November 18, 2015
In the introduction to her 2011 book, The Emergent Christ, Franciscan Sr. Ilia Delio enthusiastically tells her readers that she has discovered "a fresh, new meaning" for the word catholic. She found it in the book Where Is Knowing Going?, in which the author, Jesuit Fr. John Haughey, explained that term catholic comes from the Greek katholikos.
Kata, a preposition meaning "through," and holou, a noun meaning "the whole," when coupled become kath' holou, an adverb meaning wholly. "Katholikos, a substantive that is best rendered 'catholicity' in English, . . . connotes movement towards universality or wholeness," Haughey wrote.
The parsing of katholikos planted a seed in Delio's consciousness.