Christ is a person with Certainly Christ is a King for ever; and though invisible, He continues unto the end of time to govern and guard His church from Heaven. Fidentem piumque animum: On the Rosary: 20 September 1896 65. For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic” (S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88). But since He willed that His kingdom should be visible He was obliged, when He ascended into Heaven, to designate a vice-gerent on earth. Judged by such a criterion it is the unity of the Church which must be principally considered; and of this, for the general good, it has seemed useful to speak in this Encyclical. For this reason Christ, speaking of the mystical edifice, mentions only one Church, which he calls His own-“I will build my church;” any other Church except this one, since it has not been founded by Christ, cannot be the true Church. He issued a record eleven encyclicals on the rosary earning the moniker the "Rosary Pope". So Peter has the fullness of power of jurisdiction Then am I honoured when due honour is given to everyone” (S. Gregorius M. Epistolarum, lib viii., ep. Union with the Roman See of Peter is to him always the public criterion of a Catholic. But it will remain as long as the sun – as long as the sun rises and sets: that is, as long as the ages of time shall roll, the Church of God – the true body of Christ on earth – will not disappear” (In Psalm. Church, which is both spiritual and visible. 1. Another, too, says: ‘Far be it from me; I do not consult fortune – telling, I seek not soothsaying, I seek not profane divinations, I go not to the worship of devils, I serve not stones: but I am on the side of Donatus.’ What doth it profit thee not to offend the Father, who avenges an offence against the Mother? | Irondale, AL 35210 |. Satis Cognitum – On the Unity of the Church, by Pope Leo XIII, 29 June 1896; Spectata Fides – On Christian Education, by Pope Leo XIII, 27 November 1885; Spesse Volte – On the Suppression of Catholic Institutions, by Pope Leo XIII, 5 August 1898; Superiore Anno – On The Recitation Of The Rosary, by Pope Leo XIII, 30 August 1884 Unity, characteristic of the Church founded by Christ, has a strong influence on souls. There are, it is true, other gatekeepers of heaven and to pastors of flocks, but thou are so much the more glorious as thou bast inherited a different and more glorious name than all the rest. But how could all this be realized in the Apostles alone, placed as they were under the universal law of dissolution by death? For this I know is the rock on which the Church is built” (Ep. Church; (2) some deny any supernatural element. lxx., n. 8). “But if I do (the works) though you will not believe Me, believe the works” (Ibid. Moreover, he who is set over the whole flock must have authority, not only over the sheep dispersed throughout the Church, but also when they are assembled together. only community, and its mission extends to all times and places. Those who are outside are like sterile and worthless sand: they cannot comprehend” (Comment. i., 5). lv., n. 1). There are, it is true, mountains which are unknown because they are situated in some remote part of the earth…..But this mountain is not unknown; for it has filled the whole face of the world, and about this it is said that it is prepared on the summit of the mountains” (In Ep. But the mission of Christ is to save that which had perished: that is to say, not some nations or peoples, but the whole human race, without distinction of time or place. And many people shall go, and say: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the House of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths” (Ibid., ii., 2-3). And Optatus of Milevis says: “You cannot deny that you know that in the city of Rome the Episcopal chair was first conferred on Peter. Jedność w wierze. And this indeed most deservedly; for they, who take from Christian doctrine what they please, lean on their own judgments, not on faith; and not “bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. It never grows old, but is ever full of vigour. they are not mere vicars of the Pope. the Church. because Christ alone has spoken of one Church, His own, and so as Christ Wherefore this mystical body, he declares, is “compacted and fitly jointed together. Jesus Christ was sent by God. The Church is a society which is both supernatural and that rock. We are prohibited in the first place by Divine Wisdom from entertaining any such thought, since this form of government was constituted by the counsel of God Himself. And so St. Gregory the great, writing to the Emperor Maurice Augustus, says: “It is evident to all who know the gospel that the charge of the whole Church was committed to St. Peter, the Apostle and Prince of all the Apostles, by the word of the Lord….Behold! xii. From this it follows that those who arbitrarily conjure up and picture to themselves a hidden and invisible Church are in grievous and pernicious error: as also are those who regard the Church as a human institution which claims a certain obedience in discipline and external duties, but which is without the perennial communication of the gifts of divine grace, and without all that which testifies by constant and undoubted signs to the existence of that life which is drawn from God. he who rejects even one revealed truth, gives up the faith. This book includes thirty of his most well know encyclicals and letters. But his correlation of rights and duties in the Christian commonwealth not only could not have been made permanent, but could not even have been initiated except through the senses, which are of all things the messengers and interpreters. A hundred years ago, on September 8, 1907, Pope Saint Pius X (1903–1914) published the Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (Feeding the Lord’s Flock) against the devastating doctrines of Modernism.. In his Encyclical Satis Cognitum,on the oneness and unity of the Church, Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) teaches: “It is so evident from the clear and frequent testimonies of Holy Writ that the true Church of Jesus Christ is one,that no Christian can dare to deny it…. This the Divine Author impressed on it as a lasting sign of truth and of unconquerable strength. 3). So much so, that he who would place another chair against that one chair, would be a schismatic and a sinner” (De Schism. He alone was designated as the foundation of the Church. Written when popes said what they meant and meant what they said, it is free from the ambiguities which are so characteristic of late 20th century explanations of these issues. Hence, as it is clear that God absolutely willed that there should be unity in His Church, and as it is evident what kind of unity He willed, and by means of what principle He ordained that this unity should be maintained, we may address the following words of St. Augustine to all who have not deliberately closed their minds to the truth: “When we see the great help of God, such manifest progress and such abundant fruit, shall we hesitate to take refuge in the bosom of that Church, which, as is evident to all, possesses the supreme authority of the Apostolic See through the Episcopal succession? Since we feel it is more beneficial, this glossary has been arranged topically rather than alphabetically.- Papacy – the office of a pope, the successor of St. Peter, which was founded by Jesus Christ (Mt. Now the proper nature of a foundation is to be a principle of cohesion for the various parts of the building. Our mission is to “Restore All Things to Christ!”, in continuing the legacy of Pope St. Pius X under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church is not something dead: it is the body of Christ endowed with supernatural life. And, when He had invoked upon them from Heaven the Spirit of Truth, He bade them go through the whole world and faithfully preach to all nations, what He had taught and what He had commanded, so that by the profession of His doctrine, and the observance of His laws, the human race might attain to holiness on earth and never-ending happiness in Heaven. In his encyclical, Satis cognitum,(2) Pope Leo XIII refers to Matthew, chapter 16, asserting the jurisdiction and authority of the Pope. 16:18-20; John 21:15-17) upon St. Peter as head of the Christian Church. are obliged to enter. Whatsoever He commands, He commands by the same authority. ii., 16) commands Peter “to confirm his brethren.”. The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. Joan., lib. But this mountain which towers over all other mountains is one; and the House of the Lord to which all nations shall come to seek the rule of living is also one. This is the office appointed unto it by God: that it may watch over and may order all that concerns religion, and may, without let or hindrance, exercise, according to its judgment, its charge over Christianity. For He who made Peter the foundation of the Church also “chose, twelve, whom He called apostles” (Luke vi., 13); and just as it is necessary that the authority of Peter should be perpetuated in the Roman Pontiff, so, by the fact that the bishops succeed the Apostles, they inherit their ordinary power, and thus the episcopal order necessarily belongs to the essential constitution of the Church. Kościół zawsze widoczny. What is cut away from the mother cannot live or breathe apart” (Ibid.). Assuredly the infinite power of God is not bound by anything, all things obey it as so many passive instruments. “The Son of Man came that the world might be saved by Him” (John iii., 17). “The Apostles were appointed by Christ to preach the Gospel to us. 7. This doctrine will help Catholics to adhere to their Bishops and to the 3). 18. is one person and His mission was universal, so also the Church is one The heavenly doctrine of Christ, although for the most part committed to writing by divine inspiration, could not unite the minds of men if left to the human intellect alone. The Church of Christ, therefore, is one and the same for ever; those who leave it depart from the will and command of Christ, the Lord – leaving the path of salvation they enter on that of perdition. We have no wish to quote every available declaration; but it is well to recall the formula of faith which Michael Paleologus professed in the Second Council of Lyons: “The same holy Roman Church possesses the sovereign and plenary primacy and authority over the whole Catholic Church, which, truly and humbly, it acknowledges to have received together with the plenitude of power from the Lord Himself, in the person of St. Peter, the Prince or Head of the Apostles, of whom the Roman Pontiff is the successor. ii., 6,7)-and thus living on earth He taught his doctrine and gave His laws, conversing with men. the faithful to accept all the doctrine of the Apostles. had to accept all of His doctrine. It is then undoubtedly the office of the church to guard Christian doctrine and to propagate it in its integrity and purity. “Could not Christ who confided to him the Kingdom by His own authority have strengthened the faith of one whom He designated a rock to show the foundation of the Church?” (S. Ambrosius, De Fide, lib. For it can be said with less truth that every law is violated by one who commits a single sin, since it may be that he only virtually despises the majesty of God the Legislator. De capto Eutropio, n. 6). Now the proper nature of a foundation is to be a principle of cohesion for the various parts of the building. ii). They are the intellectual product of Bro. Let all those, therefore, who detest the wide-spread irreligion of our times, and acknowledge and confess Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the human race, but who have wandered away from the Spouse, listen to Our voice. The unity of the Church is that which Christ It has a supreme He interrogates, not to learn but to teach. Donat., lib. x., 17). to the sanctification of souls. For this reason the Fathers of the Vatican Council laid down nothing new, but followed divine revelation and the acknowledged and invariable teaching of the Church as to the very nature of faith, when they decreed as follows: “All those things are to be believed by divine and Catholic faith which are contained in the written or unwritten word of God, and which are proposed by the Church as divinely revealed, either by a solemn definition or in the exercise of its ordinary and universal Magisterium” (Sess. The conditions for the return of Protestants are established by God, not by men. “The safety of the Church depends on the dignity of the chief priest, to whom if an extraordinary and supreme power is not given, there are as many schisms to be expected in the Church as there are priests” (S. Hieronymus, Dialog, contra Luciferianos, n. 9). Venerable Brethren, Health, and Benediction. These, then, are the duties of a shepherd: to place himself as leader at the head of his flock, to provide proper food for it, to ward off dangers, to guard against insidious foes, to defend it against violence: in a word to rule and govern it. But the Epsicopal order is rightly judged to be in communion with Peter, as Christ commanded, if it be subject to and obeys Peter; otherwise it necessarily becomes a lawless and disorderly crowd. The need of this divinely instituted means for the preservation of unity, about which we speak is urged by St. Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians. 5. No one, therefore, unless in communion with Peter can share in his authority, since it is absurd to imagine that he who is outside can command in the Church. 28, v. 20). in Joan., part iii., cap. Wherefore Optatus of Milevis blamed the Donatists for this reason: “Against which ages (of hell) we read that Peter received the saving keys, that is to say, our prince, to whom it was said by Christ: `To thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the gates of Hell shall not conquer them.’ Whence is it therefore that you strive to obtain for yourselves the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven-you who fight against the chair of Peter?” (Lib. On the other hand, the submission of the faithful to two authorities, x., 10). Imperat.) Therefore the Church is a society divine in its origin, supernatural in its end and in means proximately adapted to the attainment of that end; but it is a human community inasmuch as it is composed of men. ii., n. 25). lxxxvi. Wherefore Chrysostom writes: “Secede not from the Church: for nothing is stronger than the Church. de Fide Orthodoxa contra Arianos). 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