CATHOLIC MEANS UNIVERSAL

A BLOG BY LAWRENCE M. VENTLINE, FATHER VENTLINE
My mission is to grip readers with a sense of their roots and relationships - foundational for us to know who we are and how we are related to family, friends, yes, and, foes in our one world, one globe we all share.
Early on after I was baptized Catholic as an infant in my home parish of the late Saint Thomas the Apostle on Detroit's east side near Harper and Miller, the marks of the Catholic Church were brazened in my mind if not my heart by the dedicated and inspiring pastors and nuns who taught me twelve years except for kindergarten at Lynch School where my gym teacher, Mrs. Forner stood me in the corner facing the wall since I could not learn how to tie my shoes with two loops for the life of me. I was shamed. Not nice. Anyway, One, holy, catholic, and apostolic - those marks of the church define who Catholics are and the mission of each baptized member. Both my parents were farmers. Close to the earth, they knew who they were. No identity crisis for them. They imbued that sense in their seven children - two sets of twins included, and my oldest brother, who I look up toward, who was killed in Vietnam in '68.
Resources for information about who a Catholic is can be found at www.aod.org, the site for the local Archdiocese of Detroit, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). Scripture and tradition are two prongs of Catholics.
Growing up, the Baltimore Catechism asked, why did God make me?
God made me to know him, love him and serve him in this world to join him in the next. Most Catholics know that by heart and re-soundly shout it back to me in unison during a homily at Mass.
Catholic is one of the four marks or notes of the Church, taken from the Nicene Creed. The Church is catholic or universal both because she possesses the fullness of Christ's presence and the means of salvation, and because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race (750, 830, CCC).
Now, don't get mad at me if you don't like the definition for Catholic. As I grew up I was taught with my six brothers and sisters the rules and regulations of the Church. Or else. We were clear about who we were at Catholics. Ambiguity was unheard of for us. We knew right from wrong. The ten commandments were more than suggestions to take or leave. Clarity in knowing who I was still rings within my heart. I'm better for strong roots and relationships. Aren't we all?