What do we mean when we say that the Church is Catholic (universal)?

We are not referring here to a particular denomination. Rather, we mean that the Church is able, by the grace of God, to spread in many countries who accept the Orthodox faith and to be in Christ Jesus, enjoying their membership in the Church that extends from Adam to the end of the ages. Origen says that we will be astonished on the great day of the Lord when we see little children who are considered heroes, and unknown individuals among those who were considered to be saints more than many priests, servants, and missionaries.

The Church of the New Testament bears the title of universal or “catholic”: “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11), since the Church includes members from all nations and peoples. Origen tells us about the universality of the Church, which is the continuity of the apostolic era, as her members preach to others as faithful apostles of Christ . He speaks in a very realistic manner of the “ Teaching of the Apostles ,”⁹⁴⁷ who, like the prophets of the Old Testament, were inspired by the Holy Spirit. He directs this definition of the apostolic continuity, against the separation of a single apostle from the apostolic community.⁹⁴⁸