Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.
I got a bit twitchy when one of the seminarians stressed that he was '[...] not just a Catholic, I'm a Roman Catholic'.
I personally have come to dislike the term 'Roman Catholic' because it was invited by English Protestants to maintain their claim to being members of the Catholic Church, whilst, at the same time, suggesting that the 'Church of Rome' had erred.
So to use the term 'Roman Catholic' means that there is more than one kind of Catholic in the Church.
However perhaps there aren't the same connotations with the term 'Roman Catholic' amongst Americans.
Yes, you're right. No such connotations over here. Although I have a faint dislike of the term too, because it seems to sometimes "assume" that "Roman" is the only type of Catholic ... forgetting Maronite, etc. I was quite pleased how at JPII's funeral, the eastern rites got their due. the pope is pope of ALL Catholics...not just the "Roman" ones.
Americans are less twitchy about it, but generally don't feel an adjective is necessary or at least don't emphasize it. It does cock an eyebrow among those of us who are devotees of English Catholic history, however.
I mentally twitched at exactly the same spot as Liam and looked at the comments specifically to see if anyone else had noticed.
I'm a Canuck, and at least in the Catholic and non-Catholic circles I travel about in, using the phrase "Roman Catholic" is a good way to self-identify as not knowing/reading much about the Catholic Church.
5 comments:
I got a bit twitchy when one of the seminarians stressed that he was '[...] not just a Catholic, I'm a Roman Catholic'.
I personally have come to dislike the term 'Roman Catholic' because it was invited by English Protestants to maintain their claim to being members of the Catholic Church, whilst, at the same time, suggesting that the 'Church of Rome' had erred.
So to use the term 'Roman Catholic' means that there is more than one kind of Catholic in the Church.
However perhaps there aren't the same connotations with the term 'Roman Catholic' amongst Americans.
Liam - I also "twitched" at that; but I think it is true that the anglo-spiky use of "Roman" is a particularly English phenomenon.
Yes, you're right. No such connotations over here. Although I have a faint dislike of the term too, because it seems to sometimes "assume" that "Roman" is the only type of Catholic ... forgetting Maronite, etc. I was quite pleased how at JPII's funeral, the eastern rites got their due. the pope is pope of ALL Catholics...not just the "Roman" ones.
Americans are less twitchy about it, but generally don't feel an adjective is necessary or at least don't emphasize it. It does cock an eyebrow among those of us who are devotees of English Catholic history, however.
I mentally twitched at exactly the same spot as Liam and looked at the comments specifically to see if anyone else had noticed.
I'm a Canuck, and at least in the Catholic and non-Catholic circles I travel about in, using the phrase "Roman Catholic" is a good way to self-identify as not knowing/reading much about the Catholic Church.
Post a Comment