What "Catholic" Means
The Greek roots of the term "Catholic" mean "according
to (kata-) the whole (holos)," or more colloquially, "universal."
At the beginning of the second century, we find in the letters of Ignatius
the first surviving use of the term "Catholic" in reference to the Church.
At that time, or shortly thereafter, it was used to refer to a single,
visible communion, separate from others.
The term "Catholic" is in the Apostles’, Nicene,
and Athanasian creeds, and many Protestants, claiming the term for themselves,
give it a meaning that is unsupported historically, ignoring the term’s
use at the time the creeds were written.
Early Church historian J. N. D. Kelly, a Protestant,
writes: "As regards ‘Catholic,’ its original meaning was 'universal' or 'general.' . . . in the latter half of the second century
at latest, we find it conveying the suggestion that the Catholic is the
true Church as distinct from heretical congregations (cf., e.g., Muratorian
Canon). . . . What these early Fathers were envisaging was almost always
the empirical, visible society; they had little or no inkling of the distinction
which was later to become important between a visible and an invisible
Church" (Early Christian Doctrines, 190–1).
Thus people who recite the creeds mentally inserting
another meaning for "Catholic" are reinterpreting them according to a modern
preference, much as a liberal biblical scholar does with Scripture texts
offensive to contemporary sensibilities.
Included in the quotes below are extracts from
the first creeds to use the term "Catholic"; so that the term can be seen
it its historical context, which is supplied by the other quotations. It
is from this broader context that the meaning of the term in the creeds
is established, not by one’s own notion of what the term once meant
or of what it ought to mean.
Ignatius of Antioch
"Let no one do anything of concern to the Church
without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated
by the bishop or by one whom he ordains [i.e., a presbyter]. Wherever the
bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ
is, there is the Catholic Church" (Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2 [A.D.
110]).
The Martyrdom of Polycarp
"And of the elect, he was one indeed, the wonderful
martyr Polycarp, who in our days was an apostolic and prophetic teacher,
bishop of the Catholic Church in Smyrna. For every word which came forth
from his mouth was fulfilled and will be fulfilled" (Martyrdom of Polycarp
16:2 [A.D. 155]).
The Muratorian Canon
"Besides these [letters of Paul] there is one to
Philemon, and one to Titus, and two to Timothy, in affection and love,
but nevertheless regarded as holy in the Catholic Church, in the ordering
of churchly discipline. There is also one [letter] to the Laodiceans and
another to the Alexandrians, forged under the name of Paul, in regard to
the heresy of Marcion, and there are several others which cannot be received
by the Church, for it is not suitable that gall be mixed with honey. The
epistle of Jude, indeed, and the two ascribed to John are received by the
Catholic Church (Muratorian fragment [A.D. 177]).
Tertullian
"Where was [the heretic] Marcion, that shipmaster
of Pontus, the zealous student of Stoicism? Where was Valentinus, the disciple
of Platonism? For it is evident that those men lived not so long ago—in
the reign of Antonius for the most part—and that they at first were believers
in the doctrine of the Catholic Church, in the church of Rome under the
episcopate of the blessed Eleutherius, until on account of their ever restless
curiosity, with which they even infected the brethren, they were more than
once expelled" (Demurrer Against the Heretics 30 [A.D. 200]).
Cyprian of Carthage
"They alone have remained outside [the Church]
who, were they within, would have to be ejected.
. . . There [in John 6:68–69] speaks Peter, upon
whom the Church would be built, teaching in the name of the Church and
showing that even if a stubborn and proud multitude withdraws because it
does not wish to obey, yet the Church does not withdraw from Christ. The
people joined to the priest, and the flock clinging to their shepherd in
the Church. You ought to know, then, that the bishop is in the Church and
the Church in the bishops; and if someone is not with the bishop, he is
not in the Church. They vainly flatter themselves who creep up, not having
peace with the priest of God, believing that they are secretly in communion
with certain individuals. For the Church, which is one and catholic, is
not split or divided, but is indeed united and joined by the cement of
priests who adhere to one another" (Letters 66[67]:8 [A.D. 253]).
Council of Nicaea I
"But those who say: ‘There was [a time] when he
[the Son] was not,’ and ‘before he was born, he was not,’ and ‘because
he was made from non-existing matter, he is either of another substance
or essence,’ and those who call ‘God the Son of God changeable and mutable,’
these the Catholic Church anathematizes" (Appendix to the Creed of Nicaea
[A.D. 325]).
"Concerning those who call themselves Cathari [Novatians],
that is, ‘the Clean,’ if at any time they come to the Catholic Church,
it has been decided by the holy and great council that, provided they receive
the imposition of hands, they remain among the clergy. However, because
they are accepting and following the doctrines of the catholic and apostolic
Church, it is fitting that they acknowledge this in writing before all;
that is, both that they communicate with the twice married and with those
who have lapsed during a persecution" (Canon 8).
...
"Concerning the Paulianists who take refuge with
the Catholic Church, a decree has been published that they should be fully
baptized. If, however, any of these in times past have been in the clerical
order, if indeed they have appeared spotless and above reproach, after
being baptized, let them be ordained by the bishop of the Catholic Church"
(Canon 9).
Cyril of Jerusalem
"[The Church] is called catholic, then, because
it extends over the whole world, from end to end of the earth, and because
it teaches universally and infallibly each and every doctrine which must
come to the knowledge of men, concerning things visible and invisible,
heavenly and earthly, and because it brings every race of men into subjection
to godliness, governors and governed, learned and unlearned, and because
it universally treats and heals every class of sins, those committed with
the soul and those with the body, and it possesses within itself every
conceivable form of virtue, in deeds and in words and in the spiritual
gifts of every description" (Catechetical Lectures 18:23 [A.D. 350]).
"And if you ever are visiting in cities, do not
inquire simply where the house of the Lord is—for the others, sects of
the impious, attempt to call their dens ‘houses of the Lord’—nor ask merely
where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the
name peculiar to this holy Church, the mother of us all, which is the spouse
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God" (ibid., 18:26).
The Apostles’ Creed
"I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic
Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection
of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen" (Apostles’ Creed [A.D.
360 version, the first to include the term "Catholic"]).
Council of Constantinople I
"I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver
of life, who proceeds from the Father, who together with the Father and
the Son is worshiped and glorified, who spoke through the prophets; in
one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church" (Nicene Creed [A.D. 381]).
"Those who embrace orthodoxy and join the number
of those who are being saved from the heretics, we receive in the following
regular and customary manner: Arians, Macedonians, Sabbatians, Novatians,
those who call themselves Cathars and Aristeri, Quartodecimians or Tetradites,
Apollinarians— these we receive when they hand in statements and anathematize
every heresy which is not of the same mind as the holy, catholic, and apostolic
Church of God" (Canon 7).
Augustine
"We must hold to the Christian religion and to
communication in her Church, which is catholic and which is called catholic
not only by her own members but even by all her enemies. For when heretics
or the adherents of schisms talk about her, not among themselves but with
strangers, willy-nilly they call her nothing else but Catholic. For they
will not be understood unless they distinguish her by this name which the
whole world employs in her regard" (The True Religion 7:12 [A.D.
390]).
"We believe in the holy Church, that is, the Catholic
Church; for heretics and schismatics call their own congregations churches.
But heretics violate the faith itself by a false opinion about God; schismatics,
however, withdraw from fraternal love by hostile separations, although
they believe the same things we do. Consequently, neither heretics nor
schismatics belong to the Catholic Church; not heretics, because the Church
loves God, and not schismatics, because the Church loves neighbor" (Faith
and Creed 10:21 [A.D. 393]).
...
""If you should find someone who does not yet believe
in the gospel, what would you [Mani] answer him when he says, ‘I do not
believe’? Indeed, I would not believe in the gospel myself if the authority
of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so" (ibid., 5:6).
In the Catholic Church . . . a few spiritual men
attain [wisdom] in this life, in such a way that . . . they know it without
any doubting, while the rest of the multitude finds [its] greatest safety
not in lively understanding but in the simplicity of believing. . . . [T]here
are many other things which most properly can keep me in her bosom. The
unanimity of peoples and nations keeps me here. Her authority,
inaugurated in miracles, nourished by hope, augmented
by love, and confirmed by her age, keeps me here. The succession of priests,
from the very see of the apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after his resurrection,
gave the charge of feeding his sheep [John 21:15–17], up to the present
episcopate, keeps me here. And last, the very name Catholic, which, not
without reason, belongs to this Church alone, in the face of so many heretics,
so much so that, although all heretics want to be called ‘Catholic,’ when
a stranger inquires where the Catholic Church meets, none of the heretics
would dare to point out his own basilica or house" (Against the Letter
of Mani Called "The Foundation" 4:5 [A.D. 397]).
Vincent of Lerins
"I have often then inquired earnestly and attentively
of very many men eminent for sanctity and learning, how and by what sure
and so to speak universal rule I may be able to distinguish the truth of
Catholic faith from the falsehood of heretical depravity; and I have always,
and in almost every instance, received an answer to this effect: that whether
I or anyone else should wish to detect the frauds and avoid the snares
of heretics as they arise, and to continue sound and complete in the Catholic
faith, we must, the Lord helping, fortify our own belief in two ways: first,
by the authority of the divine law [Scripture], and then by the tradition
of the Catholic Church. But here some one perhaps will ask, ‘Since the
canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of itself for everything,
and more than sufficient, what need is there to join with it the authority
of the Church’s interpretation?’ For this reason: Because, owing to the
depth of holy Scripture, all do not accept it in one and the same sense,
but one understands its words in one way, another in another, so that it
seems to be capable of as many interpretations as there are men. . . .
Therefore, it is very necessary, on account of so great intricacies of
such various errors, that the rule for the right understanding of the prophets
and apostles should be framed in accordance with the standard of ecclesiastical
and catholic interpretation" (The Notebooks 2:1–2 [A.D. 434]).
Council of Chalcedon
"Since in certain provinces readers and cantors
have been allowed to marry, this sacred synod decrees that none of them
is permitted to marry a wife of heterodox views. If those thus married
have already had children, and if they have already had the children baptized
among heretics, they are to bring them into the communion of the Catholic
Church" (Canon 14 [A.D. 451]).
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
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