Everyone who believes Jesus is God is, by definition, a Christian, but you probably know Christians who are not Catholic. They might be Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Evangelical, or any number of different options. But what is it that makes the Catholic Church different?

From the very beginning, when the Church was founded by Jesus, He left it with some very clear defining characteristics:

• the Catholic Church is ONE– one set of beliefs, we are unified as the one body of Christ on earth, and we are guided by the one Holy Spirit.
• The Catholic Church is holy. Obviously, that does not mean that any one of us as an individual is completely holy. We are all sinners, but because Jesus is perfect, He brings that holiness to His Church.  And through our baptism and the other sacraments of the Catholic Church, we get to share in His perfectly Holy life.  Yes, we sin, but the sacraments also give us the grace to turn away from sin so we can grow in holiness.
• The Church is catholic, but in this usage the word means universal, or all-embracing.  The Catholic Church is for all time and all places and all people.  The Catholic Church is always and everywhere leading everyone to salvation.
• And finally, the Catholic Church is apostolic. Jesus left us with visible leaders, the pope and bishops who can trace their authority back to the first apostles chosen by Jesus himself!

These are called the 4 marks of the church and we have a game for your family that helps sort out some of the ways the Catholic Church is distinguished as being One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.

And at the end of this lesson, we have a section about Christian unity.  There definitely are differences between various denominations, but there is also quite a list of things we all have in common and THAT is worth knowing and celebrating.