![]() All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church." 272Ĩ19 "Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth" 273 are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God the life of grace faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements." 274 Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. 271Ĩ18 "However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers. Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers. Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and disputes. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame." 269 The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ's Body - here we must distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism 270 - do not occur without human sin: It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the People of God." 268Ĩ17 In fact, "in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. The Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism explains: "For it is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in ( subsistit in) in) the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him." 267 266Ĩ16 "The sole Church of Christ which our Savior, after his Resurrection, entrusted to Peter's pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to extend and rule it. apostolic succession through the sacrament of Holy Orders, maintaining the fraternal concord of God's family. ![]() common celebration of divine worship, especially of the sacraments ![]() profession of one faith received from the Apostles And so the Apostle has to exhort Christians to "maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." 264Ĩ15 What are these bonds of unity? Above all, charity "binds everything together in perfect harmony." 265 But the unity of the pilgrim Church is also assured by visible bonds of communion: Yet sin and the burden of its consequences constantly threaten the gift of unity. "Holding a rightful place in the communion of the Church there are also particular Churches that retain their own traditions." 263 The great richness of such diversity is not opposed to the Church's unity. ![]() Among the Church's members, there are different gifts, offices, conditions, and ways of life. Within the unity of the People of God, a multiplicity of peoples and cultures is gathered together. What an astonishing mystery! There is one Father of the universe, one Logos of the universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same there is also one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her "Church." 262Ĩ14 From the beginning, this one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes from both the variety of God's gifts and the diversity of those who receive them. ![]() restoring the unity of all in one people and one body." 260 The Church is one because of her "soul": "It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe and pervading and ruling over the entire Church, who brings about that wonderful communion of the faithful and joins them together so intimately in Christ that he is the principle of the Church's unity." 261 Unity is of the essence of the Church: "The sacred mystery of the Church's unity" (UR 2)Ĩ13 The Church is one because of her source: "the highest exemplar and source of this mystery is the unity, in the Trinity of Persons, of one God, the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit." 259 The Church is one because of her founder: for "the Word made flesh, the prince of peace, reconciled all men to God by the cross. ![]()
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