Learn of Me

Extract

Lubac, in his book Catholicism, has rightly pointed out that the term Catholic as applied to the Church since the second century is basically an intrinsic note. Nonetheless it has a popular use in our day as denoting the Church's worldwide commission: ‘Going, therefore, teach ye all nations’ (Douai) or ‘Making disciples of all nations’ (Knox). So, if we are asked what religion we belong to we invariably reply—'the Catholic'. By this we mean we do not belong to a merely national church or religion, such as the Anglican, but to the Church Universal. Yet our first name, given to us at Antioch, in the days of the Apostles, was Christian, i.e. the followers of Christ. Hence, Christian is our fundamental name, and the Christian Church is Catholic because she is meant to reunite all men in Christ.