Catholic Beliefs Practices And Members Of Church

Catholic has been derived from the Greek word Katholikos which means general; universal. According to the Christian ecclesiology, it has number of usages like the word Catholic generally refers to the beliefs, practices and members of the Roman Catholic Church.

It reminds of the Eastern Orthodox church because of its title The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic Eastern Church; many reformed churches use the word Catholic to denote that every Christian belongs to one church; while others also use the word to differentiate their status from a Puritan or Calvinist type of Reformed-Protestantism.

Around 106, Ignatius in his letter to Christians in Smyrna had mentioned the term Catholic Church and is the earliest existing evidence of the usage of that term. In 155, the term was also used in the Martyrdom of Polycarp and in 177, in the Muratorian fragment. Theodosius Emperor for the period 379 to 395, reserved the term Catholic Christians for the believers of that religion which the divine Apostle Peter had delivered to the Romans and it was then that this term was included in the Roman Imperial law. In Book 16 of the Codex Theodosianus, this law of 27 February 380 was added. Catholic Christianity then became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The term Catholic Church is generally linked with the church that is run by the Roman Pontiff presently Pope Benedict XVI and their approximately one billion believers are almost half of around 2.1 billion Christians. In few countries the term Catholic is used in the official name of specific schools, parish church, hospice or other institutes which belongs to the Roman Catholic Church to differentiate it from that of other denominations. Roman Catholic Church believes itself to be the Catholic Church while others to be non-Catholics and mostly denotes itself as the Catholic Church.

It may be noted that not only the Roman Catholic Church but also the Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Assyrian Church of the East all believed themselves as the one holy catholic and apostolic Church of the Nicene Creed. Old-Catholics and Anglicans together consider themselves as a Communion of that one Church and Lutherans consider themselves as a reform movement within the greater Church catholic. The Bishop of Rome is regarded by the Roman Catholic as the Successor of Peter to serve the full church as a universal pastor.

In 1054, there was disagreement in belief between the East and the West relating to the Catholic Church. However a brief reunion took place at the Council of Florence in the middle of 15th Century. The current Pope (Benedict XVI) made his intensions clear that he is interested in complete reunion with the Orthodox. From the view point of Catholic, nearly all of the ancient theological gaps have been clearly addressed like the nature of purgatory, the Filioque cause and others and the Eastern Catholic Churches experience with Rome has shown that their reunion will not lead to Latinization of the Eastern Churches. Catholic