What is the difference between Catholic and Roman Catholic?

[fairyfly]

?

catholic with a small C means 'of broad or liberal scope; comprehensive'

Catholic with a big C implies Roman Catholic.

Couldn't have put it better myself MrsB!

eh?

Do you mean as in Anglo Catholic or Roman Catholic?

Well i go to a rroman catholic church and i have no idea what that means in comparison to just a catholic church. I went to an rc school, my boys just got to a catholic schhol

If someone says they are a catholic they mean roman catholic and are just not saying the roman bit.
otherwise that very confusing thing that mrsb said is right

it means the same.
The term "Catholic" is usually used these days but probably when you went to school, they used Roman Catholic - that's all.

I see, i was hoping it made me prettier or something.

Crossed posts, in that case no difference unless I was doing a bad job of paying attention during my catholic upbringing

do any Anglicans (i.e. anglo-catholics) actually call themselves Catholics?

e.g. I know of a CofE church where they sing the Angelus daily, but it is still CofE iyswim.

i don't think so.although the anglican creed says ' i believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church' but in this context it means universal.

I think however 'high' any one Anglican church is, its attendees would never describe themselves as Catholic because they don't subscribe to the power structure of the Roman Catholic church, however similar their worship practices are - in short, they don't believe in the Pope.

(well, obviously they believe in him, because he exists, but you know what I mean)

Mrs B, does your cello really have peddles on it?

Anglicans do call themselves catholic

The phrase anglo-catholic is often used for this

It is a well known and reasonably large part of the anglican church

generally liberal

lots of nice gay bishops refer to themselves as anglo-catholic, or catholics within the anglican tradition

no

which makes it very hard to pedal

(am trying to convince myself of the non-viability of a cello as a means of transport, as I have enough money for either a car or a cello but not both)

bet it doesn't have "peddles", tsk

I've now got a mental image of you astride your cello like Little Cook on his spoon...

yes MP, that's what I meant when I said they wouldn't call themselves just plain Catholics - they'd say they were Anglo-Catholic or, as you said, Catholics in the Anglican tradition.

\link{http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TwCFAt0YAP!4LpJ4cjetW7RhmW6o8KWHZS3cGT4wW2EqU8dZZzZdYCYZaCm3LRHVlOP18dZ0M7MCZLf4Balb5fuvlUaPJLWotJbJH3Ox7cx9PlqHI66A/cello.gif?dc=4675574158106929191(MrsB dreams of a cello...)}

As a RC who is now C of E, I refer to myself as Anglican, or "High" if pushed. Where my mother lives (my mother is still RC), theres the RC church, and the "Anglo-Catholic" church, which is higher than the RC church! I did know someone who was AC while I was RC, and used to tease his sister who was Methodist, by referring to "we Catholics"! Which of course, is completely irrelevant..... :o

Rock Cakes,left footers-all the same to me.
Something to do with Rome maybe

My grandmother went to an Anglican churhc where the only difference between her service and my Catholic Mass was one word, I think in the Our Father (Lord's Prayer). She even called the vicar a priest and Father X. yet she never described herself as Catholic (although I have met many Anglo Catholics and accept the term exists). In her mind she was "High Anglican".

Sorry, I guess that adds nothing to the debate does it?

:o

My vicar calls himself a priest, and the kids call him Father X, so its not so uncommon I guess! I've been assisting in teaching Confirmation classes, and there's definitely a blurring of the differences....

When I was little and most people in Ireland were Catholic, we all called ourselves Catholic and the only people who called us Roman Catholic were our English neighbours who were C of E, I think. I was very puzzled as I knew I wasn't Roman!

It's Roman Catholic because its HQ is in Rome, and it believes that it is the church for the whole world, ie universal or 'catholic'.

Some Anglicans bang on about their "catholicity", and tie this into the episcopal succession (so they can look down on 'protestants' and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Roman Catholics and Orthodox, even though those groups don't agree).

A lot of Roman Catholics object to the Roman bit.

All Nicene Creed believing Christians say they believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. Protestants tend to think of this as the invisible church, where those with catholic tendencies tend to think of it as the visible church.