what is the full name of the catholic church? and what do we call ourselves(full name too) as members?

thanks!

-- janeiro (janeiro_a@rocketmail.com), March 30, 2004

Answers

bump!

-- janeiro (janeiro_a@rocketmail.com), March 30, 2004.

The full name is The Catholic Church, and its members are Catholics. There are other groups of people who also use the term "Catholic" as part of the name of their group. But calling yourself Catholic doesn't make you Catholic. There is only one Catholic Church, the one founded by Jesus Christ for all men, 2,000 years ago.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), March 31, 2004.

One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church

-- Emily (jesusfollower7@yahoo.com), March 31, 2004.

The Catholic Church is called the Catholic Church. The word "Catholic" means Universal.

Sometimes the world " Holy" is added.

Branches of this Chruch are called Roman Catholic. Eastern Rite. Syriac, ect... But its all the same actual Church.

Everyone in it is called a Catholic.

-- ZAROVE (ZAROFF3@JUNO.COM), March 31, 2004.

zarove, you said: Branches of this Chruch are called Roman Catholic. Eastern Rite. Syriac, ect... But its all the same actual Church

this is almost correct. There technically is no religion which calls itself roman catholic. the term was devised by protestants and the orthodox roman churches to distinguish between two churches both calling themselves the catholic church (after the eastern orthodox break from the pope in the early middle ages). To this day the Catholic church continues to call itself by its only rightful name: Catholic.

For example, I do not consider myself Roman Catholic, i consider myself to just be "catholic." the church being called the Holy Catholic church is not a change in name either. Holy is an adjective descriptor. For example: blue ball does not change the object name of ball to include blue. if you painted the ball red, it would no longer possess the descriptor "blue" which means that the name blue ball would not be appropriate. So with the Catholic church, Holy describes its state of being. Even though we know that Holy is the permanent state of being of the catholic church (until the second coming of Christ) it remains a descriptor of the name for the church: Catholic.

-- paul h (dontSendMeMail@notAnAddress.com), March 31, 2004.

branches of the Catholic Church?How are they different?I thought there is only ONE Catholic Church, and if you dont agree with even just one of her teachings, you become protestant right?

-- janeiro (janeiro_a@rocketmail.com), April 04, 2004.

We have one Catholic Church. There are around 20 litergical 'rites' that are affiliated within the one Church. A Rite represents a tradition about how the sacraments are to be celebrated. We all share the same dogma on faith and morals.

There are three major groupings of Rites based on this initial transmission of the faith, the Roman, the Antiochian (Syria) and the Alexandrian (Egypt). Later on the Byzantine derived as a major Rite from the Antiochian, under the influence of St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom. From these four derive the over 20 liturgical Rites present in the Church today.

For more information, please read this article on rites and churches.

In Christ
Bill

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45@hotmail.com), April 04, 2004.

then it is ok to call myself a Roman Catholic, with the term 'Roman' referring to the rites I attend to?

-- janeiro (janeiro_a@rocketmail.com), April 05, 2004.

Sure, don't sweat it.

-bill

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), April 05, 2004.