The Third Mark: Catholic

There are many things that come to mind when you hear the word Catholic. Automatically the Christian denomination appears as the forefront of people's minds, but Catholic doesn't just mean a religion. It comes from the Greek katholikos which means "universal." This perfectly describes the Church (and not just because it is called the Catholic Church).

There are two different reasons the Church is called Catholic. The first is that the Church is whole and complete, because Christ's unity with the Church has given it complete holiness. The second is because the Church has the universal authority to lead the universal mission by Christ for he said to his disciples to make disciples of all nations. Throughout the world, the same doctrine and teachings are all shared.

When the Apostles first began to separate into different corners of the world, they each began local churches which would be known today as dioceses. This does not mean that the universal Church is just a collection of all these different dioceses. Christ is present fully in each Church meaning that he transcends being international and fills time and space together. The universality of the Church extends to all which includes the  members united on earth, going through Purgatory, and in Heaven; all are joined together in Christ.

Even though the Church is universal, there are slight differences in the expressions of faith. This is not to say that the doctrines are different, but that some communities put certain emphasis on different aspects of the mass and prayers based on culture. These differences in celebration are known as the Catholic rites. Each rite has specific languages used for that region. These different rites can be traced as far back as the Apostles who originally built up these communities. Each Apostle has a different way of explaining Christ's message by just looking at the differences in Matthew's and John's Gospels. In total there are twenty-one rites including the most common in the West known as the Roman rite. The official language of the Roman rite is Latin which is why until Vatican II, the Mass was celebrated in Latin. The other rites already used different languages for example the Armenian rite uses classical Armenian which was used during the days of the early Church Fathers. Although there are differences in cultural forms, the Church is unified by this diversity.

Example of the church building for the Chaldean rite

The Catholic Church  is "Catholic" because Christ unites all her members with himself and that the mission granted by Christ is universal. There is no segregation or any distinction between all members of the faithful. It is universal in that all the members (including those in Purgatory or Heaven) are all united together in the Mystical Body of Christ. The Catholic faith has different rites expressing the diversity between all members of the faith, but all profess one universal mission. Thus the Catholic Church can state with confidence that it is indeed Catholic and list it as one of her marks.