While Catholicism is most often associated with the faith and practice of the Catholic Church, led by the Pope, features of catholicity and, therefore, the term "catholic church" also applies to other faiths, such as the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, etc. This also occurs in Lutheranism, Anglicanism, as well as in independent Catholicism and other Christian faiths.
What is a catholic church
While the traits used to define catholicity, as well as the recognition of these traits in other faiths, vary among different religious groups, common attributes include formal sacraments, an episcopal state, apostolic succession, strictly structured worship, and other unified ecclesiology.
The Catholic Church is also known as the Roman Catholic Church - the term is used especially in ecumenical contexts and in countries where other churches use the word "Catholic" to distinguish the adherents of this church from the broader meanings of this concept.
In Protestantism
Among Protestant and kindred traditions, catholicity or collegiality is used in the sense of indicating self-understanding of the continuity of the continuity of faith and practice from early Christianity, as outlined in the Nicene Creed.
Among the methodologists: Lutherans, Moravans and Reformed denominations, the term "catholic" is used in the statement that they are "heirs of the apostolic faith." These denominations consider themselves catholic churches, arguing that the concept "means the historical, orthodox mainstream of Christianity, whose doctrine was defined by ecumenical councils and creeds," and therefore most reformers "turned to this catholic tradition and believed that they were in continuity with it."
Common features
A common belief related to catholicism is the institutional continuity from the early Christian church founded by Jesus Christ. Many temples or communities identify themselves individually or collectively as a genuine church. In any subject literature, the main schisms and conflicts in Christianity are stated, especially in groups that identify themselves as Catholics. There are several competing historical interpretations about which groups split into the original early church.
Times of popes and kings
According to the theory of the Pentarchy, the early undivided church was organized under three patriarchs: Rome, Alexandria and Antioch, to which the patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem were later added. The bishop of Rome at that time was recognized as the first among them, as indicated, for example, in canon 3 of the First Council of Constantinople (many interpret the “first”, which means “a place among equals”).
The bishop of Rome was also considered eligible to convene ecumenical councils. When the Imperial capital moved to Constantinople, the influence of Rome was sometimes disputed. Nevertheless, Rome claimed special authority because of its connection with Saints Peter and Paul, who, as everyone agreed, were tortured and buried in Rome, and therefore the bishop of Rome saw himself as the successor of St. Peter.
Catholicity of the Church: History
The Third Ecumenical Council in 431 was mainly concerned with Nestorianism, which emphasized the difference between the humanity and divinity of Jesus and proclaimed that, at the birth of the messiah, the Virgin Mary could not speak of the birth of God.
This Council rejected Nestorianism and affirmed that since humanity and divinity are inseparable in Jesus Christ, his mother, the Virgin Mary, is thus the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.
The first major break in the Church followed this Council. Those who refused to adopt the Council’s decree were mostly Persian Christians and are represented today by the Assyrian Church of the East and its affiliated Churches, which, however, now lack “Nestorian” theology. They are often called ancient eastern temples.
Second gap
The next major split occurred after the Council of Chalcedon (451). This Council rejected the Euphian monophysitism, which stated that divine nature completely subordinated human nature in Christ. This Council stated that Christ, although he was a man, manifested two natures: “without confusion, no change, no separation, no bifurcation,” and thus he is completely God and completely human. The Church of Alexandria rejected the conditions adopted by this Council, and Christian churches that follow the tradition of non-recognition of the Council - they are not monophysites in doctrine - are called pre-Chalcedonian or Eastern Orthodox churches.
Final break
The next big gap in Christianity was in the 11th century. Long-standing doctrinal disputes, as well as conflicts between the methods of church rule and the evolution of individual rites and customs, accelerated the split in 1054, which divided the Church, this time between the “West” and “East”. Spain, England, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Scandinavia, the Baltic countries and Western Europe as a whole were in the western camp, and Greece, Romania, Kievan Rus and many other Slavic lands, Anatolia and Christians in Syria and Egypt who accepted the Cathedral of Chalcedon, made up the Eastern Camp. This division between the Western and Eastern Churches is called the split between East and West.
In 1438, the Cathedral of Florence was held, in which a dialogue was held on understanding the theological differences between East and West, with the hope of a reunion of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Several eastern churches reunited, making up some of the Catholic churches. They are sometimes called Orthodox catholic churches.
Reformation
Another major division in the Church occurred in the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation, after which many parts of the Western Church rejected the papal authority and some of the teachings of the Western Church of that time and became known as “Reformers” as well as “Protestants”.
A much smaller gap occurred when, after the first Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church, in which he officially proclaimed the dogma of the infallibility of the papacy, small clusters of Catholics in the Netherlands and in German-speaking countries formed the Old Catholic (Alcatolide) church.
Terminology difficulties
The use of the terms “catholicity” and “Catholicism” depends on the context. During the times preceding the Great schism, this refers to the Nicene Creed, and especially to the principles of Christology, i.e., the rejection of Arianism. In the days after the Great schism, Catholicism in the person of the Catholic Church unites the Latin, Eastern Catholic churches of the Greek tradition and other eastern Catholic parishes.
Liturgical and canonical practices are distinguished between all of these specific Churches that make up the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches (or, as Richard McBrien calls them, "Communion of the Catholic Churches"). Compare this to the term “Catholicos” (but not Catholicism) in relation to the head of the Special Church in Eastern Christianity. However, the significance of the Orthodox catholic church is rather nominal.
In the Catholic Church, the term "catholic" is understood as "encompassing those who are baptized and in fellowship with the Pope."
The sacraments
Churches in this tradition (for example, the Russian Orthodox Catholic Church) administer the seven sacraments or “holy mysteries”: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Repentance, also known as Reconciliation, Anointing of God, Blessing of the Saints and Brotherhood.
What about the Catholics?
In churches that consider themselves Catholic, the sacrament is considered a visible sign of God's invisible grace. While the word “mystery” is used not only for these rites, but also for other meanings with reference to revelations about God and God's mystical interaction with creation, the concept of “sacrament” (from Latin - “solemn commitment”) is a common term in the West, which relates specifically to these rites.
The Eastern Orthodox Church adheres to the position that this is their fellowship, which in fact constitutes the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Eastern Orthodox Christians consider themselves heirs to the patriarchal structure of the first millennium, which developed in the Eastern Church in the model of the pentarchy, recognized by the Ecumenical Councils as a theory that "continues to prevail in official Greek circles to this day."
Dissenters vs. dissenters
In Orthodoxy, catholicity or collegiality of the church plays a huge role. Since the theological debate that took place in the 9th-11th centuries, culminating in the final schism in 1054, the Eastern Orthodox churches viewed Rome as a schismatic species that violated the essential Catholicism of the Christian faith by introducing new doctrines (see Filioque).
On the other hand, the model of the pentarchy was never fully applied in the Western Church, which preferred the theory of Primate Bishop of Rome, preferring ultramontaneity over the cathedral. The name "Patriarch of the West" was rarely used by the popes until the 16th-17th centuries and was included in the "Annuario-Pontifio" from 1863 to 2005, being discarded and made history, outdated and practically unusable.
Eastern Orthodox churches (Coptic, Syrian, Armenian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Malankaran) also support the position that their community comprises the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. In this sense, Eastern Orthodoxy supports its ancient ecclesiological traditions of the apostolate (apostolic succession) and the catholicity (universality) of the Church. There is even a Catholic Orthodox Church in France.