"Catholic vs Christian" (no really...this is a serious question)?

You know, as an Atheist, I really loose hope for the world when I read the stupid answers to this question.

The Catholic Church, is a Christian Church, with the Pope at its head.

The oldest church was unearthed last year - in a very early underground church was found beneath the ancient Saint Georgeous Church, which itself dates back to 230 AD, in Rihab, northern Jordan near the Syrian border.

The oldest churches were Coptic, Assyrian and Ethiopian

Then the Orthodox Church was established followed by the Catholic Church.

some 1400 years later, the Protestant church was established, and all the mickey mouse religions which these fools seem to subscribe started to turn up about 200 years later.

Just as Pope Benedict XVI, is the head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics,

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is the spiritual head of 250 million Orthadox Christians

The Pope of The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, or Pope of Alexandria for short, is the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria in Egypt, which has about 16 million members worldwide, including about 12 million Orthodox Christians in Egypt and another 4 million expatriates in the Diaspora. The title is currently held by Pope Shenouda III, 117th and incumbent Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa on the Apostolic Throne of St Mark.

The Protestant Churches grew from the Catholic Church during the religious revolutions of the 1500's. The term Protestant encompasses all the traditions that came to be after this period, the Anglican church has the Queen as its head.

I assume that many of the fools here are from the Congreationalism - United Church of Christ view the Christian community as a covenant of faithful individuals who acknowledge only Christ as it's head.

I'm not a Catholic but I have friends who used to be.

The early church had everyone being called 'brother' to each other, with God as the Father. One of the church leaders once decided that he would be called 'father' or papa, therefore Pope, because he was a sort of spirituall descendant of Peter. Jesus once said that he would build his church on the rock, Peter, which is where the idea comes from that only the line of Peter is the true church. However,Jesus is clearly the founder of the church, so I don't think this can be the case. We do of course worship the same God, although Catholics accept some books that other Christian followers do not, you will have to look up the reasons for that. Most Catholics I know (or ex-Catholics) tell me that they live with constant guilt, forever trying to atone for their sins. Other Christians accept that once you are forgiven, you are fully forgiven even if you sin again. That's the law of grace at work.

Well what you are asking is similar to asking is there a difference between apples and fruit. Catholicism is indeed a denomination of Christianity. The reason this girl may deny this is because a few centuries ago Roman Catholicism (like many denominations) self proclaimed itself the "true Christian faith". They usually back this up with scripture from the Bible (most of which were of course written or edited by Roman Catholics). It also has the backing of being one of the earliest recorded forms of Christianity still in practice today (Orthodox being the main other earliest) and currently has (I believe) the most followers world wide.

Basically the big thing here is that all the different denominations hold slightly to moderately differing opinions about how to interpret the Bible, God's will, Jesus' message, how we should worship God, and a few other things of that nature.

The biggest difference with Catholics is they have the Pope who they see as their direct link to God. Most other denominations disagree with this.

Here is a link to a few comparison charts between the denominations including practices, beliefs and statistics:

http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/denomina...

So to sum up, Catholics are Christians yes. However there are other forms of Christians out there such as Protestants, Lutherans, Baptists, ect. Therefore even if they are historically the most popular form of Christianity, Catholics are indeed a subsection of Christianity or more properly said they are a denomination of Christianity. It really has nothing to do with who's faith is "better" or who's is "correct", it is just the proper explanation of how Catholicism and any other form of Christianity such as Baptist or Protestant is related to the faith of Christianity. Except for non-denominational Christians, who are just Christians.

Hope that helps. Sorry it was so long winded.

First of all, you have to understand the most important difference between Catholicism and Christianity (any denomination). Christianity believes that salvation is a free gift, which means both your past and future sins do not factor into your salvation. You will be saved from the lake of fire and although harsh, this is not eternal. Catholicism believes that salvation takes a lot of work and effort. They believe that you must confess your sins to a priest regularly and even then you might have to go to purgatory after death before you can get into heaven. Catholicism also believes that most people will suffer in eternal hell. Now over many years these two views have been twisted by various leaders in the church with pagan beliefs thrown it. Protestants are a major denomination of Christianity that rivaled the Catholic Church in the 15th and 16 centuries. They disagreed with many of the Catholic doctrines. There are other denominations of Christianity as well including Lutheran, Baptist, Eastern Orthodox, Presbyterian, etc. I wrote an article on the origin of Catholicism that explains all of this in greater detail. See the link below. God bless.

>is there a difference between being Catholic and being Christian?

Yes. Catholicism is one variety of christianity. You can be a christian without being a catholic, but you can't be a catholic without being a christian. Kind of like how not all insects are grasshoppers, but all grasshoppers are insects. Same principle.

>i was always under the impression that Catholicism was a subsection of Christianity

That's correct.

What mixes people up is the fact that there are a lot of protestant fundies who claim that catholics AREN'T christian, that 'they don't follow Jesus' and 'they don't have a personal relationship with God' and so on and that this makes then non-christian. It's all nonsense of course, anyone who believes that Jesus was the divine son of God and the savior of humanity is a christian by definition, regardless of what a bunch of fundies say. This is merely an example of the No True Scotsman Fallacy:

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

All are "christian" and love/believe Jesus as messiah, which is the main doctrine of what is considered "christian". However there is a diffference between catholic and protestant in some doctrine.

For instance devotion to Mary and the Saints

The belief of the sacraments such as mass or cummunion being more than just a "reminder" etc.

Essentially christian is christian. There are also difference between lutherans and charismatics. Again both christians. Some just rest more of the beliefs on specific scripture vs the others.

Your right, this is a serious question and without going into to much

detail Catholicism is not Christianity, Why? because a Christian simply means followers of Jesus Christ teachings and laws. The Catholic doctrine teaches their own laws which are not the Holy word of God from baby baptisms, man made sacraments to Idolatry (people worship-mainly Mary) which is forbidden by God through out the old and new testaments. Do a little research and I'm sure you will find that what I'm saying is true. A true Christian to God will know there is (Eph.4:4) One God, One faith and One baptism.

.

Read your Bible God has all the answers you seek and may God

Bless You.

Catholics are Christians, the first Christians. I am a Protestant and I have no problem with this. The old Protestant/Catholic prejudice still lives in some of the fundamentalist churches that are still anti Catholic.

Actually there are a lot of mainstream churches such as the roman catholics who accept Christ as part of their religion but often deny they are christian at all. It seems to becoming more politically correct to deny christianity even when blatantly practising it.

But roman catholicism actually started during the reign of the roman emporer constantine when he accepted christianity as the state religion, so roman catholics are 'christians' in the religious sense whether they say so or not.

Books have been written about this... There is so much untrue stuff being said about the Catholic faith! I honestly do not know where to start defending it!

There is a nice searchable online version that you may like... Catechism of the Catholic Church.