Technically, yes.
Orthodox Christians are technically Catholic; they are not Roman in that they do not recognize the Pope as the head of the Church, nor do they accept certain doctrinal teachings of Rome (egg; priests marry in the Orthodox Church, the "Filioque" clause in the Nicene Creed).
Roman Catholics look to the Pope as the head of the Church.
Edit: Matt, you are wrong. The Eastern Orthodox Church is indeed a Catholic Church; in fact, the official name is the Orthodox Catholic Church.
Anything other than Roman Catholic isn't Catholic. It's just a maneuver to get out of alignment with the Pope, which, then, wouldn't be Catholic at all. God Bless you.
Laurence got it right. Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox churches are also 'Catholic'. But Greek and Roman Orthodox believers get really upset if you mention that. 8^) In the US or Western or Northern Europe, when someone says 'Catholic' he usually means 'Roman Catholic'.
Generally they mean the same thing, but there are exceptions. The one that comes to mind are Byzantine Catholics, who are under the authority of the Pope, as Roman Catholics are, but differ in some ways doctrinally, and especially in their liturgy.
The other distinction some Christians make is that the catholic (lowercase "c") Church means the universal Christian Church, whereas the Catholic (notice the capital "C") Church refers to the Roman Catholic Church
Edit: And for the record, Orthodox Christians are not Catholic. The two traditions officially split in 1054 over the previously mentioned foliage clause. However, they do share many similar doctrines.
I've too have wondered about that.
Supposedly, there is also a Holy Roman Catholic, and perhaps even an Holier Than Thou Roman Catholic. (Or I shouldn't say that?)
The Catholic Church has consistently referred to itself as the ?Catholic Church? at least since 107 C.E., when the term appears in the writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch
The term "Roman" Catholic is rather recent.
The new Anglican Church in England started using the term ?Roman? in the 1500s as one of many ways of demeaning and demonizing Catholics.
Catholics accepted this late coming adjective without too much protest. Today ?Catholic? and ?Roman Catholic? are interchangeable terms. Both terms are even used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
To add a little more confusion, some apply the term ?Roman Catholic Church? only to the Latin Rite Catholic Church, excluding the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches that are in full communion with the Pope, and are part of the same Church, under the Pope.
Eastern Rite Catholic Churches include:
Alexandrian liturgical tradition
? Coptic Catholic Church
? Ethiopic Catholic Church
Antiochian (Antiochene or West-Syrian) liturgical tradition
? Maronite Church
? Syrian Catholic Church
? Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
Armenian liturgical tradition:
? Armenian Catholic Church
Chaldean or East Syrian liturgical tradition:
? Chaldean Catholic Church
? Syro-Malabar Church
Byzantine (Constantinopolitan) liturgical tradition:
? Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church
? Belarusian Greek Catholic Church
? Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church
? Byzantine Church of the Eparchy of Kri?evci
? Greek Byzantine Catholic Church
? Hungarian Greek Catholic Church
? Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
? Macedonian Greek Catholic Church
? Melkite Greek Catholic Church
? Romanian Church
? Russian Byzantine Catholic Church
? Ruthenian Catholic Church
? Slovak Greek Catholic Church
? Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The term ?Roman? neither increases nor decreases the faith, hope and love of the Catholic Church.
I like Irma's answer (again). And since we are a part of the Universal Church, I'm becoming intensely curious about the other Rites. May have to start paying a few visits.
Roman Catholics are a specific types of Catholics. At least 95% of Catholics that you know will be Roman Catholics, but Roman Catholicism is one rite within the Catholic Church. There are around 30 rites all together though some are quite small. Here is a list of some of the other Catholic rites that are not Roman Catholics:
Hi is their a difference between catholic vs roman catholic?
