This is where we disagree on the understanding of the Nicene Creed ( and even the older Apostle’s creed).
I do not equate “catholic” with “Roman Catholic.”
To avoid this misunderstanding, some even prefer to say “holy Christian church.”
While there is nothing wrong with this term, I am not be embarrassed by the older wording and the use of the original word — catholic because I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS.
The word catholic was first used in this sense in the early second century when Ignatius of Antioch declared, “Where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.” Note: HE DID TAG THE WORD — ROMAN in front of it.
Jesus Christ is the head of the church, as well as its Lord. I understand the church to be the body of Christ extended throughout time as well as space, the whole company of God’s redeemed people through the ages.
The original word catholic simply means “general, universal, concerning the whole.”
Jesus prayed that his disciples would be one, even as he and the Father are one, so that the world might believe. I think it is right to pray and work for the “full visible unity” of Christ’s church on earth which we know for sure will be completely realized when Jesus comes again. When we say that we “believe in the holy catholic church,” we are confessing that Jesus Christ himself is the church’s one foundation, that all who truly trust in him as Savior and Lord are by God’s grace members of this church, and that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.
It’s as simple as that.
“Note: HE DID TAG THE WORD — ROMAN in front of it.”
This is true,dear friend,perhaps you have never read the following?
How Did the Catholic Church Get Her Name?
Excerpts..
http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/churb3.htm
The Creed which we recite on Sundays and holy days speaks of one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. As everybody knows, however, the Church referred to in this Creed is more commonly called just the Catholic Church. It is not, by the way, properly called the Roman Catholic Church, but simply the Catholic Church.
The term Roman Catholic is not used by the Church herself; it is a relatively modern term, and one, moreover, that is confined largely to the English language. The English-speaking bishops at the First Vatican Council in 1870, in fact, conducted a vigorous and successful campaign to insure that the term Roman Catholic was nowhere included in any of the Council’s official documents about the Church herself, and the term was not included.
Similarly, nowhere in the 16 documents of the Second Vatican Council will you find the term Roman Catholic. Pope Paul VI signed all the documents of the Second Vatican Council as “I, Paul. Bishop of the Catholic Church.” Simply that — Catholic Church. There are references to the Roman curia, the Roman missal, the Roman rite, etc., but when the adjective Roman is applied to the Church herself, it refers to the Diocese of Rome!
Cardinals, for example, are called cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, but that designation means that when they are named to be cardinals they have thereby become honorary clergy of the Holy Father’s home diocese, the Diocese of Rome. Each cardinal is given a titular church in Rome, and when the cardinals participate in the election of a new pope. they are participating in a process that in ancient times was carried out by the clergy of the Diocese of Rome.
Although the Diocese of Rome is central to the Catholic Church, this does not mean that the Roman rite, or, as is sometimes said, the Latin rite, is co-terminus with the Church as a whole; that would mean neglecting the Byzantine, Chaldean, Maronite or other Oriental rites which are all very much part of the Catholic Church today, as in the past.
In our day, much greater emphasis has been given to these “non-Roman” rites of the Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council devoted a special document, Orientalium Ecclesiarum (Decree on Eastern Catholic Churches), to the Eastern rites which belong to the Catholic Church, and the new Catechism of the Catholic Church similarly gives considerable attention to the distinctive traditions and spirituality of these Eastern rites.
So the proper name for the universal Church is not the Roman Catholic Church. Far from it. That term caught on mostly in English-speaking countries; it was promoted mostly by Anglicans, supporters of the “branch theory” of the Church, namely, that the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of the creed was supposed to consist of three major branches, the Anglican, the Orthodox and the so-called Roman Catholic. It was to avoid that kind of interpretation that the English-speaking bishops at Vatican I succeeded in warning the Church away from ever using the term officially herself: It too easily could be misunderstood.
The dudes who created the Creed understood it to be the Faith of the Catholic Church. The term Roman Catholic identifies the particular jurisdiction of a particular bishop. No more.
To avoid this misunderstanding, some even prefer to say “holy Christian church.”
And homosexual men may prefer to be 'married'. Liberals prefer Obama. So?
While there is nothing wrong with this term, I am not be embarrassed by the older wording and the use of the original word — catholic because I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS. The word catholic was first used in this sense in the early second century when Ignatius of Antioch declared, “Where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.” Note: HE DID TAG THE WORD — ROMAN in front of it.
The term Catholic Church is specific, to be sure. It means the Church descended from the Apostles, not any particular concoctions of men over the millennia.
Jesus Christ is the head of the church, as well as its Lord. I understand the church to be the body of Christ extended throughout time as well as space, the whole company of God’s redeemed people through the ages.
I understand the Church to be what Jesus indicated that it is. And that only includes those who believe in the teachings of the Church, as handed down from the Apostles. Else, the doctrines are completely man-made and fabricated from the whole cloth of Reformational desire and Restorationist whim.
Jesus prayed that his disciples would be one, even as he and the Father are one, so that the world might believe. I think it is right to pray and work for the “full visible unity” of Christ’s church on earth which we know for sure will be completely realized when Jesus comes again. When we say that we “believe in the holy catholic church,” we are confessing that Jesus Christ himself is the church’s one foundation, that all who truly trust in him as Savior and Lord are by God’s grace members of this church, and that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.
Then diverging one's self from the Catholic Church does not seem to conform to your thesis, does it?
It’s as simple as that.
Certainly. One is either Catholic or one is not.