What’s the difference between Roman Catholic and just Catholic?
I was having a conversation with my boyfriend about religions and he asked me if I was Roman or just Catholic. What’s the difference? I’m Catholic, I believe in God and Heaven and Hell and that’s about as far religious as I go. I was Baptized and I had my confirmation.
The word, catholic, means "universal" . All those in Christ everywhere are "the church", the universal church.
Roman Catholic has the Pope in Rome as it’s head, and ascribe to all it’s rites and rituals, etc.
And God never said- to be saved, you must do rites, rituals, oh did you get baptized, confirmed, etc??? No- God says, you must be born again. Do you have Christ?
That is the question, not what denomination you "belong" to.
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June 15 2010 05:20 am | Catholic
Pastor Art (((SFECU on 15 Jun 2010 at 10:28 am #
nothing the moniker Roman was given to the church by King Henry of England who wanted to use the word catholic for his new brand of church. Now it only delineates the Rite it practices
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denise t on 15 Jun 2010 at 10:33 am #
same thing
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Sldgman on 15 Jun 2010 at 11:12 am #
Catholic means a member of the church founded in the 1st century that has the Pope as the leader of the church.
"Roman Catholic" means a member of teh Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. There are 23 other rites, nearly all of them are eastern Catholic churches with their distinctive liturgy and rules, but still in communion with the pope.
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Marysia on 15 Jun 2010 at 11:45 am #
then you are roman catholic.
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TasselLady on 15 Jun 2010 at 12:20 pm #
I’m not Catholic, I’m Protestant, but this website might explain the difference better than I could. It seems pretty thorough and it hits on the important points.
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http://www.ehow.com/facts_5810016_difference-roman-catholic-catholic-church_.html
harpertara on 15 Jun 2010 at 12:26 pm #
Ask your boyfriend what He feels is the difference between the two. Most Roman Catholics simply identify themselves as Catholic. Roman Catholics give their allegiance to the Pope. "Catholic" in itself means ‘Universal’. Roman Catholic means you are of the branch of the church that was established in Rome and that you consider the Pope the titular head of your religion.
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space monkey on 15 Jun 2010 at 1:10 pm #
The word, catholic, means "universal" . All those in Christ everywhere are "the church", the universal church.
Roman Catholic has the Pope in Rome as it’s head, and ascribe to all it’s rites and rituals, etc.
And God never said- to be saved, you must do rites, rituals, oh did you get baptized, confirmed, etc??? No- God says, you must be born again. Do you have Christ?
That is the question, not what denomination you "belong" to.
References :
skepsis on 15 Jun 2010 at 1:58 pm #
About 98% of all Catholics are Roman Catholic. There are Eastern Rite Catholics (Byzantine, Syro-Malabar, Chaldean, etc.) in some areas, but they are usually quite distinctly labelled. If it’s just unhypenated "Catholic", it’s most likely Roman.
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Ricardo on 15 Jun 2010 at 2:29 pm #
The "catholic" church was started in 325 by Constantine, it is not Greek Orthodox. Catholic mean universal. The "Roman catholic" church was started in 872 by Bishop Thomas when he broke away from the catholic church.
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answer4you on 15 Jun 2010 at 3:15 pm #
Most are Roman Catholic… the rest represent different rites, but are still Catholic in doctrine.
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@ >>>>>> "Space Monkey":
"And God never said- to be saved, you must do rites, rituals, oh did you get baptized, confirmed, etc??? No- God says, you must be born again." —- Nice try, but you are wrong. In fact, Jesus says the following:
John 3:5 —- "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
Mark 16:16 —- "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned"
1 Peter 3:21 —- "….whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, (not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."
Acts 2:38 —- "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost"
Water baptism is an act of obedience to the Lord’s command. It is God’s promise to us that, just as water washes away dirt from our bodies Christ’s shed blood washes away all filth from our soul’s. All our sins.
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@ Ricardo
"The "catholic" church was started in 325 by Constantine" — Wrong. You may want to read the writings of Ignatius of Antioch who uses the term Catholic as early as 110AD. Also, for someone to use a word in official writing, it is assumed that the masses already understood the word, or else, why write about it. So this alone discredits your comment…
"The "Roman catholic" church was started in 872 by Bishop Thomas when he broke away from the catholic church." — Wrong once again. Rome ran the show… it was their empire, so the official adopted faith was Roman Catholicism… Nice try though….
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Pastor Art (((SFECU))) on 15 Jun 2010 at 3:59 pm #
If your church is under the leadership of the Pope in Rome, your church is Roman Catholic.
Most people in the USA who are Roman Catholic, usually only use the one word "Catholic" to describe their religion.
Greek Orthodox Churches, Russian Orthodox Churches, consider themselves to be the real Catholics and the Roman group to be a splinter group. The word, "Orthodox" means original.
The word, "Catholic" all by itself really means "universal".
The question you both should answer is "Are you Born Again?"
http://www.godlovestheworld.com/
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44+ years following a Jewish Carpenter & studying His Book!
I am the real Pastor Art, not the clone.
imacatholic2 on 15 Jun 2010 at 4:42 pm #
The Catholic Church has consistently referred to itself as the “Catholic Church” at least since 107 C.E., when the term appears in the writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch
The term "Roman" Catholic is rather recent.
The new Anglican Church in England started using the term “Roman” in the 1500s as one of many ways of demeaning and demonizing Catholics.
Catholics accepted this late coming adjective without too much protest. Today “Catholic” and “Roman Catholic” are interchangeable terms. Both terms are even used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
To add a little more confusion, some apply the term “Roman Catholic Church” only to the Latin Rite Catholic Church, excluding the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches that are in full communion with the Pope, and are part of the same Church, under the Pope.
Eastern Rite Catholic Churches include:
Alexandrian liturgical tradition
• Coptic Catholic Church
• Ethiopic Catholic Church
Antiochian (Antiochene or West-Syrian) liturgical tradition
• Maronite Church
• Syrian Catholic Church
• Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
Armenian liturgical tradition:
• Armenian Catholic Church
Chaldean or East Syrian liturgical tradition:
• Chaldean Catholic Church
• Syro-Malabar Church
Byzantine (Constantinopolitan) liturgical tradition:
• Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church
• Belarusian Greek Catholic Church
• Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church
• Byzantine Church of the Eparchy of Križevci
• Greek Byzantine Catholic Church
• Hungarian Greek Catholic Church
• Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
• Macedonian Greek Catholic Church
• Melkite Greek Catholic Church
• Romanian Church
• Russian Byzantine Catholic Church
• Ruthenian Catholic Church
• Slovak Greek Catholic Church
• Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The term “Roman” neither increases nor decreases the faith, hope and love of the Catholic Church.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13121a.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic
With love in Christ.
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jm1970 on 15 Jun 2010 at 5:07 pm #
I’m wondering if you were listening in Religious Ed…there are Catholics, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Catholic….I’m willing to bet you were raised a Roman Catholic.
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Daver on 15 Jun 2010 at 5:45 pm #
A catholic ‘is’ Catholic.
Roman (aka Latin) Catholic refers to those Catholics in the Roman/Latin Rite of the Church.
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pepgurli on 15 Jun 2010 at 6:33 pm #
Well Roman Catholic refers to a specific rite of Catholicism. There are other rites such as Byzantine but all are Catholic and are in communion with one another.
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† John M † on 15 Jun 2010 at 6:48 pm #
The best description will be : THE FOLLOWER OF JESUS CHRIST. Which is not any religions or denomination. It is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Full stop.
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JML