I learned this week that the definition of “Catholic” is Universal. It means Christ’s fullness was brought for all people — universally. (Which is awesome for a Universalist to hear).
When I went through Methodist confirmation, I was taught the Apostle’s Creed and that “one holy, catholic church” had a lowercase “c” to mean universal. As a Roman Catholic, Universal means that everyone is included in our church, even people who don’t belong to it. The beautiful way Christ’s word is softened and made gentle for those who cannot hold the fullness of true communion with the saints and Christ. It’s not watered down, but the Catholic faith is so much stronger and takes more faith, mor belief, than the less demanding faith of my childhood — where metaphor reigned as the “out” for anything that took too much of a leap of faith to believe.