Bryan X said:
I was debating with a Catholic who kept telling me not to confuse him with the Roman Catholic Church. He says he does not pray to the Saints and he does pray to Mary, and he also does not attend Mass on Sundays. However, he is Catholic. So as our debate goes on, he accuses me of not being able to differentiate Roman Catholic from Catholic.
Really, is there any difference? If so, what are they different in?
And what's the similarity(if any)?
There are a few groups that call themselves catholic. First of all, although the word
catholic is often associated with the Roman Catholic Church, it actually means something more like
universal. Now there are a few groups who call them selves catholic, one is the Roman Catholic Church, another is the Old American catholic church, another is the ancient catholic church, old catholic church, and I am sure there are 50 more that I do not know about.
The main difference is that the Roman Catholic Church is traced back to Jesus Christ though the apostils and many many others. Other catholic churchs also go back to Jesus Christ, but at one point in history split from Rome because of one reason or another. This gets confused with protestant churchs, but they are not, they call themselves catholic. They usually split because some pope said something that upset them.