"orthodox"?

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Peter_J

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This question may not be large enough for its own thread, but it would be off topic on any existing thread so, well, I’ll start a thread and just see if anyone replies. 🙂

An interesting thing I’ve noticed, on occasion and on various threads, is posters using the word “orthodox” to mean the same as “Orthodox”. This always strikes me as odd, because we Catholics would consider ourselves to be “orthodox”, non?
 
Peter, Peter, Peter … have you opened yet another can of worms? :eek: 😉

Sometimes the difference is merely bad typing (maybe “thick fingers” or a “sticky keyboard” or whatever). And sometimes it’s because Latins just don’t get it. And sometimes, (and have look at your profile description), it’s just confusing. Are you a Melkite or “an (Orthodox) in communion with Rome?” You see what I mean.
 
I’ll use both without prejudice, as I don’t care to reinforce anybody’s silly notions that there is really a difference based on orthographic distinctions that most of our traditional languages (Coptic, Syriac, etc.) don’t even make, or originally didn’t make (in the case of Coptic). You could call me a Michelin Man-worshiping heretic and if by that you meant that I embrace the faith of St. Athanasius, St. Cyril, St. Severus, St. Dioscorus, Bar Hebraeus, Abdelmasih el-Habashi, et al., I would have no choice but to happily agree.

By the same token, anyone can call themselves whatever they want – including “Orthodox”, “Orthodox in communion with Rome” or whatever else – but if they would not be allowed to share at the chalice with us here at St. Bishoy COC under normal circumstances, it would not matter; I would not be able to recognize them as Orthodox on any account.
 
Peter_J said:
This question may not be large enough for its own thread, but it would be off topic on any existing thread so, well, I’ll start a thread and just see if anyone replies. 🙂

An interesting thing I’ve noticed, on occasion and on various threads, is posters using the word “orthodox” to mean the same as “Orthodox”. This always strikes me as odd, because we Catholics would consider ourselves to be “orthodox”, non?
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catholic = universal
Catholic = Roman Catholic
orthodox = true or correct
Orthodox = member of an autocephalous Eastern Church

orthodox Catholic = a Roman Catholic who agrees with you 😛
 
Randy_Carson said:
catholic = universal
Catholic = Roman Catholic
orthodox = true or correct
Orthodox = member of an autocephalous Eastern Church

orthodox Catholic = a Roman Catholic who agrees with you 😛
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What about catholic Orthodox? 😃
 
Randy_Carson said:
catholic = universal
Catholic = Roman Catholic
orthodox = true or correct
Orthodox = member of an autocephalous Eastern Church

orthodox Catholic = a Roman Catholic who agrees with you 😛
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Not all Catholics are Roman, Randy…
My pastor is certainly very much a Catholic priest, but is very much NOT Roman. Neither in rite, language, nor attitude…
 
Aramis said:
Not all Catholics are Roman, Randy…
My pastor is certainly very much a Catholic priest, but is very much NOT Roman. Neither in rite, language, nor attitude…
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I stand corrected. For brevity’s sake, I spoke of Roman instead of “being in communion with the Bishop of Rome.” You can tell I’ve spent many years in the apologetics forum and not in the Eastern forum. 😛
 
Here is another attempt at Randy’s list:

**catholic **= Universal ( Faith that is meant for all people and is whole/complete)
**orthodox ** =True belief or true faith
Catholic = In communion with Rome
Orthodox = in communion with Constantinople or with Alexandria
orthodox Catholic = Member that has the true faith in communion with Rome
orthodox Orthodox= Member that has true faith in communion with either Constantinople or Alexandria
catholic Orthodox = In communion with Constantinople or Alexandria whose faith is for all people
catholic Catholic = in communion with Rome whose faith is for all people

I hope this doesn’t confuse people even more 😊
 
Randy_Carson said:
I stand corrected. For brevity’s sake, I spoke of Roman instead of “being in communion with the Bishop of Rome.” You can tell I’ve spent many years in the apologetics forum and not in the Eastern forum. 😛
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Yes, I think it shows a little. :cool: I wonder if people can tell that I’ve spent years in the Eastern Catholicism forum, and not much time in the Apologetics forum. :hmmm:
 
Peter_J said:
This question may not be large enough for its own thread, but it would be off topic on any existing thread so, well, I’ll start a thread and just see if anyone replies. 🙂

An interesting thing I’ve noticed, on occasion and on various threads, is posters using the word “orthodox” to mean the same as “Orthodox”. This always strikes me as odd, because we Catholics would consider ourselves to be “orthodox”, non?
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Well in a lot of Non-Catholic Churches when they say the creed they lower case the word “catholic” to differentiate themselves with our Catholicism because to them they use “catholic” as in universal.

Same reason why use “orthodox”, lower case, to differentiate ourselves from the Orthodox Church.

For me, these are not done out of spite but to avoid confusion
 
malphono said:
Sometimes the difference is merely bad typing (maybe “thick fingers” or a “sticky keyboard” or whatever).
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I’ve thought of that, and that undoubtedly accounts for *some *of it. But, from my experience, it seems like sometimes Catholics use the word “orthodox”, even with lowercase, as something foreign (which I guess goes hand in hand with the fact that many people will hear the word and assume you’re talking about Judaism).
 
followingtheway said:
Well in a lot of Non-Catholic Churches when they say the creed they lower case the word “catholic” to differentiate themselves with our Catholicism because to them they use “catholic” as in universal.

Same reason why use “orthodox”, lower case, to differentiate ourselves from the Orthodox Church.

For me, these are not done out of spite but to avoid confusion
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We lowercase the word because it isn’t a proper noun. 🙂
 
Nine_Two said:
No more than orthodox Catholic. 😉
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There are Catholics who hold to the Catholic faith without dissent. They are orthodox Catholics.

There are no catholic Orthodox since the Orthodox Churches (plural) are largely ethnic and nationalistic in nature and thus not universal.

But I do understand the good-natured sparring intended. 🙂
 
Randy_Carson said:
There are Catholics who hold to the Catholic faith without dissent. They are orthodox Catholics.

There are no catholic Orthodox since the Orthodox Churches (plural) are largely ethnic and nationalistic in nature and thus not universal.

But I do understand the good-natured sparring intended. 🙂
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I get so tired of hearing this bogus charge. You leave out the part about how the largely ethnic and nationalistic Orthodox Churches are in communion with each other. You also leave out the part about how the Catholic Church is a communion of Churches (plural), just like the Orthodox Church. Furthermore, you leave out the part about how many of the Catholic Churches (plural) are also ethnic and nationalistic in nature. Does that make them somehow not catholic? What about times in the past when the Catholic Church was basically limited to the Roman Empire? Was it not really catholic? Catholicity is not determined by geographic extent, nor is it determined by the number of adherents.
 
Peter_J said:
I’ve thought of that, and that undoubtedly accounts for *some *of it. But, from my experience, it seems like sometimes Catholics use the word “orthodox”, even with lowercase, as something foreign (which I guess goes hand in hand with the fact that many people will hear the word and assume you’re talking about Judaism).
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That’s quite what I meant in the next part of my earlier post: sometimes they just don’t get it. 😉
 
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