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JMJ
For Traditionalists, who have been relatively secure during this crisis, there is a danger of drifting from the Teaching of the Church.
My contribution to preventing this from happening is the presentation of some key doctrinal points that serve as an anchor against the temptation of the 'resistance' and sede-vacantists.
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"One"
Catechism of the Council of Trent (aka The Roman Catechism)
The first mark of the true Church is described in the Nicene Creed, and consists in unity: My dove is one, my beautiful one is one. So vast a multitude, scattered far and wide, is called one for the reasons mentioned by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians: One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
Unity In Government
The Church has but one ruler and one governor, the invisible one, Christ, whom the eternal Father hath made head over all the Church, which is his body; the visible one, the Pope, who, as legitimate successor of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, fills the Apostolic chair.
It is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers that this visible head is necessary to establish and preserve unity in the Church. This St. Jerome clearly perceived and as clearly expressed when, in his work against Jovinian, he wrote: One is elected that, by the appointment of a head, all occasion of schism may be removed. In his letter to Pope Damasus the same holy Doctor writes: Away with envy, let the ambition of Roman grandeur cease! I speak to the successor of the fisherman, and to the disciple of the cross. Following no chief but Christ, I am united in communion with your Holiness, that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that on that rock is built the Church. Whoever will eat the lamb outside this house is profane; whoever is not in the ark of Noah shall perish in the flood.
The same doctrine was long before established by Saints Irenaeus and Cyprian. The latter, speaking of the unity of the Church observes: The Lord said to Peter, I say to thee, Peter! thou art Peter: and upon this rock I will build my Church. He builds His Church on one. And although after His Resurrection He gave equal power to all His Apostles, saying: As the Father hath sent me, I also send you, receive ye the Holy Ghost; yet to make unity more manifest, He decided by His own authority that it should be derived from one alone, etc.
Again, Optatus of Milevi says: You cannot be excused on the score of ignorance, knowing as you do that in the city of Rome the episcopal chair was first conferred on Peter, who occupied it as head of the Apostles; in order that in that one chair the unity of the Church might be preserved by all, and that the other Apostles might not claim each a chair for himself; so that now he who erects another in opposition to this single chair is a schismatic and a prevaricator.
Later on St. Basil wrote: Peter is made the foundation, because he says: Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living God; and hears in reply that he is a rock. But although a rock, he is not such a rock as Christ; for Christ is truly an immovable rock, but Peter, only by virtue of that rock. For Jesus bestows His dignities on others; He is a priest, and He makes priests; a rock, and He makes a rock; what belongs to Himself, He bestows on His servants.
Lastly, St. Ambrose says: Because he alone of all of them professed (Christ) he was placed above all.
Should anyone object that the Church is content with one Head and one Spouse, Jesus Christ, and requires no other, the answer is obvious. For as we deem Christ not only the author of all the Sacraments, but also their invisible minister -- He it is who baptises, He it is who absolves, although men are appointed by Him the external ministers of the Sacraments -- so has He placed over His Church, which He governs by His invisible Spirit, a man to be His vicar and the minister of His power. A visible Church requires a visible head; therefore the Saviour appointed Peter head and pastor of all the faithful, when He committed to his care the feeding of all His sheep, in such ample terms that He willed the very same power of ruling and governing the entire Church to descend to Peter's successors.
Unity In Spirit, Hope And Faith
Moreover, the Apostle, writing to the Corinthians, tells them that there is but one and the same Spirit who imparts grace to the faithful, as the soul communicates life to the members of the body. Exhorting the Ephesians to preserve this unity, he says: Be careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; one body and one Spirit. As the human body consists of many members, animated by one soul, which gives sight to the eves, hearing to the ears, and to the other senses the power of discharging their respective functions; so the mystical body of Christ, which is the Church, is composed of many faithful. The hope, to which we are called, is also one, as the Apostle tells us in the same place; for we all hope for the same consummation, eternal and happy life. Finally, the faith which all are bound to believe and to profess is one: Let there be no schisms amongst you,says the Apostle. And Baptism, which is the seal of our Christian faith, is also one.
15. The Unity of the Church
Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma - Ott
By unity is to be understood not merely numerical unity or unicity, but above all the inner unity or unicity in the sense of being undivided.
The Church founded by Christ is unique and one. (De fide.)
In the Nicene Creed the Church confesses : Credo in . unam . . . Ecclesiam. D 86. The Vatican Council teaches: "In order that the whole host of the faithful may remain in unity of faith and communion (in fidei et communionis unitate) He placed St. Peter over the other Apostles and instituted in him both a perpetual principle of unity and a visible foundation" D 1821. In the Encyclical" Satis cognitum," which ex professo treats of the unity of the Church, Leo XIII commments: "As her Divine Founder willed that the Church should be one in faith, in government and in communion, He appointed Peter and his successors to be the foundation and, as it were, the centre ofits unity." D 1960.
One may, with the Vatican Council, distinguish a two-fold unity ofthe Church:
1. Unity of Faith
This consists in the fact that all members of the Church inwardly believe the truths of faith proposed by the teaching office of the Church, at least i!nplicitly, and outwardly confess them. Cf. Rom. 10, TO: "For with the heart, we believe unto justice: but with the mouth, confession is madcs unto salvation" (unity of the confession of faith or symbolical unity). Unity of Faith leaves room for various opinions in those controversial questions which the Church has not finally decided. Incompatible with the Catholic conception of the unity of Faith is the Protestant theory of the Fundamental Articles, which demand agreement in the basic truths of faith only, so that within the framework of the one Christian Church varying confessions of faith can exist side by side. C£ D 1685.
2. Unity of Communion
This consists, on the one hand, in the subjection of the members of the Church to the authority of the bishops and of the Pope (unity of government or hierarchical unity) ; on the other hand, in the binding of the members along themselves to a social unity by participation in the same cult and in the same means of grace (unity of cult or liturgical unity).
The Unity both of faith and of Communion is guaranteed by the Primacy of the Pope, the Supreme Teacher and Pastor of the Church (centrum unitatis : D 1960). One is cut off from the unity of Faith by heresy and from the unity of communion by schism.
Proof: Christ and the Apostles see in Unity an essential property of the Church. Christ gives the Apostles the mandate to promulgate His teaching to all peoples, and demands unconditional assent to its promulgation (Me. 28, 19 et seq.; Mk. 16, 15 et seq.). In the prayer of the High Priest He insistently asks the Father for the unity of the Apostles and of the future faithful: "Not for these only do I pray, but for them also who through their words shall believe in Me: that they may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in Thee: that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent Me" (John 17, 20 et seq.). Accordingly, unity must be a characteristic of the Church of Christ.
St. Paul symbolically represents the unity of the Church by picturing it 15 a house (1 Tim. 3, IS) and again as a human body (Rom. 12, 4 et seq.: et passim). He expressly enjoins internal and outward unity: "I beseech you . . .in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . that you be careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling: one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all " (Eph. 4, 3-6). He warns insistently against schism and heresy: CI I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no schisms among you : but that you be perfect in the sanle mind and in the same judgment" (1 Cor. I, 10). A man that is a heretic after the first or second correction avoid" (Tit. 3, 10). C( Gal. I, 8 et seq.)
In the struggle against heresy the Fathers very strongly stress the unity of faith; In the struggle against schism they very strongly stress the unity of Communion. St. Irenaeus effectively contrasts the variety of Gnostic views with the unity of the Christian teaching of faith throughout the whole world: "Just as the sun is one and the same in the whole world, so the message of truth penetrates every, where and enlightens all men, who wish to come to the knowledge of the truth" (Adv. haer. I 10, 2; cE. V 20, I). For the purpose of the public confession of faith on the occasion of the reception of Baptism, the most important truths of faith were synthesized into rules of faith and symbols of faith. Cf. the rules of faith of St. Irenaeus (Adv. haer. I 10, I; III 4, 2); of 'Tertul1ian (De praesc. 13; de virgo vel. I; Adv. Prax. 2) and of Origen (De prine. I praef.4). St. Cyprian, impelled by the secessions from the Church in Carthage and in Rome, wrote the first monograph on the unity of the Catholic Church. In this he denies salvation to all those who secede from the Church (De ecel. cath. unit. 6). Unity is preserved by the bond of the Bishops who are closely linked one with the other (Ep. 66, 8).
The significance of the Primacy for the preservation of Church unity was stressed by St. Cyprian (De unit. 4) ; St. Optatus of Milevis (De schism. Donat. II 2 et seq.); St. Jeron1e (Adv.Jov. I 26).
St. Thomas declares that the unity of the Church is founded on three elements :The common of faith of all members of the Church, the common Hope of eternal life, and the common Love of God and of one another in mutual service Fidelity to the unity of the Church is a condition for the attaining of eternal salvation. Expos. symb. a. 9
§ 16.
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