During one Sunday Service in the Evangelical Church I normally attend, the Nicene Creed was recited in English. About the Church, the English translation read 'We believe in one holy universal and apostolic church'.
However, in my view, the correct and proper translation should be 'I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church'. This is because the same line in Latin reads 'Et in unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam'. In Greek, the word 'catholic' is also there. The word 'catholic' means universal and not the Roman Catholic Church.
I think the English translation read in the Service while was generally correct, clearly showed the fear of any association with the Roman Catholic Church.
I do not agree with the deliberate change from 'catholic' to 'universal' simply because of that fear. The reason is the Reformers considered themselves 'catholic' too and this is why they refer to the followers of the pope as 'Roman Catholic'. Therefore, instead of avoiding the word 'catholic', we should like the Reformers, consider ourselves catholic.
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