Just my humble 2 cents worth here, but if I use the letters in my posts, it is NEVER intended as a slur. It has seemed to me that it is more of just a convenience than having to spell out Roman Catholic Church - which some people STILL object to, anyway.
We’ve had a discussion, or ten, before about even the use of the title “catholic”. Since the word in the lower case means “universal” it applies to all true Christians who are part of the spiritual body of Christ, to my understanding. So in that sense, I am a catholic but I am no longer a Catholic, nor a member of the Catholic Church under the Bishop of Rome, nor Eastern Orthodox Catholic, or Oriental Catholic, etc.
It seems far easier to just use abbreviations in postings, and I have developed a thicker skin about being called a Protestant, or Protty, or protty, or...
I say don’t look for offence when none is meant and, even then, stick to the issues and not the labels. They don’t mean much to our Lord anyway!
Amen.
Well put.
HOWEVER, even when “Catholic” is used . . .
a significant portion of the Roman Catholics et al hereon are seemingly only too happy to
construe
that use as confirmation of their EXCLUSIVE CLAIM to the term.
THAT, TO ME, IS INTOLERABLY HERETICAL.
And I refuse to participate in that heresy, by using the unqualified term, if I can at all avoid it.
Agreed. It seems that there is just about no way to refer to Catholics who belong to or follow or what ever, the Roman tradition headquartered in the Vatican without offending some one, some how.
The term *catholic* does mean universal and the Catholic church cannot justifiably lay claim to the term as its own.
Since there are also other sects of Catholicism which use the word *Catholic* in their title and have slightly different teachings from the Roman Catholic branch, as in *Ukrainian Catholic*, then by designating *Roman Catholic* you are referring to the specific branch of Catholicism.
Since the word *Roman* begins with the letter *R* and the word *Catholic* begins with the letter *C*, it is completely reasonable to use the abbreviation of *RC* to mean *Roman Catholic* regardless of whatever meaning someone managed to attach to it some hundred years ago or so.
The objections to the use of this term remind me too much of the Asians in Atlanta who are complaining about the metro lines which were color coded. They didn't like *Yellow Line* because apparently the yellow line ran through their Chinatown, and they are now demanding that it be relabeled.
I suppose that we could always use RCC, for Roman Catholic Church to accommodate all the hurt feelings. Unless they find something objectionable about THAT as well.
*sigh*