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Marks of the Church: Catholic

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JMJ

Mark #3 - Catholicity.

As before, I don't have time to clean up all the text 'interpretations from Adobe.  Please refer to the original text for further clarity.

P^3


"Catholic"
Catechism of the Council of Trent (aka The Roman Catechism)
The third mark of the Church is that she is Catholic; that is, universal. And justly is she called Catholic,
because, as St. Augustine says, she is diffused by the splendour of one faith from the rising to the setting sun."
Unlike states of human institution, or the sects of heretics, she is not confined to any one country or class of
men, but embraces within the amplitude of her love all mankind, whether barbarians or Scythians, slaves or
freemen, male or female. Therefore it is written: Thou . . . hast redeemed us to God, in thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us to our God a kingdom. Speaking of the Church, David says: Ask of me and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession; and also, I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me; and man is born in her.


Moreover to this Church, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, belong all the faithful who
have existed from Adam to the present day, or who shall exist, in the profession of the true faith, to the end of time; all of whom are founded and raised upon the one corner-stone, Christ, who made both one, and announced peace to them that are near and to them that are far.

She is also called universal, because all who desire eternal salvation must cling to and embrace her, like those
who entered the ark to escape perishing in the flood.. This (note of catholicity), therefore, is to be taught as a
most reliable criterion, by which to distinguish the true from a false Church.


17. The Catholicity of the Church
Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma - Ott
Catholic nleans Universal (Kad' OAOII). The Church is called Catholic especially on account of her spatial extent, that is, on account of her extension over the whole earth. We may distinguish Virtual Catholicity, that is, the intention to extend over the whole earth together \vith the capacity to achieve that purpose, and Actual Catholicity, that is the actual extension of the Church over the whole earth. Virtual Catholicity existed [ronl the beginning; Actual Catholicity, by its nature, could only be achieved after a faidy long historical development. Actual Catholicity is said to be physical if it embraces all peoples of the earth, even if not all individual men, and moral if it includes only the greater part of them. Catholicity, of course, presupposes unity.

The Church founded bV Christ is catholic. (De fide.)

In che Apostks' Creed the Church confesses: Credo in ... sanctam Ecclesiam catholicau1 ;D 6). Cf. D 86, 1686.Moral CatholicIty suffices for the conceptofCatholicity. Nevertheless it is Christ's will that the Church constantly endeavour to extend. The ideal tovvards which the Church strives is physical Catholicity. According to the established view of the majority of theologians, moral Catholicity demands that the Church extend over the whole earth simultaneously. Thus after a certain time of developn1ent this moral Catholicity will be realised and from that tinle on be perpetuated. The wide extension and the great number of the faithful do not indeed of themselves constitute a proof of the truth of a teaching--error also can achieve wide extension; nevertheless Catholicity is a quality which, according to the will of her Founder, shall not be lacking in the teaching of Christ, and it is therefore a characteristic of the true Church of Christ.

Proof: In the Messianic prophecies ofthe Old Covenant, Catholicity is mentioned as a charal1~ristic of the Messianic Kingdolu. While the Old Testament Kingdom of God was limited to the People of Israel, the coming Messianic Kingdom was to embrace" all peoples of the earth." Cf. Gu. 12, 3 ; 18, 18 ; 26, 4; 28, 14; Ps. 2, 8; 21, 28; 71, 8-11. 17; 85, 9; Is.2,2; II,40; 45, 22; 49, 6; 55, 4-5; 56, 3-8 ; 66, 19-21; Ez. 17, 22-24; Du. 2, 35 ; Mal. I, II. Christ willed that His Church should be one Church spanning the world and encompassing all nations. In place of the narrow Jewish particularism He instituted a world-\vide Christian universalism: "And this Gospel of the lCingdoln shall be preacheJ in the whole \vorld, for a testimony to all nations; and then shall the conSlllnmatioll come" (Mt. 24, 14; c£ Luke 24, 47). "Going therefore teach ye aU nations" (rvlt. 28, 19; c£ Mk. 16, 15). "Ye shall be witnesses WHo me ill Jerusalenl and in all Judaea anJ Samaria and even to the uttermost ends of the earth" (Acts I, 8).

The Apostles fulfilled the mandate of Christ. The prinlitive conlluunity in Jerusalelll became the embryo of the nlission in Judaea and Samaria: the first Pagan-Christian cOlllmunity in Antioch became the starting point of the missions to the pagans. St. Paul travelled almost the whole ancient civilised world in order "to guide all pagan peoples to the obedience of faith" to Christ (Ronl. I, 5). He already sees fulfilled the words of the Psalms: "Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the whole world tt (Rom. 10, 18). When the number of the p~garn predetennined by God shall have entered the Church, then also Israel, whi<.,h was the first to reject the offer of Salvation made by Hiln to it before all others, shall be converted and saved (Ronl. II, 25 et seq.).

The title" Catholic Church" \vas first used by St. Ignatius of Antioch: "Where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church" (Smyrn. 8, 2). In the Martyrium Polycarpi it is found four times, three times in the sense of the "universal Church" through the whole world (inscr. 8, I; 19, 2); once ill the nlcaning of the Orthodox Church" (16, 2). Since the end of the 2nd century the expression is frequently found in both meanings, which factually coincide (Canon Muratori, Tcrtullian, St. Cyprian). The attribute "Catholic" (ill connection with Church) first appea.rs in the Creeds in the Eastern Church (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Epiphanius, Nicacno-Constantinopolitanum: D 9, 14, 86). St. Cyril ofJerusalem refers the catholicity of the Church not merely to spatial extensioll, but also to the teaching given by her; to the generality of the cbsscs of socicty, \vhich she bnngs to the veneration of God; to t~e gencrllity of the forgi vencss of sins, which she guarantees; and to the generality of the virtues which she possesses (Cat. 18, 23). By all these characteristics the true Church of Christ is distinguished from the congregations of heretics. Thus for St. Cyril, the nalllC Catholic Church" is the proper characteristic name ofthis l-loly Church. the mother of us all, who is the Bride of Our Lord ]eius Christ, the only-begotten Son of God." (Cat. 18, 26.) St. Augustine understands the appellation" Catholic U pre-eminently of universal spatial extension (Ep. 93, 7, 23). From the writings of the Old and New Testaments he adduces the proof, that this is an essential trait and characteristic Inark of the true Church of Christ. Cf. Ep. 185, I, S; Senno 46, 14, 33 et seq.

St. Thonlas bases the Catholicity of the Church on her universal extension over the \vhole \\-'orld; 011 the universality of the classes represented in her; and on her universal duration

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