The Church Is Catholic

Orthodox Christians confess that the church is “catholic” and that “catholic” remains the fundamental and authoritative attribute and name. As St Raphael of Brooklyn reminded his flock: “We are Catholics. The Orthodox Church is the true Catholic Church… We have kept the name Catholic, which is our rightful inheritance from the Apostles” (Letter dated March 4, 1908)

Hence, it may be said that theologically speaking, the faith is “orthodox” and the church is “catholic” (the Greek language does not use capitalization):

“…those who held the orthodox faith…” (Referring to those who maintained the true apostolic doctrine against heretics) Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book VI, Chapter 33.4; and “…the orthodox faith which has come down from the beginning…”

[With reference to the heretic Paul of Samosata]: “…he attempted to corrupt the catholic churches…” (Book VII, Chapter 30.10)

The word “catholic” comes from the Greek kath’ holon, “according to the whole.” St Cyril of Jerusalem unfolds its applications:

The Church is called catholic because she extends over all the world, from one end of the earth to the other; and because she teaches completely and without omission all the doctrines which ought to come to men’s knowledge… and because she brings into subjection to godliness the whole human race… and because she universally treats and heals every kind of sin committed by soul or body, and possesses in herself every form of virtue… and every kind of spiritual gift. (St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 18.23)

The primary meaning of “catholic,” contrary to widespread opinion, is not “universal” in the sense of worldwide, but “having the property of wholeness”; it is this wholeness that enables the Church to be fully manifested, and to fulfill God’s mandate, in every place and circumstance, hence also her universality. In the Holy Scriptures, the expression appears in the book of Acts:

Then the church throughout all (kath’ holēs) Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up; walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, she was multiplied. (Act 9:31; this text has a significant variant reading of “churches” in the plural.)

In Orthodox ecclesiology, the Church is a divine-human reality transcending space and time, possessing the property of catholicity: being fully manifested in a given place and time, wherever and whenever the Eucharist is celebrated by the people with their deacons, presbyters, and bishop. Accordingly, the expressions “the whole church” and “the catholic church” are properly applied to the local Eucharistic assembly (now commonly called a diocese), as well as to the entire Body of Christ in its fullness, transcending place and time (see the Study: The Structure of the Orthodox Communion).

In the second sense, the Church may also be called “universal,” in that she is limited to no place, time, or people, but contains true believers of all places, times, and peoples. For in the Church of Christ “there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free; but Christ is all, and in all” (Col 3:11). The Church is “catholic as universal” because its Eucharistic gathering is a complete gathering of all people, regardless of races, age, gender or any other human difference, into the unity of the Eucharist and therefore of Christ.

What holds the Church together is therefore not extension in space only, but continuity in time. She is not an institution that has endured since Christ; she is Christ himself made present in every generation, so that the saints of every age are not remembered by her from a distance but are members with us of one Body (Q262, Q263, Q264). St Justin Popovich states it thus:

The Church is the God-Man Christ extended through all the ages and through all eternity. (St Justin Popovich, Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church)

(Q271a. What are the great privileges of the catholic Church, as distinguished from other ‘churches?’)

The Scriptures bear witness that the risen Lord intended to establish a visible organism, first in Jerusalem and then “to the ends of the earth” (Act 1:8; see Q016, Q050):

Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!’ And Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah… you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’ (Mat 16:16–19).

Only this divinely ordained Church bears the sublime promise that the gates of death shall not prevail against her. In context, the promise is not merely that the Church will withstand attack: gates do not attack, the Church, following her Head, will break through the gates of the realm of death, as Christ the “first fruits” has already done: “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep… The last enemy to be abolished is death… that God may be all in all” (1Co 15:20–28; see Q212, Q368).

Because Christ has “the power of an indestructible life” (Heb 7:16; see Q367), he has “power to lay [his life] down, and power to take it again” (Joh 10:18); and the risen Lord speaks thus to the seer of Patmos: “Do not be afraid! I am the first and the last, and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive unto the ages of ages! I have the keys of death and of hades” (Rev 1:17–18; see Q523).

One must, however, be joined to his one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church to have the assurance that one’s union with Christ is secure and that the divine promise applies. Just as not all who claim to be apostles or prophets are such, so not every gathering claiming Christ’s name is truly “church.” As St Ignatius explains: “Follow your bishop, every one of you, as Jesus Christ followed the Father; obey the presbytery as you would the Apostles; reverence the deacons as the command of God. Let no decision affecting the Church be taken by anyone without the bishop. The only Eucharist to be considered assured is one celebrated by the bishop, or by one authorized by him. Where the bishop appears, there let the people be, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church” (St Ignatius of Antioch, To the Smyrnaeans, 8; see Q008, Q170); and: “without these [the threefold order of bishop, presbyters, and deacons], no assembly can be called a church” (To the Trallians, 3).

Likewise, St Cyprian teaches that apart from the unity of the bishop, (a) holding apostolic succession in his see, (b) maintaining Orthodox doctrine and liturgical practice, and (c) standing in solidarity and communion with the neighboring bishops and with the ancient and venerable sees of the common union, there can be no assurance that one is in the Church, but rather the danger of being found “opposing God” (Act 5:39):

The other Apostles were indeed what Peter was, but primacy is given to Peter, thereby making clear that there is one Church and one chair… If a man does not hold fast to this oneness of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he deserts the chair of Peter, upon whom the Church was built, can he be confident that he is in the Church? (St Cyprian of Carthage, On the Unity of the Catholic Church, 4, the ‘chair of Peter’ being, as Cyprian himself teaches, the one episcopate in which every lawful bishop shares)

The Lord’s promises, therefore, apply to that Church built upon the rock, Peter’s confession of faith, and the office of the episcopate founded through him, which the Creed confesses as “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.” To her, the Lord has pledged his presence to the end of the age, and in her abides the glory of God in Christ Jesus throughout all generations (Eph 3:21; see Q252, Q257).

Even if a particular church (cf. Rev 2–3) should fall away from the Orthodox faith and life, the Lord’s word assures us that all the holy Churches together will never apostatize from the faith or sin against the truth.

As for this common union of the catholic Churches holding fast to the Orthodox faith: her faith has been expressed by the Ecumenical Councils, whose teachings are reliable witnesses to Jesus Christ, and which therefore cannot utter falsehood in place of truth in the dogmas of our salvation.