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You wrote:

“I’m sure I don’t need to give YOU a history lesson,...”

Nope, but I’ll help you with one in a minute.

“...but the word “catholic” is derived from a Greek word meaning universal. Ignatius of Antioch’s (around 106 AD) letter to the Christians at Smyrna is the first known use of the term and, oddly, there was NO (capital C) Catholic Church then.”

Here’s the lesson: even many Protestants put the phrase in caps. Cyril Richardson did so, for instance. Now, of course, Protestants can just try to have it both ways: “Oh, it doesn’t mean what we would take it to mean, but we’ll put it in caps to show it is sort of a proper noun without actually referring to a definite, visible body” blah, blah, blah. The simple fact is there was only one universal Church - the Catholic Church. That there is still only one universal Church - the Catholic Church. My Church. Not your puny, johnny-come-lately sect.

“He actually meant all the true members of the body of Christ. Go figure!!!”

And they were all Catholics - like me and my fellow Catholics and didn’t include a single Protestant in the group and it still doesn’t. Go figure.

And they were all Catholics - like me and my fellow Catholics and didn’t include a single Protestant in the group and it still doesn’t.

Oh, vlad...are you pretending to be obstinate about this, or do you really believe what you are saying? I can't make my point any clearer than I have. I'll try one more time.

There IS only one universal body of Christ. You can say Catholic or catholic, it does not really matter because it is a spiritual body - it always has been. Just because I was born into a Catholic family and baptized, I was not automatically a member of this body. I could have gone my whole life, doing all the things I was told to do, being a good little egg, and I would have gone to hell if I died because I never came to God through faith. There was belief, in general, but there was not faith. All my good deeds and receiving of the sacraments would have earned nothing. You come to God with empty hands and a heart of faith - not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.

Put whatever label on your chest you want, go to whatever building you want, but you do it God's way or it is the highway (the highway to hell)!.