**HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH** – One of the properties of the Church, from which all others in a certain sense derive. The holiness of the Church is a truth of faith, already formulated in the most ancient Symbol of faith, known as the Apostles' Creed, in both its Eastern and Latin versions. The Second Ecumenical Council (Constantinople, 381 AD) solemnly proclaimed it a dogma (Denz.-U., 86).
I. DOCUMENTS OF REVELATION
The aforementioned holiness of the Church is already foretold in the Old Testament (Ps. 71:7; Is. 2:2; Jer. 31:31 ff.; Ezek. 11:17-20) and is reaffirmed in the New.**Jesus Christ.** Founder and Head of the Church (John 10:36; Acts 13:33), as God, is infinite holiness, subsistent holiness, which coincides with 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—the hierarchy of the Church—who taught dogmatic and moral truths, possesses an inexhaustible holiness that flows from the Hypostatic Union and spreads to the Church, which is His work. Holy is His Gospel, which must not be cast before dogs (Matt. 7:6); holy is His truth: "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17); "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). From Jesus Christ, through the hierarchy and the priestly ministry, flows the "perfecting of the saints" (Eph. 4:12). Christ the Head sanctifies the Church as His Body (Eph. 5:26; Heb. 2:11). The Church is a "holy nation" (1 Pet. 2:9). This constant flow of graces occurs through the Holy Spirit, the soul of the Church, who distributes the treasures of supernatural life, inspires shepherds 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 extol the holiness of the Bride of Christ, especially St. Cyprian (*De unitate Ecclesiae*, ch. 6; PL 4, 502): "The spouse of Christ cannot be adulterated," and St. Augustine: "Honor, love, and preach the holy Church, your mother" (*Serm.* 214, 11; PL 38, 1071).
II. NATURE OF THE HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH
The holiness of the Church, though mysterious in its essence, is not merely a property but also a "mark," which allows the recognition of the one true Church of Christ 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 its children live an intensely supernatural life; it suffices that those who seriously live the Christian life constitute a considerable number and that within it there always flourish souls of heroic holiness. History has always recorded, alongside the lukewarm, a significant number of Catholics from all social classes, distinguished by faith and virtue, and indeed a discreet number of true saints. Unfortunately, evil and defects often make more noise than good and virtue. This makes it less easy to present to dissidents the holiness of the Church as seen in the lives of its members. Instead, it is better to emphasize the holiness of the principles (in the broad sense of the term) that embody the very essence of Catholicism and relate to it directly or indirectly.
The Church is holy in its nature and in its constitution. Christ willed that the Mystical Body should be conformed to Him and thus, in its entirety, continue His work of salvation (John 20:21 and 17:18). If in the Head divinity dwells bodily, the same must occur in the entire 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 highest participation in the divine life (2 Pet. 1:4). The Church is therefore holy because, always faithful to its divine-human constitution, it has always produced from its midst numerous martyrs, "witnesses" to that constitution. Outside the Church, nothing similar is found; neither Protestant denominations nor dissident Eastern communities 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, all of which are "generators of piety" (Tanqueray), especially those rejected by dissident confessions. Such is, for example, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (v. d), which expresses a truth that for centuries has nourished Catholic piety; the dogma of Purgatory (v. c), 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 the wayfarer" (status viae) ends with death and that after it is no longer possible either to merit or to convert. The same must be said of many other specifically Catholic doctrines, to which dissidents can only oppose sterile denials regarding sanctification.
The defined truths of the primacy (v. e) and papal infallibility (v. p) demand a spirit of generous obedience, free from all human considerations, founded on an intense life of faith. Now, according to the unanimous testimony of all spiritual masters, even those separated from the Catholic Church, obedience is a fundamental virtue, indispensable, which gives consistency to all 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 substitute for the effective influence exercised by obedience to the Roman Pontiff. There remain only ever-deepening divisions and a progressive weakening of the spirit of charity. Outside Catholicism, the exercise of the virtue of obedience in its full evangelical sense is impossible, since there is no authority that has the right to demand II.
The Sacraments (v. s) 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 safeguards their sacred character and inviolability. For this reason, it does not admit divorce (v. c), which is a true assault on the Sacrament of Matrimony, nor does it permit the violation of sacramental confession—something that, instead, was done in certain cases in the Russian Church from the time of Peter the Great. The Catholic Church does everything in its power to ensure that the beneficial action of the Sacraments reaches 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 intense and perpetual worship; it is the living center of the supernatural life of the fervent Catholic. This is ordinarily lacking among Protestants. Among uniate Easterners, there is still true Communion, but outside of Mass, the worship of the Most Holy Sacrament nearly disappears due to the prevalence of the veneration of icons and relics, and frequent Communion is extremely rare. The Church is holy, moreover, because it observes and upholds the natural divine law; also because it has not detached itself from the Church of the early times, that is, because of its apostolicity.
To fully understand the vital factors of the so-called Catholic Church, one must not lose sight of the eternal opposition existing between the Church and the imperium, between the Church and the “gates of hell.” The conscious, radical, formal imperium hates and combats everything in Christian communities that God wills as an instrument of sanctification, and fosters everything that can harm supernatural life, that is, the Church. As Jesus Christ foretold (Mt. 16:18; Lk. 22:31–32), the powers of hell assail, indeed, attack solely the Church founded upon Peter; in dissident confessions, the imperium strikes only what remains holy and Catholic within them. At all times and in every place, militant atheism and the most varied forms of immorality have waged relentless war against the papacy, while simultaneously allying themselves with all religions or Christian confessions in their struggle against the Holy See. At present, the war against “the Vatican” is the central and dominant point of all anti-religious activity on the part of atheism, which promotes, by every means, the anti-Roman spirit of the non-Catholics. The tragedy of certain dissident Christian confessions lies in the fact that, while they share with Catholicism the honor of being persecuted by irreligion, they nevertheless join forces with it in the struggle against the Church.
III. OBJECTIONS.
1. The Catholic Church is not holy because it tolerates great sinners. It is answered that the Church is holy not chiefly on account of the human actions of its members, but as a perfect institution and 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 it; it secures spiritual ascent, educates, and transforms those who do not oppose II. The nascent Church, sanctified by the power of its Founder, had weaknesses and defects even among the Apostles, from whom even Judas emerged. The Church, with all its means of sanctification, is the hand of God stretched out toward fallen humanity to raise it up and save II. The Church is an infinitely good mother, full of love, which does all it can to save its weak and sinful children.
1873 HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH — HOLINESS OF CHRIST AND MARY
1874
2. In the Catholic Church everything flows from the pope; yet many “popes were great sinners, incapable of imparting a holiness they themselves did not possess at all.”
That there have been unworthy popes is admitted. But in anti-Catholic circles this is greatly exaggerated, both as regards their number and their weaknesses; and, what is more important, people are completely mistaken in seeing in certain unworthy popes an element attributable to Catholicism. The truth lies precisely on the opposite side. Bad popes were the creatures of a caesaropapist princely or imperial system, 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 firmly established in the conclaves, the moral level of the popes automatically rose. Moreover, sanctifying grace does not derive from the pope, but from Christ the Head and His sanctifying Spirit; the pope is merely an instrument which God uses 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. Many are the saints who became such through obedience to imprudent superiors of narrow vision and common moral worth. Obedience to popes, even if imperfect, grants to those who practice it supernatural enlightenment and arouses within them impulses toward holiness.
3. Dissidents, particularly the Easterners, have many saints, even wonder-workers; therefore holiness is not a distinctive mark of Catholicism.
It is readily conceded that among dissidents there have been ascetics of intense supernatural life; yet such ascetics did not feed on anti-Roman doctrines, but on elements of Catholicism still present in the separated churches (Catholic dogmas, sacraments, rites prior to the separation, writings of the Fathers of the Church); they were therefore in good faith, practicing their 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.