Holiness of the Church

HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH. - One of the properties of the Church, from which all the others in a certain way derive. The holiness of the Church is a truth of faith, already formulated in the most ancient Symbol of faith, called the Apostles', both in the Eastern and in the Latin redaction. The Second Ecumenical Council (Constantinople, a. 381) solemnly proclaimed it a dogma (Denz-U, 86).

I. DOCUMENTS OF REVELATION

The holiness of the Church, foretold already by the Old Testament (Ps. 71:7; Is. 2:2; Jer. 31:31 ff.; Ez. 11:27-20), is reaffirmed in the New.

Jesus Christ. The Founder and Head of the Church (Jn. 10:36; Acts 13:35), as God, is infinite holiness, subsistent holiness, which coincides with what is the ultimate foundation of all holiness: the fullness of the divine Being, pure act. He who founded the Church in its essential elements, who formed the Apostles, who are the hierarchy of the Church, who taught the dogmatic and moral truths, possesses that inexhaustible holiness which springs from the Hypostatic Union and spreads over the Church, which is his work. Holy is his Gospel, which must not be exposed to the impure (Mt. 7:6); holy is his truth, «Sanctify them in the truth, thy word is truth» (Jn. 17:17); «Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ» (ibid. 5:17). From Jesus Christ there springs, through the hierarchy and the priestly ministry, the «perfecting of the saints» (Eph. 4:12). Christ the Head sanctifies the Church his Body (ibid. 5:26; Heb. 2:11). The Church is a «holy nation» (1 Pt. 2:9). This constant flow of graces takes place through the Holy Spirit, the soul of the Church, who distributes the treasures of the supernatural life, inspires the pastors of souls so that their words and actions may be sanctifying, and keeps the Church in the integrity of its constitution and of its doctrine.

The Fathers and Doctors of the Church extol with eloquence the holiness of the Bride of Christ, especially St. Cyprian (De unitate Ecclesiae, chap. 6: PL 4, 502: «Adulterari non potest sponsa Christi»), St. Augustine («Sanctam Ecclesiam, matrem vestram... honorate, diligite, praedicate», Serm., 214, 11: PL 38, 1071).

II. NATURE OF THE HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH

The holiness of the Church, however mysterious in its essence, is not only a property but also a "note," which makes it possible to recognize the one true Church of Christ among all others. A distinction must, however, be made between the holiness of the principles (instruments and means of sanctification), or "active" holiness, and the holiness of the members of the Church, or "passive" holiness.

For the Church to be called holy in its members, it is not necessary that the majority of its children live a most intense supernatural life; it is sufficient that the members who seriously live the Christian life constitute a considerable number and that souls of heroic holiness always flourish within it. History has always recorded, alongside the lukewarm, a significant number of Catholics belonging to all social categories, distinguished for faith and virtue, indeed a fair number of true saints. Unfortunately, evil and defects often make more noise than good and virtue. This makes it less easy to place before the eyes of dissenters the holiness of the Church considered in the life of its members. It is better, instead, to insist on the holiness of the principles (in the broad sense of the term) that draw upon the very essence of Catholicism and refer to it directly or indirectly.

The Church is holy in its nature, in its constitution. Christ willed that the Mystical Body be conformed to him, and therefore, in its whole extent, a continuer of the work of salvation (Jn. 20:21 and 17:18). If in the Head the divinity dwells bodily, the same must happen in the whole body; the Church is one body (human, social, visible, accessible to all) and one spirit (Eph. 4:4-6). Through conformity to the Incarnate Word it attains the fullest participation in the divine life (2 Pt. 1:4). The Church is therefore holy because, always faithful to its human-divine constitution, it has always raised up from its bosom numerous martyrs, "witnesses" of that constitution. Outside the Church, on the other hand, nothing similar is found; both the Protestant denominations and the dissident Eastern communities do not form a body of which it can be said that it is divine and perfectly human, and a single perfect society.

The Church is holy in its dogmas, which are all "generators of piety" (Tanqueray), especially those rejected by the dissident confessions. Such, for example, is the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (v.) of Mary, which is the expression of a truth that has for centuries nourished Catholic piety; the dogma of Purgatory (v.), which sanctifies the faithful by inspiring in them sentiments of admiration for the wisdom, justice and mercy of God and brings out the most salutary truth that the "state of the way" (status viae) ends with death and that afterward it is no longer possible either to merit or to be converted. The same must be said of many other points of specifically Catholic doctrine, to which the dissenters can oppose nothing but negations that are sterile for sanctification.

The defined truths of the primacy (v.) and of pontifical infallibility (v.) require a spirit of generous obedience, free from every human consideration, founded on an intense life of faith. Now, by the concordant testimony of all masters of the spiritual life, even of those separated from the Catholic Church, obedience is a foundational virtue, indispensable, which gives consistency to all the others, preserves from illusions and leads directly to holiness. Obedience gives rise to humility, another fundamental virtue, which disposes the soul to the infusion of sanctifying Grace. Among non-Catholics, nothing remains that can replace the efficacious influence exercised by obedience to the Roman pontiff. There remain only ever deeper divisions, a progressive weakening of the spirit of charity. Outside Catholicism, the exercise of the virtue of obedience in all its evangelical fullness is impossible, since there is no authority that has the right to demand it.

The Sacraments (v.) are rites instituted by the Savior as means of sanctification; they can produce their effects even in non-Catholics, because they are always Sacraments of the Church; but it is only the Catholic Church that watches over their sacred character, over their inviolability; for this reason it does not admit divorce (v.), which is a true attack on the Sacrament of marriage, nor does it permit the violation of the confessional seal: this, on the other hand, had to be done in certain cases in the Russian Church since the time of Peter the Great. The Catholic Church does everything in its power so that the beneficial action of the Sacraments may reach the greatest number of souls scattered throughout the world: its catholicity is an aspect of its holiness. In the Catholic Church the Eucharist, source of all holiness, is the object of an intense and perpetual cult; it is the living center of the supernatural life of the fervent Catholic. All this is ordinarily lacking among Protestants. Among the non-united Easterners there is still the true Communion, but outside the Mass the cult of the Most Blessed Sacrament almost disappears because of the predominance of the cult of icons and relics, and frequent Communion is extremely rare. The Church is holy, moreover, because it observes and enforces the natural divine law; also because it has not separated itself from the Church of the earliest times, that is, because of its apostolicity.

To understand well what the vital factors of the holiness of the Church are, one must not lose sight of the eternal opposition existing between holiness and impiety, between the Church and the "gates of hell." Conscious, radical, formal impiety hates and combats everything in Christian communities that is willed by God as an instrument of sanctification, and favors everything that can harm the supernatural life, holiness. According to what Jesus Christ foretold (Mt. 16:18; Lk. 31:32), the powers of hell hurl themselves principally, indeed solely, against the Church founded on Peter; in the dissident confessions impiety attacks only what is still holy, still Catholic. In all times and in every place, militant atheism and the most varied immorality have waged a war without quarter against the papacy, at the same time allying themselves with all religions or Christian confessions in the struggle against the Holy See. At present the war against "the Vatican" is the central and dominant point of the whole antireligious action of atheism, which by every means favors the anti-Roman spirit of non-Catholics. The tragedy of certain dissident Christian confessions consists in the fact that, while on the one hand they share with Catholicism the honor of being persecuted by irreligion, on the other they join with it in the struggle against the Church.

III. ORIEZIONI

1. The Catholic Church is not holy because it tolerates great sinners. The answer is that the Church is not holy primarily because of the human actions of its members, but insofar as it is an institution and a perfect society, which by its sanctifying principles opposes the bad use of freedom. In this way, the Church is holy in the sense that it leads to perfection those who show themselves docile to it; it ensures spiritual ascents, it educates and transforms those who do not oppose it. The nascent Church, sanctified by the power of its Founder, had weaknesses and defects even among the Apostles themselves, from whom Judas even came. The Church with all its means of sanctification is the hand of God reaching down toward fallen humanity to raise it up and save it. The Church is an infinitely good mother, full of love, who does everything possible to save her children who are weak and sinful.

2. In the Catholic Church everything flows from the pope; but "many" popes were great sinners, incapable of giving others a holiness they did not possess at all.

That there have been unworthy popes is admitted. But in anti-Catholic circles there is great exaggeration, both as to their number and as to their weaknesses; and, what matters more, there is complete error in seeing in certain unworthy popes almost an element attributable to Catholicism; the truth lies precisely on the opposite side. The bad popes were the creatures of a princely or imperial caesaropapism, the result of a momentary weakening of the papacy, an infiltration of principles opposed to Catholic principles. As the Catholic idea of an independent papacy established itself in the conclaves, the moral level of the popes automatically rose. Moreover, holiness-grace derives not from the pope, but from Christ the Head and from his sanctifying Spirit; the pope is only an instrument that God uses to manifest his will and communicate his Grace. Holiness does not come from ecclesiastical superiors, but from obedience toward God, who acts through their persons. Numerous are the saints who became such through obedience to imprudent superiors, of narrow views and ordinary moral worth. Obedience to popes, even imperfect ones, gives those who practice it supernatural lights and stirs in them impulses of holiness.

3. The dissidents, particularly the Easterners, have many saints, even thaumaturges; therefore holiness is not a distinctive mark of catholicity.

It is readily granted that among the dissidents there have been ascetics of intense supernatural life; but such ascetics did not nourish themselves on anti-Roman doctrines, but on elements of Catholicism still remaining in the separated churches (Catholic dogmas, Sacraments, rites anterior to the separation, writings of the Fathers of the Church); they were therefore in good faith, practicing religion in the impossibility of knowing the true Church; for this reason, the Grace of Christ the Head, which is the Grace of the Catholic Church, did not abandon them; such dissident saints will recognize in Heaven that the Catholic Church is their mother.

Stanislao Tyszkiewicz