This often misunderstood adjective simply means "universal." The word itself is Latin, deriving from kata meaing 'according to,' and holos meaning 'the whole.' The church of Jesus Christ, being his body, has always been a universal church, embracing all races and nations in one, and, therefore, catholic. This is the significance of the expression found in many creeds; ". . . and I believe in . . . the holy catholic church, the communion of saints . . ." This stands in contrast to churches that are "sectarian" churches, which refers to those what have separated themselves from the worldwide 'catholic' church.
In Christian literature, however, the adjective is used in at least four different senses:
1) of the 'universal' as distinct from 'local" church,
2) of the orthodox as distinct from 'heretical' or 'schismatical' churches,
3) of the European church before the Great Schism, after which the Western Latin-speaking church began to designate itself the 'catholic' church and the eastern Greek-speaking church the 'orthodox' church,
4) of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox communion (in the fictitious belief that they represent the undivided church of the earlier days) as distinct from the so-called Protestant churches that were established as a result of the Reformation.
As English historian Dermaid MacCulloch observes, the term 'catholic' is "the linguistic equivalent of a Russian doll" and, certainly, a word "which a lot of people want to possess" (Reformation).
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