MELZI D'ERIL, CAMILLO. – Barnabite, meteorologist and seismologist, of the Milanese ducal family of the M. d'E., born in Pisa on 6 January 1851, died in Florence on 11 February 1929.
He entered the Barnabites in 1870 and from 1873 lived almost continuously in Florence, at the Collegio « alle Quercie », as professor of mathematics and physics, director of the Observatory from 1905, president of the Italian Astronomical Society, and director of the Rivista di astronomia from 1911. He devoted himself especially to seismology, leaving many publications in numerous periodicals, and invented the photographic tromometer, thereby perfecting the recording of seismic movements.
The following may be mentioned: Sulle relazioni dei moti tromometrici e la velocità del vento, in Atti della Pont. acc. dei Nuovi Lincei, 28 (1874-75), pp. 365-75; Confronto delle osservazioni barometriche e sismometriche delle stazioni italiane dal 1873 in poi (Rome 1878); Il 14 di Nilan l'anno 29 dell'Era volgare (there 1895); Alcune date dantesche secondo le tavole alfonsine (Pavia 1904); and the biography of his colleague: Il p. barnabita Timoteo Bertelli... nel cinquantenario dall'inizio delle osservazioni microcosmiche (Florence 1924).
I. CONDITIONS FOR BEING A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH
Pius XII, in the encyclical Mystici Corporis, sets forth the Church’s common doctrine as follows: «Only those should really (reapse) be numbered among the members of the Church who have received the washing of regeneration, who profess the true faith, and who have not themselves miserably separated from the organic body, or been expelled from it by legitimate authority, on account of the gravest crimes» (AAS, 35 [1943], p. 202). The three conditions stated—the Baptism, profession of the true faith, and union with the hierarchical community—correspond exactly to the three powers that Christ granted to his Church: the power of sanctification, of teaching, and of governing.1. The sacred rite that «incorporates» one into the community of salvation is Baptism. According to St. Paul (I Cor. 12:13), «we were all baptized in one Spirit, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as free men, to form one Body». It is the first application of the power to sanctify, that is, to consecrate to God. Unbelievers, therefore, and catechumens, who have not yet received Baptism, even if they desire it, are not members of the Church.
2. The Church has also received the power to teach; corresponding to it, among the faithful, is the duty to believe the revealed truths proposed by the magisterium. And since Jesus Christ constituted his Church as a visible society, the faith must be externally manifested or professed. There is not only one Body and one Spirit, one Lord and one Baptism, but also one faith (Eph. 4:5). Heretics, therefore, cannot call themselves members of the Church.
3. The Church also has the power to govern. It is necessary to obey the Church, and whoever refuses to submit must be regarded «as a pagan and a publican» (Mt. 18:17). This does not concern those who commit a sin of disobedience, but those who refuse to recognize the authority of the Church as such; schismatics, therefore, separate themselves from the hierarchical body. The leaders of the Church, moreover, in cases of the gravest kind, may, by virtue of their authority, exclude certain of their subjects. Such Christians, struck by excommunication, are no longer members of the Church. The encyclical cited adds an important qualification: the Church is not composed only of saints, much less only of the predestined. The Savior does not reject from his Mystical Body ordinary sinners, that is, those who are guilty neither of schism, nor of heresy, nor of apostasy. They are not entirely deprived of life, since, even if they lose charity, they do not abandon faith and hope. On the contrary, these virtues will be for them a continual summons and an incessant interior stimulus to ask for forgiveness and recover Grace. Sinners who repent are not «incorporated anew», but simply «absolved» within the Church, by an act of jurisdiction.
As appears from the doctrine as a whole, Pius XII speaks solely of the condition of being a member of the Church and not of the salutary efficacy of such membership. The condition of the Christian in a state of sin is anomalous: he retains Baptism and the faith, but no longer lives according to their promises and according to his Creed. If he persists in evil, he cannot be saved; on the contrary, his condition as a Christian will make his guilt more serious and his punishment more severe, but, as long as he remains alive, the Church will always seek to heal him. The sinner therefore does not break the bonds of the social body, but by his act prevents these bonds from producing their salutary effects. One may, moreover, break one of the three bonds without severing the others; for example, the liturgical bond is never destroyed, because Baptism imprints an indelible character. There are therefore degrees in one’s separation from the Church, and, even outside it, some of her goods may be preserved, not only individually but also collectively. A schismatic group, for example, may preserve, undoubtedly imperfectly, certain means of salvation, such as the sacrifice and the Sacraments; but its members remain united to a separate organ, whose vitality is compromised; they can no longer be considered members of the organism as a whole.
II. POINTS OF DISCUSSION
The concord among theologians is greatly weakened when certain particular questions are addressed, concerning the three bonds of membership in the Church.1. Baptism, according to the majority of theologians, must be valid. A Sacrament administered invalidly does not incorporate one into the Church, whatever the appearances may be. In every society, an invalid act creates neither rights nor duties. A mere imitation of Baptism can never give a person the capacity to receive the other Sacraments, which are the principal good of the supernatural society. This doctrine does not compromise the visibility of the Church: visibility belongs to the body as such, and it is not necessary that, by imperfect human means, the boundaries of the community be determinable down to the last individual. It is true that one whose Baptism is doubtful cannot be excluded from the sacred rites, and in the external forum he is bound by ecclesiastical laws, but this practice does not alter the reality of things: the putatively baptized person, even if he approaches Communion, does not receive the sacramental effects of the Eucharist. Innocent II declared (Epist. 558 ad episc. Cremon., chap. 2: PL 179, 624 ff.; Denz-U, 388) that one cannot refuse to offer Mass for a deceased person who had exercised the priesthood without having received Baptism. But it is clear that, in this unbaptized individual, who did not belong to the Church, the Pope presupposes good faith and baptism of desire, capable of saving even those who were never actual members of the Church.
2. More difficult is the question concerning occult heretics. They are presumed to have been validly baptized and to continue outwardly to profess the true faith and submission to hierarchical authority; they are guilty of simulation: they profess the true religion, but have inwardly abandoned II.
The majority of authors hold that such an individual still belongs to the Church; they nevertheless recognize that his condition is more serious than that of an ordinary sinner, because he damages a social good of the community. He is on the path leading to separation, but has not yet completed II. In any event, a bishop or priest guilty of occult heresy retains his jurisdiction according to canon law (can. 188 §4). If in the eyes of the Church he remains a pastor, he will all the more remain a member. Otherwise, the validity of many sacramental acts performed by priests who had internally defected from the faith would have to be called into question. Certain turbulent periods in the history of the Church would give rise to anxious uncertainties. It is true that Pius IX, in the bull Iuffabilis, declared: «If anyone has the audacity to harbor in his heart (corde sentire) an opinion opposed to our definition, he must know that he has defected from the unity of the Church» (Denz-U, 1641). This corde sentire seems to indicate occult heresy. But the Pope’s explicit intention is to say that such a dissenter, given the dispositions of his soul, has impaired the unity of the faith, and that his action will lead him to consummate the offense through the external manifestation of his error. Pius IX did not claim to resolve a theological controversy concerning membership in the Church.
Some authors ask whether, under the proposed solution, the Church would not contain a large number of hypocrites. This fear is unfounded. Even without appealing to the indefectibility of Christ’s work, it is enough to recall that heresy tends, by its very nature, to manifest itself and establish itself as an independent sect. In inward defection, this process is not yet complete; simulation may be a sign of hesitation before the definitive rupture.
3. The greatest difficulty concerns material heretics and schismatics. The great majority of Protestants and schismatics, baptized according to their sect, are probably in good faith and have never committed a formal sin against the virtue of supernatural faith; apart from cases of personal guilt, they are in a state of grace. It seems unjust to maintain that these souls, who are in God’s grace, are outside the Church, when Catholics guilty of serious faults are considered members. The «irenic» spirit which people wish to inspire relations among the various Christian confessions seems to demand that they not be treated as outsiders and not be deprived of the title of members. But Pius XII’s response is categorical. Catechumens, even if they desire Baptism, even if inwardly they may already be justified through Grace, have nevertheless not yet entered the fold; they are not yet, in the complete sense, members of the Church. Others are separated because they do not preserve the unity of the faith or do not recognize the legitimately constituted hierarchy. «They do not belong to the visible organism of the Catholic Church». They must «leave the state» in which they find themselves, in order to «enter into Catholic unity» and «into the one organism of the body of Jesus Christ» (encyclical Mystici Corporis, at the end). In their present state, the Pope affirms, they cannot be certain of their eternal salvation; and even if, through an unconscious desire, they are oriented toward the mystical body of Christ, they do not enjoy the fullness of the heavenly assistance and favors of which the Church alone is the custodian.
The words of the encyclical are clear; to these well-disposed souls is attributed not a formal and conscious desire to enter Catholicism, but an interior instinct, an orientation, and a disposition aroused and directed by Grace (incisio quodam desiderio), of which they may not even be aware in their lives. They are imperfectly, but truly, vivified by Grace, without yet being perfectly incorporated into the Church. Dissenters are not strangers but separated brethren, without guilt, yet diverted by circumstances. They must not be condemned, nor treated as pagans, but one cannot acknowledge in them the status of members, which objectively they lack.
An exception must be made for children baptized by dissenters: their Baptism is valid and unites them to the Body of Christ, not to the sect; but from the moment when, through an act of personal will, they publicly adhere to the separated group, even if they do so without any fault, they no longer preserve in its integrity the condition of members of the «Catholica».
It is therefore not apparent how one could maintain that they simultaneously belong to the Church and to the anti-Church. They are unconsciously oriented toward the former, but in fact they find themselves in the latter.
Others have devised the theory according to which dissenters in a state of grace belong not to the Church, but to the mystical Body (e.g., Morel, op. cit. in bibl.). But in the texts of Pius XII and his predecessors, the Church and the mystical Body are identified (cf. encyclical Humani generis, 12 Aug. 1950). Even if one admits that in s. Paul «body of Christ» does not designate a collective Christ, but the individual body of the Savior (cf. L. Cerfaux, La théologie de l'Église suivant st Paul, 2nd ed., Paris 1948), it nevertheless remains certain that this body is compared to the human body, composed of many members. For the Apostle, «to be of Christ» simultaneously means being «of the Church». One cannot maintain that «sanctifying Grace does not express an organic bond with the body of the Church, but the union of the soul with God» (Morel, op. cit. in bibl., p. 719). The union of the soul with God takes place only in Christ and in his Body, which is the Church, or at least in dependence upon II. This union may be more or less perfect, and Grace will therefore also be so; but it will always be the grace of a member, whether a perfect member or a member of desire, that is, a member in fieri.
Speaking without qualification, belonging to the Church or to the mystical Body, for dissenters in a state of grace, is not yet complete. Grace, in fact, possesses an essentially social character. Participation in the Spi-
