They are ALL followers of the Church of Rome, just different rites.

HEADER FOR Expressions

(Click picture to go back to Table of Contents)

Welcome

Enjoy... But remember
"Don't give in to winning the argument
and losing one of your eternal crowns..."

God bless you...

They are ALL followers of the Church of Rome, just different rites.

Forum: Theological Expressions
Re:

Reconciliation, Towards Unity: JOINT STATEMENT BY POPE, ORTHODOX PRELATE (Matthew Tan Yew Hock)
Re:

PAPAL APOLOGY TO GREEK ORTHODOX (Matthew Tan Yew Hock)
Re:

"Enemy" Churches Praying Together: Pope and Orthodox Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens (Matthew Tan Yew Hock)
Re:

Read What Christodoulos Says to John Paul II (Christopher Yip)
Re:

The Catholic Church Includes Many Non-Roman Catholics (Matthew Tan Yew Hock)
Date: 2001, May 31
From: Christopher Yip CKHY

Anti-Protestant Mr Tan misleads readers into thinking that the Pope had an ecumenical mass in which non-members of the Roman Catholic Church participated. Quite clever use of words indeed!
The Roman Catholic Church is the Latin rite, that means the western rite also. The RCC calls themselves the Catholic Church hoping that this will make the reader think that they are the same Catholic Church of Ignatius and the church fathers. Far from it.
The Catholic Church of the first century is made up of the entire Christendom including the Eastern Orthodoxs and the Oriental Orthodoxs. Catholic simply means universal. They know nothing of transubstantiation, or Assumption of Mary, or Immaculate Conception, or Purgatory, or Penances etc. of the Roman Catholic Church.
The "Roman Catholic Church" is both the Church of Rome in particular, and the heretical system called Roman Catholicism. It has many churches all over the world and these churches differ slightly in their liturgical tradition. Hence, the term "rite" is used to denote such different traditions. The (Roman) Catholic Church has the Western and Eastern rites. The Western or Latin rite is the Church of Rome while the Eastern rite is made up of Roman Catholic Churches of the East.
In the news report, note that John Paul DID NOT CONDUCT Mass in which the Eastern Orthodoxs participated. All the churches which participated in the Mass were Roman Catholic Churches, those of the Eastern rite. The ceremony was done following the Roman or Latin rite, ie. the Western tradition.
So, a title like "The Catholic Church Includes Many Non-Roman Catholics" is deceptive. You can't say anti-Protestant Mr Tan is wrong because the "Catholic Church', as understood since the first century, DOES in fact include EVERY CHRISTIAN, including the PRotestants and ORthodoxs. So, in that sense, the Catholic Church is universal and includes non-Roman Catholics. However, as I have said earlier, the Catholic Church is NOT the same as the Roman Catholic Church. While the Catholic Church has Christ as the Head and all believers in that body, the Roman Catholic Church has the Pope as their head along with their "infallible" college of bishops. But since this is the title of a post that carries news about a Mass conducted by John Paul - it becomes even more deceptive because it gives the wrong impression that the Roman Catholic Church accepts all Christians.
Note: the Mass was for Roman Catholics of both the Western and Eastern rites. It didn't include Orthodoxs or any Protestants.
Tsk! Tsk!
Christopher