The word ‘catholic’ comes from the Greek phrase ‘kata holos’, meaning “according to the whole.” In about 110 AD, Ignatius wrote, “Where Christ is, there is the catholic Church.” In 381, the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed used it to describe the church as “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.” In the fifth century, Vincent of Lérins defined catholic as, “what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.”
When Lutherans, and other protestants, refer to the Church as ‘catholic’, we are emphasizing its universality and continuity with the early apostolic Church, rather than implying a direct affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church. Some try to translate ‘catholic’ as ‘universal’ or ‘Christian’, but I feel that these muddle the point. Our service book uses a lower-case ‘c’ in catholic to emphasis that it is an adjective and not a proper noun.
The catholicity of the church means the wholeness and universality of Christian doctrine in continuity with the undivided early church, the fullness of Christian life and worship, and the inclusion of all nations in the church. The term ‘catholic’ acknowledges the broader Christian heritage and the common faith shared by believers across various Christian traditions.
