7 Little-Known Facts About Roman Catholicism

Roman Catholic is a term sometimes used to differentiate members of the Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope in Rome from other Christians, especially those who also self-identify as "Catholic", such as Anglo-Catholics and Independent Catholics. The term "Roman Catholic" was not generally used until the Protestant Reformation, and some historians view the Council of Trent (1545-1563) as the centralizing movement within Catholicism—a movement to enhance the authority of Rome. The word "Catholic" is derived from the Greek katholikos, meaning universal. Evidence of its first use comes from Ignatius of Antioch's Letter to the Smyrnaeans in A.D. 108—in which Ignatius defines the Catholic Church in contrast to beliefs he thought heretical.