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JMJ
The Fourth Mark of the Church!
Apostolic
Catechism of the Council of Trent (aka The Roman Catechism)
The true Church is also to be recognised from her origin, which can be traced back under the law of grace to the Apostles; for her doctrine is the truth not recently given, nor now first heard of, but delivered of old by the Apostles, and disseminated throughout the entire world. Hence no one can doubt that the impious opinions which heresy invents, opposed as they are to the doctrines taught by the Church from the days of the Apostles to the present time, are very different from the faith of the true Church.
That all, therefore, might know which was the Catholic Church, the Fathers, guided by the Spirit of God, added to the Creed the word Apostolic. For the Holy Ghost, who presides over the Church, governs her by no other ministers than those of Apostolic succession. This Spirit, first imparted to the Apostles, has by the infinite goodness of God always continued in the Church. And just as this one Church cannot err in faith or morals, since it is guided by the Holy Ghost; so, on the contrary, all other societies arrogating to themselves the name of church, must necessarily, because guided by the spirit of the devil, be sunk in the most pernicious errors, both doctrinal and moral.
The Apostolicity of the Church
Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma - Ott
Apostolic signifies derived from the Apostles. We distinguish a threefold apostolicity: of origin (apostolicitas originis), of teaching (ap. doctrinae), and of succession in office (ap. succcssionis.)
The Church founded by Christ is apostolic. (De /ide.)
The Niceue Creed confesses: Credo in ... apostolicanl Ecclesiam (D 86). cf. 0 14, 1686.
The dogma asserts: In its origin the Church goes back to the Apostles. She has ahvays adhered to the teaching which she received from the Apostles. The Pastors of the Church, the Pope and the Bishops are connected \vith the Apostles by the succession of office. The apostolicity of the succession guarantees
the unfalsified transnlission of doctrine and makes manifest the organic cotUlection between the Church of the present day and the Church of the Apostles.
Proof: Christ founded His Church on the Apostles, by transferring to them His threefold office, teaching,
pastoral and sacerdotal; and by appointing Peter the supreme pastor and the teacher of the Church (see supra Pars. 4 and s). Christ willed that these offices, and the powers corresponding to them) should be transmitted to their successors, since the purpose of the Church makes it necessary that these be perpetuated. In the wtbroken succession of the Bishops from the Apostles the apostolic character of the Church most clearly appears. It is sufficient to point to the apostolic succession of the Roman Church, because the R~oman bishop is the head of the whole Church and vehicle of the infallible doctrinal power. Consequently the apostolic Church and the unfa~sifi.(".d apostolic teaching are whert~ Peter or his successor is.
Among the Fathers, St. Irenaeus and Tertullian especially, stressed and verified the baqr. principle of Apostolicity against the Gnostic error. They appealed to the tact that the Catholic Church received her teaching from the Apostles, and by the uninterrupted succession of the bishops preserved it in its purity_ The heresies, on the other hand are post-apostolic, or in individual cases where errors may be traced back to apostolic times, of extra-apostolic origin. St. Ircnaeus offers the oldest list of Roman bishops (Adv. haer. III 3, 3; c£ IV 26, 2). Cf. fertullian.. De pracscr. 20-21; 32; 36-37; Adv. Marc. IV s; St. Cyprian,
Ep. 69. 3 ; St. Augustine, Contra ep. Manich3ei. 4. S; Ep. $3, r. 2 (List of Roman Bishops).
St. Thomas teaches that the Apostles and their tcadungs are the secondary foundation of the Church, the prilnary foundation being Christ Himself. Expos. symb. a. 9. Characteristics of the Church The fouf properties of Unity, Sanctity, Catholicity and Apostolicity, sin(:cthey appear externally and are easily recognisable, are not merely properties of being, but at the same time, outer marks of the true Church of Christ. fhe Holy Office, under Pius IX (1864), declared: "The true Church of Christ, by virtue of Divine authority, is constituted and is knowable by the four characteristics, which we confess in the Creed as an object of the Faith n(D 1686; cf. 1793). In Apologetics we show that ofall the Christian confessions the Roman Catholic Church atone possesses at least pre-eminontly these four characteristics.
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