Cathal BarryThe Church’s unity comes from the undivided Trinity, writes Cathal Barry
One, holy, Catholic and apostolic are the four essential features of the Church, according to the Catechism. “These four characteristics, inseparably linked with each other, indicate essential features of the Church and her mission. They do not belong to the Church but to Christ, who makes the Church one, holy, Catholic and apostolic,” the Catechism teaches.
Although faith alone recognises their divine source, their historical manifestations speak clearly to human reason. As the First Vatican Council noted, the “Church herself, with her marvellous propagation, eminent holiness, and inexhaustible fruitfulness in everything good, her Catholic unity and invincible stability, is a great and perpetual motive of credibility and an irrefutable witness of her divine mission.”
The Church’s unity comes from the undivided Trinity. Christ “reconciled all men to God by his cross” and restored the unity of all people. She is one because her soul is the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit brings about the wonderful communion of the faithful” (Second Vatican Council). “There is one Father of the universe, one Lord of the universe, and also one Holy Spirit. There is also one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her ‘Church’” (St Clement of Alexandria).
From the beginning, this one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes from both the variety of God’s gifts and the diversity of those who receive them. Within the unity of the People of God, a multiplicity of peoples and cultures is gathered together. Among the Church’s members, there are different gifts, offices, conditions, and ways of life.
As is stated in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium: “Holding a rightful place in the communion of the Church there are also particular Churches that retain their own traditions.” The great richness of such diversity is not opposed to the Church’s unity. Yet sin and the burden of its consequences constantly threaten the gift of unity. St Paul wrote, “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3).
Besides charity, the Church has three important visible bonds of communion:
- The profession of one faith
- The common celebration of worship (especially through the sacraments)
- Apostolic succession through Holy Orders
This sole Church of Christ was entrusted to Peter and the other apostles. “This Church, constituted and organised as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him” (Second Vatican Council). Only in the Catholic Church can the fullness of the means of salvation be obtained, the Catechism teaches.
The Church’s Decree on Ecumenism explains: “For it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained.
“It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the People of God.”