Dear LA:

You wrote:
Hi – I have a question for you: When referring the church (as in the Catholic Church, not using the word Catholic), do you capitalize the word church? Thank you.

Without trying to sound wishy-washy, we have seen it both ways. However, with the article “the” before it, the syntax suggests that the word would not be capitalized since we are not naming it. It would be like writing about William Faulkner and then referring to “the author” with a capital “A.”

Whichever way you do decide, be consistent.