54. The Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic
17. Properties and Marks of the Church
The properties of the Church are all the essential characteristics conferred on her by Christ, her founder. Therefore, even though the Church is an ineffable reality—a mystery of faith—she can be described through her essential properties: a supernatural perfect society, at once visible and invisible, perennial, eschatological, necessary for salvation, hierarchical, sacramental, one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
The marks of the Church, besides being essential properties of the Church, imply some visible sign that enables the true Church to be distinguished from the others. These marks are unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity. They are exclusive to the Roman Catholic Church, the only true Church founded by Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
18. Properties of the Church
“The Church is essentially both human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the world, but as a pilgrim.”1 By analogy with her Founder, the Church is a divine and human reality: “The Church … is a society divine in her origin, supernatural in her end and in the means immediately leading to her end. However, she is a human association in that she is made up of men.”2
The Church is at once charismatic and hierarchical because Christ himself “filled her with his Spirit; he has provided means adapted to her visible and social union.”3 This is the power of jurisdiction. For this reason, the Church is a perfect society in her order—independent of civil society—and endowed with the necessary means to lead her members to their end.
Although the Church is present in time and forms the beginning of the heavenly kingdom while on earth, “She has a saving and eschatological purpose which can be fully attained only in the next life. But she is now present here on earth and is composed of men; they, the members of the earthly city, are called to form the family of the children of God even in this present history of mankind and to increase it continually until the Lord comes.”4
However, the Church will attain her full measure only in heavenly glory, when the time comes for all things to be renewed. Then, the whole of creation—which is closely related with the human race—will also attain its end through him, and together, they will be perfectly restored in Christ. “However, until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to the present age, carries the ark of this world, which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures, which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God.”5
The Church is at once hierarchical and fraternal. She is hierarchical because “in order to shepherd the People of God and to increase her numbers without cease, Christ the Lord set up in his Church a variety of offices, which aim at the good of the whole body.”6 Catholic doctrine holds that this specific power of hierarchical jurisdiction does not stem from the community of the faithful but comes directly from God. However, the Church is a fraternal society, since there is true equality of dignity among all the faithful for the building up of the Mystical Body of Christ.
There is no impairment of the Church’s unity in her being human and supernatural, visible and invisible, juridical and charismatic, temporal and eschatological, local and universal, fraternal and hierarchical. Rather, these properties confirm and protect her unity. “The society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ, the visible society and the spiritual community, the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches, are not to be thought of as two realities. On the contrary, they form one complex reality, which comes together from a human and a divine element.”7
According to St Augustine, “Two levels of life exist in the Church, both announced and recommended by our Lord; in one of them faith is operative, in the other, there is celestial vision; one exists on our pilgrim way, the other in the heavenly mansions; in one there is tribulation, in the other rest; one is like a journey, the other the homeland; one exists in active effort, the other in the reward of contemplation.”8
19. Marks of the Church
The marks are essential and visible signs that allow the true Church founded by Christ to be distinguished from others. The Second Vatican Council stated:
This is the sole Church of Christ, which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Savior, after his resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care, commissioning him and the other Apostles to extend and rule it, and which he raised up for all ages as “the pillar and mainstay of the truth”(1 Tm 3:15). This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him.9
All the Creeds confess the existence of these characteristic signs of Christ’s Church by which she can be recognized by all as the true Church.
The true Church of Jesus Christ is constituted by divine authority and is known by four notes. We lay down here these notes as matters of faith in the Creed. And any one of these notes is so joined to the others that it cannot be separated from them. Hence, the Church, that really is catholic, and is called Catholic, must, at the same time, shine with the prerogatives of unity, sanctity, and apostolic succession.10
Only faith can recognize that the Church possesses these marks because of her divine origin. But the historical manifestations of these marks are signs that speak clearly to human reason. The First Vatican Council reminds us: “The Church herself, by her marvelous propagation, eminent holiness, and inexhaustible fruitfulness in everything that is good, with her catholic unity and invincible stability, is a great and perpetual motive of credibility and an irrefutable testimony of her divine mission.”11
19a) Unity
We believe that the Church that Christ founded and for which he prayed is indefectibly one in faith and in worship, and one in communion of a single hierarchy.12
The Church--founded by Christ—is one and unique because of her origin. The unicity or uniqueness of the Church means that there is only one true Church of Christ, whose make up is in exact agreement with her divine Founder’s will. It is evident from the Gospel that Christ desired “one flock, one shepherd” (Jn 10:16; cf. Mt 12:25).
The Church’s Magisterium has always held, in faithfulness to Christ’s teachings, that the Church is one and unique. The Second Vatican Council strongly reaffirmed this perennial teaching of the Magisterium: “The sacred Council begins by professing that God himself has made known to the human race how men by serving him can be saved and reach happiness in Christ. We believe that this one true religion continues to exist in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, to which the Lord Jesus entrusted the task of spreading it among all men.”13
The Church is one because of her “soul,” the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit governs the Church and is the foundation of her unity. This one and only Church of Christ is kept in unity—undivided—“by the bonds constituted by the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and communion.”14 Thus, the roots of the internal unity of the universal Church are:
· the same faith,
· the same Baptism, the one Eucharistic sacrifice, the same sacraments, and
· the unity of the episcopate, based on the apostolic succession through the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
The Eucharistic sacrifice, while always offered in a particular community, is never a celebration of that community alone. The community is the image and true presence of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Where the Eucharist is celebrated, the totality of the mystery of the Church becomes present.
The Catholic Church is the only Church with unity of doctrine, of sacraments, and of government under one single head. Protestants, for example, due to the principle of personal interpretation, lack unity in faith, as well as unity of government. The schismatic Orthodox Greeks, even while maintaining unity of doctrine, lack unity of government. Schismatics break the social bonds by denying obedience to the legitimate pastors. Schism and heresy are formally distinct, but the former also implies a heresy by denying the authority and infallibility of the Church and the Roman pontiff.
To defend the unity of the Church is to live very united to Jesus Christ, who is our vine. How? By growing in fidelity to the perennial Magisterium of the Church.… By venerating this mother of ours without stain and loving the Roman Pontiff, we will preserve unity.15
Heresy, apostasy, and schism are wounds on the unity of the Church that are produced by people’s sins. Nevertheless, one cannot charge those who are born into these communities (and in them are instructed in the faith of Christ) with the sin of separation. These separated communities possess some elements of sanctification and truth: the written word of God, the life of grace, faith, hope, and charity. However, all these elements, which come from Christ and lead back to him, belong by right to the one Church of Christ. The Holy Spirit makes use of these elements to bring people to salvation.
From the beginning, Christ granted the mark of unity to the one and only Church. This unity subsists in the Catholic Church as something that she can never lose.16
19b) Holiness
The Church is holy, even though she embraces sinners in her bosom, for she enjoys no other life but the life of grace. If, then, they live her life her members are sanctified.17
The Second Vatican Council taught: “The Church … is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God … loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God.”18
The Church is holy in her origin: Christ is her holy Founder and head. The Church is also holy in her internal principle of life, the Holy Spirit. Her aim is holy—namely, God’s glory and man’s sanctification. The means that she uses are holy: Christ’s teaching, his moral precepts and counsels, the forms of worship, the sacraments, and the gifts of grace. The Church is holy in many of her members, as there are and always have been saints whose holiness has been proven and proclaimed by the Church.
Holy, holy, holy, we dare to sing to the Church, evoking a hymn in honor of the Blessed Trinity. You are holy, O Church, my mother, because the Son of God, who is holy, founded you; you are holy, because the Father, source of all holiness, so ordained it; you are holy, because the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the souls of the faithful, assists you, in order to gather together the children of the Father, who will dwell in the Church of heaven, the eternal Jerusalem.19
“One must not imagine that the body of the Church … is made up during the days of her earthly pilgrimage only of members conspicuous for their holiness, or consists only of those whom God has predestined to eternal happiness.”20 “The men who make up the Church are made of the clay of Adam, and can be, and often are, sinners. The Church is holy in her structures, and can be sinful in the human members giving her shape; she is holy yet seeks holiness; she is at once holy and penitent; she is holy in herself and infirm in the men who make her up.”21 The Church is without sin, but harbors sinners whom she restores to life by the forgiveness of sins.
19c) Catholicity
Catholic means universal.22 The Church is universal because Christ is present in her. “Where Christ Jesus is, there the Catholic Church is.”23 The fullness of the body of Christ, united to her head, subsists in the Church (cf. Eph 1:22–23). This implies that she possesses the totality of the means of salvation24: right and complete faith, integral sacramental life, and ministry ordained in the apostolic succession.
Another clear sign of the universality of the Church: the faithful preservation and administration of the sacraments as they were instituted by Jesus Christ, without human deformations or evil attempts to interpret them psychologically or sociologically.25
For many centuries now the Church has been spread throughout the world; and she numbers persons of all races and walks of life. But the universality of the Church does not depend on her geographical distribution, even though this is a visible sign and a motive of credibility. The Church was catholic already at Pentecost: she was born catholic from the wounded heart of Jesus, as a fire that the Holy Spirit kindled.26
From a qualitative point of view, the universality of the Church is manifested in:
· her awareness of a common destiny for all,
· the constant effort to carry out that mission, which is at the same time a right,
· the universality of her doctrine, applying to all people, all races and cultures, and
· the strong unity of all Catholics who practice their faith.
The Church is catholic also because Christ has sent her in mission to the totality of mankind. Christ wanted the Church to be universal and to reach—without losing her unity—all peoples throughout the centuries. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
All men are called to belong to the new People of God. This People therefore, whilst remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God’s will may be fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as one.27
The Catholic Church’s extension throughout the world—unequalled by any Christian community or by all of them together—is an evident fact.
19d) Apostolicity
The fourth mark that we profess in the Creed is the apostolicity of the Church, which—spread throughout the earth—gives continuity to the mission entrusted by Jesus Christ to the Apostles.28
The Greek word apostoloi means “those who are sent.” The Church is called “apostolic” because she is founded on the apostles in a threefold sense:
i) Apostolic foundation: The Church was built and remains on the “foundation of the apostles” (Eph 2:20), chosen by Christ as witnesses and sent by him in mission (cf. Mt 28:16–20).
ii) Apostolic truth: She guards and transmits—with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells within her—the teachings and words taught by the apostles (cf. Acts 2:42).
iii) Apostolic government: She continues being taught, sanctified, and directed by the apostles, in the persons of their successors in the pastoral ministry: the college of bishops—presided by Peter’s successor—and helped by the presbyters (priests).29
The Church can be traced back—in a living, uninterrupted continuity—to the twelve apostles, whom Christ established as shepherds of his flock. Thus, if there is a body of shepherds that received her mission and powers from the apostles through an uninterrupted chain of lawful succession, then the true Church of Jesus Christ must be found there.
The Magisterium states that “the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the Apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ.”30
The entire Church is apostolic (“sent”) to the entire world. All her members, in different manners, take part in this task.
19e) Only the Roman Catholic Church Shows these Marks
This Church constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside her visible confines. Since these are gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces impelling towards Catholic unity.31
With the expression subsistit in, the Second Vatican Council sought to harmonize two doctrinal statements: on the one hand, that the Church of Christ, despite the divisions which exist among Christians, continues to exist fully only in the Catholic Church, and on the other hand, that ‘outside of her structure, many elements can be found of sanctification and truth’, that is, in those Churches and ecclesial communities which are not yet in full communion with the Catholic Church. But with respect to these, it needs to be stated that ‘they derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church.’32
The Catholic Church is the one and only true Church. The complete means of salvation are to be found only within the Catholic Church. Every single distinctive mark of the true Church is found in the Roman Church in their fullest degree:
This Catholic Church is Roman.… St. Ambrose wrote a few words that comprise, as it were, a song of joy: “Where Peter is, there is the Church; and where the Church is, not death but eternal life reigns.” For where Peter and the Church are, there Christ is; and he is salvation, the only way.33
Footnotes:
1. SC, 2; cf. CCC, 771.
2. Leo XIII, Enc. Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896: DS 2888.
3. LG, 9.
4. GS, 40.
5. LG, 48.
6. Ibid., 18.
7. Ibid., 8.
8. St. Augustine, Treatise Against Heresies, 3.24.
9. LG, 8; cf. CCC, 811–871.
10. DS 1868.
11. DS 3013; cf. CCC, 812.
12. Paul VI, Creed of the People of God, 21; cf. CCC, 813–822.
13. DH, 1.
14. LG, 14.
15. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Loyalty to the Church, p. 7.
16. Cf. CCC, 817–822.
17. Paul VI, Creed of the People of God, 19; cf. CCC, 823–829.
18. LG, 39.
19. Pius XII, Mystici Corporis: DS 3803.
20. Ibid.
21. Paul VI, Address, Oct. 20, 1965.
22. Cf. CCC, 830–856.
23. St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyr., 8.
24. Cf. AG, 6.
25. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Loyalty to the Church, p. 16.
26. Ibid., p. 13.
27. LG, 13.
28. Cf. CCC, 857–865.
29. Cf. AG, 5.
30. LG, 20.
31. LG, 8.
32. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Decl. Dominus Iesus, 16, Aug. 6, 2000. The interpretation of those who would derive from the formula subsistit in the thesis that the one Church of Christ could subsist also in non-Catholic Churches and ecclesial communities is therefore contrary to the authentic meaning of Lumen Gentium. “The Council instead chose the word subsistit precisely to clarify that there exists only one subsistence of the true Church, while outside her visible structure there only exist elementa Ecclesiae, which—being elements of that same Church—tend and lead toward the Catholic Church” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Notification on the Book Church: Charism and Power by Father Leonardo Boff, 756–762).
33. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Loyalty to the Church, pp. 6–17; cf. St. Ambrose, In Ps. 12 Enarratio, 40.30.
The properties of the Church are all the essential characteristics conferred on her by Christ, her founder. Therefore, even though the Church is an ineffable reality—a mystery of faith—she can be described through her essential properties: a supernatural perfect society, at once visible and invisible, perennial, eschatological, necessary for salvation, hierarchical, sacramental, one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
The marks of the Church, besides being essential properties of the Church, imply some visible sign that enables the true Church to be distinguished from the others. These marks are unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity. They are exclusive to the Roman Catholic Church, the only true Church founded by Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
18. Properties of the Church
“The Church is essentially both human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the world, but as a pilgrim.”1 By analogy with her Founder, the Church is a divine and human reality: “The Church … is a society divine in her origin, supernatural in her end and in the means immediately leading to her end. However, she is a human association in that she is made up of men.”2
The Church is at once charismatic and hierarchical because Christ himself “filled her with his Spirit; he has provided means adapted to her visible and social union.”3 This is the power of jurisdiction. For this reason, the Church is a perfect society in her order—independent of civil society—and endowed with the necessary means to lead her members to their end.
Although the Church is present in time and forms the beginning of the heavenly kingdom while on earth, “She has a saving and eschatological purpose which can be fully attained only in the next life. But she is now present here on earth and is composed of men; they, the members of the earthly city, are called to form the family of the children of God even in this present history of mankind and to increase it continually until the Lord comes.”4
However, the Church will attain her full measure only in heavenly glory, when the time comes for all things to be renewed. Then, the whole of creation—which is closely related with the human race—will also attain its end through him, and together, they will be perfectly restored in Christ. “However, until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to the present age, carries the ark of this world, which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures, which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God.”5
The Church is at once hierarchical and fraternal. She is hierarchical because “in order to shepherd the People of God and to increase her numbers without cease, Christ the Lord set up in his Church a variety of offices, which aim at the good of the whole body.”6 Catholic doctrine holds that this specific power of hierarchical jurisdiction does not stem from the community of the faithful but comes directly from God. However, the Church is a fraternal society, since there is true equality of dignity among all the faithful for the building up of the Mystical Body of Christ.
There is no impairment of the Church’s unity in her being human and supernatural, visible and invisible, juridical and charismatic, temporal and eschatological, local and universal, fraternal and hierarchical. Rather, these properties confirm and protect her unity. “The society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ, the visible society and the spiritual community, the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches, are not to be thought of as two realities. On the contrary, they form one complex reality, which comes together from a human and a divine element.”7
According to St Augustine, “Two levels of life exist in the Church, both announced and recommended by our Lord; in one of them faith is operative, in the other, there is celestial vision; one exists on our pilgrim way, the other in the heavenly mansions; in one there is tribulation, in the other rest; one is like a journey, the other the homeland; one exists in active effort, the other in the reward of contemplation.”8
19. Marks of the Church
The marks are essential and visible signs that allow the true Church founded by Christ to be distinguished from others. The Second Vatican Council stated:
This is the sole Church of Christ, which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Savior, after his resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care, commissioning him and the other Apostles to extend and rule it, and which he raised up for all ages as “the pillar and mainstay of the truth”(1 Tm 3:15). This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him.9
All the Creeds confess the existence of these characteristic signs of Christ’s Church by which she can be recognized by all as the true Church.
The true Church of Jesus Christ is constituted by divine authority and is known by four notes. We lay down here these notes as matters of faith in the Creed. And any one of these notes is so joined to the others that it cannot be separated from them. Hence, the Church, that really is catholic, and is called Catholic, must, at the same time, shine with the prerogatives of unity, sanctity, and apostolic succession.10
Only faith can recognize that the Church possesses these marks because of her divine origin. But the historical manifestations of these marks are signs that speak clearly to human reason. The First Vatican Council reminds us: “The Church herself, by her marvelous propagation, eminent holiness, and inexhaustible fruitfulness in everything that is good, with her catholic unity and invincible stability, is a great and perpetual motive of credibility and an irrefutable testimony of her divine mission.”11
19a) Unity
We believe that the Church that Christ founded and for which he prayed is indefectibly one in faith and in worship, and one in communion of a single hierarchy.12
The Church--founded by Christ—is one and unique because of her origin. The unicity or uniqueness of the Church means that there is only one true Church of Christ, whose make up is in exact agreement with her divine Founder’s will. It is evident from the Gospel that Christ desired “one flock, one shepherd” (Jn 10:16; cf. Mt 12:25).
The Church’s Magisterium has always held, in faithfulness to Christ’s teachings, that the Church is one and unique. The Second Vatican Council strongly reaffirmed this perennial teaching of the Magisterium: “The sacred Council begins by professing that God himself has made known to the human race how men by serving him can be saved and reach happiness in Christ. We believe that this one true religion continues to exist in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, to which the Lord Jesus entrusted the task of spreading it among all men.”13
The Church is one because of her “soul,” the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit governs the Church and is the foundation of her unity. This one and only Church of Christ is kept in unity—undivided—“by the bonds constituted by the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and communion.”14 Thus, the roots of the internal unity of the universal Church are:
· the same faith,
· the same Baptism, the one Eucharistic sacrifice, the same sacraments, and
· the unity of the episcopate, based on the apostolic succession through the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
The Eucharistic sacrifice, while always offered in a particular community, is never a celebration of that community alone. The community is the image and true presence of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Where the Eucharist is celebrated, the totality of the mystery of the Church becomes present.
The Catholic Church is the only Church with unity of doctrine, of sacraments, and of government under one single head. Protestants, for example, due to the principle of personal interpretation, lack unity in faith, as well as unity of government. The schismatic Orthodox Greeks, even while maintaining unity of doctrine, lack unity of government. Schismatics break the social bonds by denying obedience to the legitimate pastors. Schism and heresy are formally distinct, but the former also implies a heresy by denying the authority and infallibility of the Church and the Roman pontiff.
To defend the unity of the Church is to live very united to Jesus Christ, who is our vine. How? By growing in fidelity to the perennial Magisterium of the Church.… By venerating this mother of ours without stain and loving the Roman Pontiff, we will preserve unity.15
Heresy, apostasy, and schism are wounds on the unity of the Church that are produced by people’s sins. Nevertheless, one cannot charge those who are born into these communities (and in them are instructed in the faith of Christ) with the sin of separation. These separated communities possess some elements of sanctification and truth: the written word of God, the life of grace, faith, hope, and charity. However, all these elements, which come from Christ and lead back to him, belong by right to the one Church of Christ. The Holy Spirit makes use of these elements to bring people to salvation.
From the beginning, Christ granted the mark of unity to the one and only Church. This unity subsists in the Catholic Church as something that she can never lose.16
19b) Holiness
The Church is holy, even though she embraces sinners in her bosom, for she enjoys no other life but the life of grace. If, then, they live her life her members are sanctified.17
The Second Vatican Council taught: “The Church … is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God … loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God.”18
The Church is holy in her origin: Christ is her holy Founder and head. The Church is also holy in her internal principle of life, the Holy Spirit. Her aim is holy—namely, God’s glory and man’s sanctification. The means that she uses are holy: Christ’s teaching, his moral precepts and counsels, the forms of worship, the sacraments, and the gifts of grace. The Church is holy in many of her members, as there are and always have been saints whose holiness has been proven and proclaimed by the Church.
Holy, holy, holy, we dare to sing to the Church, evoking a hymn in honor of the Blessed Trinity. You are holy, O Church, my mother, because the Son of God, who is holy, founded you; you are holy, because the Father, source of all holiness, so ordained it; you are holy, because the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the souls of the faithful, assists you, in order to gather together the children of the Father, who will dwell in the Church of heaven, the eternal Jerusalem.19
“One must not imagine that the body of the Church … is made up during the days of her earthly pilgrimage only of members conspicuous for their holiness, or consists only of those whom God has predestined to eternal happiness.”20 “The men who make up the Church are made of the clay of Adam, and can be, and often are, sinners. The Church is holy in her structures, and can be sinful in the human members giving her shape; she is holy yet seeks holiness; she is at once holy and penitent; she is holy in herself and infirm in the men who make her up.”21 The Church is without sin, but harbors sinners whom she restores to life by the forgiveness of sins.
19c) Catholicity
Catholic means universal.22 The Church is universal because Christ is present in her. “Where Christ Jesus is, there the Catholic Church is.”23 The fullness of the body of Christ, united to her head, subsists in the Church (cf. Eph 1:22–23). This implies that she possesses the totality of the means of salvation24: right and complete faith, integral sacramental life, and ministry ordained in the apostolic succession.
Another clear sign of the universality of the Church: the faithful preservation and administration of the sacraments as they were instituted by Jesus Christ, without human deformations or evil attempts to interpret them psychologically or sociologically.25
For many centuries now the Church has been spread throughout the world; and she numbers persons of all races and walks of life. But the universality of the Church does not depend on her geographical distribution, even though this is a visible sign and a motive of credibility. The Church was catholic already at Pentecost: she was born catholic from the wounded heart of Jesus, as a fire that the Holy Spirit kindled.26
From a qualitative point of view, the universality of the Church is manifested in:
· her awareness of a common destiny for all,
· the constant effort to carry out that mission, which is at the same time a right,
· the universality of her doctrine, applying to all people, all races and cultures, and
· the strong unity of all Catholics who practice their faith.
The Church is catholic also because Christ has sent her in mission to the totality of mankind. Christ wanted the Church to be universal and to reach—without losing her unity—all peoples throughout the centuries. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
All men are called to belong to the new People of God. This People therefore, whilst remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God’s will may be fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as one.27
The Catholic Church’s extension throughout the world—unequalled by any Christian community or by all of them together—is an evident fact.
19d) Apostolicity
The fourth mark that we profess in the Creed is the apostolicity of the Church, which—spread throughout the earth—gives continuity to the mission entrusted by Jesus Christ to the Apostles.28
The Greek word apostoloi means “those who are sent.” The Church is called “apostolic” because she is founded on the apostles in a threefold sense:
i) Apostolic foundation: The Church was built and remains on the “foundation of the apostles” (Eph 2:20), chosen by Christ as witnesses and sent by him in mission (cf. Mt 28:16–20).
ii) Apostolic truth: She guards and transmits—with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells within her—the teachings and words taught by the apostles (cf. Acts 2:42).
iii) Apostolic government: She continues being taught, sanctified, and directed by the apostles, in the persons of their successors in the pastoral ministry: the college of bishops—presided by Peter’s successor—and helped by the presbyters (priests).29
The Church can be traced back—in a living, uninterrupted continuity—to the twelve apostles, whom Christ established as shepherds of his flock. Thus, if there is a body of shepherds that received her mission and powers from the apostles through an uninterrupted chain of lawful succession, then the true Church of Jesus Christ must be found there.
The Magisterium states that “the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the Apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ.”30
The entire Church is apostolic (“sent”) to the entire world. All her members, in different manners, take part in this task.
19e) Only the Roman Catholic Church Shows these Marks
This Church constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside her visible confines. Since these are gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces impelling towards Catholic unity.31
With the expression subsistit in, the Second Vatican Council sought to harmonize two doctrinal statements: on the one hand, that the Church of Christ, despite the divisions which exist among Christians, continues to exist fully only in the Catholic Church, and on the other hand, that ‘outside of her structure, many elements can be found of sanctification and truth’, that is, in those Churches and ecclesial communities which are not yet in full communion with the Catholic Church. But with respect to these, it needs to be stated that ‘they derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church.’32
The Catholic Church is the one and only true Church. The complete means of salvation are to be found only within the Catholic Church. Every single distinctive mark of the true Church is found in the Roman Church in their fullest degree:
This Catholic Church is Roman.… St. Ambrose wrote a few words that comprise, as it were, a song of joy: “Where Peter is, there is the Church; and where the Church is, not death but eternal life reigns.” For where Peter and the Church are, there Christ is; and he is salvation, the only way.33
Footnotes:
1. SC, 2; cf. CCC, 771.
2. Leo XIII, Enc. Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896: DS 2888.
3. LG, 9.
4. GS, 40.
5. LG, 48.
6. Ibid., 18.
7. Ibid., 8.
8. St. Augustine, Treatise Against Heresies, 3.24.
9. LG, 8; cf. CCC, 811–871.
10. DS 1868.
11. DS 3013; cf. CCC, 812.
12. Paul VI, Creed of the People of God, 21; cf. CCC, 813–822.
13. DH, 1.
14. LG, 14.
15. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Loyalty to the Church, p. 7.
16. Cf. CCC, 817–822.
17. Paul VI, Creed of the People of God, 19; cf. CCC, 823–829.
18. LG, 39.
19. Pius XII, Mystici Corporis: DS 3803.
20. Ibid.
21. Paul VI, Address, Oct. 20, 1965.
22. Cf. CCC, 830–856.
23. St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyr., 8.
24. Cf. AG, 6.
25. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Loyalty to the Church, p. 16.
26. Ibid., p. 13.
27. LG, 13.
28. Cf. CCC, 857–865.
29. Cf. AG, 5.
30. LG, 20.
31. LG, 8.
32. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Decl. Dominus Iesus, 16, Aug. 6, 2000. The interpretation of those who would derive from the formula subsistit in the thesis that the one Church of Christ could subsist also in non-Catholic Churches and ecclesial communities is therefore contrary to the authentic meaning of Lumen Gentium. “The Council instead chose the word subsistit precisely to clarify that there exists only one subsistence of the true Church, while outside her visible structure there only exist elementa Ecclesiae, which—being elements of that same Church—tend and lead toward the Catholic Church” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Notification on the Book Church: Charism and Power by Father Leonardo Boff, 756–762).
33. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Loyalty to the Church, pp. 6–17; cf. St. Ambrose, In Ps. 12 Enarratio, 40.30.