Catholicity

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This article considers Catholicism in the broadest ecclesiastical sense. See Catholicism (disambiguation) for alternative meanings

Catholicism has two main ecclesiastical meanings, described in Webster's Dictionary as: a) "the whole orthodox Christian church, or adherence thereto"; and b) "the doctrines or faith of the Roman Catholic church, or adherence thereto." 1

The term comes from the Greek adjective καθολικός -ή -όν (katholikos), meaning "general" or "universal".

Although most Christians denominations affirm faith in "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church", the term Catholicism as widely understood applies to the Roman Catholic Church, governed by the Roman Holy See and led by the Bishop of Rome.

However, other territorial Churches which trace their Historic Episcopate through the apostolic succession — such as the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the worldwide Anglican Communion and the Altkatholische — consider themselves simply to be different, non-Roman, branches or Communions of the Catholic Church.

"Catholic Church"

A letter that, in about 107, Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch wrote to Christians in Smyrna, is the earliest surviving witness to the use of the term "catholic Church" (Smyrnaeans, 8). By it Saint Ignatius designated the Christian Church in its universal aspect, excluding heretics, such as those who disavow "the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who suffered for our sins, and whom the Father, in His goodness, raised up again" (Smyrnaeans, 7). He called such people "beasts in the shape of men, whom you must not only not receive, but, if it be possible, not even meet with" (Smyrnaeans, 4).

Yet more explicit was the manner in which Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (circa 315-386) used the term "catholic Church" precisely to distinguish this Church from heretical "Churches". He urged: "If ever thou art sojourning in cities, inquire not simply where the Lord's House is (for the other sects of the profane also attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord), nor merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Church, the mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God" (Catechetical Lectures, XVIII, 26).[1]

The word Catholic has been used ever since to describe the genuine one original Church founded by Christ and the Apostles. The word appears in the main Christian creeds (formal definitions of belief), notably the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed. As such, many Christians (and denominations) see themselves as "catholic". They fall into two groups:

1) those like the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Anglican Churches having Apostolic Succession from the early Church; and
2) those who claim to be spiritual descendants of the Apostles but have no discernable institutional descent from the historic Church, and normally do not refer to themselves as catholic.

Christians of most denominations, including most Protestants, affirm their faith in "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church". For Protestants, most of whom consider themselves to be spiritual descendants (category 2, above), this affirmation refers to their belief in the ultimate unity of all Churches under one God and one Saviour, rather than in one visibly unified institutional Church (category 1, above). In this usage catholic is sometimes written with a lower-case "c". The Western Apostles' Creed, stating "I believe in...the holy catholic church..." (sometimes capitalised), is thus recited in Protestant worship services (with the notable exception of German Lutherans, who substitute "Christian" for "catholic"). The Nicene Creed likewise declares belief in "one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church".

Brief organizational history of the Church

The early Catholic Church came to be organized under the three patriarchs of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch, to which later were added the patriarch of Constantinople and of Jerusalem. The Bishop of Rome was at that time recognized as first among equals - as is stated, for instance, in canon 3 of the First Council of Constantinople (381) - and doctrinal or procedural disputes were oftentimes referred to Rome for arbitration - as when, on appeal by St Athanasius against the decision of the Council of Tyre (335), Pope Julius, who spoke of such appeals as customary, annulled the action of that council and restored Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra to their sees. The Bishop of Rome was also considered to have the right to convene ecumenical councils. When the Imperial capital moved to Constantinople, Rome's influence was sometimes challenged. Nonetheless, Rome claimed special authority because of its connection to Saint Peter2 and Saint Paul, who, all agreed, were martyred and buried in Rome. Consequently, Rome considered the bishop of Rome as the direct successor of Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles.

The 431 Council of Ephesus, the Third Ecumenical Council, was chiefly concerned with Nestorianism. Nestorianism emphasized the distinction between the humanity and divinity of Jesus and taught that the Virgin Mary gave birth not to God but only to the man, Jesus Christ. This Council rejected Nestorianism and affirmed that humanity and divinity were inseparable in the one person Jesus Christ, and that his mother, the Virgin Mary, is thus Theotokos, God-bearer, Mother of God. The first great rupture in the Church followed this Council. Those who refused to accept the Council's ruling were largely Persian and are represented today by the Assyrian Church of the East and related Churches.

The next major break was after the Council of Chalcedon (451). This Council repudiated Eutychian Monophysitism which stated that the divine nature completely subsumed the human nature in Christ. This Council declared that Christ, though one person, exhibited two natures "without confusion, without change, without division, without separation" and thus is both fully God and fully human. The Alexandrian Church rejected the terms adopted by this Council. These Christians are now often referred to as Ancient Oriental Churches or the Oriental Orthodox Communion.

The next major rift within Christianity was in the 11th century. Doctrinal disputes, as well as conflicts between methods of Church government, and the evolution of separate rites and practices, precipitated a split in 1054 that divided the Church, this time between a "West" and an "East". England, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Scandinavia, and much of the rest of Western Europe were in the Western camp, and Greece, Russia and many of other Slavic lands, Anatolia, and the Christians in Syria and Egypt who accepted the Council of Chalcedon made up the Eastern camp. This division is called the Great Schism. The third major division in the Church occurred in the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation, after which many parts of the Western Church either enirely rejected the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and became known as "Reformed" or "Protestant", or else repudiated Roman papal authority and followed the Orthodox methods of episcopal organization, while maintaining a Western liturgy, yet highlighting some theological differences with perceived Roman excesses. The most recent rupture occured after the Roman Catholic Church's First Vatican Council, in which it officially proclaimed a dogma of Papal Infallibility and of the authoritative supremacy and universal immediate jurisdioction of the Bishop of Rome. At this time, clusters of bishops and faithful in the Netherlands and the Nordic and Baltic countries who had held-in with Rome through the tumult of the Reformation found continued association with the Roman See to be untenable. These and their derived churches are known as Old-Catholics (Altkatholische) and the independent catholic churches.

All of the preceding groups, excluding some Protestants, consider themselves to be fully and completely Catholic. All of them claim to be either part of the Catholic Church or the one and only Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic Church

Main article: Roman Catholic Church

"The Catholic Church", when used not of an abstract invisible entity, but of a visible concrete body of Christians, usually refers to what is also called "the Roman Catholic Church".

This Church hardly ever uses the name "Roman Catholic Church" for itself, except in its relations with other Christian groups. Even in those relations, "Catholic Church" may also appear, as in some documents drawn up in common with the Lutheran World Federation and the Assyrian Church of the East. On the other hand, the Church has in fact applied the adjective "Roman" to itself in its entirety even in some internal documents, such as the Dogmatic Constitution de fide catholica of the First Vatican Council, which was attended by Eastern as well as Western bishops. When it does apply the adjective "Roman" to itself, it understands this word only as pointing to the centrality for it of the see of Rome, with which all its members, laity and clergy alike, are necessarily in full communion. Outsiders, in contrast, considering the use of the name "Catholic Church" by this Church to be contentious, use the term "Roman Catholic Church" to imply that it is only the "Roman" section of some larger, perhaps abstract, entity that they call the Catholic Church and that, in their view, also includes other sections not in communion with Rome, a usage that members of the Church in question in turn see as contentious.

Frequently enough, some members of this Church, especially those of Eastern Rite, apply the term "Roman Catholic Church" not, as in the Church's official documents, to the Church as a whole, but only to its Latin Rite component. Unlike the outsiders just mentioned, they consider communion with the see of Rome essential for all members of the Catholic Church.

Other Catholic groups

In Western Christianity the principal groups that regard themselves as "Catholic" without full communion with the Pope are the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and some elements of Anglicanism ("High Church Anglicans" or "Anglo-Catholics"). Smaller groups include the Old Catholics, the Aglipayans (Philippine Independent Church), and the Polish National Catholic Church of America. Their spiritual beliefs and practices are similar to those of Roman Catholics of the Latin Rite, from which they emerged, but they reject the Pope's claimed status and authority.

The Anglican Communion is in practice divided into two wings of unequal size, "High Church Anglicans" also called the Anglo-Catholics, which are the great majority in most Anglican and Episcopal churches, and "Low Church Anglicans" also known as the Evangelical wing. Though all elements within the Anglican Communion recite the same creeds, Low Church Anglicans regard the word Catholic in the ideal sense given above, while High Church Anglicans treat it as a name of Christ's church which they consider to embrace themselves together with the Roman Catholic, Old-Catholic, Lutheran and several Orthodox Churches.

Anglo-Catholicism has no officially fixed tenets but maintains similarities to the Roman Catholicism and related spirituality, including a belief in seven sacraments, devotion to the Virgin Mary and saints, and the description of their ordained clergy as sacrificial "priests" — addressed as "Father". They have re-emphasized the wearing of vestments and the use of candles and incense and other ceremonial in church liturgy, sometimes even the description of their Eucharistic celebrations with the Latin word "Mass". Some Anglo-Catholics believe in Transubstantiation as opposed to Consubstantiation, or other ideas that expound on metousiosis or the Real Presence. The development of the Anglo-Catholic wing as a distinct party of Anglicanism occurred largely in the nineteenth century and is strongly associated with the Oxford Movement. Two of its leading lights, John Henry Newman and Henry Edward Manning, both ordained Anglican priests, ended up joining the Roman Catholic Church, becoming cardinals.

The several churches of Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy each consider themselves to be the universal and true Catholic Church, and typically regard the other of these families and the Western Catholics as heretical and as having left the One Holy Catholic, and Apostolic Church. The patriarchs of these Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches are autocephalous hierarchs, which roughly means that each of them is independent of the direct oversight of another bishop (although still subject, according to their distinct traditions, either to the synod of bishops of each one’s jurisdiction, or only to a common decision of the patriarchs of their own communion). They are willing to concede a primacy of honor to the Petrine See, but not of authority, supremacy, or universal and immediate jurisdiction. This is similar to the position taken by the Lutheran World Federation, the Anglican Communion, and the Altkatholische.

Distinctive beliefs and practices

Beliefs

Catholic Churches share certain essential distinctive beliefs and practices (though some Anglicans and Lutherans differ among themselves in regard to emphasis and particular pieties):

  • Direct and continuous organizational descent from the original church founded by Jesus (see e.g. Mt 16:18).
  • Possession of the "threefold ordained ministry" of Bishops, Priests and Deacons.
  • All ministers are ordained by, and subject to, Bishops, who pass down sacramental authority by the "laying-on of hands", having themselves been ordained in a direct line of succession from the Apostles (see Apostolic Succession).
  • Their belief that the Church is the vessel and deposit of the fullness of the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles from which the Scriptures were formed. This teaching is preserved in both written Scripture and in unwritten Tradition, neither being independent of the other.
  • A belief in the necessity of sacraments (generally counted as seven).
  • The use of sacred images, candles, vestments and music, and often incense and water, in worship.
  • Belief that the Eucharist is really, truly, and objectively the Body and Blood of Christ, through the Real Presence. Those that are quite distinctively Catholic believe that adoration and worship is due to the Eucharist as the body and blood of Christ.
  • Veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus as the Blessed Virgin Mary or Theotokos, and veneration of the saints.
  • A distinction among worship (latria) for God, and veneration (dulia) for saints, with the term hyperdulia used for a special veneration accorded to the Virgin Mary among the saints. Some do not accept the distinction between hyperdulia and dulia.
  • The use of prayer for the dead.
  • Requests of the departed saints for intercessory prayers on their behalf.

Sacraments

Main article: Catholic sacraments

Catholics administer seven sacraments or "divine mysteries":

Baptism is the first and basic sacrament of Christian initiation. Catholics consider baptism conferred in most Christian denominations "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (cf. Matthew 28:19) to be valid, since the effect is produced through the sacrament, independently of the faith of the minister, though not of the minister's intention. Baptism, as stated in the Nicene Creed is "for the remission of sins", not only personal sins, but also original sin, which it remits even in infants who have committed no personal sins. Expressed positively, remission of sins means bestowal of the sanctifying grace by which the baptized person shares the life of God.

Confirmation or Chrismation is the second sacrament of Christian initiation. It is conferred by the laying on of hands and anointing, together with a special consecratory prayer. Through it, the gift of the Holy Spirit conferred in baptism is "strengthened and deepened" (see Catechism of the Catholic Church §1303). Its "originating" minister is a validly consecrated bishop; if a priest (a "presbyter") confers the sacrament - as is done ordinarily in Eastern Churches and in particular cases in Western - the link with the higher order is indicated by the use of chrism (also called myrrh) blessed by a bishop (in an Eastern Orthodox Church, by the patriarch). In the East the sacrament is administered immediately after baptism. In the West administration came to be postponed until the recipient's early adulthood; but in view of the earlier age at which children are now admitted to reception of the Eucharist, it is more and more restored to the traditional order and administered before giving the third sacrament of Christian initiation.

The Eucharist is the sacrament (the third of Christian initiation) by which Catholics partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and participate in his one sacrifice. The bread and wine used in the rite are, in Catholic faith, considered to be transformed in all but their "accidents" (appearance, texture, taste, etc.) into the Body and Blood of Christ, a change that is commonly called transubstantiation.

Penance and Reconciliation are names given to the first of two sacraments of healing, which is also called the sacrament of conversion, of confession, and of forgiveness (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1423-1424).[2] It is the sacrament of spiritual healing of a baptized person from the distancing from God involved in sins committed. It involves four elements: the penitent's contrition for sin (without which the rite does not have its effect), confession to a priest (it may be spiritually helpful to confess to another and doing such is actually encouraged within the Church, but only a priest has the power to administer the sacrament), absolution by the priest, and satisfaction. In early Christian centuries, the fourth element was quite onerous and generally preceded absolution, but now it usually involves a simple task (in some traditions called a "penance") for the penitent to perform, to make some reparation and as a medicinal means of strengthening against further temptation.

Anointing of the Sick or Unction is the second sacrament of healing. In it those who are suffering a serious physical illness are anointed by a priest with oil blessed specifically for that purpose. "Seriously sick" does not necessarily mean "in immediate danger of death". In past centuries (and among traditional Catholics of the present time), when such a restrictive interpretation was customary, the sacrament came to be known as "Extreme Unction", i.e. "Final Anointing". It was then conferred only as one of the "Last Rites". The other "Last Rites" are Confession (if the dying person is physically unable to confess, at least absolution, conditional on the existence of contrition, is given), and the Eucharist, which when administered to the dying is known as "Viaticum", a word whose original meaning in Latin was "provision for a journey".

Holy Orders or, officially, "The Sacrament of Ordination," is the sacrament which integrates men (and in some jurisdiction, also women) into the threefold order of "servants of the servants of God" and "administrators of the mysteries of God" (according to the New Testament). This threefold ministry is comprised of deacons, priests (presbyters), and bishops, and gives the person the mission to teach, sanctify, and govern (the "three munera"), according to rank. Only a bishop may administer this sacrament, as only a bishop holds the fullness of the Apstolic Ministry. Ordination as a priest confers the fullness of Eucharisitc confection ability of the sacrament, and ordination as bishop makes the priest a member of the body that has succeeded to that of the Apostles. Ordination as a priest configures the priest to Christ the Head of the Church and the one essential Priest, empowering the priest, as the bishops' assistant and vicar, to preside at the celebration of divine worship, especially the Eucharist, wherein the priest, as a trusted servant of the people, also represents the whole of the Body of Christ to Christ the Head. Ordination as a deacon configures the deacon to Christ the Servant of All, placing the deacon at the service of the Church, especially in the fields of the ministry of the Word, service in divine worship, pastoral guidance and charity. This sacrificial priesthood is described as marking the individual to stand in the person of Christ (in persona Christe) and at the command and in the stead of Christ (alter Christus).

Holy Matrimony is the blessing of the unification of individuals in a partnership/marriage (in Roman Catholic theology, only a man and a woman, and for the primary purpose of bearing and raising children — the procreative purposes), for purposes of mutual help and love (the unitive purposes). This sacrament consecrates the partners for a vocation in the particular mission of building up the Church and mending the world, providing grace for accomplishing that mission.

The study of Catholicism

Catholicism is a religion, and is studied in contexts that include theology and philosophy.

Footnotes

  • 1 Webster's College Dictionary, 1991.
  • 2 St Peter is sometimes called “the first pope”. However, if “pope” is defined as “successor of St Peter”, St. Linus is the first pope. The Catholic Church teaches that the college of the bishops has succeeded, in the Church, to the group of the apostles, not that the bishops are apostles; and that, among the bishops, primacy belongs to the Bishop of Rome, as primacy among the apostles belonged to St Peter, not that the pope is on the same level as the Apostle Peter (‘’Catechism of the Catholic Church,’‘ 880-881).

Sources

Additional reading

  • Catechism of the Catholic Church — English translation (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000). ISBN 1574551108 [3]
  • H. W. Crocker III, Triumph — The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church: A 2,000-Year History (Prima Publishing, 2001). ISBN 0761529241
  • Eamon Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes (Yale Nota Bene, 2002). ISBN 0300091656
  • K. O. Johnson, Why Do Catholics Do That? (Ballantine, 1994). ISBN 0345397266

See also

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