HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH. — One of the properties of the Church, from which all the others in a certain sense proceed. The h. of the C. is a truth of faith, already formulated in the most ancient Creed, called the Apostles’ Creed, both in its Eastern and Latin formulations. The Second Ecumenical Council (Constantinople, 381) solemnly proclaimed it a dogma (Denz-U, 86).
I. DOCUMENTS OF REVELATION
The holiness of the Church mentioned above, already foretold by the Old Testament (Ps. 71:7; Is. 2:2; Ier. 31:31 ff.; Ez. 11:27–20), is reaffirmed in the New.Jesus Christ. Founder and Head of the Church (Io. 10:36; Act. 13:35), as God, is infinite holiness, subsistent holiness, which coincides with what is the ultimate foundation of all holiness: the fullness of 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 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; your word is truth” (Io. 17:17); “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (ibid. 5:17). From Jesus Christ there proceeds, through the hierarchy and the priestly ministry, the “perfecting of the saints” (Eph. 4:12). Christ the Head sanctifies the Church the Body (ibid. 5:26; Hebr. 2:11). The Church is a “holy nation” (I Pt. 2:9). This constant flow of graces takes place through the Holy Spirit, the soul of the Church, who distributes the treasures of supernatural life, inspires pastors of souls so that their words and actions may be sanctifying, and preserves the Church in the integrity of its constitution and doctrine.
The Fathers and Doctors of the Church eloquently exalt the holiness of Christ’s Bride, above all St. Cyprian (De unitate Ecclesiae, chap. 6: PL 4, 502: “Adulterari non potest sponsa Christi”), and 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, although mysterious in its essence, is not merely a property but also a “note” by which the one true Church of Christ can be recognized among all others. It is necessary, however, to distinguish 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 her children live an exceedingly intense supernatural life; it is sufficient that the members who live the Christian life seriously constitute a considerable number and that souls of heroic holiness should always flourish within her. History has always recorded, alongside the lukewarm, a significant number of Catholics belonging to every social class, distinguished for faith and virtue, indeed, a respectable number of true saints. Unfortunately, evil and defects often make more noise than goodness and virtue. This makes it less easy to place before the eyes of dissidents the holiness of the Church as considered in the life of her members. It is preferable instead to insist upon the holiness of the principles (in the broad sense of the term), which draw upon the very essence of Catholicism and refer to it directly or indirectly.
The Church is holy in her nature and in her constitution. Christ willed that the Mystical Body should be conformed to him and therefore, in all its extension, continue the work of salvation (Io. 20, 21 and 17, 18). If divinity dwells bodily in the Head, the same must also occur 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, she attains the fullest participation in divine life (II Pt. 1, 4). The Church is therefore holy because, always faithful to her human-divine constitution, she has always brought forth from her bosom numerous martyrs, “witnesses” to that constitution. Outside the Church, on the other hand, nothing similar is found; neither the Protestant denominations nor the dissident Eastern communities form a body of which one can say that it is divine and perfectly human, and a single perfect society.
The Church is holy in her dogmas, which are all “generators of piety” (Tanqueray), especially those rejected by the dissident confessions. Such, for example, is Immaculate Conception (v.) of Mary, which expresses a truth that for centuries has nourished Catholic piety; Purgatory (v.), which sanctifies the faithful by inspiring in them sentiments of admiration for the wisdom, justice, and mercy of God, and highlights the salutary truth that the “state of pilgrimage” (status viae) ends with death and that thereafter it is no longer possible either to merit or to convert. The same must be said of many other points of specifically Catholic doctrine, to which dissidents know how to oppose nothing but sterile denials incapable of promoting sanctification.
The defined truths of the primacy (v.) infallibility (v.) demand a spirit of generous obedience, free from every human consideration and founded upon an intense life of faith. Now, according to the unanimous testimony of all masters of the spiritual life, including those separated from the Catholic Church, obedience is a fundamental and indispensable virtue, which gives substance to all the others, preserves one 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 effective influence exercised by obedience to the Roman pontiff. Only ever deeper divisions and a progressive weakening of the spirit of charity remain. Outside Catholicism, the exercise of the virtue of obedience in all its evangelical fullness is impossible, since there is no authority with the right to demand II.
Sacraments (v.) are rites instituted by the Savior as means of sanctification; they can produce their effects even among non-Catholics because they are always Sacraments of the Church; but it is only the Catholic Church that watches over their sacred character and inviolability. For this divorce (v.), which is a genuine attack upon the Sacrament of marriage, nor does she permit the violation of the sacramental secret; the latter, however, had to be done in certain cases in the Russian Church from the time of Peter the Great onward. The Catholic Church does everything within her power so that the beneficial action of the Sacraments may reach the greatest possible number of souls scattered throughout the world: her catholicity is one aspect of her holiness. In the Catholic Church the Eucharist, the source of all holiness, is the object of intense and perpetual worship; 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 true Communion, but outside Mass the worship of the Blessed Sacrament almost disappears because of the predominance of the worship of icons and relics, and frequent Communion is exceedingly rare. The Church is holy, moreover, because she observes and enforces the natural divine law; and also because she has not separated herself from the Church of the earliest times, that is, on account of her apostolicity.
To understand properly which are the vital factors of the holiness of the Church, it is necessary not to lose sight of the eternal opposition between holiness and impiety, between the Church and the “gates of hell.” Conscious, radical, formal impiety hates and combats everything in the Christian communities that is willed by God as an instrument of sanctification, and promotes everything that can harm supernatural life and holiness. According to what Jesus Christ foretold (Mt. 16, 18; Lc. 31, 32), the powers of hell hurl themselves principally, indeed exclusively, against the Church founded upon Peter; in the dissident confessions, impiety attacks only what is still holy and Catholic. In every age and in every place, militant atheism and the most varied forms of immorality have waged a relentless war against the papacy, while at the same time allying themselves with all Christian religions or confessions in the struggle against the Holy See. At present, the war against “the Vatican” is the central and dominant point of all the antireligious activity of atheism, which by every means encourages 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 it in the struggle against the Church.
III. OBJECTIONS
1. The Catholic Church is not holy because it tolerates great sinners. The answer is that the Church is not holy chiefly because of the human actions of its members, but insofar as it is an institution and a perfect society which, through its sanctifying principles, opposes the misuse of freedom. In this way, the Church is holy in the sense that it leads to perfection those who show themselves docile to her; she ensures spiritual ascent, educates and transforms those who do not oppose her. The nascent Church, sanctified by the strength of her Founder, had weaknesses and defects even among the Apostles themselves, from whom Judas emerged. The Church, with all her means of sanctification, is the hand of God bending toward fallen humanity in order to raise it up and save II. 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 proceeds from the pope; but “many” popes were great sinners, incapable of giving others a holiness that they themselves did not possess at all.
That there have been unworthy popes is admitted. But in anti-Catholic circles there is considerable exaggeration, both as to their number and as to their weaknesses; and, what matters most, there is complete error in seeing in certain unworthy popes almost an element imputable 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 became established 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 merely an instrument used by God to manifest his will and communicate his Grace. Holiness does not come from ecclesiastical superiors, but from obedience to God, who acts through their persons. Numerous are the saints who became such through obedience to imprudent superiors, narrow-minded and of ordinary moral worth. Obedience to popes, even if imperfect, gives those who practice it supernatural enlightenment and arouses in them impulses toward holiness.
3. Dissenters, especially the Easterners, have many saints, even thaumaturges; therefore holiness is not a distinctive note of Catholicity.
It is readily conceded that among dissenters there have been ascetics of intense supernatural life; but such ascetics were not nourished by anti-Roman doctrines, but by elements of Catholicism still remaining in the separated churches (Catholic dogmas, Sacraments, rites dating from before the separation, and the writings of the Fathers of the Church); they were therefore acting in good faith, practicing religion while unable to know the true Church; for this reason, the Grace of Christ the Head, which is the Grace of the Catholic Church, did not abandon them; these dissenting saints will recognize in Heaven that the Catholic Church is their mother.
BIBLI, besides the classic treatises De Ecclesia by G. B. Franzelin, A. Straub, G. Muncunill, R. Schaltes, H. Dieckmann, M. d'Herbigny, A. M. Vellico, T. Zapelena and the well-known studies on the « Corpo Mistico » by G. Anger, E. Mura, F. Jürgenmeier, G. Feckes, cf. A. de Poulpiquet, L'Eglise cath., Paris 1923, pp. 145-248; A. Michel, Sainteté, in DThC, XIV, cols. 841-90; S. Tyszkiewicz, La sainteté de l'Eglise, in Nouv. rev. théol., 63 (1936), pp. 449-479; G. Thilh, Les notes de l'Eglise dans l'apologét. depuis la Réforme, Gembloux 1937; A. J. Festupière, La sainteté, Paris 1942; R. Pius, La s. cattolica, Italian trans., Turin 1943; S. Tyszkiewicz, La sainteté de l'Eglise christocondome, Rome 1945 (special point of view); R. Garrigou-Lagrange, La sainteté de l'Eglise, in M. Brillat « M. Nédoncelle, Apologétique, 2e ed., Paris 1948, pp. 623-64 (with bibl.); G. Philips, La S. Chiesa catt., Italian trans., Rome 1949, pp. 54-62. Stanislao Tyszkiewicz