THE CATECHISM OF
THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH
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THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION TWO
811 "This is the sole Church of Christ, which in the Creed we profess to
be one, holy, catholic and apostolic."[256] These four characteristics,
inseparably linked with each other,[257] indicate essential features of
the Church and her mission. The Church does not possess them of herself;
it is Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, makes his Church one, holy,
catholic, and apostolic, and it is he who calls her to realize each of
these qualities.
812 Only faith can recognize that the Church possesses these properties
from her divine source. But their historical manifestations are signs that
also 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."[258]
"The sacred mystery of the Church's unity" (UR 2)
813 The Church is one because of her source: "the highest exemplar and
source of this mystery is the unity, in the Trinity of Persons, of one
God, the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit."[259] The Church is one
because of her founder: for "the Word made flesh, the prince of peace,
reconciled all men to God by the cross, . . . restoring the unity of all
in one people and one body."[260] The Church is one because of her "soul":
"It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe and pervading and
ruling over the entire Church, who brings about that wonderful communion
of the faithful and joins them together so intimately in Christ that he is
the principle of the Church's unity."[261] Unity is of the essence of the
Church:
What an astonishing mystery! There is one Father of the universe, one
Logos of the universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the
same; there is also one virgin become mother, and I should like to call
her "Church."[262]
814 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. "Holding a rightful place in the communion of the Church
there are also particular Churches that retain their own traditions."[263]
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. And so the Apostle has to exhort Christians to "maintain the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace."[264]
815 What are these bonds of unity? Above all, charity "binds everything
together in perfect harmony."[265] But the unity of the pilgrim Church is
also assured by visible bonds of communion:
- profession of one faith received from the Apostles;
-common celebration of divine worship, especially of the sacraments;
- apostolic succession through the sacrament of Holy Orders, maintaining
the fraternal concord of God's family.[266]
816 "The sole Church of Christ [is that] which our Savior, after his
Resurrection, entrusted to Peter's pastoral care, commissioning him and
the other apostles to extend and rule it.... This Church, constituted and
organized as a society in the present world, subsists in (subsistit in)
in) the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and
by the bishops in communion with him."[267]
The Second Vatican Council'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."[268]
Wounds to unity
817 In fact, "in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings
there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures as
damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions
appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with
the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to
blame."[269] The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ's Body - here we
must distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism[270] - do not occur without
human sin:
Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and
disputes. Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and
unity, from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers.[271]
818 "However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who
at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such
separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the
Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers ....
All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into
Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good
reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the
Catholic Church."[272]
819 "Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth"[273] are
found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: "the written
Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other
interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements."[274]
Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of
salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that
Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from
Christ and lead to him,[275] and are in themselves calls to "Catholic
unity."[276]
Toward unity
820 "Christ bestowed unity on his Church from the beginning. This unity,
we believe, subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never
lose, and we hope that it will continue to increase until the end of
time."[277] Christ always gives his Church the gift of unity, but the
Church must always pray and work to maintain, reinforce, and perfect the
unity that Christ wills for her. This is why Jesus himself prayed at the
hour of his Passion, and does not cease praying to his Father, for the
unity of his disciples: "That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in
me and I am in you, may they also be one in us, . . . so that the world
may know that you have sent me."[278] The desire to recover the unity of
all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit.[279]
821 Certain things are required in order to respond adequately to this
call:
- a permanent renewal of the Church in greater fidelity to her vocation;
such renewal is the driving-force of the movement toward unity;[280]
- conversion of heart as the faithful "try to live holier lives according
to the Gospel";[281] for it is the unfaithfulness of the members to
Christ's gift which causes divisions;
- prayer in common, because "change of heart and holiness of life, along
with public and private prayer for the unity of Christians, should be
regarded as the soul of the whole ecumenical movement, and merits the name
'spiritual ecumenism;"'[282]
-fraternal knowledge of each other;[283]
- ecumenical formation of the faithful and especially of priests;[284]
- dialogue among theologians and meetings among Christians of the
different churches and communities;[285]
- collaboration among Christians in various areas of service to
mankind.[286] "Human service" is the idiomatic phrase.
822 Concern for achieving unity "involves the whole Church, faithful and
clergy alike."[287] But we must realize "that this holy objective - the
reconciliation of all Christians in the unity of the one and only Church
of Christ - transcends human powers and gifts." That is why we place all
our hope "in the prayer of Christ for the Church, in the love of the
Father for us, and in the power of the Holy Spirit."[288]
823 "The Church . . . is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly
holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the
Spirit is hailed as 'alone holy,' loved the Church as his Bride, giving
himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined her to himself as his
body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of
God."[289] The Church, then, is "the holy People of God,"[290] and her
members are called "saints."[291]
824 United with Christ, the Church is sanctified by him; through him and
with him she becomes sanctifying. "All the activities of the Church are
directed, as toward their end, to the sanctification of men in Christ and
the glorification of God."[292] It is in the Church that "the fullness of
the means of salvation"[293] has been deposited. It is in her that "by the
grace of God we acquire holiness."[294]
825 "The Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real
though imperfect."[295] In her members perfect holiness is something yet
to be acquired: "Strengthened by so many and such great means of
salvation, all the faithful, whatever their condition or state - though
each in his own way - are called by the Lord to that perfection of
sanctity by which the Father himself is perfect."[296]
826 Charity is the soul of the holiness to which all are called: it
"governs, shapes, and perfects all the means of sanctification."[297]
If the Church was a body composed of different members, it couldn't lack
the noblest of all; it must have a Heart, and a Heart BURNING WITH LOVE.
And I realized that this love alone was the true motive force which
enabled the other members of the Church to act; if it ceased to function,
the Apostles would forget to preach the gospel, the Martyrs would refuse
to shed their blood.
LOVE, IN FACT, IS THE VOCATION WHICH INCLUDES ALL OTHERS; IT'S A UNIVERSE OF ITS OWN, COMPRISING ALL TIME AND SPACE - IT'S
ETERNAL! [298]
827 "Christ, 'holy, innocent, and undefiled,' knew nothing of sin, but
came only to expiate the sins of the people. The Church, however, clasping
sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification,
follows constantly the path of penance and renewal."[299] All members of
the Church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are
sinners.[300] In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be mixed with the
good wheat of the Gospel until the end of time.[301] Hence the Church
gathers sinners already caught up in Christ's salvation but still on the
way to holiness:
The Church is therefore holy, though having sinners in her midst, because
she herself has no other life but the life of grace. If they live her
life, her members are sanctified; if they move away from her life, they
fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity.
This is why she suffers and does penance for those offenses, of which she
has the power to free her children through the blood of Christ and the
gift of the Holy Spirit.[302]
828 By canonizing some of the faithful, i.e., by solemnly pro claiming
that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace,
the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and
sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as models
and intercessors.[303] "The saints have always been the source and origin
of renewal in the most difficult moments in the Church's history."[304]
Indeed, "holiness is the hidden source and infallible measure of her
apostolic activity and missionary zeal."[305]
829 "But while in the most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached
that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle, the faithful
still strive to conquer sin and increase in holiness. And so they turn
their eyes to Mary":[306] in her, the Church is already the "all-holy."
What does "catholic" mean?
830 The word "catholic" means "universal," in the sense of "according to
the totality" or "in keeping with the whole." The Church is catholic in a
double sense:
First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her. "Where
there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church."[307] In her subsists
the fullness of Christ's body united with its head; this implies that she
receives from him "the fullness of the means of salvation"[308] which he
has willed: correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental
life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession. The Church was, in
this fundamental sense, catholic on the day of Pentecost[309] and will
always be so until the day of the Parousia.
831 Secondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by
Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race:[310]
All men are 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: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed
that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered
together as one.... The character of universality which adorns the People
of God is a gift from the Lord himself whereby the Catholic Church
ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and all
its goods, under Christ the Head in the unity of his Spirit.[311]
Each particular Church is "catholic"
832 "The Church of Christ is really present in all legitimately organized
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.... In them the faithful are gathered together through the
preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the mystery of the Lord's Supper is
celebrated.... In these communities, though they may often be small and
poor, or existing in the diaspora, Christ is present, through whose power
and influence the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is
constituted."[312]
833 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.[313] 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."[314]
834 Particular Churches are fully catholic through their communion with
one of them, the Church of Rome "which presides in charity."[315] "For
with this church, by reason of its pre-eminence, the whole Church, that is
the faithful everywhere, must necessarily be in accord."[316] Indeed,
"from the incarnate Word's descent to us, all Christian churches
everywhere have held and hold the great Church that is here [at Rome] to
be their only basis and foundation since, according to the Savior's
promise, the gates of hell have never prevailed against her."[317]
835 "Let us be very careful not to conceive of the universal Church as the
simple sum, or . . . the more or less anomalous federation of essentially
different particular churches. In the mind of the Lord the Church is
universal by vocation and mission, but when she pub down her roots in a
variety of cultural, social, and human terrains, she takes on different
external expressions and appearances in each part of the world."[318] The
rich variety of ecclesiastical disciplines, liturgical rites, and
theological and spiritual heritages proper to the local churches "unified
in a common effort, shows all the more resplendently the catholicity of
the undivided Church."[319]
Who belongs to the Catholic Church?
836 "All men are called to this catholic unity of the People of God....
And to it, in different ways, belong or are ordered: the Catholic
faithful, others who believe in Christ, and finally all mankind, called by
God's grace to salvation."[320]
837 "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 organization, 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. Even though incorporated into the Church, one who
does not however persevere in charity is not saved. He remains indeed in
the bosom of the Church, but 'in body' not 'in heart.'"[321]
838 "The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who
are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic
faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the
successor of Peter."[322] Those "who believe in Christ and have been
properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with
the Catholic Church."[323] With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is
so profound "that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit
a common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist."[324]
The Church and non-Christians
839 "Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People
of God in various ways."[325]
The relationship of the Church with the Jewish People. When she delves
into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant,
discovers her link with the Jewish People,[326] "the first to hear the
Word of God."[327] The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions,
is already a response to God's revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews
"belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the
worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their
race, according to the flesh, is the Christ",[328] "for the gifts and the
call of God are irrevocable."[329]
840 And when one considers the future, God's People of the Old Covenant
and the new People of God tend towards similar goals: expectation of the
coming (or the return) of the Messiah. But one awaits the return of the
Messiah who died and rose from the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son
of God; the other awaits the coming of a Messiah, whose features remain
hidden till the end of time; and the latter waiting is accompanied by the
drama of not knowing or of misunderstanding Christ Jesus.
841 The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation
also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place
amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham,
and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on
the last day."[330]
842 The Church's bond with non-Christian religions is in the first place
the common origin and end of the human race:
All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem from the
one stock which God created to people the entire earth, and also because
all share a common destiny, namely God. His providence, evident goodness,
and saving designs extend to all against the day when the elect are
gathered together in the holy city. . .[331]
843 The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among
shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives
life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the
Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as "a
preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that
they may at length have life."[332]
844 In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and
errors that disfigure the image of God in them:
Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their
reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the
creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world
without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair.[333]
845 To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the
Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's
Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity
and salvation. The Church is "the world reconciled." She is that bark
which "in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the Holy
Spirit, navigates safely in this world." According to another image dear
to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's ark, which alone saves
from the flood.[334]
"Outside the Church there is no salvation"
846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the
Church Fathers?[335] Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation
comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the
Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ
is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body
which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith
and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the
Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could
not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as
necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to
remain in it.[336]
847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their
own, do not know Christ and his Church:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ
or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and,
moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it
through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal
salvation.[337]
848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no
fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without
which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation
and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."[338]
Mission - a requirement of the Church's catholicity
849 The missionary mandate. "Having been divinely sent to the nations that
she might be 'the universal sacrament of salvation,' the Church, in
obedience to the command of her founder and because it is demanded by her
own essential universality, strives to preach the Gospel to all men":[339]
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you; and Lo, I am with you always, until
the close of the age."[340]
850 The origin and purpose of mission. The Lord's missionary mandate is
ultimately grounded in the eternal love of the Most Holy Trinity: "The
Church on earth is by her nature missionary since, according to the plan
of the Father, she has as her origin the mission of the Son and the Holy
Spirit."[341] The ultimate purpose of mission is none other than to make
men share in the communion between the Father and the Son in their Spirit
of love.[342]
851 Missionary motivation. It is from God's love for all men that the
Church in every age receives both the obligation and the vigor of her
missionary dynamism, "for the love of Christ urges us on."[343] Indeed,
God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the
truth";[344] that is, God wills the salvation of everyone through the
knowledge of the truth. Salvation is found in the truth. Those who obey
the prompting of the Spirit of truth are already on the way of salvation.
But the Church, to whom this truth has been entrusted, must go out to meet
their desire, so as to bring them the truth. Because she believes in God's
universal plan of salvation, the Church must be missionary.
852 Missionary paths. The Holy Spirit is the protagonist, "the principal
agent of the whole of the Church's mission."[345] It is he who leads the
Church on her missionary paths. "This mission continues and, in the course
of history, unfolds the mission of Christ, who was sent to evangelize the
poor; so the Church, urged on by the Spirit of Christ, must walk the road
Christ himself walked, a way of poverty and obedience, of service and
self-sacrifice even to death, a death from which he emerged victorious by
his resurrection."[346] So it is that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of
Christians."[347]
853 On her pilgrimage, the Church has also experienced the "discrepancy
existing between the message she proclaims and the human weakness of those
to whom the Gospel has been entrusted."[348] Only by taking the "way of
penance and renewal," the "narrow way of the cross," can the People of God
extend Christ's reign.[349] For "just as Christ carried out the work of
redemption in poverty and oppression, so the Church is called to follow
the same path if she is to communicate the fruits of salvation to
men."[350]
854 By her very mission, "the Church . . . travels the same journey as all
humanity and shares the same earthly lot with the world: she is to be a
leaven and, as it were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ
and transformation into the family of God."[351] Missionary endeavor
requires patience. It begins with the proclamation of the Gospel to
peoples and groups who do not yet believe in Christ,[352] continues with
the establishment of Christian communities that are "a sign of God's
presence in the world,"[353] and leads to the foundation of local
churches.[354] It must involve a process of inculturation if the Gospel is
to take flesh in each people's culture.[355] There will be times of
defeat. "With regard to individuals, groups, and peoples it is only by
degrees that [the Church] touches and penetrates them and so receives them
into a fullness which is Catholic."[356]
855 The Church's mission stimulates efforts towards Christian unity.[357]
Indeed, "divisions among Christians prevent the Church from realizing in
practice the fullness of catholicity proper to her in those of her sons
who, though joined to her by Baptism, are yet separated from full
communion with her. Furthermore, the Church herself finds it more
difficult to express in actual life her full catholicity in all its
aspects."[358]
856 The missionary task implies a respectful dialogue with those who do
not yet accept the Gospel.[359] Believers can profit from this dialogue by
learning to appreciate better "those elements of truth and grace which are
found among peoples, and which are, as it were, a secret presence of
God."[360] They proclaim the Good News to those who do not know it, in
order to consolidate, complete, and raise up the truth and the goodness
that God has distributed among men and nations, and to purify them from
error and evil "for the glory of God, the confusion of the demon, and the
happiness of man."[361]
857 The Church is apostolic because she is founded on the apostles, in
three ways:
- she was and remains built on "the foundation of the Apostles,"[362] the
witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself;[363]
- with the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and hands
on the teaching,[364] the "good deposit," the salutary words she has heard from
the apostles;[365]
- she continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until
Christ's return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college
of bishops, "assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter,
the Church's supreme pastor":[366]
You are the eternal Shepherd who never leaves his flock untended. Through
the apostles you watch over us and protect us always. You made them
shepherds of the flock to share in the work of your Son....[367]
The Apostles' mission
858 Jesus is the Father's Emissary. From the beginning of his ministry, he
"called to him those whom he desired; .... And he appointed twelve, whom
also he named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to
preach."[368] From then on, they would also be his "emissaries" (Greek
apostoloi). In them, Christ continues his own mission: "As the Father has
sent me, even so I send you."[369] The apostles' ministry is the
continuation of his mission; Jesus said to the Twelve: "he who receives
you receives me."[370]
859 Jesus unites them to the mission he received from the Father. As "the
Son can do nothing of his own accord," but receives everything from the
Father who sent him, so those whom Jesus sends can do nothing apart from
him,[371] from whom they received both the mandate for their mission and
the power to carry it out. Christ's apostles knew that they were called by
God as "ministers of a new covenant," "servants of God," "ambassadors for
Christ," "servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God."[372]
860 In the office of the apostles there is one aspect that cannot be
transmitted: to be the chosen witnesses of the Lord's Resurrection and so
the foundation stones of the Church. But their office also has a permanent
aspect. Christ promised to remain with them always. The divine mission
entrusted by Jesus to them "will continue to the end of time, since the
Gospel they handed on is the lasting source of all life for the Church.
Therefore, . . . the apostles took care to appoint successors."[373]
The bishops - successors of the apostles
861 "In order that the mission entrusted to them might be continued after
their death, [the apostles] consigned, by will and testament, as it were,
to their immediate collaborators the duty of completing and consolidating
the work they had begun, urging them to tend to the whole flock, in which
the Holy Spirit had appointed them to shepherd the Church of God. They
accordingly designated such men and then made the ruling that likewise on
their death other proven men should take over their ministry."[374]
862 "Just as the office which the Lord confided to Peter alone, as first
of the apostles, destined to be transmitted to his successors, is a
permanent one, so also endures the office, which the apostles received, of
shepherding the Church, a charge destined to be exercised without
interruption by the sacred order of bishops."[375] Hence the Church
teaches that "the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of
the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens
to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ
and him who sent Christ."[376]
The apostolate
863 The whole Church is apostolic, in that she remains, through the
successors of St. Peter and the other apostles, in communion of faith and
life with her origin: and in that she is "sent out" into the whole world.
All members of the Church share in this mission, though in various ways.
"The Christian vocation is, of its nature, a vocation to the apostolate as
well." Indeed, we call an apostolate "every activity of the Mystical Body"
that aims "to spread the Kingdom of Christ over all the earth."[377]
864 "Christ, sent by the Father, is the source of the Church's whole
apostolate"; thus the fruitfulness of apostolate for ordained ministers as
well as for lay people clearly depends on their vital union with
Christ.[378] In keeping with their vocations, the demands of the times and
the various gifts of the Holy Spirit, the apostolate assumes the most
varied forms. But charity, drawn from the Eucharist above all, is always
"as it were, the soul of the whole apostolate."[379]
865 The Church is ultimately one, holy, catholic, and apostolic in her
deepest and ultimate identity, because it is in her that "the Kingdom of
heaven," the "Reign of God,"[380] already exists and will be fulfilled at
the end of time. The kingdom has come in the person of Christ and grows
mysteriously in the hearts of those incorporated into him, until its full
eschatological manifestation. Then all those he has redeemed and made
"holy and blameless before him in love,"[381] will be gathered together as
the one People of God, the
"Bride of the Lamb,"[382] "the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of
heaven from God, having the glory of God."[383] For "the wall of the city
had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve
apostles of the Lamb."[384]
IN BRIEF
866 The Church is one: she acknowledges one Lord, confesses one faith, is
born of one Baptism, forms only one Body, is given life by the one Spirit,
for the sake of one hope (cf. Eph 4:3-5), at whose fulfillment all
divisions will be overcome.
867 The Church is holy: the Most Holy God is her author; Christ, her
bridegroom, gave himself up to make her holy; the Spirit of holiness gives
her life. Since she still includes sinners, she is "the sinless one made
up of sinners." Her holiness shines in the saints; in Mary she is already
all-holy.
868 The Church is catholic: she proclaims the fullness of the faith. She
bears in herself and administers the totality of the means of salvation.
She is sent out to all peoples. She speaks to all men. She encompasses all
times. She is "missionary of her very nature" (AG 2).
869 The Church is apostolic. She is built on a lasting foundation: "the
twelve apostles of the Lamb" (Rev 21:14). She is indestructible (cf. Mt
16:18). She is upheld infallibly in the truth: Christ governs her through
Peter and the other apostles, who are present in their successors, the
Pope and the college of bishops.
870 "The sole Church of Christ which in the Creed we profess to be one,
holy, catholic, and apostolic, . . . subsists in the Catholic Church,
which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in
communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of
truth are found outside its visible confines"(LG 8).
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