gently correct if needed.

In life in general, getting offended is usually just not productive or helpful, even if a term is meant offensively. There are exceptions, of course, like if someone is screaming offensive language at your children or deliberately profaning God. But aside from these kinds of times, usually we’d do much better to not bother getting offended.

 

[nlm]

That is fine if you don’t mind being called Roman Catholic.

But one cannot say that Catholic and Roman Catholic is the same thing. One is the proper name of our Church and the other was used by those insulting our Church, or in internal documents to differentiate between different rites contained within the Catholic Church.

To use the term Roman Catholic Church or RCC instead of just Catholic Church or CC by Protestants is insulting and tries to rewrite history and claim our name for themselves. For Catholics to use the term, refering to the entire Catholic Church, it is exclusionary.

We are the Catholic Church.

God Bless,
Maria

If this is the case, why do all of your church buildings have a sign designating them as Roman Catholic Churchs?
If that is the case, why is it that when a patient is admitted to hospital and asked to indicate their religious affiliation the choice is RC?God Bless. NLM

 

[Thing]

If this is the case, why do all of your church buildings have a sign designating them as Roman Catholic Churchs?
If that is the case, why is it that when a patient is admitted to hospital and asked to indicate their religious affiliation the choice is RC?God Bless. NLM

If you are asking, literally, why Roman Catholic, here is the why.
If you found yourself to be a Catholic, just an ordinary Catholic, priest in Ireland around the early 1600’s, you may have been on your way to say Mass when on the road you run into Oliver Cromwell and his new model army. A few minutes later you are hanging from a tree.
What is your crime?
You place loyalty to St. Peter above loyalty to the English Crown. Whereas the English protester says the order is;
God, Queen, Bishops, subjects.

You say;
God, Pope, Queen, Bishops, subjects.

So you are a Romanist, a Papist in the eyes of the English protesters and for that reason you deserve to die. And as a ‘Roman’ Catholic priest during Cromwellian times you are hunted out and killed on sight.

 

[Thing]

Did I say Cromwell was a royalist? Disregarding the fact that Cromwell was actually related to the Stuarts; the English King at that time was Charles Stuart, or Charles I. Charles I was thought by the Puritans to have Catholic sympathies. Cromwell gradually became a total Puritan.

Cromwell was convinced that God was opposed to both the king and Parliament as lawful authorities. The New Model Army was now chosen by God and any victories were a sign of Gods approval.

But to go back for a minute;
Cromwell was continuing a common thread in English philosophy towards Catholicism.

**1534 **
The Act of Supremacy was an Act of the Parliament of England under King Henry VIII declaring that he was;
‘the only supreme head on earth of the Church in England’

1544
Parliament conferred this title, Defender of the Faith, upon Henry;
Though repealed (1554) by the Catholic Mary I. Equally the Act was reinstated by Mary’s Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth I.

1559
This Act of Supremacy was an Act of the Parliament of England, passed under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Elizabeth declared herself Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and instituted an Oath of Supremacy, requiring anyone taking public or church office to swear allegiance to the monarch as head of the *Church *and state. Anyone refusing to take the Oath could be charged with treason.

1649-50
Cromwell took command of the English campaign in Ireland.
As the Puritan he was Cromwell was even more anti-Catholic than the general run of the Royalists.

**1659 **
Again The Oath of Supremacy appears, imposed by the Act of Supremacy 1559, which was;
I, A. B., do utterly testify and declare in my conscience that the Queen’s Highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other her Highness’s dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal, and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence or authority ecclesiastical or spiritual within this realm; and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all foreign jurisdictions, powers, superiorities and authorities, and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Queen’s Highness, her heirs and lawful successors, and to my power shall assist and defend all jurisdictions, pre-eminences, privileges and authorities granted or belonging to the Queen’s Highness, her heirs or successors, or united or annexed to the imperial crown of this realm. So help me God, and by the contents of this Book.

Roman Catholics who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy, for example St Thomas More, were indicted for treason on charges of praemunire. Such persons were generally executed.
The Oath was later extended to include Members of Parliament.

The first Act of Supremacy 1534 granted King Henry VIII of England Royal Supremacy which is still the legal authority of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom.

In 1552 in the wake of the Commonwealth’s conquest, the public practice of Catholicism was banned and Catholic priests were murdered when captured.

When Charles II switched the alliance to the Scots the protestant Royalists in Cork, some of them, faught for Cromwell. Don’t think Cromwell would like Irish Catholics fighting for him.

 

[Thing]

It was probably on account, partially, of your 'ould enemy argument that the Irish Bishops agreed to let the English call them Roman Catholics and agreed to refer to themselves as ‘Roman Catholics’ when communicating with the English. But with the Irish Bishops proviso that ‘Roman Catholic’ means a Catholic who is in union with Rome & the Pope.
I suppose that means you’re taking the bould step of rebelling and finally telling the 'ould enemy where to get off calling us Roman Catholics!

(just trying to wind you up, you know!)

 

[nlm]

If you are asking, literally, why Roman Catholic, here is the why.
If you found yourself to be a Catholic, just an ordinary Catholic, priest in Ireland around the early 1600’s, you may have been on your way to say Mass when on the road you run into Oliver Cromwell and his new model army. A few minutes later you are hanging from a tree.
What is your crime?
You place loyalty to St. Peter above loyalty to the English Crown. Whereas the English protester says the order is;
God, Queen, Bishops, subjects.

You say;
God, Pope, Queen, Bishops, subjects.

So you are a Romanist, a Papist in the eyes of the English protesters and for that reason you deserve to die. And as a ‘Roman’ Catholic priest during Cromwellian times you are hunted out and killed on sight.

All I was asking was, if the correct name for your denomination is not Roman Catholic as is being discussed in this thread, then why are the words Roman Catholic Church found on all your churches in this city and I would guess in most if not all your church around the world.For 50 years I was told I was a member of the Roman Catholic Church.In my opinion, if a poll was taken of those attending your churches, the majority would call themselves Roman Catholics. I am not saying this in a derogatory manner.As I mentioned in my earlier post, our entire health care system refers to your denomination as RC when they ask for a patient’s religious affiliation.God Bless. NLM

 

[Lepanto]

All I was asking was, if the correct name for your denomination is not Roman Catholic as is being discussed in this thread, then why are the words Roman Catholic Church found on all your churches in this city and I would guess in most if not all your church around the world.

This is largely a phenomenon of the English-speaking world. The more “English” the region, the more common (e.g., the American northeast, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc.). Please see:

ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/HOWNAME.HTM

 

[Lepanto]

All I was asking was, if the correct name for your denomination …

Not to get too picky here, but in the interest of precision in language (which is what we’ve been discussing), the Catholic Church is not a “denomination.” By definition, it cannot be a denomination because it is the original Christian Church, and hence all of the others have been “denominated” from it.

Those who have an interest in numismatics will know what I mean when I make the comparison to money. In the United States, the standard of currency is the dollar. All of the other legally accepted aggregates ($5, $20, $50, etc.) are denominations, because they are “denominated” from the $1. The $1, being the standard, is technically not a denomination, although that is not understood in common parlance.

 

[Thing]

All I was asking was, if the correct name for your denomination is not Roman Catholic as is being discussed in this thread, then why are the words Roman Catholic Church found on all your churches in this city and I would guess in most if not all your church around the world.For 50 years I was told I was a member of the Roman Catholic Church.In my opinion, if a poll was taken of those attending your churches, the majority would call themselves Roman Catholics. I am not saying this in a derogatory manner.As I mentioned in my earlier post, our entire health care system refers to your denomination as RC when they ask for a patient’s religious affiliation.God Bless. NLM

Just a couple of things NLM, to clarify my own self, and I hope I’m not repeating you, Lepanto.

The Catholic Church, if you look up the name in a dictionary or if you ask it, itself, will tell you that it is the One True Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
If you look up the definition of denomination in the same dictionary you will see that denomination means something as a **division **of something else.
So the Catholic Church is not a division of itself, it is the One True original.
Neither is ‘Roman’ Catholic a division of the Catholic Church nor even a rite of Catholicism. Roman Catholic is just an alternative name for the Catholic Church.
Started as a name in the 1600’s and 1700’s because people are not perfect and wish to exercise their wills on others now and again.
The name Roman Catholic stuck because the Irish Bishops were nice guys and took the term to mean Catholic in unity with the Pope in Rome.
As all Catholics are in unity with the Pope in Rome all Catholics could call themselves Roman Catholics if they wished.
But as this term came from a period in Irish and English history not every Catholic in the world will share its history and understand it. Because of that history in the 1600’s over half a million Irish left Ireland during what is know as The Flight of the Wild Geese. They settled all over Europe.
Later in Irish history in the early 1850’s a million Irish left Ireland during the Famine, most went to America. There are now over 40 million of Irish descent in America.
39,000 Irish men and women were transported to Australia as prisoners by the English forces. The Irish ‘diaspora’ in all consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil and states of the Caribbean and continental Europe. The diaspora, maximally interpreted, contains over 80 million people.
And thats a lot of Irish people all over the world who may or may not decide to refer to themselves as Roman Catholics because of their own peculiar history.

 

[Mannyfit75]

There wasn’t a answer that was posted in this post. I do not find the term Roman Catholic Church offensive but I do find it to be inaccurate if one wants to describe the Catholic Church. Since not all in Catholics in the Catholic Church are not from the Roman Rite or Latin Rite.

 

[KingTheoden]

No. But the term ‘Roman Church’ invariably is used as an epithet.

 

[clmowry]

**Apparently random house thinks it is “often offensive”.

Chuck
**

Ro⋅man

sp.ask.com/dictstatic/g/d/speaker.gif /ˈroʊhttp://sp.ask.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.pngmən/ sp.ask.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif Show Spelled Pronunciation roh-muhhttp://sp.ask.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.pngn] sp.ask.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif Show IPA ***–adjective ***1.of or pertaining to the ancient or modern city of Rome, or to its inhabitants and their customs and culture: *Roman restaurants. *2.of or pertaining to the ancient kingdom, republic, and empire whose capital was the city of Rome.3.of a kind or character regarded as typical of the ancient Romans: *Roman virtues. *4.(usually lowercasehttp://sp.ask.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.png) designating or pertaining to the upright style of printing types most commonly used in modern books, periodicals, etc., of which the main text of this dictionary is an example.5.of or pertaining to the Roman Catholic Church.6.noting, pertaining to, or resembling the architecture of ancient Rome, esp. the public and religious architecture, characterized by the employment of massive brick and concrete construction, with such features as the semicircular arch, the dome, and groin and barrel vaults, by the use in interiors of marble and molded stucco revetments, by the elaboration of the Greek orders as purely decorative motifs for the adornment of façades and interiors, and by an overall effect in which simplicity and grandeur of massing is often combined with much elaboration of detailing.7.written in or pertaining to Roman numerals.
***–noun ***8.a native, inhabitant, or citizen of ancient or modern Rome.9.the dialect of Italian spoken in Rome.10.(usually lowercasehttp://sp.ask.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.png) roman type or lettering.11.Often Offensive. a member of the Roman Catholic Church.12.Rare. the Latin language.13.a male given name.

**Origin: **
bef. 900; < L Rōmānus (see Rome, -an ); r. ME Romain < OF < L, as above; r. OE Roman(e) < L, as abovehttp://sp.ask.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.png

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source

 

[MariaG]

Both of these labels, “Papist” and “Roman Catholic,” were coined by anti-Catholics. (Just look up their etymologies, beginning with some of the links posted on this thread.)

Another anti-Catholic slur is “Mackerel Snapper,” due to the fish-only-on-Friday discipline. Fortunately, this one is no longer used much. But should we also go around calling ourselves “Mackerel Snappers”?

Other than out of ignorance, why would any Catholic intentionally use these slurs?

:clapping:Exactly!

 

[MariaG]

An Irish or English Catholic might prefer to call themselves Roman Catholics as they know their very own ancestors were put to death for the *crime *of being Roman Catholic.

Crime of being Catholic renamed Roman Catholic by Her detractors.

Have Irish or English Catholics embrace being called Roman Catholic? Maybe as a person of color embraces the N word. Still doesn’t make it right for anyone else to call them that.

 

[MariaG]

All I was asking was, if the correct name for your denomination is not Roman Catholic as is being discussed in this thread, then why are the words Roman Catholic Church found on all your churches in this city and I would guess in most if not all your church around the world.For 50 years I was told I was a member of the Roman Catholic Church.In my opinion, if a poll was taken of those attending your churches, the majority would call themselves Roman Catholics. I am not saying this in a derogatory manner.As I mentioned in my earlier post, our entire health care system refers to your denomination as RC when they ask for a patient’s religious affiliation.God Bless. NLM

Roman Catholic on the front of a church would be similar to internal Church documents that refer to “Roman Catholic” as a way to differentiate between different Rites within the Church.

And Is my Church’s official name decided by my Church or a hospital??? I can’t help what the rest of the world or uneducated Catholics think, but the Catholic Church is the name of my Church. It is NOT the Roman Catholic Church.

I am truly sorry that you were so ignorant of the fact that you belonged to the Catholic Church and not the Roman Catholic Church. Maybe you don’t understand what you really left if you didn’t even know the official name of the church you belonged to for 50 years.

And by the way, my Church does not say Roman Catholic on it’s sign and neither do Many other Catholic Churches that are Latin Rite Churches.

God Bless,
Maria

 

[nlm]

Roman Catholic on the front of a church would be similar to internal Church documents that refer to “Roman Catholic” as a way to differentiate between different Rites within the Church.

And Is my Church’s official name decided by my Church or a hospital??? I can’t help what the rest of the world or uneducated Catholics think, but the Catholic Church is the name of my Church. It is NOT the Roman Catholic Church.

I am truly sorry that you were so ignorant of the fact that you belonged to the Catholic Church and not the Roman Catholic Church. Maybe you don’t understand what you really left if you didn’t even know the official name of the church you belonged to for 50 years.

And by the way, my Church does not say Roman Catholic on it’s sign and neither do Many other Catholic Churches that are Latin Rite Churches.

God Bless,
Maria

All my religious education was taught by nuns and priests in parochial schools. How is it then that I would not know the name of my church?For 8 years I was told I was enrolled in a Roman Catholic School. I was told I was a member of Roman Catholic Church.NLM

 

[Randy_Carson]

Both of these labels, “Papist” and “Roman Catholic,” were coined by anti-Catholics. (Just look up their etymologies, beginning with some of the links posted on this thread.)

Another anti-Catholic slur is “Mackerel Snapper,” due to the fish-only-on-Friday discipline. Fortunately, this one is no longer used much. But should we also go around calling ourselves “Mackerel Snappers”?

Bead Jigglers
Pope Lovers

But for me, the clearest give-away has to occur when someone refers to the “Romish Church”.

 

[Thing]

Crime of being Catholic renamed Roman Catholic by Her detractors.

Have Irish or English Catholics embrace being called Roman Catholic? Maybe as a person of color embraces the N word. Still doesn’t make it right for anyone else to call them that.

They don’t mind. They are very, very proud of their ancestors, their strength of character and unswerving Catholic faith in the face of actual persecution. They are born of these people and are very proud of their heritage. If you call them Catholic they may well correct you and say Roman Catholic!

 

[tmancath]

Well we are the Catholic Church and many of us are in the Roman Rite. I don’t think it is offensive, but rather inaccurate, because not everyone is Roman Catholic. I do prefer the tern Latin-rite Catholic myself.

 

[Randy_Carson]

Still running at about 1 in 4 Catholics agreeing that “Roman Catholic” is offensive.