Are Catholics Christian?

Is a Catholic a Christian?

This really irks me and when it comes from people who are ignorant of our faith, I can understand it but recently, I heard a church catechist mention in a sentence, that implied that we are Catholics, not Christians. That horrified me! I think he meant that we're Catholics and not Protestants but for a Christian teacher, teaching Christianity to our children and not getting this right, really, really horrified me. Actually, there were two things he said. He said, 'I don't mean Bible reading Christians. We're not Christians, we're Catholic'.
Horrors. Catholics are Christians and Catholics DO read the bible even if he may not. This scares me alot because he's a catechist. No, I didn't approach him. I'm praying for him instead.

It's typical. Someone asks a Catholic, 'Are you are a Christian?' and the Catholic answers, 'No, I'm Catholic'. The next time you are asked that, take a second to let the question sink in before you reply. I always say, 'Yes, I'm Catholic' and the person asking, if he or she is a Protestant, looks at me as though I've lost my marbles. You can just see it in their faces, they want to say, 'NO, YOU'RE NOT. YOU'RE A CATHOLIC'. But they politely nod their heads and say instead, 'Oh, you're Catholic'. As a Catholic, if you said you weren't a Christian, not only are you an ignorant fool, you're also denying the existence of Jesus Christ. It's quite okay to lose your marbles but not okay to lose your way.

Yes, a Catholic is a Christian. I am Catholic and I am a Christian because I believe in Jesus Christ, who is the head of my everything. Christianity is coined from being the followers of Christ and the Christ is Jesus Christ. The term 'Christianity' is used in the New Testament, especially by Paul the Apostle.

At this point, I'm not arguing with any Protestant who wishes to bring home the point that Catholics are not Christians because Catholics are sinners blah blah blah. No, this is not the purpose of this post. People have argued till the cows come home but I frankly think Jesus doesn't care a hoot if you're Catholic or Protestant. He cares if you are with Him or not with Him. I don't think in Heaven, they have separate areas for Roman Catholics and Protestants. Oops, wait, to some others, Catholics don't even go to Heaven! They think Catholics spend eternity in Purgatory and for coming up with Purgatory, we go straight to 'H--'!!! I'm just wondering, do they think Mother Mary is in Heaven near to Jesus or in H--?

The purpose of this post is to let ignorant Catholics AND Protestants out there know that YES, CATHOLICS ARE CHRISTIANS, because the last I checked, Jesus Christ is the basis of the Catholic faith. The term 'Catholic church' is also used in some protestant prayer books to mean 'universal church' and not to mean 'Catholic' as some people deem today, as a 'sect' of Christianity.

I recall an incident at my grandmother's funeral some years back. She was baptised as a Christian late in her life. During a night prayer service, the protestant prayer booklet which had been supplied by the Pastor invited for that evening had the term 'Catholic church' in it. When the bunch of us (Catholics and Protestants) were praying aloud the Nicene Creed and had read that term out loud, you could hear a pin drop above the din. Presumably, the protestants were horrified that they had just claimed to belong to the 'Catholic church' (even if the prayer book was from a Protestant church) and the Roman Catholics were bemused that the term was being used in a Protestant prayer booklet. I never saw those prayer booklets being used again for the rest of the nightly services. Utter ignorance. Knee jerk reaction. The term 'Catholic church' is to mean 'Universal Church'. Protestants might in a bid not to mix up the meaning with being Roman Catholic (Heaven forbid!), use the term 'Church catholic' instead to mean 'Universal church'.

So yes, we are Christians. If Catholics ourselves don't know this, how do we expect others to? So remember, if you're a Roman Catholic and the next time someone asks you if you're a Christian, you answer, 'Yes, I'm a Catholic'!