“Catholic” is just a word meaning “universal,” which I why I always refer to Roman Catholics as ROMAN Catholics, or just “Romanists.”
Referring to themselves as just “Catholic” is personally insulting to me, and every other Protestant and non-Romanist believer in Christ, because it implies that they are in the universal Church and we are not.
Historically you cannot see a Pope-of-Rome-as-the-one-Vicar-of-Christ claim until at least the 6th or 7th Century—so the idea that the organization of the “Roman Catholic Church” as constituted for the last thousand years or so, going back to the 1st Century is laughable.
Originally there were 5 Archbishops representing the 5 most important cities for Christians in the ancient world: Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Rome. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Bishop of Rome rose to prominence as the most important bishop of the (formally) most important city of the world. His centralizing organizing influence for orthodoxy was very important in the ensuing chaos of the (so called) Dark Ages.
The Bishop of Rome’s allegiance with very powerful and wealthy governing authorities though, very soon brought about the corruption associated with great wealth and power...
This corruption, along with growing power, continued increasing throughout the Middle Ages culminating with the Great Schism (with the other 4 Christian popes of the cities of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople—making up the Eastern Orthodox Church) in AD 1054 and into the Babylonian Captivity (when there were 3 Roman popes...all claiming legitimacy) of the 1400s.
Finally in 1517, a certain German monk had the guts to nail 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, and he wasn’t burned to death (as previous reformers had been...) and we had the Protestant Reformation.
Besides, what gave some groups the right to call themselves Evangelicals or Charismatics etc.? It's a way to define oneself, so chill..
Catholics are those that are baptized into the Body of Christ and believe the Catholic Faith. Something tells me you don’t qualify on either point.
i wonder if you would be kind enough to answer a question very few are willing to tackle, namely, is there an authority on earth that can infallibly state which books are Scripture and which are not? if no, how can you be sure you have the correct Scriptures in your hand when you read the Bible? if yes, what is the name of this authority, where did they get their authority from and do they have any other authority other than declaring the canon?