Was the Early Church Catholic?
Imagine you could travel back to a Christian worship service in the year 150.
What would you find?
A worship band and a sermon series?
A quiet Bible study in someone’s living room?
Or something that looks a lot like a Catholic Mass?
We don’t have to guess.
The first Christians wrote it down.
Wait… Was the Early Church Really Catholic?
A lot of Christians believe:
“The early Church was simple, Bible-believing, and nothing like the Catholic Church. Catholicism came later, when the Church got corrupted.”
And at first that sounds possible.
The New Testament Church did not have cathedrals, or Vatican City, or the Swiss Guard.
But then you read what the first Christians actually wrote, and you have to stop for a second.
They Called It the Catholic Church
Around A.D. 107, St. Ignatius of Antioch was being taken to Rome to be fed to the lions.
On the way, he wrote seven letters.
In one of them he wrote that wherever the bishop appears, there the people should be, just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.
Wait.
The Catholic Church.
Less than eighty years after the Resurrection.
Ignatius did not explain the term.
He used it like everyone already knew it.
(More in How the Catholic Church Began.)
They Had Bishops, Priests, and Deacons
Ignatius also wrote that Christians should follow the bishop as Jesus followed the Father, the priests as the Apostles, and respect the deacons.
He said that without these three, it cannot be called a church.
That is the same structure the Catholic Church has today.
Bishop.
Priest.
Deacon.
(See What the Early Christians Believed About Bishops.)
They Believed the Eucharist Was Jesus
Ignatius warned about heretics who stayed away from the Eucharist because they did not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Around A.D. 155, St. Justin Martyr wrote that Christians do not receive the Eucharist as common bread and common drink, but as the flesh and blood of Jesus.
Not a symbol.
His flesh.
(See What the Church Fathers Believed About the Eucharist.)
They Worshiped on Sunday, Around an Altar
Justin also described Sunday worship.
The readings from the Apostles and the prophets.
A homily.
Prayers for all.
The sign of peace.
Bread and wine brought forward.
A prayer of thanksgiving over them.
And the people answering, “Amen.”
Any Catholic reading Justin’s description today would recognize the Mass.
They Baptized for Forgiveness of Sins
The Didache, a Christian manual from the late first century, gives instructions for baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Justin called baptism a new birth and a washing for the forgiveness of sins.
Within a few generations, Christian writers were describing the baptism of infants as a tradition from the Apostles.
(See What the Early Christians Believed About Baptism.)
They Looked to Rome
Around A.D. 96, a church in Corinth threw out its leaders.
Who stepped in to correct them?
Not the Apostle John, who was likely still alive.
Clement, the bishop of Rome.
He wrote with authority, and even said that disobeying him would put them in danger.
Around A.D. 180, St. Irenaeus wrote that every church should agree with the church of Rome, because of its superior origin, founded by Peter and Paul.
They Prayed for the Dead and Honored the Martyrs
In the catacombs of Rome, early Christians carved prayers on tombs, asking for the dead to have peace and refreshment.
Around A.D. 155, the Christians of Smyrna gathered the bones of the martyred bishop Polycarp, calling them more precious than jewels, and celebrated the anniversary of his death.
That is relics and feast days, in the second century.
What About the New Testament Church?
Some people say: “That’s the second century. What about the Church in Acts?”
But look at Acts.
The first Christians devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and the breaking of bread (Acts 2:42).
The Apostles laid hands on men to ordain them (Acts 6:6; 14:22).
A council of Apostles and elders, with Peter speaking, settled a dispute for the whole Church (Acts 15).
The men who wrote in the second century were taught by the Apostles or by their disciples.
Polycarp was taught by the Apostle John.
They were not inventing a new religion.
They were describing the one they received.
So What Is the Catholic Claim?
Here it is in simple terms.
By A.D. 107, Christians were already calling the Church Catholic.
They had bishops, priests, and deacons.
They believed the Eucharist was the flesh of Jesus and worshiped in a way any Catholic would recognize.
They baptized for the forgiveness of sins, looked to Rome, prayed for the dead, and honored the martyrs.
The Catholic Church teaches that it is the same Church founded by Christ on the Apostles (CCC 830–835).
So the real question is not:
“When did the Church become Catholic?”
The better question is:
“When was it ever anything else?”
Because when you read the first Christians, you do not find a Bible study.
You find the Catholic Church.
Keep reading: What the Church Fathers Believed About the Eucharist, or browse more questions in Catholicism Explained.
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Catholic Sources
Scripture (Douay-Rheims): Acts 2:42; Acts 6:6; Acts 14:22; Acts 15; 1 Timothy 3:15.
Catechism of the Catholic Church: CCC 830–835 (the Church is catholic); CCC 857–862 (apostolic).
Early Christian writers: Pope St. Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians 44, 59 (c. A.D. 96); The Didache 7, 9, 14 (late first century); St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letters to the Smyrnaeans 7–8 and the Trallians 3 (c. A.D. 107); The Martyrdom of Polycarp 18 (c. A.D. 155); St. Justin Martyr, First Apology 61, 65–67 (c. A.D. 155); St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3 (c. A.D. 180).
