Theo

• Objective

  • Describe the ways in which the church is one

  • List and describe the visible bonds of unity

• Nicene Creed

  • I believe in one Church

• Church is one

  • Numerically 

    • Singular and unique

  • Founded one Church for our redemption

    • I am the way and the truth and the life

  • Solidarity/unity

  • Each of us are unique (United into one body of virtue of the christs spirit the holy Spirit

    • Church=Mystical Body of Christ

  • Unity of the Church comes from the Unity of God

    • Trinity of Persons united by love

• Why is the Church one?

  • Because her head is one

    • Christ= Head of the mystical body

    • Christ spirit/Holy Spirit

  • One Lord/One Faith/One Baptism

  • Commitment to love/charity

    • New Commandment

    • Nature of God

    • Love

• Visible Bonds of unity

  • Assures us the oneness of the Church

  • Faith

  • Worship

  • Government/Ministry

• Faith

  • What we believe as Catholics

    • Doctrine, Christ

    • Expressed in our creed (Nicene Creed)

    • Stand up and profess our faith at Mass

• Worship

  • Mass and the Sacraments

    • Eucharist

    • Mass is public and sacraments have a visible component 

• Government 

  • Built the Church on Peter and the Apostles 

  • Authority to teach revelation and power to minister sacraments

  • Apostolic succession through Holy Orders

• Major wounds

  • Apostasy

    • The rejection of the faith by a baptized person

  • Heresy

    • The obstinate rejection of an article of the faith

      • Obstinate

        • Refuses to be corrected 

      • Article of the faith

        • Something Catholics are required to believe

      • Divinity of Christ

  • Schism

    • The rejection of the pope's authority or the refusal to participate in communion by a baptized person 

      • Schismatic

        • A person guilty of schism

      • Separated brethren

        • Someone born into a schematic faith community

  • Disunity

    • Sin

      • Garden of Eden

      • Tower of Babel

    • Names of the Devil

      • Divider

      • Scatterer

• Major schisms

  • Nestorian Schism (431)

    • Issue: nature of Christ

  • Chalcedonian Schism (451)

    • Issue: Nature of Christ

  • The Great schism (1054)

    • Eastern orthodox church split from Rome

    • Causes: cultural and political more than theological

    • Issue: authority of the pope 

  • The protestant reformation

    • Lutherans split from Rome

    • Causes: Selling of indulgences 

    • Issues: authority of the Church, justification, sacraments

The 5 early heresies

• Gnosticism

  • Greek gnosis - knowledge

  • 2 Gods

    • Evil creator of material world 

      • God of the OT

    • Good god who lives in the spiritual world 

      • God of the NT

  • Christ was sent by the good god to give secret knowledge to a select few

  • With the knowledge from Christ you can break out of the evil material world and return to the good god of the spiritual world

  • Christ wasn’t really human and his body was an apparition

• Arianism (300s)

  • NOT Aryan

  • After Arius (250-336), a priest from Alexandria

  • Christ is not eternal and not equal to the Father. He was created by the Father

• Apollinarianism (ca. 360-381)

  • After Apollinaris, a bishop of laodicea in Syria; fought against Arianism, but…

  • Christ had a human body but not a human mind or will; so, not fully man

  • Condemned at 1 Constantinople

• Nestorianism (ca.351-451)

  • After Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople

  • Christ was somehow the unity of two people who somehow worked together:

    • Jesus, human

    • Christ, divine

• Mary was the mother of Jesus but not of Christ; so, not the MOther of God

• condemned at Council of Chalcedon (451)

  • Schism: the CHurch of the East

• Monophysitism (400s-600s)

  • Mono + physitism = one + nature

    • Some options

      • Only a divine nature

        • Maybe had a human nature at some point but now divine

      • One nature that is somehow both human and divine

  • Condemned at Chalcedon

    • Schism: the Oriental Orthodox church

      • Not the Eastern Orthodox church

• Major Schisms

  • Nestorian Schism (431)

    • Church of the East

  • Chalcedonian Schism (451)

    • Oriental Orthodox

  • The great schism (1054)

    • Eastern Orthodox Churches

  • The Protestant reformation

Counter-Reformation

• =the Church’s response to the Protestant Reformation

• The Council of Trent (1545-1553)

  • City in northern Italy

  • Longest ecumenical council in history

• Church reform, clarified doctrines

What else arose during the Counter- Reformation

• New orders and saints:

  • Jesuits 

    • To defend the Faith and evangelize the culture

    • Ignatius of Loyola

    • Francis Xavier

  • Discalced Carmelites: 

    • To lead a quiet life dedicated to prayer and contemplation

    • John of the cross

    • Teresa of Avila

• Ecumenism

  • Working toward Christian unity

    • Healing wounds of Body of Christ

• Our duty

  • Greater personal conversion

    • Develop virtues

      • Theological virtue of faith

        • Hope and love 

  • Seeking deeper understanding of doctrine but also grater personal understanding 

Some notable examples

• JPII met w/ the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople in 2001

  • Many visits w/ Eastern Orthodox Church leaders since

• Several joint statements issued w/ several Protestant Churches on various theological issues that historically have divided the Church

  • E.g. a joint statement on justification endorsed by many Lutherans

Some exacerbating factors

• No unified Orthodox or protestant church

  • Some Eastern Orthodox churches don’t recognize the legitimacy of other EOCs

  • Protestants were never unified and continue to split from each other to this day:

    • Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Henry the VIII all founded churches and all disagreed with each other

    • In 2020 the united Methodist Church split yet again over LGBTQ+ issues

Interreligious (or interfaith) dialogue

• Trying to find greater understanding w/ non-Christian religions

Ties and non-Catholic Churches

• Eastern Catholic Churches and non-Catholic Churches often use the same rite

How is the Church Holy?

• Church is holy in a way her members are not

What’s the source of the Church’s holiness

• =christ through his spirit, the Holy Spirit

  • By the way of the Cross, Christ earned for us a superabundance of sanctifying grace

  • Gave himself completely to the Church, his bride, in order to sanctify her=make her holy

  • It is bc Christ sanctified the church that the church can then sanctify others

• We access this grace through the work of the HS

  • Which Christ sent down on Pentecost

    • Creed: “I believe in the HS…the giver of life”

      • life=sanctifying grace=the gift of God’s very life, supernatural, eternal life

      • God is holy

• NOT from Humans

Three ways the Church is Holy

• Her origin/source:

  • Christ, Through his Spirit, the HS

• Her end/goal

  • The glory of God = redemption of fallen humanity = sanctification = making saints out of sinner:

    • St Irenaeus (ca. 130-220): “The glory of God is man fully alive”

• Her means:

  • Christ’s revelation = saving truth:

    • (Tradition + Scripture) + the Magisterium

  • The sacraments

Many of members are sinners

• Yes

• How can the Church be holy if all the members are sinners

  • The church is holy with respect to the things wwe already said not the members

    • The church is a hospital for sinners not a museum of saints

    • Holiness of the Church that makes it possible for her transform sinners into saints 

  • Not all members are sinners

How do we participate even now in Christ’s holiness

• Baptism we receive a finite share of Christ’s perfect holiness

• Same spirit that animates Christ the Holy SPirit comes to dwell in our souls

• Christ glorified body after the Resurrection is meant for life in heaven

  • Transfiguration gave us a glimpse of it

  • St Paul saw it on road to Damascus

  • Same spirit the perfected Christ’s body is even now perfecting us 

    • Cooperating with the Holy Spirit

Which members of the Church are holy?

• Members of the Church are holy in the measure to which they participate in the divine life given to her by Christ through the HS

  • “The glory of God is man fully alive”

  • We can be more or less alive

• Not the Pilgrim Church =

  • The Church on earth + Purgatory

• Rather, those in heaven:

  • Reached their perfection = fullness of charity = became saints = fully alive = perfectly happy

What effect does human sin have on the Church?

• Can’t diminish her holiness bc that comes from God

• But can obscure it, which can keep people away from the church and make people want to leave the church

  • Makes her look unholy

• The church calls us to holiness so that we might fully manifest Christ’s holiness to others, drawing them into God’s kingdom

General Resurrection

• =when our souls are united to our glorified bodies at the Second Coming

  • Creed: “we look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come

    • Christ’s Resurrection is the basis of his hope

    • Christ was the “firstfruits” of the harvest; those who have “fallen asleep” in faith will be next

How was Christs resurrection different from the other ones

• Not just temporary restoration of natural life, not corpse reanimation

  • E.g. Lazarus

• Glorified, supernatural bodies; bodies made for life in heaven

  • We’ll have immortal bodies with greater powers than one’s we have now

  • Think about the transformation

  •  from a fetus to an adult

    • Your body, but transfigured

When will the Church be perfected

• The end of time Parousia

  • Second coming

• Now living in exile wandering the desert like the Israelites

  • Time of trail and preparation

  • Life in the pilgrim Church is a preparation for and an anticipation of the ultimate goal, perfect and eternal communion w/ God in heaven 

How do we tie it all together?

• God’s plan is to reunite the scattered human family into a covenant relationship with him, which he is doing even through the work of the Church established and protected by Christ

  • The mystical Body continues Christ’s redemptive work

• St: “The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God”

  • To be fully alive = to be fully aware of God = to know and love God directly = perfect communion w/ God

• St Thomas’s (13th century); beatific vision = our direct, supernatural awareness of God’s very essence

• To know and love God directly requires that we be made holy, sanctified

What 3 qualities does the Church have bc of her holiness

• Immutable=can’t change:

  • Will never change in her essential aspects:

    • The official teachings of the Magisterium

      • Big “T” tradition

    • Other things can change

• Indefectible=can’t fail:

  • Is and always will be Christs main instrument of redemption

  • We’re redeemed through the Church, est. and protected by Christ:

    • “And the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16) = not even the forces of hell can defeat the Church in her essestail mission

• Perennial= never dies

  • Will exist until the end of time

The Church is catholic

“Catholic”

• Catholic=universal or pertaining to the whole 

• Two senses

  • Whole or complete

  • Universal

In what sense is the church whole/complete

• Whole or complete

  • Christ gave himself Fully to her the Church is the bride of Christ

  • Lacks nothing she needs to perform her mission of carrying on Christ’s redemptive work

    • Saving truth and sacraments

• Fully present in every parish the whole in each part

  • You can get everything you need for your redemption at your local parish 

  • he universal Church is everywhere Christ is and Christ through His Spirit, is fully present in every parish

In what senses is the Church universal?

• In her authority

  • Comes from Christ

    • On this rock I will build my church

    • Keys to the kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth you loselose in heaven

• In her mission 

  • Which us concerned w/ every human being;

    • The Great Commission :“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations 

• In her geographical location:

  • global/international

How is the Church more than global?

• The church=all those united to Christ=those on…

  • Earth and those in

  • Purgatory

  • Heaven

Is the Roman catholic church the only church?

• No

• There are at least 20 Eastern Catholic Churches

What’s the universal Catholic Church?

• The universal catholic = all 21 particular Catholic Churches in full communion w/ the pope

  • 1 Western Catholic Church = the Roman Catholic Church who follow the Latin Rite

  • 20 eastern catholic church who follows several distinct Eastern rites 

The Church is “the home of Harmony”

• The same Catholic Faith held by over one billion unique individuals and expressed in many culturally distinct ways

  • 6 distinct rites

  • 21 particular or sui iuris churches

• Like a philharmonic orchestra

  • Different instruments + same composition + single conductor = richer, more beautiful music 

The Eastern Catholic Churches

What’s a particular (or sui iuris) Catholic Church

• = a group of Catholics held together by their own church government, distinct from the Roman Catholic Church, who recognize the pope’s authority and who are recognized by the pope as a true, self-run Catholic Church:

  • “Sui iuris” = “one’s own right/law” = self-governed our autonomous

  • Has its own church government that makes laws governing its clergy and members

What’s a rite

• A culturally distinct expression of the Catholic faith

  • A liturgy (public worship) 

  • Liturgical language

  • Spiritual practices (prayers)

  • Rules for clergy and laity

  • Architecture

  • Ways of dressing

Difference between rite and a particular church

• There is no sense in which a rite can break from the bishop of Rome because it is not a community of people but a collection of practices, a way in which a community of people express their faith

• A church can break from Rome because a church is a community of people

• Two or more Eastern Catholic Churches may use the same rite

• Moreover an Eastern Catholic Church and an Eastern Orthodox Church may use the same rite, even though the Easter Orthodox Church isn’ in communion with the people

What makes a particular church Catholic?

• Recognizes the pope’s authority

• Recognizes the authority of the Magisterium:

  • Same 7 sacraments

  • Same Christology

    • Jesus Christ is a divine person with an assumed human nature

  • Same view of Tradition and Scripture (rejects sola scriptura)

  • Etc.

What’s the universal Catholic Church

• The universal Catholic Church = all 21 particular Catholic Churches in full communion w/ the pope

  • 1 Western Catholic Church

    • The Roman Catholic Church who follow the Latin Rite

  • 20 Eastern Catholic Churches who follow several distinct Eastern rites

What are the 6 main rites?

• Roman (or Latin) Rite

  • Latin or roman Catholic Church

  • Commonest rite by far

• Alexandrian Rite

  • Used by 2 particular churches

    • Rooted in Egypt and East Africa (Ethiopia and Eritrea)

• Antiochene (or West Syrian) Rite

  • Used by 3 churches 

  • Historically rooted in the city of Antioch in syria

• Armenian Rite

  • Used by 1 church

• Byzantine (or Constantinopolitan) Rite

  • Commonest by far among the Eastern Catholic Churches

  • Used by 12 particular churches

  • Historically rooted in the Eastern Roman Empire and in Eastern  Europe

• Chaldean (or East Syrian) Rite

  • Used by 2 Churches

    • 1 headquartered in Baghdad, Iraq

  • Rooted in the Middle East and India

What are some common differences between the Latin Rite and various Eastern rites

• Liturgical (public worship)

  • Languages 

    • (Latin vs Syriac/Coptic)

  • Orientation of the priests 

    • Facing the altar vs facing the congregation

  • {Participation of the congregation

    • Standing

    • Kneeling

    • Sitting

    • Answering

    • Singing

    • Versus prostrating

•  Spiritual practices

  • Prayers

    • Hail mary and rosary versus Jesus prayer and chokti

  • Venerating 

  • Cross vs the burial shroud

• discipline of clergy and laity:

  • Priest can marry; fasting is more frequent and more strict

• The practice the Sacraments:

  • same sacraments and theology but different expressions

  • Of Initiation (all three celebrated at once), intinction (dipping the Body into the Blood), leavened bread

• Architecture, art

  • Icons vs. statues; iconostasis vs. gate

• naming

  • Mass vs. Divine Liturgy

Is the Latin Rite superior

• No

• Each rite has equal dignity (value) just different expressions of the one Catholic Faith

Is the Latin Rite superior?

• No

• Each rite has equal dignity (value); just different expressions of the one Catholic Faith

Is the Roman catholic church superior

• No

• Each ECC is fully Catholic:

  • Romans Catholics can receive Holy Communion in any ECC, and vice versa

  • But this is NOT true of the Eastern Orthodox Church!

Why are there different rites and churches

• History and heresy

• Different liturgies developed in different regions at different times 

  • Decline of the Roman Empire left regions isolated from each other and made communication difficult 

• Many of the ECC’s broke w/ Rome and after the Great Schism (1054). Some remained in communion w/ Rome

• Beginning in the 16th century, some of the EC who had gone Orthodox began to enter back into communion w/ the bishop of Rome

Do some Eastern Catholic churches use the same rite as non-Catholic churches

• Yes

• Which is why you have to be a little careful:

  • Eastern Orthodox services may look indistinguishable from Eastern Catholic services 

The church is the home of harmony

• The same Faith expressed in many culturally distinct ways

  • 6 rites

  • 21 particular or sui iuris churches

What makes a particular church fully Catholic 

• Faith/teaching

  • As expressed in the Nicene Creed

  • Dogmas and doctrines defined by the Magisterium

• Worship:

  • 7 sacraments, especially the Eucharist 

• government/leadership

  • Apostolic origin, apostolic succession

    • Though they’re autonomous in a way, they still trace their churches to the Apostles and…

    • Recognize the authority of the pope as the successor of Peter

The Church is apostolic

What does apostle mean

• Comes from a Greek word meaning one who has sent (on a mission)

• The men Jesus put in charge of his church

• The word disciple comes from a Latin word meaning student or follower

  • Each apostle of Christ was a disciple but not all disciples are an apostle

Why did Jesus choose 12

• Represents the 12 tribes of Israel

  • Each of the twelve tribes had a patriarch or leader

  • With God’s help David united 12 tribes into one kingdom. God entered into a covenant with the house of David, who were supposed to represent God on Earth

  • Soloman the son and heir of Daid appointed 12 ministers to help govern his kingdom 

• The point

  • Jesus who is the son and heir of David is reestablish Gods kingdom on earth

  • The Apostles are the people he chose to help him run his kingdom

  • The church is the visible sign of God’s kingdom

In what ways is the Church apostolic

• Apostolic foundation

  • Christ built his Church on the Apostles, in the sense that they have him his authority to continue his redemptive work;

  • “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will by church” (Mt 16: 18)

  • “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20: 21)

  • “The church, the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15):

    • The church = the apostles = the pillar and foundation of Christ’s revelation

• Apostolic faith:

  • faith = what Christ revealed to the Apostles

  • The Apostles and their successors (the bishops) safeguard and transmit Christ’s revelation

• Apostolic succession

  • The Apostles transmit the revelation and authority they received from Christ to their successors the bishops through the sacraments of Holy Orders 

    • St. Matthias

  • College of bishops - successors of the Apostles

    • The pope - the bishop of Rome - The successor of Peter

• Mission 

  • Remember the word apostle means someone who has sent on a mission

    • The Great Commission

  • The Church is apostolic bc she has been sent on a mission to continue Christ's redemptive work

    • Safeguarding and transmitting his revelation

    • Ministering the sacraments

    • Etc 

Concluding Remarks

• The Catholic Church is one, true Church because she is the only Church that fully bears the 4 marks expressed in the creed- one, holy, catholic, and apostolic 

• f