“The Universal Church“
They spread the teachings of our Lord all over the world and the teachings of the The Holy Spirit. The apostles have their own disciples so their teaching will continue, until the death of Saint Peter in Rome. Before he died, he assigned Saint Linus as his successor, that’s why the succession of the popes continues in Rome.
But why is the word Catholic is not written in the bible? There are no written documents of the origin of the name Catholic or who declared the church as “Catholic Church”, but the only written letter that contains the term “Catholic” is from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to Smynaeans. “Catholic” means “Universal”, that’s why the church is often the called “The Universal Church”. During the ministry of the Apostles, the Christian persecution has started in 64 A.D. during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero until the reign and death of emperor Diocletian in 312 A.D. During the war in the Milvian bridge where Emperor Constantine the Great clashed with Emperor Maxentius, Emperor Constantine saw a vision of the Cross in the sky with a Greek word “In this sign, you shall conquer”. He also received an instruction from our Lord Jesus Christ in his dream that he must use the sign that he saw in the sky. So, he instructed his soldiers to draw the divine sign on their shields. This helps them won the battle against Maxentius. After the war, Emperor Constantine end the Christian Persecution and declared that the Catholics are part of the Roman empire. Although the bloody persecution has ended for the Catholics, they still received verbal persecution and discrimination from the next emperors and roman citizens who still still practicing paganism. Then in 380 A.D, Emperor Theodosius I declared that the Catholic Church as the official religion of the Roman Empire. That is why the modern people called the church as “Roman Catholic Church”.
Now, there are many Christian Churches in the world, the only question remain is what church do you want to join? The answer is the church that build by our Lord Jesus Christ, The Catholic Church. The Church will never die, and as our Lord said, even the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it.
