Why does it say “the holy catholic church” in the Apostles Creed? And one holy catholic church in the Nicene Creed?

This is one of the most often asked questions. We live in a time in which the majority of the world hears the word catholic and thinks Roman Catholic. With the small “c” the word means church universal, with the capital “C” it denotes a particular denomination or group of denominations associated with the Pope and Rome. Let us also not forget that the Lutheran church falls within the tradition of orthodox Christian beliefs that started with the Catholic Church in Rome. Martin Luther was a monk and his earliest rumblings were attempts to call for a reform within the church he loved and lived. The establishment of the Protestant (which means protester) tradition was not what he had in mind when he nailed the 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg church. The history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is one of mergers. I grew up in the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church. In other towns there were other Lutheran bodies, Swedish Lutheran, Swedish Evangelical Lutheran, German Lutheran, German Free Lutheran, Lutheran Church in America,…………… etc, etc, etc. There have been several mergers, each time it seems a small group breaks off over some issue or another, but the majority form together in the larger group. Now the ELCA has formed agreements with the Presbyterians, Moravians and Episcopalians and is in talks with several other denominations, including Roman Catholic. Will our desire for a Holy catholic church ever be realized? I believe so, but probably not in our lifetime, or in the lifetime of the human race. However, despite all the jokes to the contrary, I don’t think there will be a Lutheran Heaven, a Catholic Heaven, an Episcopalian Heaven or a Baptist Heaven or even Jewish or Islamic or Buddhists Heavens, so we might as well work for common ground now. Keeping the words, “holy catholic church” in our statement of faith is a reminder of that calling.