MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH. - They are wayfaring men, gathered into 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 it is applied to the numerous concrete cases.
I. CONDITIONS FOR BEING MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH
Pius XII, in the encyclical Mystici Corporis, sets out the common doctrine of the Church as follows: «Only those must really (reapse) be numbered among the members of the Church who have received the laver of regeneration, who profess the true faith, and who have not themselves miserably separated themselves from the organic body, nor been cut off from it by the legitimate authority, on account of most grievous crimes» (AAS, 35 [1943], p. 202). The three conditions stated: Baptism, the 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 government.1. The sacred rite that "incorporates" one into the community of salvation is Baptism. According to St. Paul (I Cor. 12:13), «all of us, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, have been baptized in one Spirit to form one Body». It is the first application of the power of sanctifying, that is, of consecrating to God. The unbaptized, therefore, and the catechumens, who have not yet received Baptism, even if they desire it, are not members of the Church.
2. The Church has furthermore received the power to teach; to it corresponds, in the faithful, the duty to believe the revealed truths proposed by the magisterium. And since Jesus Christ established his Church as a visible society, the 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 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. Moreover, the heads of the Church, in most grievous cases, can exclude certain of their subjects by an act of authority. Such Christians, struck with excommunication, are no longer members of the Church. The aforementioned encyclical adds an important qualification: the Church is not composed only of saints, and still less of the predestined alone. The Savior 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, since, even if they lose charity, they do not abandon faith and hope. On the contrary, these virtues will be for them a continual call and an incessant interior stimulus to ask for forgiveness and recover Grace. Sinners who repent are not "incorporated anew," but simply "absolved" within the bosom of the Church, by an act of jurisdiction.
As appears from the whole of the doctrine, Pius XII speaks solely of the condition of being a member of the Church and not of the salvific efficacy of such membership. The condition of a Christian in a state of sin is anomalous: he retains Baptism and faith, but no longer lives according to his promises and according to his Creed. If he persists in evil, he will not be able to save himself; on the contrary, his condition as a Christian will make his guilt graver 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 he prevents those bonds from producing their salvific effects. One can, moreover, break one of the three bonds without breaking the others; for example, the liturgical bond is never destroyed, because Baptism imprints an indelible character. There are, therefore, gradations in separation from the Church, and even outside it some of its goods can be preserved, not only individually but also collectively. A schismatic group, for example, can preserve, imperfectly no doubt, 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 total organism.
II. POINTS DISCUSSED
The concord of theologians is strongly shaken when certain particular questions are touched upon, concerning the three bonds of belonging to the Church.1. Baptism, according to most theologians, must be valid. A Sacrament administered invalidly does not incorporate one into the Church, whatever the appearances. In every 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 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 change the reality of things: the putative baptized person, even if he approaches Communion, does not receive the sacramental effects of the Eucharist. Innocent II declared (Epist. 558 ad episc. Cremon., cap. 2: PL 179, 624 ff.; Denz-U, 388) that one cannot refuse to offer the Mass for a deceased person who exercised the priesthood without having received Baptism. But it is clear that the Pope in this unbaptized individual, who was not a member of the Church, 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 occult heretics. It is supposed that they are validly baptized and that they continue to profess externally the true faith and submission to the hierarchical authority; they are guilty of pretense; they profess the true religion, but interiorly they have abandoned it.
Most authors are of the opinion that such an individual still belongs to the Church; however, they 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 road that leads to separation, but he has not yet consummated it. In any case, a bishop or a 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 pastor, all the more will he remain a member. Otherwise one would have to call into doubt the validity of many sacramental acts performed by priests who have interiorly defected from the faith. Certain turbulent periods in the history of the Church would give rise to anxious uncertainties. It is true that Pius IX, in the bull Ineffabilis, declared: «If anyone has the audacity to nourish 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 explicit intention of the Pope is to say that such a dissident, given the dispositions of his soul, has damaged the unity of the faith and that his act will lead him to consummate the crime in the external manifestation of his error. Pius IX did not claim to resolve a theological controversy on the members of the Church.
Some authors ask themselves whether, in the proposed solution, the Church would not count 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 tends, by its very nature, to manifest itself and to constitute itself as an independent sect. In interior defection it is not yet total; simulation can be a sign of hesitation in the face of 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; barring cases of personal guilt, they are in a state of grace. It seems unjust to maintain that these souls in the grace of God are outside the Church, when Catholics guilty of grave failings are considered members. The «irenic» spirit with which it is desired that relations between the various Christian confessions be inspired seems to demand that they not be treated as strangers and not be deprived of the title of members. But the answer of Pius XII is categorical. Catechumens, even if they desire Baptism, even if interiorly they are perhaps already justified by means of Grace, have nonetheless not yet entered the fold, 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 «come out of the state» in which they find themselves, in order to «enter into the Catholic unity» and «into the sole organism of the body of Jesus Christ» (encycl. Mystici Corporis, at the end). In their present state, affirms the Pope, they cannot be certain of their eternal salvation, and even if, by an unconscious desire, they are oriented toward the mystical body of Christ, they do not enjoy the fullness of the heavenly helps and favors, of which the Church is the sole depositary.
The words of the encyclical are clear; to these well-disposed souls is attributed not a formal and conscious desire to enter into Catholicity, but an interior instinct, an orientation and a disposition aroused and directed by Grace (incisio quodam desiderio), of which in their life they perhaps are not even aware. They are imperfectly, but really, vivified by Grace, without being yet perfectly incorporated into the Church. Dissidents are not strangers but separated brothers, without guilt, but led astray by circumstances. They must not be condemned, must not be treated as pagans, but the quality of members, of which they are objectively deprived, cannot be recognized in them.
An exception must be made for children baptized by dissidents: their Baptism is valid and unites them to the Body of Christ and not to the sect; but from the moment however when, by an act of personal will, they publicly adhere to the separated group, even if they do so without any guilt, they no longer preserve in all its integrity the condition of members of the «Catholica.»
One does not see therefore in what way it can be maintained 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 are part not of the Church, but of the mystical Body (e.g., Morel, op. cit. in bibl.). But in the texts of Pius XII and of his predecessors, Church and mystical Body are identified (cf. encycl. 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 Savior (cf. L. Cerfaux, La théologie de l'Église suivant st Paul, 2nd ed., Paris 1948), it nonetheless 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.» 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 is brought about only in Christ and in his Body which is the Church, or at least depending on it. This union can be more or less perfect, and such therefore will also be the Grace, but it will always be the grace of a member, a perfect member or a member of desire, that is, a member in fieri.
Speaking without restrictions, belonging to the Church or to the mystical Body, for dissidents in a state of grace, is not yet complete. Grace in fact bears an essentially social character. Participation in the Spi-
in an infallible way which souls individually will be saved. An essentially visible society, it issues its laws predominantly for those who are officially members of its body.
BIBL.: sources