Ep. 3 - More Catholic Than the Pope?

NOTE: This article from May 2023 was fairly popular, so I decided to record it for YouTube and for the Podcast streams. Enjoy, and please comment, like, and share! Introduction This is not an article refuting various theological points of the Society of St. Pius X. It is not an extensive refutation of the pernicious errors of sedevacantism. What it aims to be is a reiteration of what the Church Herself is, who we are in relationship to Her, and a warning to avoid the grave sin of schism. The Church of Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church. This Church is visible and clearly manifest. Jesus is not trying to trick us. God, our Father, desires our salvation. The Holy Spirit guides and guards the Church. Our Blessed Mother never ceases to intercede for us. No matter how bleak things seem, staying in the Barque of Peter is always the best option. What is the Church of Jesus Christ? During the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the Council Fathers took up the task of writing a Dogmatic Constitution (the highest magisterial level of a Church document) on the Church Herself. The Mystery of the Church is expounded in this constitution: Lumen Gentium. Promulgated by Pope St. Paul VI in November 1964, the Council Fathers provided a clear and beautiful description of Holy Mother Church. Found in paragraph 8 of Lumen Gentium, in particular, is a nuanced and gorgeous explication of the Church. Passages such as these must be read in continuity with everything that came before this moment in the Church or we run the risk of reading it outside of the heart and mind of the Church. One word, especially, provides difficulty for some readers of Lumen Gentium: “subsists.” However, I hope to show, in short order, that this word is inspired. The paragraph begins: “Christ, the one Mediator, established and continually sustains here on earth His holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as an entity with visible delineation through which He communicated truth and grace to all. But, the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, are not to be considered as two realities, nor are the visible assembly and the spiritual community, nor the earthly Church and the Church enriched with heavenly things; rather they form one complex reality which coalesces from a divine and a human element. For this reason, by no weak analogy, it is compared to the mystery of the incarnate Word. As the assumed nature inseparably united to Him, serves the divine Word as a living organ of salvation, so, in a similar way, does the visible social structure of the Church serve the Spirit of Christ, who vivifies it, in the building up of the body (LG, 8; emphasis added).” Let us pause here for a moment. To summarize: Christ is the one Mediator between God and man and the Church which He established and continually sustains is His Church. In a strongly analogous sense, the Church is both human and divine because there is a visible structure but an internal cohesion as well. The passage continues: This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour, after His Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd, and him and the other apostles to extend and direct with authority, which He erected for all ages as ‘the pillar and mainstay of the truth.’ This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity.” If we understand that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, founded a Church two thousand years ago, then we can acclaim rightly that this Church is divinely constituted. As the Church has always affirmed, the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. This Church is visible. As Lumen Gentium, this Church IS the one Church of Christ professed in the Creed. So, why do folks have a problem with the phrase “subsists in?” Generally, it is due to a suspicion of the Second Vatican Council that sees the modernist boogeyman in every page of the documents of this Council. The Latin phrase used “subsistit in” is actually quite ancient, the meaning going back at least to the terminology of Aristotle. It means to exist as a substance. In other words, the Church was founded by Christ and has been sustained by Him as one, true, substantive thing. This one Church is the Catholic Church. So, why not just say is (est in Latin)? Well, not to belabor the point, but they did! The first part of the paragraph containing “subsistit in” begins: “Haec est unica Christi Ecclesia (this is the one Church of Christ).” The Council Fathers are not disputing the understanding of the Catholic Church as the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ can be encountered as a concrete subject only in the Catholic Church. The “elements of sanctification and of truth” outside the visible structure of the Church are the reality that God is present and operative in the Sacraments, such as Baptism and Matrimony, in Protestant communities and present and operative in all seven Sacraments in the Orthodox Churches. Nonetheless, the Church subsists only in the Catholic Church. These elements of sanctification are not substantial and concrete instantiations of the Church of Jesus Christ apart from the Catholic Church, rather they are an admittance that moves as He wills and is drawing all people to Himself in the Catholic Church. This is true ecumenism: being willing instruments in helping the Holy Spirit guide all persons to the truth and fullness of the Catholic Church, which is visible and concrete. To take another approach, we could say that when God effects a Sacrament or moves in grace and power outside the visible bounds of the Catholic Church, it is nonetheless a fact that “the one Church of Christ has an operative presence in them (Ut Unum Sint, 8),” as St. John Paul II wrote. So, if someone is saved by sacramental grace, it is still only by the grace flowing from the one true Church of Jesus Christ which is the Catholic Church, our sacrament of salvation on Earth. How Can We Identify the Catholic Church? The Catholic Church has always been visible, though admittedly clandestine in certain circumstances. We can think here of the difficult situation in China today or of the Church in Communist nations in the 20th Century. Or we can look at England under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Or under Roman persecutions or Muslim occupations. Nonetheless, the Church was founded by Christ and continues to be sustained by Him and guided and guarded by the Holy Spirit. The four marks of the Church are present in fullness in the Catholic Church: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. The Church is one because Christ is one. In the inner life of the Trinity, there is no disunity. Likewise, the Church cannot have disunity, as it is the Mystical Body of Christ. The Church is holy because Christ is holy, though it is composed of sinners. The Church is catholic because it is universal (Greek: katholou - “according to the whole”). God desires the salvation of all and our Blessed Lord commissioned the Apostles to preach the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. This apostolicity finds fruition not only being built upon the successors of the Apostles, but it is also firmly set on apostolic teaching. As a result, the Church has a true unity of governance, preaching, teaching, and means of sanctification. The Catholic Church has a visible hierarchical structure. The successors of the Apostles are the bishops of the Catholic Church - this is historically provable. However, apostolic does not only mean the successors of the Apostles exist. If that were the case, then the Orthodox Churches would rightly be considered apostolic. However, apostolicity also r… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.gooddistinctions.com