Catholic at the time of St. Ignatius of Antioch meant Universal. Both the Catholics and the Orthodox claim their denominations are the Universal church of St. Ignatius. Just because one denomination retains the name Catholic today does not prove its case versus the other.
Of course the Orthodox argue that you are the ones that broke from the Universal church. Like most things, neither of you can prove your case.
Back then they have a Pope like we have now. Both recognized the authority of Bishop of Rome, or the Apostolic See which was commonly referred to at the time. Second, many of the writings of St. Clement of Rome also had a view that the Primacy of Peter and his successor were present and clear though at the time it was not defined.
The Catholic Church is the Only Church of Jesus.
And there are discussions on these fora, but it doesn’t mean anything is accomplished. When these discussions provide resolution to the disagreement, then the Catholic apologetic claim that they are the “One True Church” will at least be internally consistent and point to only one denomination.
Catholic teachings of moral and faith have been very consistent compared to Protestantism. Before 1930, Protestant see the use of contraception as sinful. After the 1930, they don’t think it was. From the beginning, Christianity held strong opposition to contraception. It’s a pity only the True Church of Christ maintains this teaching.
Protestantism is a meaningless term since there is no denomination called “Protestant”. It is just a bucket term to classify denominations that are not Catholic or Orthodox.
Protestants are Christians that lacks Apostolic Succession and have their lines originate from Martin Luther, John Calvin and others. It is a religion founded by man not Christ.
And if you add the Catholic and Orthodox denominations to the mix you get 33,002 denominations (oh the 33,000 number is quite suspect but I won’t argue that one).
Catholic or Orthodox is nether an denomination. Orthodox has Local Churches who fulls under the authority of the Local bishop or Patriarch. Catholics have bishops who are in union with the Pope, this bishops also include Patriarchs from Eastern Rite Catholic Church.
Well, I can say that I have heard stories from Ex-Protestants who experience their own Protestant denomination breaking apart due to moral issues like abortion. The ministers and elder disagree on the issue, so these Churches break. THe one who disagree left his home Church and form another. He later then found one Church that date back to Jesus Christ.
Besides Protestant denominations (generally…I dunno if this is the case for all 234,567 denominations) do not claim for themselves “One True Church” status.
Most Protestants I know do not confess or believe or claim that their Church is the One True Church. Only the Catholic Church professes this very clearly and this is affirm by Pope Benedict XVI.
It’s sad to say Protestantism is just another mankind religion founded in 1517. It isn’t founded by Jesus Christ. They lack many of the Christian traditions and only kept one, the Bible. They also distort Scripture with there Sola Scriptura Doctrine.