Daily Apologetics 101 Made Easy…The NAME CATHOLIC CHURCH Question: Where do you find the word Catholic in the Bible?Answer: YES, but WORD for WORD No. Around the same verse that uses the word Trinity, Lutheran, Anglican, King James Version, etc. Even though these words are not found in the Bible, does not mean that they either dont exist or shouldnt exist. The term Catholic was derived from the Greek word καθολικός (katholikos), which means universal or general, was also used to describe the Church in the early 2nd century. The term katholikos is equivalent to καθόλου (katholou), a contraction of the phrase καθ ὅλου (kath holou) meaning according to the whole. Thus the full name Catholic Church roughly means universal or whole church.Acts 9:31 (Greek Bible), ai men oun ekklēsiai kath olēs tēs ioudaias kai galilaias kai samareias eichon eirēnēn oikodomoumenai kai poreuomenai tō phobō tou kuriou kai tē paraklēsei tou agiou pneumatos eplēthunonto EKKLESIA KATHOLES. Acts 9:3l RSV: So the Church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it was multiplied. Historically around the year A.D. 107, a bishop, St. Ignatius of Antioch in the Near East, was arrested, brought to Rome by armed guards and eventually martyred there in the arena. In a farewell letter which this early bishop and martyr wrote to his fellow Christians in Smyrna (today Izmir in modern Turkey), he made the first written mention in history of the Catholic Church. He wrote, Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church (To the Smyrnaeans 8:2). Thus, the second century of Christianity had scarcely begun when the name of the Catholic Church was already in use. Thereafter, mention of the name became more and more frequent in the written record. It appears in the oldest written account we possess outside the New Testament of the martyrdom of a Christian for his faith, the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, bishop of the same Church of Smyrna to which St. Ignatius of Antioch had written. St. Polycarp was martyred around 155, and the account of his sufferings dates back to that time. The narrator informs us that in his final prayers before giving up his life for Christ, St. Polycarp remembered all who had met with him at any time, both small and great, both those with and those without renown, and the whole Catholic Church throughout the world. We know that St. Polycarp, at the time of his death in 155, had been a Christian for 86 years. He could not, therefore, have been born much later than 69 or 70. Yet it appears to have been a normal part of the vocabulary of a man of this era to be able to speak of the whole Catholic Church throughout the world. The term catholic simply means universal, and when employing it in those early days, St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Polycarp of Smyrna were referring to the Church that was already everywhere, as distinguished from whatever sects, schisms or splinter groups might have grown up here and there, in opposition to the Catholic Church. The term was already understood even then to be an especially fitting name because the Catholic Church was for everyone, not just for adepts, enthusiasts or the specially initiated who might have been attracted to her.Again, it was already understood that the Church was catholic because -- to adopt a modern expression -- she possessed the fullness of the means of salvation. She also was destined to be universal in time as well as in space, and it was to her that applied the promise of Christ to Peter and the other apostles that the powers of death shall not prevail against her (Mt 16:18). The Catechism of the Catholic Church in our own day has concisely summed up all the reasons why the name of the Church of Christ has been the Catholic Church: The Church is catholic, the Catechism teaches, [because] she proclaims the fullness of the faith. She bears in herself and administers the totality of the means of salvation. She is sent out to all peoples. She speaks to all men. She encompasses all times. She is missionary of her very nature (CCC868). Some may further object, if we could find Catholic in the Bible then how about ROMAN Catholic Church? To make it clear, we should 1st know that Roman Catholic religion is one of the religion of the Catholic Church, that group of churches in communion with the pope. If a group isn’t in communion with the pope, it isn’t part of the Catholic Church. Within the Catholic Church there are a number of individual churches, sometimes called rites. One of these is the Roman rite or Roman church. It includes most of the Catholics in the Western world. A Roman Catholic is a Catholic who is a member of the Roman rite. There are many Catholics in the East who are not Roman Catholics, such as Maronite Catholics, Ukrainian Catholics, and Chaldean Catholics. These are all in communion with the pope, but they are not members of the Roman rite, so they are not Roman Catholics. The Roman rite is not stricter than these other rights. They are equal. They all teach the same faith; it is only local customs that are different among them. It is not possible to give an exact year when the Catholic Church began to be called the Roman Catholic Church, but it is possible to approximate it. The term originates as an insult created by Anglicans who wished to refer to themselves as Catholic. They thus coined the term Roman Catholic to distinguish those in union with Rome from themselves and to create a sense in which they could refer to themselves as Catholics (by attempting to deprive actual Catholics to the right to the term). Different variants of the Roman insult appeared at different times. The earliest form was the noun Romanist (one belonging to the Catholic Church), which appeared in England about 1515-1525. The next to develop was the adjective Romish (similar to something done or believed in the Catholic Church), which appeared around 1525-1535. Next came the noun Roman Catholic (one belonging to the Catholic Church), which was coined around 1595-1605. Shortly thereafter came the verb to Romanize (to make someone a Catholic or to become a Catholic), which appeared around 1600-10. Between 1665 and 1675 we got the noun Romanism (the system of Catholic beliefs and practices), and finally we got a latecomer term about 1815-1825, the noun Roman Catholicism, a synonym for the earlier Romanism. A similar complex of insults arose around pope. About 1515-25 the Anglicans coined the term papist and later its derivative papism. A quick follow-up, in 1520-1530, was the adjective popish. Next came popery (1525-1535), then papistry (1540-1550), with its later derivatives, papistical and papistic. (Source: Random House Websters College Dictionary, 1995 ed.) This complex of insults is revealing as it shows the depths of animosity English Protestants had toward the Church. No other religious body (perhaps no other group at all, even national or racial) has such a complex of insults against it woven into the English language as does the Catholic Church. Even today many Protestants who have no idea what the origin of the term is cannot bring themselves to say Catholic without qualifying it or replacing it with an insult.Foot Note: Some Answers was Referred from Catholic Answers and ETWN
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:28:35 +0000
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