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The capitalised terms Catholic Church and Catholic are in English generally understood to refer to the (Roman) Catholic Church and its members. However, the uncapitalised terms catholic church and catholic have much wider and equally common meanings.
To complicate this already subtle distinction, these and related terms have been disputed and used in sectarian propaganda ever since the Reformation on both sides, possibly before then, and to this day.
Wikipedia reports both sides of this controversy, but must avoid supporting either view, either by the choice of article titles or by the use of these terms in other text.
Acceptable names
editCatholic Church
editThe terms Catholic Church, and Catholic referring to that church, its members and agencies, are generally acceptable and preferred when capitalised.
Contexts in which the capitalisation is unclear should be avoided if possible, notably at the start of a sentence or of an article name. These are generally ungrammatical in any case, with the exception of the article title Catholic Church itself, see #Borderline cases below. A sentence beginning The Catholic Church...', for example, is unambiguous and unobjectionable, but a sentence or article title beginning Catholic... is better avoided.
Article titles starting The Catholic... would be unobjectionable but are currently deprecated for other reasons.
Catholicism however capitalised refers to the Catholic Church, and may be used and wikilinked without reservation. Similarly, Catholicity however capitalised refers to a belief held by many churches, and this usage is unobjectionable. Caution is advised, simply to use the correct term. Use of either term at the start of a sentence or article title is unobjectionable.
Roman Catholic Church
editThe terms Roman Catholic Church and Roman Catholic are generally acceptable, but should be avoided where possible. Historically, Roman Catholic was an abusive term, but is now used by many Catholics to describe themselves, their church and its agencies.
It remains offensive to some, because of their belief that the Catholic Church is the only catholic church, that is, that it is the one true church. It is important to avoid either supporting or contradicting this POV.
Roman Catholic is unnecessarily precise in most contexts, so the term Catholic is preferred provided it is unambiguously capitalised. Its use at the start of a sentence or article title should be avoided if possible, as in these contexts the capitalisation is ambiguous.
Unacceptable names
editThe name catholic church uncapitalised is highly ambiguous, and should not be used except in direct speech quotations, where the original capitalisation must be observed, and the source must be cited. It should never be used as a wikilink.
The article title Catholic is ambiguous as catholic is the same article title, and should point to a DAB to discourage unpiped wikilinks. (It should never be wikilinked from an article.)
The term holy catholic church appears in the Nicene Creed and should be used neither to refer to the Catholic Church nor to the wider church. Either usage is POV.
Again, in direct speech quotations holy catholic church and one true church however capitalised are unobjectionable, but must be presented exactly as originally capitalised, and the source cited.
Borderline cases
editThe article name Catholic Church although in some ways ambiguous is accepted. It may be wikilinked without reservation.
This does not necessarily constitute a precedent for other article names. In particular, Catholic is ambiguous.
Sources
editPrimary sources may not be used to support adoption of a particular name for any church or its agencies.
Secondary sources need to be scrutinised for POV, particularly if used to support adoption of an article name.
See also
editArticle namespace pages
edit- Catholic (disambiguation)
- Catholicity
- One true church
- Catholicism (disambiguation)
- Catholic Church (disambiguation)