MELZI D'ERIL, CAMILLO. — Barnabite, seismologist and meretrologist, 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 always in Florence, at the Collegio «alle Querci», where he was professor of mathematics and physics and 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 various periodicals, and invented the photographic trombetto, thereby perfecting the recording of seismic movements.
Among his works may be cited: *Sulle relazioni dei moti trombetrici 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 Nisan l'anno 29 dell'Era volgare* (ibid. 1895); *Alcune date dantesche secondo le tavole alfonsine* (Pavia 1904); and the biography of his colleague: *Il p. Barnabita Timoteo Bertelli... nel cinquantesimo dell'inizio delle osservazioni microcosmiche* (Florence 1924).
MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH. — These are wayfarers, united in the visible spiritual society founded by Jesus Christ for the attainment of eternal life. The question of the members of the Church, simple in its principles, becomes difficult when applied to numerous concrete cases.
I. CONDITIONS FOR BEING A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH
Pius XII, in the encyclical *Mystici Corporis*, thus sets forth the common doctrine of the Church: “Only those are to be truly counted among the members of the Church who have received the bath of regeneration, who profess the true faith, and who have not miserably separated themselves from the organic body or have not been torn away from it by the legitimate authority on account of most grave crimes” (AAS, 35 [1943], p. 202). The three conditions stated — Baptism, profession of the true faith, and union with the hierarchical community — correspond exactly to the three powers which Christ has granted to His Church: the power of sanctification, of teaching, and of governance.1. The sacred rite which “incorporates” into the community of salvation is Baptism. According to St. Paul (1 Cor 12:13), “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free.” This is the first application of the power of sanctification, that is, of consecration to God. Infidels and catechumens, therefore, who have not yet received Baptism, even if they desire it, are not members of the Church.
2. The Church has moreover received the power to teach; to this corresponds, in the faithful, the duty to believe the revealed truths proposed by the magisterium. And since Jesus Christ constituted His Church as a visible society, faith must be manifested or professed externally. There is not only one Body and one Spirit, one Lord and one Baptism, but also one faith (Eph 4:5). Heretics, therefore, cannot be called 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 considered “as a pagan and a publican” (Mt 18:17). This does not refer to those who commit a sin of disobedience, but to those who refuse to recognize the authority of the Church as such; schismatics therefore separate themselves from the hierarchical body. The heads of the Church, moreover, in most grave cases, can exclude, by authority, certain of their subjects. Such Christians, struck by excommunication, are no longer members of the Church. The cited encyclical adds an important restriction: the Church is not composed only of saints, nor even of the predestined alone. The Saviour does not reject from His Mystical Body simple sinners, that is, those who are guilty neither of schism, nor of heresy, nor of apostasy. They are not entirely deprived of life, for even if they lose charity, they do not abandon faith and hope. On the contrary, these virtues will be for them a continual reminder and an incessant inward stimulus to seek forgiveness and recover grace. Sinners who repent are not “reincorporated,” but simply “absolved” within the Church by an act of jurisdiction.
As appears from the whole doctrine, Pius XII speaks solely of the condition of membership in the Church and not of the salvific efficacy of such membership. The condition of the Christian in a state of sin is abnormal: he retains Baptism and faith, but no longer lives according to his promises and his Creed. If he persists in evil, he cannot be saved; on the contrary, his condition as a Christian will render his guilt more grave and his punishment more severe, but as long as he lives, 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. It is possible, moreover, to 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 the estrangement from the Church, and even outside of it, some of her goods may be preserved, not only individually but also collectively. A schismatic group, for instance, may preserve, albeit imperfectly, certain means of salvation, such as the sacrifice and the Sacraments; but its members remain united to a separated organ, whose vitality is compromised; they can no longer be considered members of the total organism.
II. POINTS OF DISCUSSION
The agreement of theologians is strongly shaken when certain particular questions concerning the three bonds of membership in the Church are raised.1. Baptism, according to the majority of theologians, must be valid. A sacrament administered invalidly does not incorporate into the Church, whatever appearances may suggest. In any society, an invalid act creates neither rights nor duties. A mere imitation of Baptism can never give man 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 limits of the community be determined down to the last individual. It is true that one cannot exclude from the sacred rites one whose Baptism is doubtful, and in the external forum he is bound by ecclesiastical laws; but this practice does not alter the reality of things: the putative baptized, even if he approaches the Eucharist, does not receive the sacramental effects of the Eucharist. Innocent II declared (Epist. 558 ad episc. Cremon., cap. 2: PL 179, 624 sqq.; Denz-U, 388) that one cannot refuse to offer Mass for a deceased person who exercised the priesthood without having received Baptism. But it is clear that in this unbaptized individual, who was not a member of the Church, the Pope supposes good faith and the Baptism of desire, capable of saving even those who were never actual members of the Church.
2. More difficult is the question concerning hidden heretics. It is supposed that they are validly baptized and that they continue externally to profess the true faith and submission to hierarchical authority; they are guilty of pretense; they profess the true religion, but have abandoned it interiorly.
Most authors are of the opinion that such an individual still belongs to the Church; yet they acknowledge that his condition is more serious than that of an ordinary sinner, because he attacks a social good of the community. He is on the road that leads to separation, but has not yet consummated II. In any case, a bishop or priest guilty of occult heresy, according to canon law (can. 188 §4), retains his jurisdiction. If, in the eyes of the Church, he remains a shepherd, he will all the more remain a member. Otherwise, one would have to doubt the validity of many sacramental acts performed by priests who have internally defected from the faith. Certain turbulent periods in the history of the Church would give rise to anxious doubts. It is true that Pius IX, in his fine encyclical *Ineffabilis*, declared: «If anyone dares to cherish in his heart (corde sentire) an opinion contrary 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 was to say that such a dissenter, given the dispositions of his soul, has impaired the unity of the faith, and his act will lead him to consummate the crime in the external manifestation of his error. Pius IX did not intend to resolve a theological controversy regarding the members of the Church.
Some authors ask whether, in 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 suffices to recall that heresy, by its very nature, tends to manifest itself and constitute itself as an independent sect. In the case of internal defection, it is not yet total; simulation may be a sign of hesitation before the definitive rupture.
3. The greatest difficulty concerns material heretics and schismatics. The vast 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 personal faults, they are in a state of grace. It seems unjust to maintain that these souls in God’s grace are outside the Church, when we consider as members Catholics guilty of grave faults. The «irenic» spirit by which relations between the various Christian confessions are desired to be inspired seems to demand that they not be treated as outsiders and not be deprived of the title of members. But the reply of Pius XII is categorical. Catechumens, even if they desire Baptism and are perhaps already justified inwardly through grace, have not yet entered the fold; they are not yet, in the full sense, members of the Church. Others are separated because they do not preserve the unity of faith or do not recognize the hierarchy lawfully constituted. «They do not belong to the visible organism of the Catholic Church.» They must «pass from the state in which they are» 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 aids and heavenly favors of which the Church alone is the depositary.
The words of the encyclical are clear; to these well-disposed souls is attributed not a formal and conscious desire to enter into Catholicism, but an interior instinct, an orientation and disposition aroused and directed by grace (inscio quodam desiderio), of which they may not even be aware in their lives. They are imperfectly, yet really, vivified by grace, without being perfectly incorporated into the Church. The dissidents are not strangers but separated brethren, without fault, yet led astray by circumstances. They are not to be condemned, nor treated as pagans, but their quality as members, of which they are objectively deprived, cannot be acknowledged.
An exception must be made for children baptized by dissidents: their Baptism is valid and unites them to the Body of Christ, not to the sect; yet from the moment they personally and publicly adhere to the separated group, even if they do so without any fault, they no longer retain in all its integrity the condition of members of the «Catholicia.»
It is therefore not possible to maintain that they belong simultaneously 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 dissidents in a state of grace belong not to the Church but to the mystical Body (e.g., Morel, op. cit. in bibliography). But in the texts of Pius XII and his predecessors, Church and mystical Body are identified (cf. encyclical *Humani Generis*, 12 Aug. 1950). Even if one admits that in St. Paul «body of Christ» does not designate a collective Christ but the individual body of the Saviour (cf. L. Cerfaux, *La théologie de l'Église suivant st Paul*, 2nd ed., Paris 1948), it remains certain that this body is compared to the human body, composed of many members. For the Apostle, «to be of Christ» means simultaneously «to be of the Church.» It cannot be maintained 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 bibliography, p. 719). The union of the soul with God is made 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 so too will grace be, but it will always be the grace of a member, a perfect member or a member *in desire*, that is, a member *in fieri*.
Speaking without restriction, the belonging to the Church as the mystical Body, for dissidents in a state of grace, is not yet complete. Grace, in fact, has an essentially social character. Participation in the Spirit of unity, incorporation into the one Redeemer and adopted filiation in relation to the same heavenly Father, it postulates union in the same mystical Body; but such union is still hindered, and therefore imperfect, by the external profession of heresy or schism.
At the borders of the Church as the mystical Body, there is a region shrouded in shadow, where well-disposed souls draw near to the communion of saints. The hierarchy does not determine at what moment they will be saved. As an essentially visible society, it issues its laws pre-eminently for those who are officially members of its body.