Question: Why is our Church referred to as the Roman Catholic Church when there are so many different rites?
Answer: From the earliest centuries of Christianity, the Church founded by Christ and established by the Apostles called itself simply the Catholic Church — meaning “universal” (from the Greek katholikos) — to distinguish the Church in full communion with the bishop of Rome from heretical or schismatic groups.
As early as around 110 AD, St Ignatius of Antioch was already using the term: “Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8).
The expression “Roman Catholic Church” developed many centuries later, in post-Reformation England. After King Henry VIII’s break with Rome in the 1530s, the English state needed a way to distinguish between the new Church of England and those who remained loyal to the pope.
Officials and writers began calling the latter “Roman Catholics” — a political label marking their allegiance to “Rome” instead of their country. The term was often used pejoratively, with an undertone of prejudice or suspicion which implied that Catholics were foreign-influenced or disloyal subjects.
In formal Church documents — including those of the Second Vatican Council, the Code of Canon Law, the Catechism, encyclicals, exhortations and apostolic constitutions — the Catholic Church never uses the term “Roman”. The institution describes itself simply as the Catholic Church. The phrase “Roman Catholic Church” appears only in certain diplomatic contexts, in ecumenical discussions when this is unavoidable, or when referring specifically to the Latin (Roman) Rite.
Today, the Catholic Church is a communion of 24 Churches, all in full communion with the pope. The largest of these is the Latin Church, which follows the Roman or Latin Rite. The others are the Eastern Catholic Churches — Maronite, Melkite, Syriac, Ukrainian Greek, Syro-Malabar, Chaldean and others — each with its own liturgy, laws and spiritual traditions. Together, these rites make up the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
Therefore, when the term “Roman Catholic Church” is used, it should properly refer only to the Latin-rite Church — though even then, “Latin-rite” is more accurate. When referring to the Catholic Church as a whole, “Roman Catholic” is technically incorrect, as it excludes and perhaps even disrespects all the other rites.
Given the history of the term as an anti-Catholic pejorative, it is in fact best avoided altogether.
Published in the April 2026 issue of The Southern Cross Magazine
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