Cathal BarryThe Church is Catholic because she has a mission to the whole of the human race, writes Cathal Barry
The Church is Catholic (meaning ‘universal’) in two ways. Firstly, according to the Catechism, the Church is universal because Christ is present in her. It states that she receives from him “the fullness of the means of salvation”. In this fundamental sense, the Catechism states, the Church was Catholic on the day of Pentecost and will be so until Christ returns.
Secondly, according to the Catechism, the Church is Catholic because she has a mission to the whole of the human race. The Second Vatican Council decreed that everybody is called to belong to the new People of God.
This people, therefore, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God’s will may be fulfilled. By its gift of universality, the Church seeks the return of all humanity under Christ the Head (Lumen Gentium).
Local groups
The same document states that the Church “is really present in all legitimately organised local groups of the faithful, which, in so far as they are united to their pastors, are also quite appropriately called churches in the New Testament”.
These communities might be small and poor. Yet, in these particular churches Christ is present and the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church is constituted (Second Vatican Council).
The phrase “particular church”, which is the diocese (or eparchy), refers to a community of the Christian faithful in communion of faith and sacraments with their bishop ordained in apostolic succession. These particular Churches “are constituted after the model of the universal Church; it is in these and formed out of them that the one and unique Catholic Church exists”.
Particular Churches are fully Catholic by their unity with Rome “which presides in charity” (St Ignatius of Antioch). “For with this Church (Rome), by reason of its pre-eminence, the whole Church must necessarily be in accord” (St Irenaeus). “All Christian Churches have held the great Church of Rome as their basis and foundation since, the gates of hell have never prevailed against her” (St Maximus the Confessor).
The universal Church, according to the Catechism, is not just a federation of different particular Churches. The universal Church is rooted in a variety of cultural, social and human terrains and takes on different external expressions.
The rich variety shows forth the Catholicity of the undivided Church (Pope Paul VI).
The Church teaches that everybody is called to this Catholic unity. The Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ, and all mankind belong to or are ordered to Catholic unity.
“Fully incorporated into the society of the Church are those who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept all the means of salvation given to the Church together with her entire organisation, and who – by the bonds constituted by the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and communion – are joined in the visible structure of the Church of Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops,” the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church states.