Four marks of the True Church: One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic… The following is taken from the booklet, "Faith and common sense", + Imprimatur: Most Reverend John F. Whealon, Archbishop of Hartford: After Christ left this world, His Church did spring into action, fully prepared to carry on His work. This Church was not something vague in character. Christ said precisely what He wanted it to be. His Church was to be built upon the Apostles. It would continue down to the end of time in the same way, ruled by the successors of the Apostles. That is perhaps the clearest thing of all. He also intended it to be one Church, not a number of churches. The Church He had in mind was to be for all men. It would work for their sanctification and salvation. These qualities were so clearly built into the Church that they were marks setting off the true Church of Christ from all other institutions claiming the name. Catholics say that these marks are unity, catholicity, holiness and apostolicity. When we examine the early Church as it appears in the time of the Apostles, we find that it had all these qualities. One Church and only one is in existence today which clearly shows the same four marks. This is the Catholic Church. Around the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome are inscribed the words, “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church.” Those words are as true of the present Pope as they were of St. Peter. The Pope is the successor of Peter, and he has the same authority as the Prince of the Apostles once had. That is a truth which can be amply proved by the facts. No other religious society can trace its heritage back through the centuries to St. Peter. Pope Paul VI, the present Bishop of Rome [Note: Paul VI was Pope at the time this article was written], is a successor of St. Peter. Year by year the succession can be traced back to the time of the great Apostle himself. Some of the Popes lived for only a few years or months; some have had very long terms of office. Some of them have been great leaders in world affairs; some relatively obscure. But they are all known to history. Today in the Catholic Church the Pope holds the fullness of power the same as Peter did in the early Church. He is not like a democratically-elected president whose power depends on the consent of the governed. Like Peter he has been made the shepherd of the flock by the Lord, and he has the same absolute power as Peter. Under him in the administration of the Church are the Bishops and priests. Their power comes from God, as once the power of the Twelve came from Christ. St. Paul said to the presbyters of Ephesus, “Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops to rule the Church of God” (Acts 20:28). There is no doubt that the Catholic Church today is apostolic in the line of succession of its Bishops and the Pope, and that it possesses an authority which was once given to the Apostles. UNITY OF RULE, BELIEF, RITUAL St. Paul told the Ephesians to remember that they had “one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism” (Eph. 4:5). The Catholic Church does have that unity of rule, belief and ritual. All Catholics everywhere recognize the authority of the Pope, the Vicar of Christ. He is the representative of the Lord, and presents the final judgments or decision on matters of faith and morals. Catholics do not accept the official pronouncements of the Pope only when they agree with them. They accept them at all times because they recognize his authority. All Catholics believe the same faith. There is no difference in the essential doctrines which various priests teach. One Bishop does not have his own truths about religion which are different from the beliefs of another Bishop. Both are explaining the doctrine of the Catholic Church, not their own ideas about doctrines. The manner of preaching may be different; the doctrine is the same throughout the world. There is “one faith” in the Catholic Church. So also there is but one “Baptism.” The term embraces all those essential rites which the Catholic Church practices. The most important rite of the Catholic Church is the Mass. The Mass is the re-enactment of the Last Supper, as was commanded by Christ. All Catholics are obliged to attend Mass every Sunday and on the important religious festivals of the year. This obligation is world-wide. So is the Mass. Our soldiers serving in foreign countries are always at home when they go into the Catholic churches of those nations; they find the Mass essentially as they knew it in the United States. The Mass is celebrated in every Catholic church throughout the world and consists of the same essential rite of the consecration of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The seven sacraments–Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Matrimony, Holy Orders and the Anointing of the Sick–are the same throughout the world. They are administered in the same way in all places. Every Catholic is obliged to make use of them at appropriate times; there are no national differences. THE MARK OF HOLINESS Not only does the Catholic Church have that mark of unity which Christ wished His Church to have; it also has the mark of holiness. Christ instituted His Church to make men holy and to bring them to heaven. The Catholic Church does just that. None of its teaching ever leads men away from God; none ever twists human nature into some frightening form. All its practices and teachings tend to make men better. Moreover, the Catholic Church provides men with the means to become better. It does not simply offer the “consolation of religion.” It does something about man’s ceaseless struggle to become better. To those who are conscious of sinfulness, it does not merely say, “Repent in the secret of your heart and try to do your best in the future.” It says, “Go to the sacrament of Penance; have your sins forgiven, and receive the grace which that sacrament provides to help you avoid these sins for the future.” At the bedside of those seriously ill, the Catholic priest does not merely exhort the Catholic to be sorry for his sins and cast himself upon the mercy of God. The Catholic Church has a rite, the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick which forgives sins and brings the spiritual and physical help which men need in grave sickness. “Is any one among you sick?” asks St. James. “Let him bring in the presbyters of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him” (James 5:14-16). That is what the Catholic Church does for her members. Finally, the Catholic Church is world-wide. That is a fact today as it has been a fact for all these centuries past. The membership of the Catholic Church consists of people of all nations, from every part of the world. That is not an accident or the result of good salesmanship. It is the result of the very nature of the Church of Christ. He sent His Apostles to make disciples of all nations. The doctrine and practices which He left them were of such a nature that they appeal to all nations. There has never been a nation which found the doctrine of the Catholic Church contradictory to its own culture or thought. When Pere Marquette journeyed down the Mississippi, preaching the Gospel, he found Indians who were anxious to listen to the story of the death of Christ upon the Cross. They were baptized and accepted Christianity wholeheartedly. When St. Francis Xavier reached Japan, he found the natives eager to hear the message. So firm were they in their faith that for two centuries during persecution they held on to that faith despite martyrdom. The Catholic Church is an ancient faith in Japan today, not a recent development. So it has been everywhere. The Catholic Church has not been the product of one culture or one nation. Catholicism followed the Spanish armies into this country, and the Spanish armies were defeated. It has little to do with the English colonization of the eastern seaboard. Yet today the Catholic Church is the largest single religious body in the United States and a native part of our culture. The Catholic Church is universal in its appeal. That is why it is called “Catholic,” for catholic means universal. THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST These are the qualities which mark out the Catholic Church today as the one religious organization in the world which is identical with the Church which Jesus Christ founded. It is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, just as was the Church in the time of the first Apostles. These four marks point out the Catholic Church as the true Church of Christ in another way. Only God can work a miracle. Now these four qualities in a society are obviously miraculous. Take unity, for example. We have erected a society called the United Nations to make something of that unity. But it seems the more nations we have in it, the less unity there is. Political parties meet in convention to draw up a “platform” of action. But the platform cannot be too definite. There have to be compromises in deference to sharply conflicting views. The more divergent the factions in the party, the less agreement can be reached. All things human show the same tendency to disintegrate under the pressure of expansion. The truths held by all Catholics are numerous and detailed; sometimes they are involved. For example, all Catholics believe in transubstantiation. Transubstantiation is the term applied to the change of the whole substance of bread into the Body of Christ and the change of the whole substance of wine into the substance of the Blood of Christ, the appearance of bread and wine remaining. That is a very definite belief, though a rather involved one. It is not the kind of truth people would come to know and believe on their own. All Catholics hold it with equal belief and with complete acceptance. So it is with many other points of Catholic belief. The unity of the Catholic Church is something which is not matched anywhere else in the world. It is not that the Catholic Church is a little more united than other societies. It is that the Catholic Church is unified in a way which no other society was ever united. The ordinary laws of sociology do not apply here. That is what we mean by a miracle. Such unity cannot be explained on any natural basis. Take the case of the Church’s apostolic tradition. It is just not reasonable that a society which has lived so vigorously as the Catholic Church should not have burned itself out by this time. Every other society which was in existence when Christ founded His Church–the Roman Empire, nation of the Gauls, the great universities of Greece–has passed away. Groups have broken off from the Catholic Church during its almost two thousand years of existence. They have followed the curve of disintegration which governs all natural societies. They have waxed strong for a while, grown old and they have passed away. As the man in the Gospel who was born blind said after receiving his sight, “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing” (John 9:33). If the Catholic Church were not from God, it could not continue to possess, as the Catholic Church does, the four marks which Christ’s True Church must possess–apostolicity, catholicity, unity and holiness. Any church may claim these symbols of authenticity and authority. But only one may truly possess them. "You have been given by your baptism entrance into the only true religion upon earth, the Roman Catholic Church under My Son, Jesus. Though man in his arrogance and pride has forgotten His role and His rule, you must carry it forward. Retain the Faith and the truth in the hearts of mankind." - Our Lady of the Roses, September 7, 1978 "I gave you a simple plan with the construction of My House, My Church, upon earth. But now you want to reform it, until you will split My House asunder with many denominations, many new denominations. I ask that My Church be universal, apostolic, and the saver of souls. However, there are rules to be followed, doctrines to remain unchanged." - Jesus, September 7, 1978
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 21:11:41 +0000
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