'Catholic' Doesn't Mean What You Think It Does

[rug]

Posted: 10/20/2012 9:16 am
Daniel P. Horan, OFM

If you were to ask a stranger on the street or the co-worker at the water cooler what first comes to mind when they hear the word Catholic, chances are good that you might get a response like "the Vatican," "the Pope" or "the Mass." If you were to press further, you might even get a response that comes from the colloquial use of the term according to the English dictionary: a synonym for "universal." On the surface, both answers would be generally correct.

However, the origin of the word and its usage in Christianity for millennia suggests something quite different from what we might initially think. And what it really means has profound implications for what it means to be a Christian in the world and how we should conceive of being "church."

In 1990 the now-late Jesuit scholar of English literature and philosophy, Walter Ong, S.J., wrote an essay for America magazine that responded to the perennial question for educators in Catholic institutions of higher education: How does such a school incorporate this nebulous concept "catholic identity" into its mission in a tangible way?

Ong's contribution was to look at the meaning of the word catholic itself to get a better handle on the task at hand. What he revealed bears broader ramifications than simply helping Catholic colleges and universities develop their mission.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-p-horan-ofm/catholic-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-means_b_1978768.html

[intaglio]

1. The word actually means "universal" or "all encompassing"

So, officially, the Catholic Church (hierarchy) regards itself as the only true church and all other faiths and churches to be heretical or apostate or followers of false gods.

[rug]

2. Not quite.

The centerpiece of his research is the etymology or origin of the word "catholic." While we do commonly use it to mean "universal," Ong points out that the Latin or Roman Church (as distinct from the Orthodox or Eastern Church) had a word for universal in Latin -- universalis.

The phrase the Church uses is that it has the "fullness of truth", the emphasis being on the holos ("all&quot syllable of catholicos. It does teach that other faiths and churches are wrong in certain aspects, some more important than others, but it does not deny that many, if not all of them have a measure of truth.

[kentauros]

3. I had to look that up on my favorite etymology source

and it covers your quote, but also the "universal" part. However, the "holos" bit is the earliest definition from the original Greek "kath' holou" according to the Online Etymology Dictionary:

catholic (adj.)
mid-14c., "of the doctrines of the ancient Church," literally "universally accepted," from Fr. catholique, from L.L. catholicus "universal, general," from Gk. katholikos, from phrase kath' holou "on the whole, in general," from kata "about" + gen. of holos "whole" (see safe (adj.)). Applied to the Church in Rome c.1554, after the Reformation began. General sense of "of interest to all, universal" is from 1550s. As a noun, attested from 1560s.


(No, I'm not following you around I just thought I'd have a look over here after that thread in GD about how many billions are donated "untaxed" to churches.)