What is the difference between ................

One is what the Catholic Church calls itself, and the other is what outsiders call it.

As I've heard it, "Roman Catholic" was a term invented by English Protestants to do two things, (1) imply that the Catholic Church was a foreign entity in England, and (2) allow themselves to attach to the Catholic name as Anglo Catholics.

The Catholic Church only ever refers to itself as "The Catholic Church". But so many people now use the term "Roman Catholic" that they've become pretty much synonyms.

 

The catholic church with a little 'c' simply means the church universal -- the body of believers in Christ. You see it that way in some of the creeds and that's what it is talking about.

 

Greetings,

The CAtholic Church is the Entire Catholic Church: All The Christians in union with their Bishop who is in union with the Bishop in Rome.

Roman CAtholic often Refers to the Roman Rite within the Catholic Church. Within the Catholic Church there are different liturgical rites: The Roman Rite, the Byzantine CAtholics, etc. They are all in union with their Bishops, in union with the Bishop of Rome, but their liturgies have local flavor.

peace

 

OK, from the perspective of and usage within the Catholic Church, what TP has said is correct. Non-Catholic Christians often add the term 'Roman' for one of two reasons, typically: either if they are Anglicans (usually of the 'higher' variety) to distinguish the Catholic Church from the Church of England (eg: "We're Anglican-Catholics, they're Roman Catholics"); or, as a prejorative prefix used by anti-Catholic Christians, along with the associated hate-words "Rome", "Romish", "papist", "Roman Candle" (as one of my great-uncles was referred to in the 1930s).

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

Is there a difference between "Roman Catholic" And "Latin Rite"??

(I am guessing the answer is "no").

In that case the Catholic Church - is meant to include all Catholic church splinter groups / factions that are still in communion with each other (So Eastern Orthodox, Latin Rite, etc)when used in RC doctrines like "No salvation outside the Catholic Church". At least as ORIGINALLY written. (Hence the efforts to "Exterminate" dissenters and Jews -- Lateran IV for example ).

In Christ,

Bob

 

Er...no. Re-read what TP has posted. As far as the Catholics are concerned, all those in communion with the Pope are Catholic. The vast majority of those are Latin Rite and hence Roman Catholic. But there are also other Catholic groups such as the Byzantine Rite Catholics or Uniates, which are NOT the same as Eastern Orthodox. The Orthodox are not Catholic, since they have not been in communion with the Pope since 1054

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

As I understand it - if a Roman Catholic attends an Eastern Orthodox Mass "it counts" and it also works the other way around.

My point was that the splinter groups of Catholics that are still in communion with each other is what is meant by "Catholic Church" when the RCC said "NO salvation outside of the Catholic Church".

 

Answers to both of the issues you've just raised depend on who you talk to! Some Catholics interpret "Catholic Church" very narrowly as to mean just those in communion with the Pope, others throw the new of meaning wide enough to embrace all Christians. The official Catholic line is to keep the letter of the definition narrow (ie: not Orthodox, although they are regarded as being as close to the CC as one can be without actually being in it) but throw the spirit of it as widely as possible, and they certainly do so on the issue of 'extra ecclesiam nulla salus', as I have shown you elsewhere

Yours in Christ

Matt