Catholic with a big 'C' differs from a little 'c'

Gigantic. All-encompassing. Immeasurable. Global. Total. Entire.

Catholic.

Catholic?

Not a word often used as a synonym for "universal."

In fact, at a recent Mass, during the Creed, the man behind me substituted "one, holy, Christian and apostolic church," for "one, holy, catholic and apostolic church."

No doubt, he believed it more ecumenical, more encompassing, to say, "Christian," rather than "Catholic," as in Roman Catholic. However, "catholic" in our creed appears in lower case, not the capital letters denoting denomination.

The term "catholic," lower case, entered our creeds - both the Apostles Creed, used at baptisms, and the Nicene-Constantinople Creed, used at Mass - in the earliest years of the church.

The Apostles Creed, traditionally, though incorrectly, attributed to the Apostles themselves, nonetheless is ancient and dates to at least the second century after Christ. The Nicene-Constantinople Creed is a hybrid from the Nicene Council (325) and the First Council of Constantinople (381).

Since there were no major divisions in the church then (the East-West Schism happened in the 11th century, and the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century), "catholic" did not mean any sort of group or denomination to our Christian ancestors.

Instead, "catholic" is our modern version of their Greek word katholikos, which means "universal," and a derivation of the phrase, kath' holou, which means "on the whole."

So when ancient creeds say "catholic," they mean universal, entire, all-encompassing - what the early church understood Christ to mean when he said, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations... " (Mt 28:19).

"The catholicity of the Church is not just spatial or geographical," explains Fr. Thomas Rausch, SJ, a professor of theology at Loyola Marymount. "Catholicity implies an inclusiveness towards Church membership ... the Church must embrace all peoples, classes, races, and cultures as its birth on the feast of Pentecost suggests."

St. Ignatius of Antioch, martyred in 117 AD, is generally accepted as the first to use the term "catholic church" in a letter (around 110 AD) to the church at Smyrna (now in Turkey). He wrote, "wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church."

This sense of universality underpinned the church as it spread through the Greco-Roman world. As theologian Fr. Richard McBrien notes, "Despite many differences from place to place, however, certain common elements of belief and practice existed:

• "faith in Jesus as Messiah and Lord,

• "the practice of baptism and the celebration of the Eucharist,

• "the apostolic preaching and instruction,

• "the practice of communal love,

• "and the expectation of the coming reign of God."

All who profess Christ still share these beliefs. This is why, when attending services at other Christian churches, such as Episcopalian, Methodist or Lutheran, you will hear the same creed: "one holy, catholic, and apostolic church." The unity, though flawed, persists.

As Pope John Paul said in a 2000 audience on Christian unity, what binds us is "the unity of faith. This unity has its source in the word of God, which all the Churches and Ecclesial Communities consider a light for the steps of their journey in history (Ps 119: 105) ... This fundamental unity, together with that constituted by the one Baptism, is clearly apparent in the many documents of the ecumenical dialogue, even when there remain reasons for reservation on this or that point."

Unity remains basic. We all profess in a universal church under Christ, no matter our denomination. It was only later in history, long after Ignatius, that the term "Roman Catholic" developed, to denote those who remain united under the Bishop of Rome.

As much as we honor the term, it reflects the sad fact that Christ's church, while universal, is divided.

However, there have always been some divisions in the church. One has only to look at the arguments about Jewish and non-Jewish practices in the early church (for example, Acts 10) or the concern about meat sacrificed to idols recorded in Paul's letters to Corinth to realize this (see 1Cor 8).

Vatican II recognized these ongoing divisions in its foundational document on the church and said that we must persevere in working for a unity that may only be fully realized in the next world.

"The one People of God is accordingly present in all the nations of the earth, since its citizens, who are taken from all nations, are of a kingdom whose nature is not earthly but heavenly. ... This character of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift from the Lord himself whereby the (Roman) Catholic ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and all its goods under Christ the Head in the unity of the Spirit (Lumen Gentium, no. 13).

All Christians are called to work for that unity. As Bp. Banks wrote recently, "Prayer of the unity of all Christians ... should be frequently on our minds and in our hearts" (Compass, Oct. 3).

So when we Catholics next pray the Creed, let us remember that the Spirit is at work in the "catholic" church and will eventually bring us completely together in "the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace" (Eph 4:4). In professing our belief in "one, holy, catholic and apostolic church," we also profess our hope, as well as our belief, in this unity.