Roman Catholic?

[hcac]

This kid in my class told me he was Roman Catholic, and i said i was Catholic, and he told me that Catholics (w/o the Roman in front) didn’t think Mary was holy and i’m wondering if anyone else has heard this. I asked him if his church was under the Pope and he said yes then i asked then how can we believe to different things.

 

[RevDrNorth]

This kid in my class told me he was Roman Catholic, and i said i was Catholic, and he told me that Catholics (w/o the Roman in front) didn’t think Mary was holy and i’m wondering if anyone else has heard this. I asked him if his church was under the Pope and he said yes then i asked then how can we believe to different things.

This whole thing has been hashed to death here and a search would bring you more threads than you would care to read.

My understanding is that technically the RCC is called the Catholic Church (officially) and that the Latin Rite is simply one Rite of quite a number under the Church.

Now the confusion is that the word “Catholic” is used by many. Their are the Old Catholics (Union of Utrecht) who broke with Rome over Papal Infallibility in the 1800’s (legit apostolic succession). They are Catholics and are now in communion with the Anglican Communion. Then there are Anglicans who also consider themselves “Catholic”.

Although some consider “Roman Catholic” to be pejorative it very clearly speaks to the fact that you are a Catholic under the Roman Pontiff (whom you understand to be the successor of Peter and having unique authority in the church).

Frankly, the term Roman Catholic too me has rich meaning, beauty and conveys the history and authority of the church in a way “Catholic” does not (since that terms has long applied to others). There is only one Roman Catholic Church.

Any way in terms of argumentation I suspect you win.

RevNorth

 

[JMMK]

If you are a member of one of the 23 (I think) other Rites in the Catholic Church you might mention to him which Rite you belong to and tell him to look it up if he doesn’t believe you.

There are many many other churches that use the name Catholic that are not in any way in communion with the Holy See. THis showed up once on and MSNBC article titled Catholic Church Ordains Woman or something like that and it turns out to be some splinter of people that like our name, rituals and vestments but disagree on things like women priests, active homosexuality and other such things.

 

[1ke]

This kid in my class told me he was Roman Catholic, and i said i was Catholic, and he told me that Catholics (w/o the Roman in front) didn’t think Mary was holy and i’m wondering if anyone else has heard this. I asked him if his church was under the Pope and he said yes then i asked then how can we believe to different things.

We do not have enough details to answer your question.

You’d have to ask the student what he meant.