In everyday speech the two names mean the same church: the one led by the pope, which its own documents usually call the Catholic Church. The 23 Eastern Catholic churches belong to the same Church under the pope but follow Eastern rites, not the Roman (Latin) one. Old Catholic churches use the name Catholic outside communion with the pope. “Roman Catholic” took hold in English after the Reformation and became the legal name in England. A third word, catholic with…

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