roman catholic and a catholic?

[tali122]

is there any difference between a roman catholic and a catholic?

[jno]

in normal speech, no.

[jno]

just to expand on that a little, in theological terms many churches call themselves Catholic. But in ordinary English, Catholic is just short for Roman Catholic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholicism

[Clanad]

...And to expand on that just a little... the actual meaning of the stand alone word Catholic simply means universal. When applied, as jno says to a religion, then it's a shortened version of Roman Catholic, primarily to differentiate it from the Eastern Orthodox version based in Istanbul (nee Constantinople) when the two were rent asunder in The Great Schism of A.D.1204...

[dot.hawkes]

i am a retail manger and i have a woman works for me called brenda and she has just been to Rome for 5 days with her friend Pat, who also works in the same store. pat and Brenda are both catholics. Brenda came back to work today and i asked her how her holiday was. It was awful apparently,
1) the Pope was at his summer palace
2) the Swiss guard would not let them into the Vatican Admin office
3) they lit candles in every Church within the vatican City walls and still they couldn't take their holy wine on the plane home.

I told her go to Jamaica next time she could bring anything home then.

[Peter Pedant]

Hey Dot ! AND when Brenda next has time off, you can use the hallowed joke....

Dot: Brenda's gone on holiday...

SOmeone else: Jamaica ?

Dot: No, I just gave her the advice !


Who did they blame most, The Pope for finding Rome too hot to pray in ? Or the Swiss Guard - lucky neither of them were young men is all I can say, but that is another story....

There are other things in Rome besides churches.....

PP - Oh and Catholic means world wide - so even some Anglicans say they are catholic - very confusing, even for this Rock Cake !

[Octavius]

The Roman in Roman Catholic Church has its origins in sixteenth century England in the wake of the English Reformation. Disdain for Pope Clement VII and succeeding Popes was expressed in England in slurs aimed at Rome such as Romish, papist, Romanish, and papistical. While the use of Roman no longer is a slur and usually does not carry a negative connotation, the proper name of the Church remains the Catholic Church, although I still call myself a Roman Catholic.

[parkesquay]

One can also have catholic tastes but it has SOD ALL to do with Roman Catholic priests.