the word catholic

When was the word catholic first used as a name for Christ's Church? Should it be captialized? Before that were the Apostles just called Christians? Answer by Matthew Bunson on 9/14/2007: The term "catholic" is from the Greek katholikos, meaning universal or general. It was likely first used to designate the Church by St. Ignatius of Antioch in the 2nd century (Ep. ad Smyrn., 8.2): "Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church." The Catholic Church is the “universal” body of the faithful (stressed by Vatican Council II as the people of God), who follow the Catholic faith in the sense of the Vincentian Canon: “everywhere, always, and by all.” The Church is understood as Catholic in two senses. The first is in the way that in her subsists the fullness of Christ's body united with its head. As the Vatican II document Unitatis Redintegrato (No. 3) declares, the Church receives from Christ "the fullness of the means of salvation." Secondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent by Christ on a mission to preach the Gospel to the whole of the human race. The name "catholic" is customarily capitalized when used in conjunction with the Church, e.g., Roman Catholic Church. If you are referring to something universal, then the word is commonly lower case.