Lesson 2 What Does It Mean To Be A Catholic

What does it mean to
be Catholic?
Lesson 2
Acts 11:26
“… and when he had found him, he brought him to
Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church
and taught a large number of people, and it was in
Antioch that the disciples were first called
Christians.”
First called Christians.

Therefore the followers of Christ are called
Christians.
Where does “Catholics” came from?
• Bp. Ignatius of Antioch (110 AD)
- martyred by wild animals in the arena of Rome.
- is the person coined the church of as Catholic.
- ‘Where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic
Church’.
- it is also in Antioch we can found the first
recorded use of catholic to designate the Church.
Catholic
•Greek word katholikos.
•Meaning “universal” – denotes

something that is present everywhere or
in all things.
What does it
mean, then, that
the Church is
catholic or
universal?
According to CCC 830, the Church is universal
in two senses:
1st Sense: Christ’s presence causes the church to

be universal because Jesus, the Lord of the
universe, founded it and lives in it.
- One who is present everywhere, who keeps

everything in existence and in whom the fullness
of God dwells – Christ himself - makes the Church
catholic, universal, present everywhere.
Col 1:17-19
He is before all things, and in him all

things hold together. He is the head of
the body, the church. He is the
beginning, the first born from the dead
that in all things he himself might be
preeminent. For in him all the fullness
was pleased to dwell.
2 nd
Sense (CCC 831): Church is universal
because Christ gave it an unlimited
mission.
- it is the Catholic church because Jesus

assigned it the responsibility to proclaim
the Good News to all people and make
disciples of all nations.
Mk 16:15
He said to them, “Go into the whole
world and proclaim the gospel to every
creature.”
Mt 28:19
Go, therefore, and disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the Name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Implications of these truth about the
universality of the church
• Frank Sheed (apologist)
- When we declare ourselves Catholic, we are not merely

expressing a “religious preference”.
- We are Catholics because of our relationship to Jesus
- Jesus made us members of the Church by linking us
to Himself.
- the Church is our link to Jesus
•Jn 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches”
- this is the image of our membership in the church

- just as branch belongs to the vine, so we
belong to Jesus.
- branches get their life from the vine, and we
get our Christian life from Christ.
- like branches that wither when cut from a vine,
we have no Christian life apart from him.
Thus, by saying we are Catholics, we
acknowledge that we are with Christ.
We affirm that the Lord of the universe

has made us his own. A Catholic is a
Christian – a follower of Jesus Christ.
Although we share many beliefs and
practices with other Christians –
mainline Protestants, with Orthodox,
Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians.
There is one thing the separate us from

them.
The catholic teaching of the church itself.
The Catholic Church is the direct

descendant of the visible society
that Jesus founded and handed over
to Peter and the apostle to care for
propagate and govern.
Mt 16:13-19
When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he

asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man
is?” They replied, “some say John the Baptist, other Elijah, still
others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them,
“But who do you say that I am?” Simon (Peter) said in reply,
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
… Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon of
Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but
heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of
the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give
you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever
you lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Second Vatican
Council
- declared authoritatively that ‘this Church,

constitute and organized in the world as a
society, subsists in the Catholic Church,
which is governed by the successor of Peter
(the bishop of Rome, the Pope) and by the
bishops in communion with him”.
Church as Government
Catholic is a Christian who meets certain requirements.
- St. Ruben Bellarmine

It is the community of men and women linked together by the
profession of the same Christian faith (Creed), united in the
communion of the same sacraments, under the government of the
legitimate ministers and especially on the one vicar of Christ on
earth, the Roman Pontiff.
We joined by these bonds:
• Profession of faith (Creed)
• We must profess the Christian faith, which is set forth in the Creed and we
must believe the Catholic doctrine.
• Participation in the Sacraments
• we must receive the sacraments, which are the source of Christian life
• Continue to participate in them – especially the Eucharist – in order to
maintain our communion with church.
• Submission to authority
• We must submit to the authority of the pope and bishops, which they
normally exercise in teaching and providing pastoral direction.
• Sometimes requirements annoy us. We may even find them restrictive or oppressive.
• However, our view of these three conditions for being Catholic

must be quite opposite, for they are avenues that lead us to
Christ.
Our profession faith marks and affirms our adherence to Christ, the
Eucharist and all sacraments bring us into his presence and secure our
relationship with him, and the pope and bishops are empowered to
ensure that Catholic teaching does not stray from the deposit of faith we
received from Jesus.
Lino Rulli
• Is an American radio host,
author, producer, and former
television host.
• Rulli was born on October 26,
1971, to an Italian American family
in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His family
was the only Catholic family on his
block growing up, and his father
typically only attended Mass on
Christmas and Easter.
Questions…
Clarifications..

Lesson 2 What Does It Mean To Be A Catholic

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 2 What Does It Mean To Be A Catholic

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 2 What Does It Mean To Be A Catholic

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

What does it mean to

First called Christians.

•Meaning “universal” – denotes

1st Sense: Christ’s presence causes the church to

- One who is present everywhere, who keeps

He is before all things, and in him all

- it is the Catholic church because Jesus

- When we declare ourselves Catholic, we are not merely

- this is the image of our membership in the church

We affirm that the Lord of the universe

There is one thing the separate us from

The Catholic Church is the direct

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he

- declared authoritatively that ‘this Church,

- St. Ruben Bellarmine

• However, our view of these three conditions for being Catholic

You might also like