Catholic is an
adjective derived from the
Greek adjective , meaning "general; universal" (cf.
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon).In the context of
Christian ecclesiology, it has several usages: The word commonly refers to the members, beliefs, and practices of the
Roman Catholic Church, including all those
sui juris particular Churches that are in
full communion with the
Pope (
Bishop of Rome), namely the
Latin Rite and twenty-two
Eastern Catholic Churches. The latter include the
Ukrainian,
Greek,
Greek Melkite,
Maronite,
Ruthenian Byzantine,
Coptic Catholic,
Syro-Malabar,
Syro-Malankara,
Chaldean, and
Ethiopic Rites.The
Eastern Orthodox Church also identifies itself as Catholic, as in the title of
The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church.Most
Reformation and post-Reformation Churches use the term Catholic (sometimes with a lower-case c) to refer to the belief that all
Christians are part of one Church, regardless of denominational divisions. It is in line with this interpretation, which applies the word "catholic"/"universal" to no one denomination, that they understand the phrase "
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church" in the
Nicene Creed, the phrase "the catholic faith" in the
Athanasian Creed, and the phrase "holy catholic church" in the
Apostles' Creed.The term is used also to mean those Christian Churches which maintain that their
Episcopate can be
traced unbrokenly back to the
Apostles, and consider themselves part of a broad catholic (or universal) body of believers. Among those who regard themselves as "Catholic", but not "Roman Catholic" , are
Anglicans, and some small groups such as the
Old Catholic Church, the
Polish National Catholic Church, the
Independent Catholic, the
Ancient Catholic and
Liberal Catholic Churches, as well as
Lutherans (though the latter prefer the lower-case "c," and, like Anglicans, stress that they are both Protestant and Catholic).The term can refer to the one (singular number) Church that, according to ,
Jesus told the
Apostle Peter he would build: "And I tell you, you are כיפא (Kepha) (
Aramaic for "rock"), and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."Some use the term Catholic to distinguish their own position from a
Calvinist or
Puritan form of Reformed-
Protestantism. These include
High Church Anglicans, known also as "
Anglo-Catholics", 19th century
Neo-Lutherans, 20th century
High Church Lutherans or
evangelical-catholics and others.
See more at Wikipedia.org...
La Chiesa cattolica è, nell'accezione più comune, la
Chiesa cristiana che riconosce il
primato di autorità al
papa di
Roma (per le altre accezioni, si veda il paragrafo La denominazione Chiesa cattolica). La Chiesa cattolica sostiene che in sé stessa sussista la
Chiesa universale (questo è infatti il significato etimologico dell'aggettivo "cattolico"), fondata da
Gesù Cristo, a cui appartengono tutti i cristiani
battezzati, distinguendo fra coloro che sono in piena comunione con la Chiesa cattolica e le altre Chiese che da essa sono separate.
Per saperne di più visita Wikipedia.org...
Free Download Now!
