As this thread shows, different people have different opinions on how (or if) the term “Roman Catholic” should be used. Some use it for the Latin Rite Church exclusively because of the unique role of the Pope in it (though “Patriarch” is not currently among his formal titles; that’s more an Easternized view of the Western Church). Others use it for all Christians/Churches in communion with the bishop of Rome. Still others insist it correctly describes only the diocese of Rome and its members. Some Protestants use it specifically because they don’t want to call Catholics Catholic, so they must add some qualifying word to contradict the sense of universality. As this thread shows, some people feel very passionately that their particular idiom is correct and all others are false.. .
As this thread shows, different people have different opinions on how (or if) the term “Roman Catholic” should be used. Some use it for the Latin Rite Church exclusively because of the unique role of the Pope in it (though “Patriarch” is not currently among his formal titles; that’s more an Easternized view of the Western Church). Others use it for all Christians/Churches in communion with the bishop of Rome. Still others insist it correctly describes only the diocese of Rome and its members. Some Protestants use it specifically because they don’t want to call Catholics Catholic, so they must add some qualifying word to contradict the sense of universality. As this thread shows, some people feel very passionately that their particular idiom is correct and all others are wrong.
This is a good answer. I think someone else early on in this thread said something like the name “Roman Catholic” hadn’t been invented until the Protestant Revolution.
But the Church herself, and various dioceses around the world, do identify themselves as Roman Catholics.
Even Eastern Catholics? Yourself?
The flow of the conversation were about Latin Rite Catholics. Please read the context of my reply through the post I replied to.
The different names that prefix the name Catholic Church is to identify the sui juris Church within the Catholic Church. Its not about your lineage or ethnicity, although in many cases it would. Being Roman Catholic doesn’t mean you are Roman, but go to the Church who’s head Church is in Rome. Some Churches sound like they belong to a specific ethnic group our country because the name of their Church coincides with the name of the country today. Ukrainian, Hungarian, Belarusian, etc. Others are named after the name of the land or ethnic group from the time the Church was established hundreds or thousands of years ago, like Ruthenians, Melkites, Coptic, Chaldean, etc.Wow!! Even for this cradle Catholic this is confusing!!!
And to top it off… Where I grew up (in the land of the ice and snow… New England), we called ourselves Roman Catholic. That was to tell people that we attended the Roman Catholic church in the town rather than the Russian Orthodox church in the same town. But then living in Boston, there were many people that referred to themselves at IRISH Catholics. And I know that was to mean they were from Irish decent, but attended the Roman Catholic / Latin Rite church in the city.
And you can see my confusion. Because I am of Italian decent so the “Roman” made sense to me. And the families that attended the Russian Orthodox church were of Russian decent.
Just my comment to add more confusion.
But what I am learning is that it has nothing to do with your Irish, Italian, Russian, etc decent or the language that the mass is done in. Right???
This was my reply:
When you said “the Church herself” your talking about the entire Catholic Church, right? And so I asked if that includes all Catholics, even Eastern, if they identify themselves as Roman Catholics.
I was just saying that when you quoted my post, it was in response into an earlier post which the context of our conversation was about the Latin Rite Church. So when I said, “the Church herself,” I was referring to the Roman Church.
Ooops, sorry about the mix up.
I agree with your post. When I hear about it I think if the center of faith and inspiration for all people such as the saints and of course, the passion of our Lord.