Roman Catholic or Catholic

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I think there’s a lot of confusion due to the way the word entered into the English language, how it was used and its relationship to similar phrases in other languages. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the phrase ‘Roman Catholic’ entered into English usage only after the Reformation and it applied both to the Churches that were in communion with Rome and also their faithful. Moreover, it does not seem to have been used as a slur initially. Rather, it was meant as a polite term instead of ‘Romish’ or ‘Papist’, but it probably did acquire some negative connotations over the following few centuries.

Erstwhile, you have the separate usage of the phrase Ecclesia Catholica Romana in Latin, which was occasionally used to describe the Church, but was rarely (if ever) applied to the faithful in the form of Catholicus Romanus. Note that in English, the Church was not generally qualified with a ‘Roman’ or ‘of Rome’ modifier prior to the Reformation, it was only referred to as the ‘Catholic Church’, and likewise the faithful were simply ‘Catholics’.

On top of this, the use of ‘Roman Catholic’ in English also lead to its adoption in many other languages, including Greek ρωμαικοκαθολικος romaiokatholikos. The latter has seen more widespread as Greeks do not any longer refer to themselves as Romans (in the sense of citizens of the Byzantine Empire), and romaiokatholikos is a much more polite term for the Church and its faithful than the historical terms φραγκοι frankoi (Franks) and λατινικες latinikes (Latins), and the very pejorative φραγκολατινικες francolatinikes (Franco-Latins).
 
Once Pejorative names often get adopted after awhile. The term “Lutherans” was thrown at followers of Martin Luther, who called themselves "Catholics’ for a few generations.

Today they don’t seem to mind the term Lutherans, though I see a few now using the word Catholic too.

The SSPX chapel in my city has a sign “Traditional Roman Catholic Church”.
 
I remember when I was a child, and up until maybe 20 years ago, all of the parishes I attended always said St.—— RC Church. I was actually surprised when we moved south and the the church signs and bulletins just said St.——Catholic Church.
 
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Yes it is.

Roman Catholicism began as a slur by Protestants.

It is right up there with Papist as an insult. Now it is used not as an insult but due to ignorance.

I remember reading an article where the subject was about an Eastern Catholic Church but it was called a Roman Catholic Church.

A simple fact checking could have prevented this mistake.

Have journalists become intellectually lazy?
 
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Yes, there are plenty of Protestants that use this term as a perjorative, but most do not.
 
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