Jesus intended that the Church He founded be universal. His Church would be for all nations and all times.
He wanted his Church to have a widespread membership. It would have no bias against any group of people and have no preference for others.
This Church would also be universal in time, existing from when Jesus founded it and lasting until He comes again at the end of time.
Used in creeds and letters from the earliest days of the Church, the Greek word for “universal” was used to distinguish this true Church from heretical groups.
Throughout the first millennium, all Christians were members of the Catholic Church, the only Church that can claim that it is universal in time, expanse, and membership.
A nine letter word for Catholic:
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation.”
Mark 16: 15
Called to take the whole truth to the whole world:
The term “Catholic” is used two ways:
Diverse cultures with the same beliefs and traditions:
“All men are called to this catholic unity of the People of God…. and to it, in different ways, belong or are ordered: the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ, and finally all mankind, called by God’s grace to salvation.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 836
God desires everyone to be saved:
Jesus desires unity:
The open arms of St. Peter’s Square welcome everyone to his Church:
In the celebration of the liturgy, in their witness before judges and executioners and in their apologetical texts, the first Christians readily expressed their deep faith in the Church by describing her as being spread throughout the universe. They were fully conscious of belonging to a large community which neither space nor time can limit: From the just Abel right to the last of the elect, “indeed to the ends of the earth, “to the end of time.” This is how the Lord wanted His Church to be: universal, a great tree whose branches shelter the birds of the air, a net which catches fish of every kind or which Peter drew in filled with one hundred and fifty-three big fish, a flock which a single shepherd pastures. A universal Church without boundaries or frontiers except, alas, those of the heart and mind of sinful man.
Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, December 8, 1975
A Church that is bigger than any one nation:
“Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
We are called:
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