Lest our little
religion be too simple, we also use terms like "catholic" and "orthodox" as adjectives. This can lead to confusion when discussing matters of
faith with a
Christian and the context has not been made totally clear.
Catholic means "universal". Thus, when Protestants say they believe in "one holy, catholic, and apostolic church" when reciting the Nicene Creed, they mean the entire body of believers, Christ's universal church on earth. When referring to something pertaining to the branch of Christianity known as Catholicism, you may wish for clarity's sake to say Roman Catholic.
Orthodox as an adjective means that something conforms to established doctrine -- ideally, orthodoxy is that which has been believed by the majority of Christians throughout history. Since few churches consider themselves heretical, you may wish to render it adjectivally* as Eastern Orthodox.
2002.06.22 at 17:51 quijote says re: Catholicism in relation to Christianity, the term "Roman Catholic" does not apply to the whole Catholic Church, it only applies to the Western Rite (the Latin or Roman rites), used in Western/Northern Europe, the U.S./Canada, and Latin America. The Catholic church includes Eastern churches which are not Roman Catholic; Catholics in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, India, Greece, Russia, etc., belong to the non-Roman parts of the Catholic Church (as do many immigrants from these areas to the U.S.). Not to be picky, but the distinction is important to Catholics, because many Catholics acknowledge the Pope and are true Catholic but do not wish to be subordinated to the Roman "form" of rituals; this is completely orthodox (lowercase "o").
*It's a word because I say it is.